Revelation 21:1-5

The New Jerusalem

1Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." 5He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."



Dig Deeper

Most people today have become quite enamored with the idea of saving the world. Everyone seems to be part of a group now that has as its main purpose, some plan to save the planet from destruction. Some groups want to rid the world of weapons and war while others want to rid the world of terrorists. Some want to stop so-called global warming and pollution while others want to rid the world of crime. The one thing that all of these groups seem to have in common is the belief that something has gone terribly wrong in the world. What exactly the worst part of that problem is and how to fix are under intense debate, but everyone can agree that there is a problem. The world is broken and all humans seem to have a strong desire built within us to figure out what that problem is and take part in fixing it somehow.


It is to that strong human intuition that John’s passage for today truly appeals. It lets us know that Al Gore does not have the market cornered on wanting to fix the problems of the planet. No, God knows all too well that the planet is in a fallen state. Fixing it is His idea and has always been His plan. It is God who put the desire in each one of us to experience peace, paradise, and harmony. But, and this is the important point of John’s vision, it is only through the power of God to set things right that those who are in Christ will be able to be a part of the creation that has been restored to its original state.


21:1 - John begins his last of the seven visions, although it is the eighth time he has used the phrase, I saw. We have already noted that the number 8 is associated with resurrection and regeneration in biblical writing. John uses the number here to emphasize the the new order of things as he sees a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away; they have fled from the face of the Judge. The word for new here, signifies that it is new in quality and kind. The task of brining heaven to earth, a task that Israel had failed to do, has now been completed; God has reconciled all things to Himself (Col. 1:19-20).


This new heaven and new earth is a vision of the age to come, but it is not strictly a future event. We will see repeatedly throughout this section that what we are to look forward to one day in its fullness, is here now in the present realities of the Church and the lives of Christians.


A consistent theme throughout the Bible is the fact that salvation is presented as recreation. When God delivered His people from the Flood and the Exodus, it was regarded by the biblical writers as types of a new creation that pointed ahead what Christ was to do definitively. Certainly Isaiah spoke of the coming Kingdom as a new heaven and earth (Isa. 65:17-25) in a way that could not be referring to the time after the end of the present age because he refers to death, old age, and people having children. Isaiah is pointing to a time during this present age, none other than the Kingdom of God in the present age. In The Days of Vengeance, David Chilton writes: "Perhaps the definitive New testament text on the new heaven and earth is 2 Peter 3:1-14. There, St. Peter reminds his readers . . . of accelerating apostasy toward the end of the ‘last days’ (2 Pet. 3:2-4), which . . . was the forty-year transitional period (cf. Heb. 8:13) between Christ’s Ascension and the destruction of the Old Covenant Temple, when the nations were beginning to flow toward the Mountain of the Lord (Isa. 2:2-4; Acts 2:16-17; Heb. 1:2; James 5:3; 1 Pet. 1:20; 1 John 2:18). . . These latter-day ‘mockers’ would be Covenant apostates: Jews who were familiar with Old Testament history and prophecy, but who had . . . rejected Christ. Upon this evil and perverse generation would come the great ‘Day of Judgment’ foretold in the prophets, a ‘destruction of ungodly men like that suffered by the wicked of Noah’s day (2 Pet. 3:5-7). Just as God had destroyed the ‘world’ of that day by the Flood, so would He destroy the ‘world’ of the first-century Israel by fire in the fall of Jerusalem. St. Peter describes this as the destruction of the ‘present heavens and earth’ (2 Pet. 3:7), making way for ‘new heavens and a new earth’ (v. 13)." Many have missed, because of his ‘collapsing-universe’ terminology that Peter is referring to the end of the Old Covenant world order, not the end of the world. Peter says that this new heavens and earth would come about according to God’s promise (2 Pet. 3:13). When was this promise given? In Isa. 65 and 66, passages which are referring to a time in the present age. The age to come, in summary, has come; it is the present day salvation, made available by the work of the Son of God (Heb. 1:1-2:5). It is likely then, in 2 Peter 3, that Peter is predicting both the end of the Old Covenant period as well as the ultimate end of the present age, with the destruction of Jerusalem foreshadowing the final judgment.


21:2 - The centerpiece of the new creation is the Holy City, the new Jerusalem. With the old Jerusalem on the verge of being cast out from the Covenant, Christians have become citizens and heirs of the new Jerusalem. The origins of this city are in heaven, as John sees it coming down out of heaven from God (Rev. 3:12; cf. Gal. 4:22-31; Eph. 2:19; Phil. 3:20; Heb. 11:10, 16; 12:22-23). This is the crown jewel of the age to come, which is progressively unfolding through the present age, until it is consummated at the Second Coming. The city is prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. The bride is not merely in the city, the bride is the city (cf. Rev. 21:9-10). This is another indicator that the city of God is a present and future reality as the ‘bride’ of the weekly communion feast (Rev. 19:7-19) is the ‘beloved city’ of the Kingdom (Rev. 20:9). As Heb. 12:22-23 verifies, we are in the new Jerusalem now: "But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. . . to the church of the firstborn.


21:3 - A loud voice form the Throne declares, now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. Truly the people of God are the Temple of the living God and His abode (Eph. 2:20-22; John 1:14; John 14:23; 2 Cor. 6:16; Rev. 3:12; 7:15-17). In the New Testament Church, the promise of the Old Covenant has been realized (Lev. 26:11-12; Ezek. 37:26-28).


21:4-5 - The voice continues: He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be nor more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Again, what will come to fruition in full, is here, in a sense now, but also to come in the future. Jesus said "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die" (John 11:25-26). This is why Christian funerals should differ from worldly funerals: we don’t grieve like we have no hope (1 Thess. 4:13), for God has removed the sting and victory of death (1 Cor. 15:55-58). The One seated on the Throne now declares:’ I am making everything new. . . Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true’. While speaking of the redeemed community, these words are very similar to Paul’s teachings about the redeemed individual (2 Cor. 5:17). Both the individual and the community are renewed and restored to the condition of Paradise, which is the age to come.



Devotional Thought

Do you view your church as part of God’s restored and redeemed community that is pointing to the age to come (although still an imperfect facsimile of it as yet), while being a manifestation of it in the present? Or is it just somewhere that you are supposed to go on Sunday mornings to satisfy an obligation to God? How you think about your participation in the community of Christ matters. Think about it!