Happy are those who wash their robes, that the authority to go to the trees of life may be theirs and that they may gain entrance into the city by its gates.

Revelation 22:12-

8. (a) Who only “go to the trees of life,” and what does this mean? (b) How have the great crowd “washed their robes,” and how do they retain a clean standing?

⁸ Only those anointed Christians who truly “wash their robes” so as to be clean in Jehovah’s eyes are privileged to “go to the trees of life.” That is, they receive the right and title to immortal life in their heavenly position. (Compare Genesis 3:22-24; Revelation 2:7; 3:4, 5.) After their death as humans, they gain entrance into New Jerusalem by resurrection. The 12 angels allow them in, while keeping out any who practice lies or uncleanness though claiming to have a heavenly hope. The great crowd on earth also have “washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” and need to maintain their clean standing. This they can do by avoiding the vices that Jehovah here warns against, as well as by taking to heart Jesus’ admonition in his seven messages to the congregations.​—Revelation 7:14; chapters 2 and 3.