The
community of faith is now perfected in glory. The theme of the new creation
dominates chapter 21, though the preceding idea of judgment is not altogether
forgotten. The
prior five segments beginning with chapter 4), have focused on aspects of the
past, the present, and the future. The
purpose of this last major segment is to highlight the contrast between the church imperfect and the
church perfected. Chapters 1–3 focused
on the churches’ weaknesses throughout the old age, here John foresees the
church (the community of faith) in its perfected eternal state. The vision here
also contrasts the new Jerusalem with ungodly Babylon. The purpose of the
contrasts with the sins of the church and with Babylon, and the ultimate
purpose of the entire segment, is to exhort believers in the present (at the
time of reading) to persevere through temptations to compromise, so that they
may participate in the consummated glory of the church.
In
the new creation the faithful will experience the salvation blessing of
intimate communion with god, but the unfaithful will be excluded from this
blessing (21:1–8). The first thing John sees is “a new heaven and a new earth.”
The reason is that he sees a new cosmos is because “the first heaven and the
first earth passed away.” Because the first creation has passed away or
literally dissolved, the second has been established to replace it. The “first”
was impermanent and temporary, whereas the “second” is to be permanent and
enduring. No second law of
thermodynamics (entropy), no heat
death...forever. In the light of the qualitative nature of the contrast between
“new” creation and “first” creation and regardless of your view point, this
portrayal connotes a radically changed cosmos, involving not merely ethical and
moral renovation but transformation of the fundamental cosmic structure
(including physical elements).
“There
will be no more night” (Revelation 22:5; 21:25), and no more sea. This is an
especially unique contrast to Genesis 8:22: “While the earth remains … day and
night will not cease.” Regardless it
will be identifiable to the old cosmos
just as there appears to be a renewal of
our resurrection body that will be raised without losing its former
identity. Similar, yet radically different. How so the Bible just does not make
clear.
This
"renewal" does not mean that there will be no literal destruction of
the old cosmos, just as the renewed resurrection body does not exclude a similar
destruction of the old. This idea is all throughout the Bible (Isaiah 65:16, 2
Corinthians 5:14-17). Paul also makes similar statements in Romans 8:18-23
"I tell you the truth, unless a
kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.
But if it dies, it produces many seeds." John 12:24
When
the new creation comes there will no longer be any threat from Satan because he
will have been permanently judged and excluded from the new creation. Nor will
there be any threat from rebellious nations, since they will have suffered the
same fate as Satan. There will there be no death ever again in the new world.
Funeral directors and morticians will be out of a job. For believers there will
be no more suffering and no more tears. This cannot be said for unbelievers or
those that did not repent and seek God through the Gospel. Conversely, there
will be a “lake” of fiery punishment (Revelation 20:10, 14–15), but it will be
located enigmatically outside the perimeters of the new heavens and earth (Revelation
21:27; 22:15).
John’s
addition of “new” to “holy city, Jerusalem” is also derived from Isaiah. Isaiah
62:1–2 refers to “Jerusalem” as that which “will be called by a new name” at
the time of its end-time glorification. This new name is then explained in
Isaiah 62:3–5 as signifying a new, intimate marriage relationship that Israel (the
true Church) will have with God. The commencement of the replacement of the
temporary cosmos with the permanent is expressed in the visionary words
“I saw "the city descending from heaven from God".
In
Revelation 21:3 we see that the divine presence is not limited by the physical
boundaries of an Israelite temple, since not only all believing Israelites but
even all “peoples” experience God’s intimate tabernacling presence. Since a
physical temple was a particularistic, nationalistic institution,
a sign of God’s and Israel’s separation from the unclean nations, it had no
room in John’s new Jerusalem, not only because believing Jew and Gentile are now
united in Christ in the new Jerusalem but also because they have all gained the
status of priests serving before God’s presence Revelation 20:6; 22:3–4.
To
me this is the first hint that there is no literal temple in the new Jerusalem,
which will be explicitly stated in Revelation 21:22, where the ultimate
redemptive-historical reason for the absence of a physical temple is that God
and Christ are the final, enduring form of the temple, to which
the physical Old Testament temple always pointed.
The
final permanent coming of God’s presence in fullness results in absolute peace
and security from any form of the suffering that characterized the old
creation. Not surprisingly, the forms of affliction to be done away with are
those mentioned in Isaiah’s prophecy. First, God’s people will receive eternal
respite from their former trials that they have persevered through, since God
“will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” This will be a fulfillment of
Isaiah 25:8: “the Lord God
has taken away every tear from every face” Revelation 7:17. This is kind and
merciful reassurance to those now that are going through helacious struggles
in this life and are encouraged to endure through them to attain the reward of
eternal life. Therefore, John continues here the line of thought that the bliss
of the eternal state is a fulfillment of prophecy.
