TUESDAY September 17th
Revelation 22:14
‘Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates.’
‘Blessed are those who wash there robes’. The only ones who will have the right to enter the city will be those who have washed their robes. This is symbolic of those who have come by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ and known what it is to be washed, cleansed by his precious blood.
Way back in the opening chapters of the Bible, in the book of Genesis we see how the entrance of sin, caused Adam and Eve to be banished from the garden of Eden, the place where the tree of life stood. And ever since men and women have been banished. But God sent his Son into the world so that he might die at Calvary, and in dying, shed his precious blood which was to be the only blood that could make a sinner clean again. And here in the last chapter, in the final book of the Bible we see that access is now available to the tree of life.
In John 1:12 we read ‘But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God’. And as the children of God, we have the right to the tree of life, and we can, we will enter the city by the gates.
Imagine the shame, the feeling of despondency, the feeling even of guilt and sorrow that must have overwhelmed Adam and Eve as they were firstly banished from the garden, and then as they walked further away, maybe with a backward glance, thinking to themselves, maybe even saying to themselves, ‘What have we done’.
Well, Jesus has made it possible for us to enter the city and the right to the tree of life, surely in comparison to how Adam and Eve must have felt, we should have an overwhelming sense of joy in our lives. The sin washed away, our guilt taken away, the curse undone, the gate opened and seated on the throne is the Lamb who had been slain waiting to welcome us in.
What an incredible revelation this is that John had received of the Lord Jesus Christ! I can only say thank you God for sending Jesus, thank you Jesus that you came, thank you that I am blessed now, and I will be eternally blessed as I and as each one of us keep close to you.