In the final vision of the Apocalypse we behold the dawn of the last, eternal Day. The great conflict is past. All the powers of evil have gone down in everlasting defeat. All rebellion is eradicated for evermore. The old heaven and old earth are removed, and all the old order of things has ended. The new order that opens now concerns a new heaven, a new earth, a new Jerusalem, and a never-ending day of glory and bliss, of which all former blessedness was but a dim type. Such is the content of the last sublime and wondrous part of Revelation. This, then, is the fruit and outcome of God's long work in creation and redemption. Here at last is realized the promise of the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, unfading; here also is seen the glory of "his inheritance in the saints,"--things that eye had not seen, nor ear heard, and have not entered into the heart of man, revealed to us by God before-hand--things which God has prepared for them that love Him.

      Beginning with chapter 21 we shall find first a summary statement (vs. 1-8); then a vision and detailed description of the New Jerusalem (21:9 to 22:5); and finally the "epilog" of the book (22:6-21). These three portions we will take up in order.

      "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away." From the face of him who sat on that great white throne (in chapter 20:11) the "earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them." This last-quoted language is so strong as to indicate a total annihilation of the first heaven (sky and starry universe) and of the first earth. However, the language would perhaps not demand that the very substance and material of the earth should pass out of existence, but rather that the present order of things should utterly pass away, and the earth and all the material universe should undergo a profound change and renovation. For "by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire." (2 Peter 3:6, 7.) "But the day of the Lord" (which term includes all the future era in which the Lord holds control and executes judgment) "will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements (or, margin, heavenly bodies) will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up" (the most ancient manuscripts read "discovered")--"But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells." (2 Peter 3:10-13.) But--whether it be the old earth transformed and renovated, or an out-and-out new creation--there is to be a new heaven and a new earth. "And there is no longer any sea." Which fact of itself involves a great change of conditions, for no such animal life and vegetable life as we are acquainted with could exist if there were no sea.¹

      "I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband." This is the celestial city, "the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God." (Hebrews 12:22), the "Jerusalem above . . . she is our mother." She represents the final embodiment of the covenant of grace. (Galatians 4:24-26.) This, too, is the "place" which the Lord Jesus had gone to prepare for his own. (John 14:2.)

      Because of the presence of this new Jerusalem, this tabernacle of God, in the midst of the new earth and its inhabitants, all evil, sin and sorrow, pain, sickness, death, and all darkness are for evermore banished (21:3, 4). "Behold, I am making all things new," says he that sits on the throne. John is again commissioned to write: "Write, for these words are faithful and true." And to us who this day are privileged to read those wondrous words He says: "It is done"--prepared already, and fixed [49] and settled in the unalterable purpose of him who is the "Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end," "who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist" (Romans 4:17). "He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be My son." Already we are children of God (1 John 3:2) and sons by position and calling (Gal. 3:26). But the final perfect title is for those who overcome, whose "adoption" comes in the redemption of their bodies, when they shall rise in His image and likeness. (Romans 8:23.) "But for the cowardly," he continues--the cowards, who were afraid or ashamed to stand up for Jesus--"and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." That will be their portion and inheritance, whereas the overcomers are heirs of the glories of the new Jerusalem.

      The second part of our lesson begins here presenting a fuller description of the heavenly city. (21:9.) One of the seven angels that had the seven last plagues conducts John "in the Spirit" to a mountain great and high, commanding a view of the city of God.²

      From this vantage point, John witnesses again the same view as in verse 2, "the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God," and of the City he now proceeds to give a more particular description. The City is arrayed in a radiance of glory: "Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper"--even the glory of God, who, Himself, is spoken of as "like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance." (Revelation 4:3.) In the same light of glory shines the City of God.

      The City has a guarding enclosure, a wall "great" and "high." Yet admittance is to be had through the gates, twelve in number, and guarded by twelve angels. Upon the twelve gates are written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.³

      These gates face toward the four directions (for the City stands four-square), on each side three gates. The twelve foundations of the wall, however, bear the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. For the wall, which presents both a barrier and an entrance to the city, rests upon the apostles; that is to say, upon the work of the authoritative proclamation of the gospel of Christ.

