“Revelation 21:5-8”

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

“And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ And He said, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.’ Then He said to me, ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.’”

---End of Scripture verses---

We live in a broken, fallen, deteriorating world because of wickedness and the worsening results of sin’s curse. All of us are hurting in some fashion or another, every one of us is growing older, most of us feel the effects of gravity weighing us down, time winding down, our bodies and even our minds wearing out. Allow your spirits to be buoyed and your countenance to be lifted by this one glorious promise from God: “Behold, I am making all things new” (verse 5)! If God is your Father and you are His faithful child, things are going to get so much better for you in the very near future! Infinitely better in fact! Write it down! “These words are faithful and true.” Our God cannot lie and He wouldn’t even if He could! There will soon be a new and improved you, perfectly fitted and suited for a heavenly eternity in the spiritual realm, evermore in the presence, protection and providence of the One who created you and loves you the most!

Both God the Father and Jesus the Word rightfully and equally lay claim to being “the Alpha and the Omega” (Revelation 1:8; 22:13). Yahweh God has set His predetermined plans and times and the fullness thereof, and He alone can truthfully declare, “It is done” (verse 6). “The scheme of redemption and its revelation originate and terminate with God. As ‘the beginning and the end,’ He created and He determines the objective and consequence of all things planned and brought forth. In the Old Testament He repeatedly claimed to be the sole Deity, ‘the first and the last,’ and that beside Him there is no God (Isa. 41:4; 43:10; 44:6; 48:12). This claim is verified by the fulfilling and consummation of His purpose in Christ, for only an infinite being could have so accurately foretold and carried out such a plan.” (Hailey)

“I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost” (verse 6). Robert Harkrider wrote: “Though people have spent great sums of money to find a fountain of youth, God holds it out freely to all who come to him. All good things men vainly work to acquire and retain in this world will be inherited for ever and ever by faithful saints (John 14:1-3; Rom. 8:18-24; 2 Cor. 4:18-5:4; Col. 3:1-4).” Jesus offers and provides the only living water that can truly satisfy the thirsty, immortal soul a human being (John 4:10; 7:38). He bids us to freely drink of His life-giving water (truth) here on earth, and then provides “a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22:1), in the eternal holy city whose maker and builder is God.

“He who overcomes will inherit these things” (verse 7). Homer Hailey wrote: “In each of the seven letters to the churches the Lord promised a reward to him that overcomes (2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21) even as He overcame (3:21; 5:5). The saint would conquer by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of his testimony and by loving not his life even unto death (12:11). Now to each who prevails is given the assurance that he shall inherit these blessings of the new earth.” If our dynamic faith overcomes the trials, temptations and tribulations of life through Christ Jesus, we will prove ourselves to be God’s “son” or daughter, and He promises the richest and most exquisite of inheritances to His faithful children.

But “the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars” (verse 8) will find no refreshment from the waters of the river of life. Their eternal lot will be to suffer the agony of “the lake that burns with fire and brimstone.” The unbelieving, unfaithful and unrighteous will feel the fury of the eternal fires of “the second death”. Death is always depicted as separation in the Bible. Faith without works is effectively dead, the body without the spirit is physically dead (James 4:26). A living human without the living God is spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1-2). If his eternal spirit separates from his mortal body in that wretched condition, he is eternally dead. This condition is fatal. It is final. It is forever.

Please read Revelation 21:9-14 for tomorrow.

Have a blessed day!

-Louie Taylor

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