8 gHe will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will hwipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
9 It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
The Compassion of the Lord
1 z“Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
24 I will take you from the nations and dgather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your euncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 fAnd I will ggive you a new heart, and a hnew spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And iI will put my Spirit jwithin you, and cause you to kwalk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.1 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. 29 And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay lno famine upon you. 30 I will make the mfruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations.
29 And people will come nfrom east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God. 30 And behold, osome are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”
42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?1 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, yI will come again and will take you to myself, that zwhere I am you may be also.
42 So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised kin glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.
Mystery and Victory
50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood vcannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the wimperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. xWe shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last ytrumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and zthe dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and athis mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:
b“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
55 c“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and dthe power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the evictory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be fsteadfast, immovable, always abounding in the gwork of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
The Coming of the Lord
13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are sasleep, that you may not grieve as others do who thave no uhope. 14 For vsince we believe wthat Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord,1 that xwe who are alive, who are left until the ycoming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For zthe Lord himself will descend afrom heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the btrumpet of God. And cthe dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them din the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 eTherefore encourage one another with these words.
13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the hgreat tribulation. They have iwashed their robes and made them jwhite in the blood of the Lamb.
15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him kday and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
16 lThey shall mhunger no more, nneither thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their oshepherd,
and he will guide them to psprings of living water,
and God will qwipe away every tear from their eyes.”
4 He will xwipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, y“Write this down, for zthese words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! aI am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the bwater of life cwithout payment. 7 dThe one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my eson.
3 jNo longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will ksee his face, and lhis name will be on their foreheads. 5 And mnight will be no more. nThey will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will oreign forever and ever.
