REVELATION 21:1-4
by Mako Kato
If you’re starting to read this devotion without reading the passage, you are really missing out. This is awesome stuff.
John sees a “new heaven and a new earth.” The first heaven and the first earth are gone. He sees the New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. She’s prepared as a bride – what a contrast to the image of the prostitute “drunk with the blood of the saints” we met earlier.
And then John hears something. It is a declaration of utmost importance and something we can look forward to. The passage says, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3 ESV).
Having a “relationship with Christ” is a real thing. It shouldn’t just be a term we throw around without looking at its implications. At Christmas we talk about Jesus being called “Emmanuel,” which means “God with us.”
In Leviticus 26:12 God speaks to the Israelites, “And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people” (ESV).
God was with the Israelites, but the crazy exciting thing is that God not only is with us now as Christians, but will be with us for eternity in a way that we can’t grasp at this point. He will change how life is. There won’t be any death or mourning or crying or pain.
“For the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:4b).
We live in a broken world. We live in a world with suffering. We read in Romans that the Creation is “groaning.” But we live with the hope that the death, the sin, the evil in this world will one day end. We can look forward to eternity with God.
