The BLB Blog

The official blog of Blue Letter Bible

"The story is not over…"

Posted on Posted by

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

(Revelation 22:1-5)

Two days ago the world celebrated Christmas Day. For Christians, it is the remembrance of Jesus Christ’s incarnation—the mystery of God as man. Just over thirty years after his birth, Jesus would die on a cross as a propitiation for our sins. He would rise three days later, and several days after that ascend to His throne on high.

It’s a glorious story that is both historically true and of utmost importance. In remembering the life and death of our Savior, it is important that we not forget that His story is still be written. As Thomas Schreiner observes:

“The story is not over yet. Believers still await the consummation. They await the new creation, the completion of the new exodus, and the final fulfillment of the new covenant. Jesus will come again and transform the universe.

There is a new world coming, a new creation, a new heavens and a new earth. In that coming world God will be all in all, and Jesus Christ will be honored forever and ever. And the paradise that was lost will be regained—and more than regained, it will be surpassed.

And we will see His face (Rev. 22:4), and His glory will be magnified through Christ forever and ever.”

–Thomas R. Schreiner, New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ (Baker Academic, 2008), 866.

Comments

  1. He has saved us, is saving us, & will save us, to inherit the city He has prepared for us… where He is not ashamed to be called our God. true! its not over yet, lets join together to pray for the lord’s bride who seems preoccupied with “prosperity” gospels of wealth. i find it provocative that the laodecean church is a fitting description of today’s church, the church that has become obsessed with establishing earthly foundations in this temporal domain! it looks more like the church that thinks of christ’s act of salvation as “over now!” is this a fair description? because the temptation of our earthly exodus is the return to egypt where though it was bondage, had some false securities as opposed to the endurance in the wilderness.

      • John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
        John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
        John 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto
        (Acts 2:38 KJV) “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

          • i had a christian believer tell me recently that this means the natural birth, the first birth we all have already done. completely irrational , i thought. because Jesus said “be born again” of water and The Spirit,which is exactly what Peter preached at Pentecost. some where down the road of christianity this birth into Jesus’s church has not been proclaimed like it should be.i do fear for the souls that believe in Jesus and have not experienced Pentecost, acts 2:38

          • Ron, neither is this truth over. We MUST be born of the water and the Spirit. There is no other name whereby we must be saved, but by the name of JESUS! One day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord to the Glory of God.

          • Pentecost by defintion means 50 days. It is the exact amount of time Jesus spent working his miracle. 3 days in the grave, 40 days on the earth, and 7 days after ascending the Holy Spirit was given to man. It had nothing to do with Peter or any human beings and does not take water to get something given freely by the spirit.
            Pentecost was instituted in the days of moses to point into the future when Jesus would make the new testament. The fact that Jesus did this in a 50 day period allows ANYONE access to Gods throne through belief and understanding of his word.
            Pentecost happened to me in bed one night, and it was just me and Jesus. No Peter nor a friend nor a pastor was present.
            One must die to oneself and the pride we carry and what we believed we thought we knew must also die.
            When I baptized 41 convicts out of a water faucet, they knew it would not get them into heaven, because I told them it would not, However., they were able to write home that they were trying. And that was a start!

            just like the rest of us…

            The story of Pentecost is a pretty simple start with getting someone to the truth by the truth and not conviction.

  2. As my pastor said on Christmas morning, no matter the gift that you got on Christmas or did not get, eternal life is the better/best gift! Thank God that I have something more to look forward to.

  3. It’s my desire – and that of every believer, I hope! – to spread this message of HOPE like never before in 2012! To live the joy by staying focused on the Lord, being filled daily with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. To be ready in season and out of season to give an answer for the hope that lies within me! Praise God for giving us such hope!

  4. Greetings my Brethren in Jesus name!

    Our God RULES… As much as the world tries to stamp out Christianity they keep celebrating Christmas.

    As one brother commented we need to pray that the Lord of the harvest send workers into the field to harvest the souls. I echo that!

    We need to also pray that those who are saved continue to grow from new born believers, to children, then to young men and from there into fathers of the faith as John the beloved wrote in 1 John 2:13-14

    1Jo 2:13 I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him [that is] from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.

    1Jo 2:14 I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him [that is] from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

    One of the things mentioned in today’s post was a bit miss leading when it was stated “the mystery of God as man”. I say this in love that so you can continue to grow in your faith and understanding of who our God is (Yahweh is His name) and who Jesus Christ was and is.

    God is not a man Numbers 23:19
    “God [is] not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do [it]? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”

    Jesus is both the son of man and the son of God as Peter was taught by Jesus Christ in Mat 16:13-17.
    Mat 16:13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
    Mat 16:14 And they said, Some [say that thou art] John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
    Mat 16:15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
    Mat 16:16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
    Mat 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed [it] unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

    Jesus was tempted just like the rest of mankind is but God cannot be tempted as James the brother of Jesus taught us.
    Jam 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

    God cannot die as mentioned in today’s post but Jesus the man did die and rose from the dead which is the greatest gift God gave us!

