I have a Christian friend who will probably never get out of prison. He was convicted of murdering his wife despite DNA evidence that I believe points to his innocence. Sadly, he’s lost all his legal appeals so far. Yet he’s one of the most joyful men I’ve ever known.


What does a man serving a life sentence in prison have to look forward to? If his heart has been transformed by the Spirit of God, he has the same hope as every other believer. The apostle John gives us a glimpse of that hope in the book of Revelation: “Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…” (21:1, NKJV).


The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was the beginning of a new creation. We become partakers of that new creation in the second birth, when the Spirit of God graciously opens our hearts to believe the Gospel and we begin walking in the newness of life that comes down to us only from above. Nothing else in this world could give such hope even when all around us is despair.