The Prime of Life for the Whole of One's Life

No one will grow frail by becoming old in the New Jerusalem. Citizens of the new earth will experience and enjoy both wholeness of body and longevity of life. They will have a quality of life unrestricted by disability or disease. To live in the New Jerusalem is to experience life in all its fullness and vitality. It is to live as one has never lived before. It is to be in the prime of life, for the whole of one's life.

John's vision of the new earth is refreshingly attractive. We live in a world constantly struggling to overcome sickness, disease and death. We look to medical doctors to prolong our lives and ensure that we have a meaningful quality of life. We pour vast sums of money into the prevention and treatment of diseases, with limited success. In spite of this, few of us expect to live longer than eighty or ninety years, and, if we should, we probably anticipate that our capacity to enjoy life wil be severely restricted. Few ninety-year-olds skip around like newborn lambs. How different life will be in the New Jerusalem!

--T. Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: An Introduction to Biblical Theology (Kregel, 2008), 156-57