Page 134 - Eschatology - Student Ebook

Choices with Eternal Consequences
Revelation 21:6-8 summarizes the choices to be made by all of mankind and the consequences of each
choice.

First, God offers to freely give (grace) eternal life to those who will drink of His offer, by believing in
what God provided for them, through the substitutionary death of His Son Jesus Christ.

Revelation 21:6 (NIV84)6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning
and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of
life.

Second, believers will choose how they will live their Christian life.

Revelation 21:7 (NIV84)7 He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be
my son.

Believers can choose to faithfully and sacrificially live for Christ. They will be evaluated at the Judgment
Seat of Jesus Christ as to whether or not they were “overcomers”. This is the same Greek word (from
the root “nikeo”) that Jesus used in each of the seven letters to the churches in Revelation 2-3. In these
letters He promised these “overcomers” various eternal rewards. Here, in Revelation 21:7, Jesus
promises that the overcomers will inherit the New Jerusalem and have a special relationship with Jesus
Christ. This matches what is revealed in Revelation 2-3.

Third, those who chose to reject God’s offer of eternal life will end up in the Lake of Fire (Revelation
21:8).

Revelation 21:8 (NIV84)8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually
immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery
lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”

A fourth is offered only to believers. They can choose to live selfishly for themselves. They are ashamed
and uncommitted to faithfully live for Jesus Christ. These believers have a lack of victory over sinful
practices in their life. They have not cooperated with the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to control them so
that His attributes, the fruit of the Spirit, do not show through their life (Ephesians 5:18; Galatians 5L22-
24).

Ephesians 5:18 (NIV84)18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled
with the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22–24 (NIV84)22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.

This is the opposite choice as the second choice above.

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