“He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” (Revelation 21:5)

As we struggle through the challenges of life now, God has made a promise to those who have come to Him by faith. He promises to make all things new. This promise will begin after the Judgment and He sets before His own, “a new heaven and a new earth.” (Revelation 21:1) Here the promise of Jesus will come true. “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:2-3) This is the hope of eternal life with Jesus.

Until then, God has set before us many new things. Let’s start with a new covenant. Jeremiah would make the promise of a new covenant. “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.” (Jeremiah 31:31) Jesus would bring the new covenant. The new covenant would be established by the blood which He shed on the cross. “How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.” (Hebrews 9:14-15)

Jesus will also give us a new commandment. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” (John 13:34) When we live here, this is the one commandment which will show the world that we are Jesus’ disciples. “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35) It is also the commandment which we will follow for all eternity in God’s presence, for “God is love.” (1 John 4:16)

Jesus will also remake us. He will create in us a new self. We are “to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:23-24) Jesus came to make this transition in us, to make us to be like Him. This is the power of the cross. “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) Throughout our lives we are being remade into the image of Christ, the likeness of God until the day when He comes for us. “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3)

As we live in this world, God is giving us a taste of what it will be like when He makes all things new. Until then, let us hold to the new covenant as we obey the new commandment and be remade into our new self. This is what happens as we walk daily with the Living and the Written Word of God.

In the Love of Jesus,

Michael Block