Revelation 22:12-15 “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. 14 “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. 15 Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
Jesus speaks to us through John. These words summarize the key issues in the Book of Revelation. First, Jesus is coming “soon.” This should leave us with expectation. This expectation introduces the rest of this paragraph. It should motivate us to live in obedience. We will be rewarded by what we do. That means we must be doing what Jesus has commanded. We are saved by grace but there is also a sense in that we are judged by what we do: our actions and attitudes.
Second, we see repeated the idea that Jesus is the beginning and the end. He was at the beginning of creation: “all things were created through him” (John 1:3). He will also be at the end when all things are judged and new creation is complete.
This leads to the third, a motivation: we must wash our robes. This passage does not say with what we wash our robes, but other Bible passages speak about how we are washed in the blood of the Lamb and our sins are cleansed and we are made pure. Holiness will allow us to see God (Hebrews 12:14) and to enter the new Jerusalem and have access to the Tree of Life.
Fourth, there is a warning in verse 15, that those who reject the Lamb through disobedience and sin will not experience any of this. The activities listed go against the sovereignty of Jesus and violate the law of love.
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