He is making all things new!
We are familiar with, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son…” (John 3:16). Many Christians can also recite the comforting words recorded in John 15:5: “I am the vine, you are the branches … if you remain in Me and I remain in you, you will bear much fruit for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
These are some of the more popular phrases we quote when it comes to Jesus. Meanwhile, the statement He makes in Revelation 21:5 often gets overlooked, even though it has the power to radically transform how you see His presence in the world today. Unfortunately, we browse over it or ignore it completely because it is buried in an often-ignored book of the New Testament.
In John’s revelation, we hear the words of Jesus: “Behold, I am making all things new.” On the surface it doesn’t seem like a very profound statement. But if you look deeper into the context and the reality, you’ll see that our Lord is saying something incredibly overwhelming.
These words of Jesus in Revelation 21:5 give the Christian hope because Jesus is currently working in our lives and in our world. What Jesus declares to the Apostle John is a promise to us. Even if we don’t see it, Jesus is making all things new. It’s not that He has made things new in the past, or that He will make things new in the future. He is in the business of making all things new right now, in our current circumstances.
It’s easy to scroll through your social media news feed and read headline after headline on the brokenness, hurt and pain our world is experiencing. It’s easy to metaphorically throw our hands up in the air and declare that there is no hope because evil seems to run rampant. But as followers of Jesus, we are not able to declare hopelessness as the world does. In Jesus there is always hope. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He created this world, and His life on earth, the words He shared, His crucifixion upon the cross, and His victory over death in the resurrection, leads us as His followers into a life and future filled with hope.
Just as an orthopedic surgeon knows exactly what he is doing when he reconstructs knee ligaments, our spiritual doctor is able to restore and recreate things in our broken world. Colossians 3:10 assures us that we are being made new (currently): “and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator.” Make no mistake about it, in Jesus you are being renewed so that Jesus may use you and your life to be a part of this broken world’s renewal process.
Just like a skilled surgeon, when you are restored by a person who knows what he or she is doing, you will be restored in such a way that no one knows you were ever broken. King Jesus is the one who promises that even in the heaviness and pain of our world, He is currently working in a way that makes all things new. The finished product will shine so bright that the memory of the brokenness of this world will fade away.
— Reza Zadeh, Denver Broncos chaplain
The Increase, part of the Sports Spectrum Network, is a community of Christian pro athletes sharing their personal stories of the decrease of self and the increase of Christ (John 3:30). Visit TheIncrease.com for more stories and videos.