The
absolute sovereignty and control of the theme of the new creation coming in its
finality is continued
in, v.5 “the one sitting on the throne” . God Himself says, “Behold, I am
making all things new,” which repeats for a third time the Isaiah prophecies of
the coming new creation. The trustworthiness of God and his promise in Isaiah
and Revelation are based on the absolute irrevocability of the coming new creation,
so God’s promise of a new creation in Revelation is “trustworthy and true”
because God is the one who will, without a doubt, carry it out and He is
sovereign, omnipotent and immutable in His promises.
We
have seen that the titles “Alpha and Omega” and “first and last” in Revelation
1:8, 17 are synonymous with the similar expressions “the beginning and the end,
the first and the last”. All these titles express God’s sovereignty over
history, especially by bringing it to an end in salvation and judgment. Here in
verses 5 and 6 are only the second time in the Apocalypse where
God is explicitly quoted. The first was in Revelation 1:8. Both there and here
the title “the Alpha and the Omega” occurs. That this title appears at the
beginning and end of the book is fitting and cannot be coincidence. The point
of the title is that the God who transcends
time or is timeless and He guides the entire course of history because he
stands as sovereign over its beginning and end.
Verse
7 shows God’s people and each one of God’s people is an “overcomer”. Overcomers
as we have seen earlier in the Bible are those whose lives are characterized by
refusal to compromise their faith (Philadelphia) despite the threat of
persecution or even death. They ironically conquer when they maintain their
faith even though they may appear defeated in the world’s
eyes because of persecution.
We
see that the genuine people of God “have a part in the first resurrection,”
which guarantees their eternal kingship with Christ, so that they become immune
to “the second death”. In contrast, the
wicked have “their part in the lake burning with fire and brimstone, which is
the second death” Revelation 21:8b.
We
see the collapsing temple, city, and land into one end time picture of the one
reality of God’s communion with his people. That John “saw no temple” in the
new Jerusalem “because the Lord … and the Lamb are its temple” (21:22) is
partial but clear evidence of his method of interpretative refinement as
mentioned earlier.
New Jerusalem and a Bride
Appearance
of the city: god’s glorious presence establishes the sacred community of the
redeemed (21:9–14). John hears that he will see the Lamb’s bride and then sees
“the holy city Jerusalem,” which is thus the interpretation of what he heard.
The “husband” of the bride (v2) is now clearly identified as “the Lamb.” It is
the theme of God’s intimate presence dwelling fully and permanently with his
people. The first part of the city structure that John sees is a “wall” and
“gates” which is an allusion to Ezekiel 40:5–6. The multiple gates of Ezekiel’s
temple (ch40) and the twelve gates of the city listed in Ezek. 48:31–34 are
merged into one group of twelve gates arranged around the one city-temple of
John’s vision. One angel is stationed at each gate, a feature not found in Ezekiel.
In addition to the twelve gates of the wall, there are also twelve “foundation
stones” (v.14), on each of which the name of one of the twelve Apostles is
written.
It
is noteworthy to observe in Revelation 21:14 that the apostles are part of the
foundation, whereas the tribes are part of the gates in the wall built on the
foundation. One might have expected the opposite portrayal since Israel
preceded the church in redemptive history. But the reversal
figuratively highlights the fact that fulfillment of Israel’s promises has
finally come in Christ, who, together with the Apostolic witnesses to his
fulfilling work, forms the foundation of the new temple, the church (Eph. 2:20–22). When we compare Revelation
21:14 side-by-side with Eph. 2:20 it reveals a arresting similarity. In
Ephesians also the apostles are pictured as forming part of the “foundation” of
the “holy temple,” which is the church. Together with the apostolic foundation
are “prophets,” along with Christ, the “cornerstone.” Since the cornerstone in
a wall was the stone that all the other stones were aligned to, this draws
particular interest. Therefore when measurements of the city are taken the
measurement or "judgment" of the city is a combination of both Christ
and His disciples are one unit all based off of Jesus.
The
measurements of the city and God’s permanent presence secures and guarantees
the perfected holiness of the redeemed church (21:15–17). The image of an
angelic figure measuring parts of the city-temple with a measuring rod is a
continued allusion to Ezekiel 40:3–5. The angel measures “the city and its
gates and its wall.” The measuring of the city and its parts pictures the
security of its inhabitants against the harm and contamination of unclean and
deceptive people. This cordoning off of the city guarantees protection for
God’s end-time community and especially guarantees that its walls will provide
eternal protection, in contrast to old Jerusalem’s walls, which were broken
through by God’s enemies
quite often. That the wall equals 144 cubits echoes the 144,000 as the complete
number of God’s people.
