“and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has set us free from our sins by his blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father — to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” Revelation 1:5-6 CSB https://bible.com/bible/1713/rev.1.5-6.CSB

What has God done for us to reconcile us to Himself and to save us from the wrath to come because of our rebellion against Him? He has set us free from the penalty of our sins by shedding His own blood on the cross as punishment for us. His work and our belief in that work alone for pleasing God is our means of reconciling to God. Why did God do such a thing? To make us a people, a kingdom, to live with Him forever. God desires to live with us and among us for eternity, so He has made a way for us to make that happen. But that is not all. God has also done this work to make us a people who minister to others for Him. As priests, we are to bring God to people and people to God. We bring people to God when we pray for people and share Jesus’ work with people who believe and are received for all eternity by God. We bring God to people when we share God’s word to encourage obedience to everything Jesus commands and reconcile people to God through repentance and belief or faith in Jesus’ work accomplished on our behalf. We are not saved just to go to heaven. We are saved also to bring heaven to earth in the hearts and minds of all the people in our lives. If we are truly going to heaven because we have been redeemed, then we are truly working to bring others into heaven.