Words from Jesus I can’t forget, with a promise I must remember
By Dean Collins
I can’t get this verse out of my mind. If you have been a follower of Jesus for very long you have no doubt read this verse, maybe 50 times or more, as I have.
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
The sentence is both comforting and strangely sobering as we consider the future, both ours and the future of everything on earth—every person, every business, every government, every everything.
Meditating on one verse can bring a greater understanding. But at the same time, it is quite dangerous to make decisions based on our understanding of just one verse without considering how it is interpreted through the wider lens of all of Scripture and, in this case, all of what we know Jesus said.
Passing away
The first half of this verse tells us Heaven and earth are passing away. That might sound frightening since we are all banking on Heaven being our ultimate destination. If it passes away then our hopes are threatened and our faith devastated. But we need not fear having a place to call home in eternity. All the way back to the prophet Isaiah, God tells us he is planning a “new thing.” The future is entirely in God’s hands, and the beauty we have seen on earth and imagined of Heaven will be better than and more than we can imagine. In order to grasp the new thing God has planned, we must let go of the old.
In order to grasp the new thing God has planned, we must let go of the old.
When the apostle John was given a revelation of Jesus and of the things to come, he recorded this to help us imagine our future and to continue on in this life confident of the next:
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.‘”
A new Heaven and a new earth follow after Jesus declared that Heaven and earth will pass away. Just as God’s love and faithfulness are new every morning, we will experience a new Heaven and earth at just the right time.
Jesus also gave us instructions to pray about it. Remember? “Our Father…Your kingdom come. Your will be done. On earth as it is in heaven.” We pray for the newness and vitality of the new Heaven and earth to come here and now. As we pray, God will use us to create pockets and places of newness everywhere so we love and serve as he does. The problem we have is that in this world many do not seek the kingdom of God. When Jesus returns he will complete the transformation, making all things new.
Remaining forever
The second half of the verse we are considering today is critically important. “But my words will not pass away.”
Change is usually not a welcome visitor. Most of us prefer the familiar and the predictable, and we will do almost anything to preserve what is familiar. This is part of the problem we have accepting and trusting Jesus. He is always trying to bring his new thing, and we like the old ways. And sadly, some of the old we like involves the sin we do not want to release. We grip tightly to the old habits while Jesus invites us to experience something better.
Nothing I have ever written will last more than a few minutes. Yes, you can find some of my writing from previous years on a website. But my words, like yours, and like even the great writers throughout history, fade away as do the memories of the people who wrote them. What we do and say on earth lasts but a breath of time. The only things that remain are the results of the words of Jesus that simply will not pass away.
Ready response
The great thinkers, writers, entrepreneurs, inventors, athletes, artists, and on and on will not be remembered but for a few years. Yes, they may have made a contribution here in their season and some of what they did may have influenced a generation or two. But eventually their work and their words are gone. The words that remain and the impact of our lives on future generations rest solely on our dependence on the words of Jesus, which are eternal. His new thing, which results in a new Heaven and a new earth, is a sure thing. Our participation has everything to do with how we respond to the eternal words of Jesus.
His new thing, which results in a new Heaven and a new earth, is a sure thing.
Here are a few of those eternal words we can and must cling to every day. In fact, living these new words here creates the pathway to the new Heaven and earth not just for us but, according to Jesus, for everyone:
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Today is a new day. Let’s do things a new way by loving each other and by praying that his will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. The prayer and the love of Jesus will abide forever. Because of his love and mercy so will we.
Your time with God’s Word
Matthew 24:35; Revelation 21:1-7; John 13:34-35 ESV
Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash
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