Scripture Reading: Revelation 21:1-8
In this glorious section of Revelation, God draws back the curtain of heaven and bids us to behold the wonders and pleasures that await those who belong to Him. He says, "Behold, I am making all things new" (Rev 21:5). There are several ways in which God will make things new.
First, He will make a new universe. "I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth has passed away (Rev 21:1). If this earth is stunningly beautiful, how breathtaking will the new earth be?!
Second, He will give to His people a new body. "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" (Rev 21:4). We will be like our Lord, never to die again.
Third, God will give us a sinless heart. Having purified us completely, there will be no sinful people in heaven ... the cowardly, the faithless, the immoral, the murderers, the deceitful (Rev 21:8).
Fourth, God will establish a new relationship between Himself and His people. "He will dwell with them, and they will be His people and God Himself will be with them as their God" (Rev 21:3).
"... take your heart to task, chide it for its willful strangeness to God, turn your thoughts from the pursuit of vanity, bend your soul to study eternity, and busy it about the life to come. . . . you will find yourself in the suburbs of heaven, and that there is, indeed, a sweetness in the work and way of God, and that the life of Christianity is a life of joy"
(Richard Baxter, The Saints Everlasting Rest ).
