Read: Revelation 22:12-21
Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. (v. 14)
As you explore a new town, you may see a particularly striking house. Maybe it’s big. Maybe it’s beautiful. And you ask, “I wonder who lives there? It must be someone important or rich.” Or maybe you think, I wish I lived there!
The truth is that there’s no house—or home!—as striking as the new heaven and new earth described in Revelation 21 and 22. But who lives there? Certainly God is there, Jesus is there, the Holy Spirit is there. The angels of God are there. But there are all kinds of other people who live there as well. Some were famous while they lived on this earth. Others were known only by their family and friends.
But famous or not, they all have something in common. John explains: “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates” (22:14). In other words, they have trusted in Jesus, who died on the cross, who shed his blood so their sins could be forgiven. Then three days after Jesus died, by God’s great power, he was raised from the dead, victorious over sin and death. All who trust in Jesus share in his victory over sin and death. And one day they will live in the best of homes—the new heaven and new earth. Have you trusted in Jesus? Will you be there?
As you pray, give thanks for Jesus’s victory over sin and death.
Rich Bawinkel is a retired pastor who has served churches in the Reformed Church in America and the Kingdom Network. He is married to Anne and serves as a musician in their local church, as the administrator of the Kingdom Network, and on the Words of Hope Board of Directors.
