📖 Revelation Intensive — Unit 15: The New Heaven and the New Earth

Text: Revelation 21-22

A New Heaven and a New Earth

The last vision of the book is its most beautiful. "Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away" (Revelation 21:1). The whole of the present creation will be made new; even the sun that lights this world shines by burning its fuel, and one distant day that fuel will be spent, but the believer's hope does not rest on this passing creation, for God has promised a new heaven and a new earth that will never grow old. John sees the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Then a loud voice declares the heart of it all: "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them" (Revelation 21:3). And the promise that has comforted the people of God in every age of suffering is spoken: "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away" (Revelation 21:4). Heaven is a place of perfect joy, where the causes of every tear — sin, sickness, sorrow, separation, and death — are gone forever.

Behold, I Make All Things New

From the throne, He who sits there speaks: "Behold, I make all things new" (Revelation 21:5). He does not merely make new things; He makes all things new. Then He says, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts" (Revelation 21:6). To all who are weary and dry, the offer still stands, full and free, to drink of the water of life without price. "He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son" (Revelation 21:7). But the same passage speaks plainly of the other destiny, for the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars have their part "in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death" (Revelation 21:8). The new creation is for those who have come to the Lamb; the lake of fire is the end of those who would not. So even in this scene of glory the call of the gospel is heard, that whoever thirsts may come and drink and live.

The Bride, the New Jerusalem

One of the seven angels who had the bowls now shows John the bride, the Lamb's wife. It is striking that the same kind of angel who had shown him Babylon the great harlot now shows him the holy city, for the New Jerusalem is everything Babylon was not: pure where Babylon was corrupt, faithful where Babylon was false, eternal where Babylon has fallen forever. The city descends having the glory of God, her light like a precious jasper stone, clear as crystal. She has a great high wall with twelve gates, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of Israel; and the wall has twelve foundations, and on them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, bringing together the names of Israel’s twelve tribes and the Lamb’s twelve apostles, portraying the New Jerusalem in terms that encompass the sweep of God’s redemptive people. The city is laid out foursquare, a vast cube of pure gold like clear glass, her wall of jasper, her twelve foundations adorned with every kind of precious stone, her twelve gates each a single pearl, her street pure gold. The picture is of a city of unimaginable beauty, value, and security, the everlasting home of the redeemed.

God and the Lamb Are Its Light

John notices what the city does not have, and each absence is a glory. "I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple" (Revelation 21:22); there is no need of a holy place to draw near to God, for God Himself is there in the midst of His people. And the city "had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it, and the Lamb is its light" (Revelation 21:23). The nations of the saved walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it. Its gates are never shut, for there is no night there and no enemy to fear. And nothing unclean, nor anyone who works abomination or a lie, will ever enter it, "but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life" (Revelation 21:27). The one question of the great white throne returns here in the city of joy: whether a name is written in the Lamb's book. Those who are His enter the open gates and dwell forever in the light of God.

The River and the Tree of Life

In the midst of the city John sees a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, and the tree of life on either side, bearing twelve fruits and yielding its fruit every month, "and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations" (Revelation 22:2). What was lost in the garden of Eden is restored and surpassed, for "there shall be no more curse" (Revelation 22:3). The servants of God will serve Him and see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads, and they will reign forever and ever. This is the believer's true hope, and it reaches even to the body, for the resurrection body will be like the body of the risen Christ, who still bore the marks of the cross yet could enter a closed room, real and recognizable, transformed and glorious, no longer subject to weakness, pain, or death. There is a true account of a young man dying of a terminal illness. His pastor came to visit, and as the two sat talking the young man began to weep. The pastor took out his handkerchief and gently wiped the tears, first from one eye and then from the other. The young man smiled and said that the next time his tears were wiped away, they would be wiped away by the hand of his heavenly Father. That is the promise of these chapters made personal.

Behold, I Am Coming Quickly

As the book draws to its close, the words are sealed with a solemn assurance: "These words are faithful and true" (Revelation 22:6). Three times in this chapter the Lord says, "Behold, I am coming quickly" (Revelation 22:7, 12, 20), and a blessing is pronounced on the one who keeps the words of this prophecy. When John once more falls down to worship the angel, he is again forbidden and told, "Worship God" (Revelation 22:9). The hope of the Lord's return has steadied His people in death itself. There is a true account of a man whose wife of fifty-seven years had died; as he stood at her casket and was asked whether he wished to say goodbye, he answered, "This is not goodbye; I will be seeing her again." After a long decade alone he too died, at the age of ninety-two, longing to hold her once more, and at his funeral the message was the hope of heaven. Such hope is why the book ends with an open invitation: "And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely" (Revelation 22:17). Jesus calls Himself "the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star" (Revelation 22:16).

Even So, Come, Lord Jesus

The book closes with a warning not to add to or take away from the words of its prophecy, and then with the last exchange of all. The Lord says, "Surely I am coming quickly," and the church answers from the heart, "Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus" (Revelation 22:20). So the Revelation ends not in fear but in hope. The two cities have been set before the reader, Babylon the harlot, fallen forever, and the New Jerusalem the bride, radiant forever, and the whole book asks to which city a soul belongs. It calls the church to endure through tribulation, to refuse the mark of the beast, to keep the faith of Jesus, and to long for the Lamb's return. For those who are His, the day is coming when the tired and broken body will be exchanged for one that is glorious and free, when God Himself will wipe away every tear, when the curse will be gone and death will be no more, and when the redeemed will see His face and reign with Him forever. To the grieving believer this book says that parting at the grave is not goodbye but good night, and that the next time tears are wiped away, it will be by the loving hand of the heavenly Father. "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

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