“He who was seated on the throne said I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:5) “Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (Revelation 21:1-2, Isaiah 65:17) “and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people and he will dwell with them. They will be his people and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be. No more death or mourning or crying or pain. For the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4). 

“Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children” (Revelation 21:7). “But the unbelieving—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulphur. This is the second death” (Revelation 21:8). “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true” (Revelation 21:5). “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life” (Revelation 21:6). 

Revelation 21:1-8 is speaking about a vision John had from God that can be read not metaphorically but literally. Literally God says that all unbelievers will experience a second death and everyone who has faith in his word will experience a new life with God where there is no more death or mourning or tears. This word God promises is an inheritance for all believers, “for (God’s) words are trustworthy and true” (Revelation 21:5). 

A living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

“Therefore I urge you brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1). Since God is the one who makes us holy and acceptable through faith in Jesus, this verse is saying that our lives are not our own, true worship is not an action but faith. Change from unbelief to belief is what pleases God and what worship looks like. 

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2). 

The world does not believe in the power of God or in spiritual beings. When we conform to the world, we agree with what the world believes that we have control over our lives and that worldly traditions keep us secure. Through the word we come to know that we have a creator and this life on earth is but a part of that and that we have been given a promise of salvation through faith for our souls and the opportunity on earth to do what God desires: to believe in him and to know him. With this knowledge we can operate under a different understanding that is living by faith and belief in God. We know from scripture that it is not God’s will that we are bound by religious traditions but that we have the freedom that grace gives to receive God’s promises through faith. 

Released from the Law, bound to Christ.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). The slavery that Paul is writing about is slavery to religious traditions that require that you obey them (Galatians 5:3) and yet they have no value (Galatians 5:6).

“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Galatians 5:6). The only thing of value is Jesus’ sacrifice, his life that he modeled for us is a living sacrifice when he died for our sins and removed the burden of sacrificial offerings from us. That model shows us that our lives are not our own. God asked Jesus to obey his will and to offer his life so that believers could have the promise of connection to God that brings life. For us, God is asking that we obey his will and have faith and accept this sacrifice that Jesus has made for us: accept holiness, accept righteousness, accept forgiveness and receive life through Christ and freedom from the bondage and slavery to doing actions to receive forgiveness.

Freedom in Christ.

“You died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another (new covenant) through him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4). The fruit of the sacrifice Jesus made is eternal salvation, life after death and forgiveness for everyone who believes. The fruit of offering your body as a living sacrifice is a change from unbelief to belief. A person who has belief in wealth bringing them security will invest in understanding things that bring them wealth. Similarly, a person who has faith in God will invest in understanding who God is and what his will is. 

Unbelievers are in opposition to God and what he requires. It is believers, people of faith who understand that their life is not their own and are determined to do what God requires. And what God requires is not works of the law, religious traditions, but faith in him.

Faith is fruit (evidence) that we are children of God and heirs of righteousness, forgiveness and holiness. “For when we were in the realm of the flesh (the flesh being the sinful state of human beings, often presented as a power in opposition to the Spirit) the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death” (Romans 7:5). 

This means that our unbelief in Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation led us to burden Christians with religious traditions that kept them from realizing the righteous inheritance that they already had through faith and has kept people believing that they are condemned because of the written code of the law, forgetting that Christ has paid for our salvation. So now we, “by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way (the new covenant promise) of the Spirit, and not the old way of the written code” (Romans 7:6). 

The Revelation of Jesus Christ. 

Jesus has come to earth to reveal who he is to humanity, to everyone so that who he is and the inheritance that he has promised is not a secret or hidden from us who believe and have faith. Jesus has revealed who he is through the testimony of scripture and prophecies and in Revelation 1:1-8 John shares this revelation of truth to everyone that Jesus says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is and was and who is to come” (Revelation 1:8). 

Jesus shares this revelation of truth to John so that John can testify, and you can believe that “Look! Jesus is coming (back) with the clouds” to bring people of faith into their inheritance and his kingdom (Daniel 7:13). Through Jesus’ sacrifice he has been given “authority, glory and sovereign power (over all the earth, laws and religious traditions to forgive and make righteous); all nations and people of every language will know him and worship him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed“ (Daniel 7:14).