May 19: Celebrating His Victory.
HIS RECREATION.
On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.--Revelation 22:2
Have you ever received much more than you expected? I was in the middle of a long international trip when, having finished a speaking engagement, I had to stay a few extra days in a hotel to work on a project before heading to the next country. My hosts graciously paid for the additional nights. Wondering where I would be eating during the few extra days, I went to the reception desk. That's when I was notified that my hosts had prepaid for all my daily meals at a restaurant. Wow! I was pleasantly surprised and so grateful!
We can't even start to grasp what awaits us in eternity! Even our best imagination fails us when it comes to God's heavenly surprise for His children. The last book of the Bible ends with a scene of redeemed humanity returned to the tree of life. We have come full circle, and God has recreated the earth! The tree that God planted in Paradise is back. Remember how Jesus promised Paradise to the criminal on the cross (see Luke 23:43)? Well, here we are, standing by the tree of life. John utters the seventh and last beatitude in this book: "Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city" (Revelation 22:14). The expression of "washing their robes" has already been explained in Revelation: "They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Revelation 7:14). The blessed ones have the right to the tree of life, a symbol of immortality, because they have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, accepting the ransom paid. "The tree of life in the new Jerusalem symbolizes eternal life free of death and suffering....Once again human beings will share in the gift of eternal life that Adam enjoyed before sin entered the world. All that was lost through Adam is now regained through Christ." * Praise the Lord! Be encouraged! Jesus has purchased a suffering-free eternal reality for us!
My Response:_____________________________________________________________
* Ranko Stefanvic, Revelation of Jesus Christ, 2nd ed. (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2009), 604
HIS RECREATION.
On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.--Revelation 22:2
Have you ever received much more than you expected? I was in the middle of a long international trip when, having finished a speaking engagement, I had to stay a few extra days in a hotel to work on a project before heading to the next country. My hosts graciously paid for the additional nights. Wondering where I would be eating during the few extra days, I went to the reception desk. That's when I was notified that my hosts had prepaid for all my daily meals at a restaurant. Wow! I was pleasantly surprised and so grateful!
We can't even start to grasp what awaits us in eternity! Even our best imagination fails us when it comes to God's heavenly surprise for His children. The last book of the Bible ends with a scene of redeemed humanity returned to the tree of life. We have come full circle, and God has recreated the earth! The tree that God planted in Paradise is back. Remember how Jesus promised Paradise to the criminal on the cross (see Luke 23:43)? Well, here we are, standing by the tree of life. John utters the seventh and last beatitude in this book: "Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city" (Revelation 22:14). The expression of "washing their robes" has already been explained in Revelation: "They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Revelation 7:14). The blessed ones have the right to the tree of life, a symbol of immortality, because they have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, accepting the ransom paid. "The tree of life in the new Jerusalem symbolizes eternal life free of death and suffering....Once again human beings will share in the gift of eternal life that Adam enjoyed before sin entered the world. All that was lost through Adam is now regained through Christ." * Praise the Lord! Be encouraged! Jesus has purchased a suffering-free eternal reality for us!
My Response:_____________________________________________________________
* Ranko Stefanvic, Revelation of Jesus Christ, 2nd ed. (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2009), 604
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