Revelation 21:26–27: “And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”

September 14th, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Revelation 21 describes the new heaven and new earth, and tells us that only believers whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will be in this new, heavenly Jerusalem. This exhortation is here for us, the present readers, to remind us that the only way to participate in the future city is to surrender to the Lamb now. The New Jerusalem will be filled with those who understand, today, their need for salvation by grace through faith and humble themselves under God’s loving hand.

The world keeps trying to call us aside to short-term, petty pleasures that will stumble our feet off the path of God, so God points us again to eternity, giving us a picture of the good consequences of surrendering to Him and serving Him faithfully with our lives. Oxford professor and author C. S. Lewis said this in his sermon, “The Weight of Glory”:

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

The complete loss of all our material possessions from this world has been clearly decided and attested to by God. If we lay up treasures in heaven, we will be looking forward to eternity and death is gain. But if we have been focused on laying up treasure here on earth, then death is despair and loss. God knows we all seek happiness and He wants that for us, so He tells us what we must become in order to be blessed and happy for eternity.

“LORD, we ask You to lead us this day in paths of godly service to You by serving others.”