In the beginning God spoke a perfect creation into existence. Now, at the end, we again encounter the voice of God declaring, “I am making everything new!” God is the beginning and end. He had the first word and now he has the last word. And this last word creates a new beginning. The first creation was marred by the disobedience of the first human beings. So here the voice of God declares that the new creation will not be marred by sin as the first one was. The only people who will be a part of the new creation will be those who forsake the old world system for the new creation. This was a big decision for people in John’s day since being a Christian meant being rejected by society and, very often, severely persecuted. The difference between the two groups of people depicted in 21:7-8 is therefore that between the “victorious” and the “cowardly”. Those who enter the new creation are those who held onto their faith boldly to the end. But those who succumbed to worldly pressure and thereby retreat back into ‘the old order of things’ will be destroyed along with the old world system. In other words, in the end, we all get what we wanted the most. Being a Christian in the western world today is a comparatively comfortable affair. This is a blessing but also presents a great danger. We can easily become soft and even cowardly when it comes to representing our faith. We have to work harder to keep our faith alive. Let your decision for Christ be more evident.
Ask God to awaken your faith and keep you close to himself.
Read Revelation 21:5-8
