“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” Revelation 21:4
January 1, 2024
It’s always time for reflective thought about the kind of God we serve. This comes through vividly in setting our minds on the hope-filled and limitless future that belongs to every believer in Jesus Christ. The eternal future of God’s redeemed will include the passing away of the effects of sin. Negatives are used to describe the new Jerusalem to push our thinking through to the things that will not last. Our limited capacity to understand what exactly our inheritance is like (“and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be,” 1 Jn. 3:2) is not a denial of what we are to anticipate. Why do we cry? Because we are disappointed or sad. We will not anticipate death any longer. There will not be any depression, misery, hurt, sickness, regrets, grief, or pain. Imagination can carry us only so far with such prospects. Jesus gave us a preview of our great anticipation of things that will not last. The blind were made to see and the dead were brought to life, but their’s was not a never again. It was Bishop Ryle who comforted his flock, “Those whom you laid in the grave with many tears are in good keeping: you will yet see them again with joy. Believe it, think it, rest on it. It is all true.” God gives us a guarantee of the truthfulness of what He has promised. Our inability to grasp the significance of the prospect of the new Jerusalem does not diminish the reality of this hope. With all the dismal suffering and pain that may come with the new year, we must choose to live with the inspiring Great Anticipation God has given us.
H
“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them. But whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.” Martin Luther