For the fifth Sunday of Easter, the epistle reading is Revelation 21:1-7, which points us toward Christ’s final promise — His glorious return.

Throughout Scripture, God faithfully fulfills every promise.

Yet one remains: Christ’s assurance that He prepares a dwelling place where we will live with Him eternally.

“I saw a new heaven and a new earth.”

This powerful phrase appears just four times in Scripture — Isaiah 65-66, 2 Peter 3, and here in Revelation.

Note carefully: Scripture speaks not of floating on clouds or becoming angels, but of a renewed creation where heaven and earth are made whole.

In this restoration, our bodies and souls will be reunited, glorified, and perfected.

Yet Scripture often describes paradise by what will be absent: “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.”

Consider what this means!

Sin — the root of all sorrow, grief, and pain — will be completely eradicated.

Christ didn’t merely defeat sin on Good Friday or forgive our transgressions through His blood; He will ultimately remove sin entirely from creation.

The consequence of sin — death itself — will be vanquished forever.

In verse 6, Jesus declares, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.”

As the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, these titles speak to Christ’s eternality and omnipotence.

Like His “I AM” statements in John’s Gospel, Jesus proclaims His deity.

In this Easter season, we rejoice that because He lives, we too shall live — not as disembodied spirits, but as completely restored beings in a completely restored creation.

Steve Andrews Jr is pastor of St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Lee’s Summit, MO.

#higherthings #lcms #lutheran #easter

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