There
is a list of twelve jewels adorning the foundation stones of the wall is based
on the list in Exodus 28:17–20 and Exodus 39:8–14 of the twelve stones on the
high priest’s “breast piece of
judgment,” which was a pouch containing the Urim and Thummim. Eight of the
stones in Exodus are repeated here, and the differently named stones in
Revelation are semantic equivalents of the ones in Exodus. Written on each
stone of the breast piece was one of the names
of the twelve tribes of Israel (Exodus 28:21; 39:14). The priest was to “carry
the names of the sons of Israel in the breast piece of judgment … when he
enters the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually.” Therefore,
these stones symbolized all Israel, so that the priest
in all his cultic actions represented all Israel before the presence of God in
the temple. SO this new vision applies to the foundation stones of the new
city-temple the jewels representing the tribes of Israel in Exodus or the true
Israel. This also equates the apostles, the foundation of the new city-temple,
with the tribes of Israel from Exodus 28, God’s preeminent people in the Old
Testament...thereby securely knotting these imageries together into one. This
would then make the identification of the apostles in Revelation 21:14 as the
paramount witnesses and representatives of true end-time Israel, the church as
those recognizing their Messiah as Christ.
We
see parallels of this allusion in 1 Peter 2:5 that believers simultaneously are
building stones, a temple, and priests: “you also, as living stones, are being
built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood.”
Inhabitants
will be in the glorious presence of God and the Lamb will elicit the response
of praise from true believers, but false believers will be excluded forever
from god’s presence (21:22–27). In
verse 23 there may or may not be a literal sun and moon in the new cosmos (we
just don't know and its not the point), but the point here is that God’s glory
is incomparable in relation to any source of light of either the old or the new
creation. God’s glory is sufficient to make the city (or the saints)
resplendent. The wording of the entire verse
is based directly on Isaiah 60:19. The light from God and the Lamb will fulfill
the prophecy of Isaiah 60:19, which underscores the deity of the Lamb together
with the Lord. Verses 24–26 continue the allusion to Isaiah 60. John sees the pilgrimage of the nations to
latter-day Jerusalem of Isaiah’s prophesy taking place in the future new
Jerusalem, which lies in view before his own eyes. Verse 25's “there will not
be night there” underscores the fact that the redeemed will have unhindered
access to God’s glorious
presence.
Figuratively, there will be no darkness to dim God’s luminous glory before the
faces of the saints as they “walk by its light” Revelation 21:24.
There
is no basis for seeing the entrance of the nations and kings into the city as
suggesting a kind of universalism wherein non-elect peoples not “written in the
book of the Lamb” will enter the new Jerusalem. Sorry Rob Bell! Only the elect
will come into the city, which is indicated by
Revelation 21:27, where “those written in the book of life” clearly has its
antecedent in the nations and kings who enter the city in verses 24–26. Neither can
the portrayal refer to a universal election and salvation from the “lake of
fire,” since the Apocalypse elsewhere views some people suffering that
punishment for eternity and not temporarily as in Revelation14:10–11 and 20:10.
In
every case in the Bible, as here, the "Lambs Book of Life" is a
metaphor for elect saints, whose salvation has been predetermined: their names
were entered into the census book of the eternal new Jerusalem before history
began. As it has been in the past, he book is a vivid picture of security in
God’s eternal city. The elect were written in the book of the Lamb before the creation,
which means that they were identified at that time as ones who would benefit
from the Lamb’s redemptive death. Therefore, they have been given the
protection of eternal life, which comes as a result of the Lamb’s death.
There
are theological tensions between divine sovereignty and human accountability in
connection with the “book of life.” Some scholars see a concept of
predestination as incompatible with human accountability and with the need to
exhort Christians against compromise; other scholars acknowledge the tension
but, sometimes to varying degrees, maintain both sides equally. In the end the
whole question revolves around how one solves the relationship
of the indicative to the imperative in biblical literature. I believe that the tension solely resides within
the finite but within the infinite mind of God it works – the sovereignty of
God and the free will of man are co-existing realities. At least this is how
the Bible reads. God is sovereign in predestining his elect; the Spirit works in
their heart to bring about regeneration (the indicative); then God gives
instructions (imperatives) and warnings through
his prophets on how to they are to live as his people.
In
the hearts of the true saints, admonitions convict the heart, and God’s grace
empowers them to respond in characteristic obedience (effectual call). The
exhortations in particular both reveal who the genuine elect are and provide
the context in which the elect grow in their sanctification. One must
participate in the reality of God’s grace in order to respond positively to his
commands.
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