    God is eternal… 1Tim 1:17 Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, [be] honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

    The man Jesus is our mediator between God and mankind…
    1Ti 2:5 For [there is] one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
    1Ti 2:6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

    On that fateful day in the Garden of Gethsemane our God and Father, asked Jesus, the man, to die on the cross and Jesus willingly gave himself as a ransom for us. What a wonderful, loving person! I love our bridegroom don’t you?

    As we know he died and then the Father raised him from the dead. We know that God cannot die because he is eternal but we do know that man can die and God can raise them up.

    Ah yes, Christmas is a remembrance of what our God did for us when He created Jesus in the womb of the virgin Mary and she gave birth to him in Bethlehem.

    As to the scripture reference we given today in the post we see the distinction between our God and Jesus the glorified son of man when it states in Revelation 22:1-5 the throne of God and the throne of the Lamb and that God is the light and Jesus is the lamp (NIV, NLT, Rev 21:23)

    There is SO much more that will happen to the churches, some with joy and some with heartache. The great apostasy or falling away (2 Thess 2), the raptures of the church, the one world government, the revealing of the anti-Christ, Armageddon, the second coming of Jesus Christ, the great millennial reign of Jesus Christ, and the promised new heavens and earth.

    I pray your faith will not fail and that the fruits of the Spirit continue to grow and mature you in love, peace, joy, longsuffering, gentleness, self-control, humility.

    May our God Bless each of you this coming year as we are even now closer to the wrap up of the ages then we were at this time last Christmas.

    Your brother in Christ Jesus,
    Andybob

    • You quoted 1 john 14 as Yahweh and that word does not appear in the King james bible. However these three different characters appear as GOD

      EL word#410 first appears as GOD in the bible in Gen 14-18 AS THE POSSESSOR of the earth

      EL OHIYM WORD #430 first appears as GOD in Genesis 1-1 as the creator of the earth and stars

      JEHOVAH WORD #3068 first appears as LORD in Genesis 2, WHERE he builds a garden on ELOHIYMS creation, which EL possessed from ELOHIYM in genesis 14-18

      And he blessed him, and said, Blessed [be] Abram of the most high God/#410, possessor of heaven and earth:

      A crazy book with riddles unstudied and to deep and exhausting for man to really try and understand?

      solve the riddle…

    • John 8:58 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
      Ex.3:14 And God said to Moses,I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
      Isa.9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
      John 10:30 I and my Father are one.
      Col.1:13 Col.1:14 Col.1:15 Col.1:16 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of HIS DEAR SON. In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him are all things created,…
      Col.2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
      Phil.2:5 Phil.2:6 Phil.2:7 Phil.2:8 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
      John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:2 John 1:3
      John 1:14 And the word was made flesh,and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
      Heb. 10:12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God.
      Luke 1:27 For with God nothing shall be impossible.

  5. Isaiah 12:3 Therefore with joy shall you draw water out of the wells of the saviuor

    John 4:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life

    Jeremiah 2:13 For my people hath done two evils they have forsaken ME the well of the water of life and digged them pits yeh vile & broken pits that hold no water

    1 Peter 3:20&21 Which sometime were disobedient when once the longsuffering of GOD waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing wherein few that is eight souls were saved by water (21) the like figure where unto even baptism doth also now save us not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience toward GOD by the resurrection of JESUS CHRIST

    Mark 16:16 Whoso believeth AND is baptized shall be saved but whoso believeth not shall be damned

    John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing THE WORDS THAT I SPEAK UNTO YOU ARE SPIRIT AND THEY ARE LIFE

    1 Peter 1: 23 For you are born anew not of mortal seed but of immortal by the word of GOD which liveth and lasteth forever

    John 6:68 Then Simon Peter answered HIM LORD to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life

    1 John 5:6 This is HE that came by water and blood even JESUS CHRIST not by water only but by water and blood AND IT IS THE SPIRIT THAT BEARETH WITNESS BECAUSE THE SPIRIT IS TRUTH

    Revelation 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him and he said unto me see thou do it not I am thy fellow servant and of thy brethren that have the testimony of JESUS worship GOD for the testimony of JESUS is the spirit of prophecy

    John 4:24 GOD is a spirit and they that worship HIM must worship HIM in spirit and in truth

    John 14:6 JESUS saith unto him I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh to the father but by me

    Luke 22:20 Likewise also the cup after supper saying this cup is the NEW TESTAMENT IN MY BLOOD which is shed for you

    Matthew 26:28 For this is MY BLOOD OF THE NEW TESTAMENT which is shed for many for the remission of sins

    1 Corinthians 11:25 After the same manner also HE took the cup when HE had supped saying this cup is THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MY BLOOD this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of ME

    Hebrews 12:24 And to JESUS the mediator of THE NEW TESTAMENT and to the sprinkling of blood that speaketh better than the blood of Abel

    Mark 10:38&39 But JESUS said unto them you know not what you ask can you drink of the cup that I drink of and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with (39) and they said unto him we can and JESUS said unto them you shall indeed drink of the the CUP that I drink of and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall you be baptized

    1 JOHN 5:8 And there are three that bear witness in earth the spirit and the water and the blood and these three agree in one

    Ephesians 5:26 That HE might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word