5 Then He who sat on the throne said,
“Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to
me, “Write, for these words are true and
faithful.”
6 And He said to me, “It is
done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give
of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. 7 He
who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be
My son. 8 But the cowardly,
unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers,
idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with
fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
When I hear the
phrase “I make
all things new”, I am reminded of the movie The Passion and where
the director put this line into that movie.
The movie created a scene where Jesus was carrying our cross and fell,
and Mary His mother was there, and He turned to her with His bloody beaten face
and said, “See, I make all things new.”
While there is no historical or Biblical evidence of that moment, the
work of God through Jesus on the cross that day is how any of us are able to
claim this promise of the new heaven and new earth, no more sorrows, and walking
with God. Here, it is proclaimed with
authority, He makes all things new. As
Jesus proclaimed from the cross, “It is finished!”
“It is
done.”
Jesus who is the
beginning and the end freely gives life to all who thirst for Him. “He who overcomes” is the one who overcomes the
desires for the worldly life, Babylon.
It is the brave, the believing, those who accept God’s morals, those who
value life, those who do not lust for pleasure, those who worship only God, and
those who are honest. These are sons of
the living God.
9 Then one of the seven angels who
had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and
talked with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s
wife.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a
great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem,
descending out of heaven from God, 11 having the
glory of God. Her light was like
a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. 12 Also
she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the
gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of
Israel: 13 three gates on the east, three gates on
the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west.
This is the fourth time that John is taken
away in the Spirit. He is taken to a
high vantage point so he can see the New Jerusalem. The holy city has the glory of God, it is a
perfect city. This new city on the new
earth is bride of Christ. We can
reasonably understand that John is limited in his ability to describe the glory
of this city by the human language. His
words are just inadequate to describe what I hope every person who claims to
love Jesus will see one day.
The city is accessible as it has three gates
on each side. It’s doors are never
closed (25). At each gate is an angel
(not Peter). Each gate is named with the
tribes of Israel as the fulfillment of the covenant promise to Abraham and his
descendants (Gen 12:1-3).
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