All Things New
Scripture: Revelation 21:1-6 (NRSVue)*
When you read the book of Revelation in its entirety, you encounter basically two kinds of visions—visions that either threaten or assure. These visions increase in intensity—and then rise to a crescendo in the last two chapters, culminating in this vision of our Great Future. Truly our passage this week is one of the most beautiful scenes in all of the New Testament. We read the end of the book and we know that love wins. Not only the battle will be won, but the war will be won. Evil and death will be conquered and eliminated. God will restore all things and his initial plan for creation will be made complete. We not only are a new a creation, but all of creation will be restored. Or as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 8:21, “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay” to “obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” We and all creation have a future with hope. And the good news about our great future is that it helps us endure the present. But not only that, the future heartens us to work with God in the present. Little by little, by the grace of God, a little bit of heaven is brought to earth with Christ in us. The Lord’s Prayer is answered that “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
January 30, 2022 – Online Service Bulletin and Bible Study
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*New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition Bible, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
