Righteousness Dwells is Peter’s description of the world to come.
According to God’s promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
The present heavens and earth are stored up for fire.
The world that remains will not be a cleaned-up version of this age.
It will be a home where righteousness lives as a resident, not as a guest.
Peter wrote to a church mocked by scoffers who asked where the promise of His coming had gone. All things, they said, continue as they were from the beginning of creation.
- Peter answered that they forget the word of God.
- By that word the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed.
- By that word the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.
- By the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, kept until the day of judgment.
The delay is not slackness. It is patience, so that all should reach repentance.
- The day of the Lord will come like a thief.
- The heavens will pass away, the elements will be burned, and the earth and the works done on it will be exposed.
- Then comes the promise: we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Isaiah had already spoken of God creating new heavens and a new earth.
Jesus taught His people to hunger and thirst for righteousness and promised that they would be satisfied.
The hope is not that righteousness will visit.
The hope is that righteousness will dwell there.
- The phrase belongs to the promise of new heavens and a new earth.
- Righteousness is not a mood. It is the character of God’s reign made at home in the new creation.
- This present order is temporary and reserved for judgment.
- God’s delay is patience meant to lead to repentance.
- The church waits, lives holy lives, and looks for the day of God.
- Hunger for righteousness now is a foretaste of the world where righteousness dwells.
- Nothing unclean will enter that home.
- New Heavens and New Earth – The promised home, not a patched earth only.
- According to His Promise – The hope rests on what God has said, not on the scoffer’s clock.
- Righteousness as Resident – In that world righteousness lives, rules, and is no longer resisted.
- End of the Present Order – Fire, exposure, and the passing away of the heavens that now are.
- Patience of the Lord – Time given for repentance before that day.
- Holy Waiting – Those who wait live lives of holiness and godliness.
- Satisfied Hunger – The longing for righteousness is filled when the new world comes.
- 2 Peter 3:13 – “But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”
- 2 Peter 3:3-7 – “Scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing… They deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.”
- 2 Peter 3:8-12 – “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief… Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God…”
- Isaiah 65:17 – “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.”
- Isaiah 66:22 – “For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain.”
- Revelation 21:1-4, 27 – “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away… He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more… But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
- Revelation 22:3-5 – “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it… and they will reign forever and ever.”
- Matthew 5:6, 10 – “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied… Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
- Matthew 6:10, 33 – “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven… But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
- Psalm 85:10-11 – “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs up from the ground, and righteousness looks down from the sky.”
- Psalm 89:14 – “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you.”
- Isaiah 11:4-5, 9 – “With righteousness he shall judge the poor… Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist… They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
- Isaiah 32:16-17 – “Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the fruitful field. And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.”
- 2 Corinthians 5:21 – “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
- Romans 8:18-21 – “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us… the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.”
- Hebrews 12:26-28 – Heaven and earth shaken, so that the things that cannot be shaken may remain; we receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
- Matthew 13:43 – “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”
- Psalm 37:29 – “The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever.”
We are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.
That is the promise. The scoffers are wrong. The delay is mercy.
This present world is not the last word. Fire will test it. The works done in it will be exposed.
Live now as those who wait for a home where righteousness is not an outsider.
Hunger and thirst for righteousness. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
Nothing unclean will enter there. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it.
According to His promise—wait, and live holy lives until righteousness dwells in the world He makes new.
Entry compiled for the JESUSaves.com Bible Glossary. Optimized for wiki.js Visual Editor.