Yesterday, we saw the climax of Scripture in Revelation 21 in which heaven is finally revealed in its fullness on the New Earth. In today’s passage, Isaiah offers a parallel prophecy, adding one crucial detail. Isaiah says that when Christ returns to “make everything new” (Revelation 21:5), that will include our work. 

This is the glorious conclusion to the biblical narrative of work we’ve sketched out over the last ten days. Here’s a quick recap.

God worked and created us to work before the Fall, meaning that the work of Adam and Eve was once perfect worship. But sin made work difficult and ensured that we would idolize work as a means of seeking to save ourselves. Because we couldn’t save ourselves, God sent Christ to earth to remind us of the goodness of...

You’ve probably read this passage dozens of times. And if you’re like me, you’ve likely always thought of the fact that Mary mistook Jesus as “the gardener” as some odd but insignificant detail of Scripture. 

But no word of Scripture is placed there by accident, and as renowned New Testament scholar N.T. Wright has pointed out, this detail is no exception. It appears that John is pointing to something quite remarkable indeed. John is contrasting the first Adam in the Garden of Eden with the last Adam, Jesus Christ, in the Garden of the Tomb. 

In the beginning, God created Adam to work the Garden of Eden—to fill and subdue the first creation. At the resurrection, Jesus inaugu...

Over the past five days, we’ve been systematically walking through the biblical narrative of work. Today and tomorrow, we examine the pinnacle of that narrative—Jesus’s death and resurrection—to see how the gospel provides our ultimate source of rest and ambition for our work.

First, let’s see how the gospel enables us to rest.

Just like the Babylonians did in Genesis 11, many of us look to our work for our sense of worth today. It’s why “What do you do?” is often the first question we ask new acquaintances. We all feel a need to impress others with our answer to that question. Why? Because we are all looking for a verdict for our lives—for someone to say that we are worthy and that our very existence is justified.

The beautiful truth of the gospel is that Jesus has secured that verdict...

The Queen’s Gambit tells the story of Beth Harmon, an orphan who turns to her considerable skills as a chess player to prove to the world that she is worthy of love and attention. In one poignant scene, we hear Beth’s rival tell a friend, “[Beth’s] an orphan. A survivor. Losing is not an option for her. Otherwise, what would her life be?”

That scene powerfully illustrates a central feature of the human condition we’ve seen since the Tower of Babel—namely, our temptation to use our work as a means of “making a name” for ourselves. Pastor Timothy Keller calls this “the work under the work—that need to prove and save ourselves, to gain a sense of worth and identity.”

Ever since Adam and Eve, we have been trying to cover up our sin and inadequacies, not with fig leaves, but with our accomplishments. We t...