Chapter 20 - GOD'S CAPITAL AND KINGDOM IN A REDEEMED UNIVERSE
With Revelation 21:1-22:5 a new age and order begin, with a new heaven and a new earth, and a new capital city, New Jerusalem. The last chapter of history, as we call it, has been written. That book is finished. The old order is over, “the first things have passed away". The material, natural, atomic creation, as we now know it, has gone. The sea and the night, the sun, and the moon, are things of the past. Sin, death, mourning, crying and pain, and Satan and all who are his, have been banished forever. A new age has dawned, a new world has come. Even the Millennium - the reign of Christ on this present earth - the final rebellion, and the Day of Judgment, mentioned in Revelation 20, are all past. All prophecies concerning this world, and Israel, have been fulfilled. An entirely new order has now come. “Behold, I make all things new".
In thinking about this remarkable passage of Scripture, we must remind ourselves of the startling fact that this present order of creation was only ever designed to be temporary. When God created this natural order and universe, including "the first man, Adam” who was "of the earth”, He knew it would be and could only be, temporary, and this was all He intended. Man was not created to live in time and space as we know it forever. His destiny was far higher. In 2 Corinthians 4:18 we read, “... the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal”. Then, again in 1 Corinthians 15:46, when contrasting Adam and Christ, Paul writes, “However the spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual”. And this really applies to all the first things, which in relation to God's new world are said to have passed away.
This becomes even clearer when we consider the surprising fact that in the Genesis creation, before the fall of man, we have “darkness and night” as part of this creation, whereas these are excluded from God's new creation. Why? Because in the first creation these had significance and were necessary, because Satan had fallen before man's fall in Eden, and evil and “darkness” had already come into the universe. But in God's New Order there is no possibility of another fall, so there is no night, no darkness, for “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all”. Further, at least the possibility of death existed in the first creation, for Adam was warned that he could die, but in the new order death has been abolished. So, the goal of the temporary time/space creation of Genesis is seen in the permanent new world of Revelation.
In thinking about God's new world, we must be careful not to carry over ideas which belong to the present order. For example, the Holy City is not a literal, material city, with actual streets paved with gold, but a spiritual city, constructed of people, "living stones”. This is clear from, among other things, that it is a cube, and because we are told it represents the church. Similarly, the nations and kings we read of cannot be the kind we are familiar with now. Everything is new, fundamentally, and constitutionally different, not less real, but much more real and wonderful than this present order.
In these few verses we are given a glimpse of the goal to which God has been moving from eternity past, a glimpse of the eternal ages in which we see God in Christ, enthroned, worshipped, and governing a redeemed universe from and through His capital city, “the church of the firstborn".
The significance of what we have been sharing in these studies is now clearly seen. The Eternal existence, coming, cross and resurrection of God's Son, unique in His Person and in His humanity is central to everything. His Person and work have made possible the creation of a new race in His likeness and provided the Father with a capital at the heart of both a kingdom and a redeemed universe. This is the goal. The central facts are clear enough, even though the details remain a mystery for the present. What light this throws on the whole Christian life and on the Lord's desire for His church here and now.
The following points are suggested for further meditation and study:
The significance of the names given to the church - "the holy city” - “new Jerusalem” - “the bride, the wife of the Lamb” - “the tabernacle of God".
The relationship between the city, the New Jerusalem and the nations that walk in its light, their kings bringing their glory and honor in through those gates that never close.
The first thing said when describing the city is that it has “the glory of God”, thus fulfilling the prayer of the Lord Jesus in John 17. Note also its massive and beautiful foundations. God is building for eternity in His dealings with us in this life.
The glory of His presence, and the throne of God and of the Lamb, is central and sufficient. There is no need of temple, no need of sun, no need of anything beyond God Himself, for God in Christ is “all in all”.
Out of the Throne flows the River of Life, beside which grows the Tree of Life with its fruit and leaves, which takes us back in thought to Eden with its River and the Tree of Life at its center. Thus, the significance of God's offer to Adam in Eden and His offer to a fallen race through the Gospel, is once again set before us.
His servants not only serve Him as His love-slaves, but also reign with Him for ever and ever. Thus, our high destiny of reigning with Christ is once again linked with love's self-surrender and obedience.
The eternal ages are pictured in terms of unlimited and unending glory, progress, expansion and service, not in static terms as a kind of never-ending holiday or praise meeting, with little purpose, but rather in dynamic terms, worthy of a great God, whose future purposes will certainly surprise us all!
“Here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come - Our citizenship is in heaven - You have come ... to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem - the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God”.
“He who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new ... I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning, and the end. To the thirsty I will give, as a free gift, from the fountain of the water of life. He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son."
1 Corinthians 15:20-28. 2 Corinthians. 4:17, 5:17. Philippians 3:20. 2 Timothy 2:10-13. Hebrews 11:10, 12:22-29, 13:14. 1 Peter 2:4-5. 1 John 1:5. Revelation 3:21. Genesis 1:1-5. Isaiah 9:7.