Revelation 21:5 says,

⁵ And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things [panta] new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”

This statement from the Creator’s throne affirms that He is “making all things new.” It literally reads, “new all things I make.” At the first creation, He made all things (panta). Now He makes new panta, as the old panta is passing away. The scope is universal, for it is the same as with the first creation. As John 1:3 says,

³ All things [panta] came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

Even those being judged in the lake of fire are part of God’s creation, and as part of the panta, they too are being made new. It is most advantageous to us to become a new creature during our life time in the first week of creation (2 Cor. 5:17). However, for most of humanity, this has not happened, and so it requires a future age to renew the heavens and the earth fully.

The Alpha and Omega

How do we know this? It is because the voice from the throne declares, “These words are faithful and true.” It is the voice of the great Amen in Rev. 3:14, who is “the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God.” Rev. 21:6, 7 continues,

⁶ And He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. ⁷ He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son.”

The same voice is thus identified with the One who spoke earlier in Rev. 1:8, saying,

⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

These are Greek letters which express Hebrew thought patterns. Hence, alpha and omega is the translation of alef and tav, the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The alef signifies that the Creator is the First Cause of all things. The tav is His signature at the end, originally written as X or as a cross and which means literally, “a mark, sign, or signature.” So this statement is a kind of divine signature to ratify all that has been said previously. All that has been prophesied in this book has revealed the process by which the promises of God will be fulfilled.

The Thirsty Ones

In verse 6 God promises the water of life without cost to those who thirst. The implication is that the water of life will be costly to those who are not thirsty. Since verse 7 immediately speaks of the overcomers, it is plain that these are the thirsty ones and that they are the sons of God. Thirst is one of the major signs of an overcomer. Those who have no serious desire to know God and His ways are not overcomers, nor will they inherit life in the first resurrection.

Those who lack thirst will not be denied the water of life, but it will come at a cost to them at the resurrection. The unbelievers will be enslaved by the fiery law in the lake of fire. The non-overcoming believers will be “saved yet so as through fire” and will “suffer loss” (1 Cor. 3:15). To them, the water of life will be costly. They will also be denied immortality during the Messianic Age, and even if they live for many years into that Age, their ministries will be limited and short in comparison to those of the sons of God.

The Wicked Ones

Revelation 21:8 continues,

⁸ But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

The list is long, but certainly not complete. Yet this much is sufficient to make the point that the lake of fire will judge all those who (in their life time) committed sin and promoted evil. These violated the law by not loving God and their neighbor as themselves, and they never came to the place of faith in Christ, whose blood might have justified them at the Great White Throne.

Yet this condemnation comes in the context of the previous statement: “Behold, I am making all things new,” or “I am making new all things.” Even those in the lake of fire are being made new, though not without cost. The divine goal cannot be accomplished apart from restoring the lawful order by implementing justice for all the sins ever committed since Adam.

In the overall sense, the blood of Christ paid for the sins of the whole world, establishing the FACT of universal salvation; but the TIMING of their salvation and manner in which they are saved depends upon their faith and works done during their life on earth. Most will be saved through fire, for God will hold them accountable for any sin that is not covered by faith in the blood of Jesus.