Christians’ ultimate hope is not going to heaven, but heaven coming to us. Peter explains why this “new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells” (v. 13) has not arrived yet, why the world must be refined by fire, and how we are to live while we wait. Other parts of scripture reassure us that those who have died in faith are present with Jesus now in the “intermediate state,” but even they still wait eagerly for the fullness of the resurrection.