The Full GospelSample

The Beginning and the End // The Gospel According to Revelation

As we close out this Bible Plan, we arrive at the final book of the New Testament, the Book of Revelation. This book summarizes and emphasizes the goodness of the gospel, the power of God, and the grace of Jesus to rescue us from death and place us gently into His kingdom.

Unfortunately though, this last book of the Bible might be the most misunderstood in all of Scripture, which tragically leads so many people to miss out on the hope and beauty John wrote down based on the vision and revelation Jesus gave to him.

Why is it so complicated? One reason is because Revelation is a mixture of literary genres. It begins and ends in the form of an epistle, a letter written by an apostle. It gets tricky in the middle chapters because those are written in the form of apocalyptic prophecy. Apocalyptic writing uses symbolism and imagery to communicate ideas in ways that invite us to prayerfully wrestle with what God might be saying to us.

If you are interested in digging more into Revelation, then check out this Bible Plan we wrote to help you do exactly that!

• The Lion and the Lamb: A Guide to the Book of Revelation

For the sake of this Bible Plan, and the purpose of showing how the Book of Revelation presents the good news of the gospel, we are going to read a passage of Scripture from Revelation 21. Here’s how John describes ending to the vision Jesus showed him:

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

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.”

He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” Revelation 21:1-8 NIV

This is a description of what will happen when Jesus returns to finish what He started. In the previous two chapters, the enemies of God are defeated, the living and the dead are judged, those who pledged allegiance to Jesus entered into eternal life, and those who refused to bend the knee to their King were sentenced to “the second death.”

With His victory secured, and His people rescued, creation can be restored. The old order of things passes away, and new creation breaks in.

Heaven comes down and joins with the earth to create something new and better: A place where God will live with His people forever, where all that is broken has been fixed, all that is wrong has been made right, and every hurt has been healed.

This is the promise the gospel has been pointing to—not a floating city in the clouds, but a joining together of heaven and earth into something beautiful, wonderful, and unstained by the ugliness of sin or the pain of death.

These words from John paint a picture of what it looks like when the kingdom of God is fully established. When heaven and earth are one. Every tear is wiped away. Every space that was once occupied by suffering has been replaced with more joy than we can ever imagine.

And Jesus, our Savior King, is seated on the throne. He has declared that everything is being made new. And if He says it, we can trust it because He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the Beginning and the End. He is the First and He is the Last. And He always keeps His promises.

And our response to this goodness is to fully commit ourselves to Him. When we do, we get to join in on His victory. We have a place in His kingdom. We are adopted into His family.

But all of this goodness will only be ours if we want it. God loves us enough to let us choose eternity with Him or without Him. And if we don’t want Him, He honors our choice.

C.S. Lewis once wrote:

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.”

Eternity is available to all of us. Life, love, joy, purpose, and meaning have been offered to you. But you cannot accept the gift while rejecting the Giver. This is the choice we all have to make. Do we accept God and all that He offers, or do we reject Him and leave His gift on the table? We can’t have it both ways because eternity is filled with the glory of God.

God made His choice clear when He went to the cross for us. Now it’s your turn. If you haven’t yet, then let today be the day that you choose to turn from your sins and trust in Him. Let today be the day when your eternity is secured.

To conclude this Plan, we are going back to the beginning of the end, to the first chapter of Revelation. John writes:

… Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen. Revelation 1:4-6 NIV

If this Bible Plan helped strengthen your faith or deepen your understanding of the gospel, then consider reading one of these Plans next:

• Learning the Jesus Way of Life
• Becoming Like Jesus: Spiritual Disciplines
• Fully Devoted: An Introduction