“And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. And there shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever. Then he said to me, ‘These words are faithful and true.’ And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show His servants the things which must shortly take place. ‘Behold, I am coming quickly! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.’ Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, ‘See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.’ And he said to me, ‘Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still.’” Revelation 22:1-11.
The above has been retained for context, this post will be concerned with Revelation 22:12-21.
“And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” Revelation 22:12-13.
The Lord is returning soon, will He find us serving Him, or will He find us asleep because the wait has been long?
“…and My reward is with Me…” we do not know the exact nature of these rewards, so many do not consider them, saying they will just be happy to be with the Lord.
Noble enough, but if it is important to Jesus, why dismiss his gift as though it is nothing? Would you like your gift to someone to mean nothing to them?
God reminds us that He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. There is good reason for this, it tells us that there is only one God and there is no other.
“I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God besides me.” Isaiah 45:5a.
“I am the Lord, and there is no other…” Isaiah 45:6b.
“They will make supplication to you, saying, ‘Surely God is in you, and there is no other; there is no other God.’” Isaiah 45:14b.
“And there is no other God besides Me, a just God and a Savior; there is none besides Me.” Isaiah 45:21b.
“For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me…” Isaiah 46:9b.
God tells us these things so we will not worship another, and He tells us these things so we will not speculate that sometime in eternity another god is going to show up and destroy everything.
Satan the god of this world is already trying that and he is going to pay dearly for his error.
“Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.” Revelation 22:14.
Interestingly enough the Catholic, Douay-Rheims version, which is a translation of the Latin Vulgate, renders verse 14 above as follows.
“Blessed are they that wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb; that they may have a right to the tree of life and may enter in by the gates into the city.” Revelation 22:14.
While this version overall is not a very good translation, the truth is that this verse is much clearer here than the better translations like the New American Standard Version have it, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life…”
“Blessed are those who do His commandments…” is this different from, “Blessed are they that wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb…”? Not really, God’s commandments here are not the Ten Commandments as you will see by the following.
“And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.” 1 John 3:22-23.
A lawyer came to Jesus one day and asked Him the following question.
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40.
Do you love God? Then believe on His Son Jesus Christ who shed His blood on the cross for your sake (wash your robes in the blood of the Lamb).
This is the first commandment, and the one that gives you the right to the tree of life and entrance to the city. Do you want to please God? Then love your neighbor as yourself.
And what of those who reject His commandments?
“But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral [whoremongers, King James] and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.” Revelation 22:15.
This third statement about those who are outside, once again, is a reference to those who will inhabit the lake of fire; they are not outside the gates of the city.
In fact they shall never see the new heavens and new earth. By rejecting the love of God, they have forfeited this right.
To those who fall into the above categories hear this; all you need to do is repent of your sins, accept God’s love for you, and receive Christ as your Savior and the lake of fire will cease to be your destination.
This change of destination will happen instantly. There is no chanting, good deeds, or self-flagellation involved it is by the shed blood of Jesus only that this happens.
Do not for a moment believe the devil’s lie that you are too sinful to come to Jesus for salvation.
“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David [Isaiah 11:10], the Bright and Morning Star.” “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. And whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” Revelation 22:16-19.
Surely the beast will add things to the book of Revelation.
“He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law.” Daniel 7:25a.
And liberal theologians will take away the impact of the book by allegorizing or twisting the message therein.
“But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.” 2 Peter 2:1-3.
“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” Revelation 22:20-21.
Revelation 22:12-21 taken from godisrevealed.com updated on 3-22-17, reposted on 12-18-22.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.