      Manifestly, great importance is attached to this wall (which is distinct from the city itself), for presently it is again referred to and further described with much detail. He tells us that the wall measured 144 cubits (in height, surely)--about 216 feet if the "cubit," or, the measurement of a man, that is, of an angel, is, as ours, 18 inches: or, 364 feet if as some contend, the "sacred" cubit was 22 inches. It is built of jasper--the stone rated as "most precious" (perhaps our diamond) and its foundations adorned with twelve sorts of precious stones, all of which are especially named. Its gates are pearl, each made of one piece (by which it is not necessary to understand the exact sort of material of our pearls, produced in the same way; but that which in substance and preciousness corresponds to what we know as the pearl).⁴

      The City itself, measured by the angel's golden reed, lying foursquare, a perfect cube in form, extends in length and breadth and height twelve thousand furlongs, which is about 2,200 kilometers, or about 1,500 miles. In it is no temple; the Lord God the Almighty Himself and the Lamb constitute the temple thereof. Neither has it any need for external illumination--neither sun nor moon nor lamp, "for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb."

      The thoughtful reader will see in this the antitype of the Most Holy in the ancient Tabernacle and Temple, which like this City, was a perfect cube, and the place of the presence of God, who was there enthroned upon the cherubim of the Mercy Seat (Exodus 25:22). The Most Holy was shut off from every source of natural light, illumined only by the Shechinah of God's glory. Of all this the City is the only final, perfect anti-type. [50]

      Even the glowing descriptions in the Prophets of the restored and exalted earthly Jerusalem are but dimly typical of the glory of this City of God. "The name of the city from that day," says Ezekiel, shall be "The LORD is there." (Hebrew, Jehovah-Shammah, Ezekiel 48:35).

      But here (in this new Jerusalem), God meets with man in perfect union and communion such as had never been before known. "Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them," the Lord commanded Israel in the wilderness (Exodus 25:8). But now, in the City whose builder and maker is God, no longer in type and shadows, but in actual fact and fullness, this has taken place. "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them." And that means the end of all tears, of death, of mourning, and of pain. (Revelation 21:3, 4.)

      In that new earth there are peoples and nations, redeemed for ever, and leading a gloried existence--yet distinct from the Bride, the Lamb's wife herself, who is identified with the City. For there are ranks and distinctions among God's redeemed ones. The redeemed nations of the new earth walk by the light of the City, and their kings bring the glory and honor of the nations into it, as the sacred tribute and sacrifice of praise. None have access into it, though its gates stand open always by day (for there is no night there), except those whose names stand written in the Lamb's book of life.

      From the Throne of God and of the Lamb, which is in the center of the City flows forth a river of water of life, bright as crystal, down the middle of the City's street; and the Tree of Life (now seen as a manifold growth) on each side of the river, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.⁵

      All curse is lifted; and God's servants shall serve him and they shall see His face (which is the creature's highest privilege) and his name shall be on their foreheads.

      Yet that "lake of fire" is not said to have passed away with the first heaven and first earth: 21:8 speaks of it as in existence; 21:27 implies that even then there are beings whose names are not among the redeemed; and 22:15 plainly says so. For cast outside and denied admittance are "the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying." And may I not add, O my brethren, "Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." and "made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." (1 Corinthians 6:11; Titus 3:7.) "Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter by the gates into the city."

      Seven short sections conclude this great book. (22:6-21.)

1. Verses 6, 7. The assurance of the perfect trustworthiness of this prophecy and repetition of the benediction on him who keeps its words (compare 1:3).
2. Verses 8, 9. A second time John is overwhelmed with the glory of the vision and would have worshipped the very angel who showed him these things.
3. Verses 10-15. Admonitions. The book is not (like Daniel's prophecy, Daniel 8:26) to be sealed up. It is of present urgency. Its time is at hand--imminent. Its instructions and truths and warnings are always needed. There comes the hour when men's characters shall be fixed beyond possibility of change, except that each will be in the goal of his chosen path, in lower depths or purer heights (verse 11). The Lord Jesus Himself speaks in verses 12-15, promising his imminent return, and a reward to every man according to his work.
4. Verse 16. The "Signature" of our Lord Jesus.
5. Verse 17. While the latter part of this verse is an invitation to the sinner to come while yet he can and may, the cry of the Spirit and the Bride (in which each hearer is asked to join)--"Come"--is addressed to the Lord Jesus, pleading his soon return.
6. Verses 18, 19. The solemn testimony and warning lest anyone add to or take away from the words of this prophecy. (Compare Proverbs 30:5, 6)
7. Verse 20. The last word: "He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming quickly." And to this the heart of John responds: "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus." It is the last (as it was the first, Revelation 1:7b) prayer of the book of Revelation. [51]

      The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God's people. Amen.

[TR4R 49-52]