I would like to piggy-back on Dallas Willard’s quote from my last post. Interestingly, on NT Wright’s recent podcast, he answered a question about the New Creation described in Revelation 21. I will try to summarize his answer. You can also listen to the full podcast at:

Ask NT Wright Anything: What happens at the End of the Age?, Sep 27, 2025
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-happens-at-the-end-of-the-age/id1441656192?i=1000728763916

Beginning of Summary:
We’re not sure exactly what the New Creation will look like. The present creation is beautiful, powerful, vivid and full of color, drama and life. If this present creation is God’s “pilot project” of what is ultimately coming in the New Creation, then the New Creation will be far, far more than this creation. It will be like this creation but full of much more beauty, drama, and life.

Also, the New Creation is about heaven and earth finally coming together. We’re not leaving earth to go to heaven. The merging of heaven and earth will transform creation. The significant transformation is that corruption, decay and sin will pass away from the New Creation. The new world will be incorruptible and undecaying.

To build a vision of the New Creation, we need to put Revelation 21 alongside 1Corinthians 15 and Romans 8. And behind these passages lie the story of Jesus’ resurrection. This is because what we ultimately know about the New Creation is that God will ultimately do to the whole creation what he did for Jesus at his resurrection. While we don’t have many details of what Jesus was like when he stepped out of the tomb, what we do have are accounts that demonstrate that the resurrected Jesus was a physical human being. He could be touched. He could eat. He could cook. He walked with Peter. As Paul would describe in 1Corinthians 15, corruptible physical humanity was changed into incorruptible physical humanity. 

In Romans 8, Paul says the whole creation is groaning in travail and is waiting to give birth. When a woman gives birth, the baby is like the mother. So the current space-time-matter universe will give birth to a new space-time-matter universe that will be incorruptible and will last eternally and be full of endless potential and possibility. It is the supersession of that which is corruptible and decaying by that which is incorruptible and full of God’s life. And this is only the start.
End of Summary:

Now let’s read Willard’s quote from the last post in light of NT Wright’s summary of the New Creation:

“We should think of our [eternal] destiny as being absorbed in a tremendously creative team effort, with unimaginably splendid leadership, on an inconceivably vast plane of activity, with ever more comprehensive cycles of productivity and enjoyment. This is the ‘eye hath not seen, neither ear heard’ that lies before us in the prophetic vision (Isa. 64:4).”

These quotes excite me to no end about the eternal life that awaits us. Our eternal lives will exist in incorruptible, resurrected and transformed physical bodies, spiritually formed through apprenticeship to Jesus to be people capable of God’s self-giving love for the sake of others, living in an all-inclusive community of eternal love with God as the prime sustainer, premier member, and glorious leader, engaged in inconceivable activities with unending productivity and joy, all within an incorruptible, eternal, time-space-matter universe that incomprehensibly exceeds all this current creation has in size, beauty and life.

When I think of all this in the context of Jesus’ call to be his apprentices in our lives now, how can I say no to him? It’s absolutely ludicrous to cling to my small self-centered desires, trying to shape life through my own little will and meager resources for my own benefit. Even if I were to somehow accomplish all my goals, amass incredible wealth, power and fame, and somehow get everything I desire, it’s still only a drop compared to the vast ocean of beauty, joy and life that God has always intended for us. 

And Jesus is fully capable of training us and transforming us into his likeness so we can live fully as God intended in our lives now and in the eternal life that is waiting for us.