Revelation 21:1-8 give us further light as to the eternal state. John sees a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, as we have seen. There shall be no more sea. We believe the sea is to be understood here in its symbolic meaning. There shall be no more uprising of the will of man, no more revolutionary upheavals, such as had characterized the old world in its last and saddest days.
The only stable, happy form of rule is set up, that is Theocracy: the rule of God. Here it is all new creation, and the thought is more God dwelling than God ruling.
A father rules in his home, but sad is the home where the predominant thought is that of the father ruling rather than that of dwelling. Here there is no sin needing to be controlled. Then shall be fulfilled what we have often sung with delight:
“All taint of sin shall be removed,
All evil done away;
And we shall dwell with God's Beloved
Through God's eternal day.”
First and foremost we get the Church's place in this wonderful scene. The Church for whom Christ died, His body and His Bride, the subject of eternal counsel; the Church with every trace of her sad, sad history removed forever, the triumph of the patient care of Christ, who, sanctifying and cleansing her by the washing of water by the word, had a thousand years before presented her to Himself an assembly of glory without spot or wrinkle or any such thing—the Church, we repeat, here seen by John descending from heaven as a bride adorned for her husband.
What a moment for the heart of Christ! What a moment for the heart of His own. Do not our souls thrill with blissful expectancy as we contemplate such a scene?
Note that John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, as a Bride. The holy city is the character of the Church in the Millennium as the vessel of administration in the hands of God, but here administration is not the thought, but the deep eternal affection of gratified love. Is there any day in the history of a man equal to the day when he possesses himself of his bride?
And this marriage relationship is not a convenient but a designed illustration of Christ and the Church. The Apostle Paul concludes his exhortation as to the married estate with the significant words: “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church” (Eph. 5:32). A great voice is heard out of heaven, saying: “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” It is interesting that when the Church stands in relation to the Millennium the word temple is used, whereas in the eternal state the word tabernacle is used. The temple speaks of God dwelling in the midst of an earthly people in the land.
“The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple” (Mal. 3:1). But the tabernacle is the “shadow of heavenly things” (Heb. 8:5), and therefore of eternal things. The only distinction in the eternal state is between the tabernacle (the Church) and men.
No distinction is maintained, but that which had its origin in a past eternity. Dispensational and governmental distinctions obtaining in this earth will cease with this earth. Distinctions formed in eternity will be found in eternity; those formed in time will cease with time. In Christ, in new creation there is “Neither Jew nor Greek ... .bond nor free ... .male nor female” (Gal. 3:28). The distinction between nations—between Jew and Gentile—began in time, and ends with time.
God wipes away all tears; there is no more death, sorrow, cry of pain, nor distress in that scene where “Sin, nor want, nor woe, nor death can come.”
It is striking that the description here given in verse 4 contents itself with stating what will not be present. Eliminate sin, and you eliminate Death and its accompaniments—sorrow and pain. Tears are the effect of physical or mental distress. There will be neither in that blissful scene.
We are not told what the positive delights of that place are, save the highest of all—God in fullest harmony with His creatures, and the creature in fullest harmony with God, and that on new creation lines, all based in righteousness on the ground of the redemptive work of Christ.
Added to this there will be the eternal display of God's counsels in the Church throughout that eternity. This is witnessed in the words, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.” God, the tabernacle of God, men, fill up the scene.
The One who sits on the throne declares that He makes all things new, a very distinct word, not meaning “new” in contradistinction to “old,” but “new” as never having been in existence before, either in kind or in itself, and never getting old, for nothing and nobody can ever get old in new creation.
The One upon the throne is Christ, for He declares Himself: “I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.” There is nothing before Him nor after Him. All is held in relation to Him from eternity to eternity.
How sweet it is to see the heart of God coming out, at such a point in the narrative: “I will give unto Him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely,” and to notice the gracious encouragement to the overcomer.
Then in one solemn verse we get the eternal state of the wicked: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death “ (vs. 8).
“Shall have their part,” precludes the thought of annihilation; nor is there any hint that after the lapse of time, however long, souls will pass into bliss. There is no trace of either annihilationism or universalism in this passage. Surely if God intended to annihilate the sinner, or on the other hand to purify by the fire of purgatory in order to universally bless all, He would have clearly told us in His Word. It is significant that this verse 8 stands just where it does, in that section of the Book which alone deals with the eternal state, whether for bliss as in verses 1-4, or for judgment as in verse 8.