So who gets the last word? Are you like me? I can hear my mom saying to me and my brothers, “You don’t have to have the last word.” But we did. We had to have it. Even if we muttered it under our breath. This is not to say that it did us much good. Who will have the last word in the history of our world?
After Eden is restored and all of earth is made new, the people of God reign with our King for ever and ever. John had seen his vision and again he fell before the awesome angel who had guided him on the tour. Once again the angel told him to resist the temptation and to worship God alone. Then Jesus promised to come soon and offered access to the tree of life in the eternal city, validating his words with his own identity and integrity.
All are invited to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. Death, which has no reason for pride, will finally die. Then comes the final benediction. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with God’s people. This is not the “cheap grace,” which Bonhoeffer decried. No. This grace cost Jesus his life, so it can never be cheap, or presumed upon. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich,” wrote the Apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 8:9).
In his book, What’s So Amazing about Grace, Philip Yancey tells about C. S. Lewis coming up on an argument between his friends. “What’s all the rumpus about?” he asked. “We are trying to figure out what makes Christianity unique among the world religions,” they replied. “That is easy,” Lewis responded, “Grace. Grace makes Christianity unique.” Grace is the last word. Speak it often. Get used to it. Give it freely to others. Freely we have received it. Never wonder about who will “say grace.” God gets the last word in this life. He says, “Grace.”
