Revelation 21:1–5 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
It would be hard to pass by such a glorious passage without comment! Here we have a description of the blessings that await the Church at the end of the age - and therefore the blessings that await every true believer! I will highlight a few of the many lines of thought that are contained here, with the aim of fueling our wonder and awe at these things. Note the assurance from our Savior at the end of verse 5 that they are both trustworthy and true - we may count on them; we may rest in them!
A new heaven and a new earth. Jesus indicates He is making everything new (v 5). It follows that heaven and earth will be renewed. The whole creation was plunged into bondage to decay by the disobedience of our first parents, since the effects of their actions were not confined to mankind, but spread more widely. Therefore, just as believers are redeemed at the cross, and await the redemption and renewal of their bodies on the Last Day, so creation will be renewed through Christ’s work at Calvary (see Romans 8:18-25). If our glorified bodies are still recognizable (this was true for Jesus in His resurrection body) then we believe that the new heaven and earth also will be recognizable as such - they will not be completely different than the present ones and made new in the sense of being completely purged of the effects of sin. This renewed heaven and earth will be the home of righteousness (2 Peter 3:13).
No more sea. This may seem like a strange thing to include here but like much of this passage, I believe it is to be taken figuratively. For the Jews in particular, the sea was a symbol of all kinds of bad things. First, of their enemies, of the wicked, of forces of spiritual darkness (Isaiah 17:12, 57:20, Daniel 7:2). Second, of restlessness and instability (Ephesians 4:14, James 1:5). Third, of affliction and discipline (e.g. Psalm 42:6, Lamentations 2:13). It is against this backdrop that we can better understand those passages where God sets limits on the sea, and in which Jesus stills the storms by the word of His command. So the concept that “the sea was no more” in the passage above is intended to convey the end of wickedness, of spiritual enemies, of restlessness and instability, and the end of affliction and discipline!
The bride prepared. How spectacular the church will be on that Day! Much of the latter part of Revelation chapter 21 is intended to convey her beauty and her glory (all bestowed on her by God’s grace). Like the heavens and the earth, the church will also be renewed, as we have already mentioned - everything will be new!
God with us. Verse 3 is covenant language. God was with Adam and Eve in the garden but that closeness and intimacy was ruined by their sin and they were cast from His presence. In the Old Covenant, God was with His people in the Ark of the Covenant and the shekinah glory in first the Tabernacle and then the Temple. However, for their own sake, He was very much present with safeguards - a kind of very intensive social distancing, without which they would be consumed justly for their sin in His infinitely holy presence. Then He “tabernacled” among us (as it says in John 1:14) as the God-man, Christ Jesus. At the cross, He dealt a death blow to sin and to death and the curtain of the temple was torn to show that He had opened a way for man to be clean enough to fellowship with God once again. And now in the passage above, that perfect intimacy of relationship is finally and fully realized and restored!
No crying, no death, no mourning, no pain. Our hearts readily embrace these prospects for the future, as well they should! All the evils introduced into the creation by our sin will be fully wiped out through the saving work of our God. He Himself will tenderly comfort us and wipe away our tears. But let us not lose sight of the greater blessing as we relish the prospect of the lesser ones. God will be with us! We will see Him as He is. He will wipe away all our tears. The end of our grief and of our pain will be a wonderful thing to experience for sure, but these will only be ours because He has loved us with an everlasting love. They will only be removed from us because of the One Who bore all the penalties of our sin at the cross. It is His face, which we will gaze upon on that Day, that will make all the other blessings so special and so enjoyable to all His children!
And from the One Who cannot lie, we have the spoken and written assurance that all these things are trustworthy and true! They shall most certainly come to pass. These eternal things are the ones we need to focus on so that our very real (but transient) pains and griefs and afflictions here can rest in a proper perspective in our thinking:
2 Corinthians 4:16–18 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
