“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.” Revelation 21:4 (NIV)
God cuts back the weed of sin, but the day is coming when He will pull sin up altogether and cast it into the fire. Sin will be no more. There will be a new heaven and earth, the home of righteousness.
Suffering came into the world on the coattails of sin. And when sin is excluded from the planet, suffering will go out on its coattails too.
But how could sinners like us ever live in the home of righteousness? John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The hope of the world lies in Jesus Christ, who takes away our sin.
Until God destroys sin once and for all, we will continue to live in a world of sin and suffering. A woman came rushing up to her pastor after church on the Sunday after 9/11. Very distressed, she asked him, “How can I tell my children that they are safe?”
The pastor said to her, “You can’t.” She looked completely stunned. He continued, “The world isn’t safe. We have to live in this world in such a way as to be prepared for the next.”
That’s what we need to do as adults, and that’s what we need to teach children too.
Are you expecting God to make this world safe for you right now? What are some of the dangers of this kind of expectations of the Christian life?
