It would have been a happier division of these chapters, if chapter 21:1-8 had made a part of the same series of events which was given in chap. 20., following it in unbroken succession. There is a very decided termination of the chain, at the close of the 8th verse of this chapter. Thence to the end, and taking in the first five verses of chap. 22., we have another connected portion. The first eight verses refer to a totally different time from what follows. From chap. 21:9, we have to go back again to the millennium; whereas the previous verses of the chapter are the fullest account that the word of God furnishes of the new heavens and new earth in the proper sense of the words. This is subsequent to the thousand years' reign, to the great white throne, and of course to the complete dissolution of the heavens and earth that now are, which were found when that throne was set up. Then, when this account of the eternal state is closed, the Spirit of God supplies a very important appendix, if I may be allowed the expression, on the state of things during the millennium, which was not given when that epoch was noticed in the historical sequence of Rev. 19; 20; 21:1-8.
But, perhaps, it may be asked by some objectors, What is the authority for dividing the chapters thus? Why not take the whole of chap. 21 (as it was probably understood by those who made the division), as one and the same time? Why not suppose that the account of the New Jerusalem in verse 10 refers to the same date as the mention of it in verse 2? The answer is simple. In the eternal state God has to do with men. All time-distinctions are at an end. There is no such thing then as kings and nations. Accordingly, this we do find in the first eight verses. Take, for example, the third verse: “And I heard a loud voice out of heaven [or the throne], saying, Behold the tabernacle of God [is] with men, and he shall d well with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, their God.” Whereas, if we look at the latter part of the chapter, we have again to do with nations and earthly kings. “And the nations shall walk by means of its light; and the kings of the earth do bring their glory,” &c. When eternity begins, God has done dealing with things according to the order of the world-kings, and nations, and the like provisions of a temporal nature. All this implies government, as government supposes that there is evil which requires suppression. Consequently, in the latter part of our chapter, it is not the eternal condition which we have, but a previous state, the early verses (1-5) of chap. 22. being the continuation of this description. There a tree is described, “and the leaves of the tree [are] for healing of the nations.” That is, at the time of which the verse speaks, not only are there nations, but they are not removed from the need of healing, and. God supplies what they want. This must convince any unprejudiced mind that the Spirit of God, in chap. 22., does not refer to what follows the last judgment, when all that is connected with the world is entirely closed, but that He goes back to a previous state when God is still governing. It will be observed also, that in the portion relative to the millennium (i.e. from ver. 9 of chap. 21.) we have dispensational names, such as the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb; not so in chap. 21:1-8, which discloses eternity, where God shall be all in all.
But it may help souls still further to remark, that it is the manner of God, in this book, to take a retrospect. I say this to show that I am not at all arguing for something without precedent, in the order in which, as I conceive, these events are arranged. Take, for instance, chap. 14. There we had seen a regular seven-fold series of events, in the course of which the fall of Babylon occupies the third place. After that comes the judgment on the worshippers of the beast; next, the Holy Ghost pronounces the blessedness of those that die in the Lord; then, the Lord's coming in judgment, presented in two ways, as reaping the harvest, and as trampling the winepress (the harvest, a judgment of discrimination, and the vintage one of pure vengeance). Babylon there has got its place assigned very clearly. But long after this in the prophecy, when the Spirit of God has given us the seven vials of God's wrath, we have Babylon again. The fall of Babylon is under the seventh vial. And this is important: for the Holy Ghost then proceeds to describe the character and conduct of Babylon, that required such a fearful visitation from the hand of God. In this case the Holy Ghost has carried us down in chap. xiv. to events subsequent to Babylon's fall, and even to the Lord's coming in judgment; and then He returns to show us details about Babylon and her connection with the beast, and the kings of the earth, in chapters 17-18.
Now it appears to me that this exactly answers to the order of the events in chap. 21. There is a striking analogy in the way in which Babylon and the heavenly Jerusalem are introduced, and though, of course, there is the strongest and most marked contrast between the two objects themselves, still there is enough to make it manifest that the Holy Ghost had them together in His mind, as it seems to me. Thus, in Rev. 17:1, it is said, “there came one of the seven angels that had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the judgment of the great harlot that sits by the many waters.” Such is the announcement, where the vision goes back to describe Babylon and her doom. Just so are we introduced to the counterpart of this vision in chap. 21., which looks back at the bride, the Lamb's wife. “And there came one of the seven angels that had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.” As Babylon had had its place defined in the historic line of events, and then, that line being completed, the Holy Ghost stopped to disclose, retrospectively and at full, those moral ways which had forced God, so to speak, to judge her; so exactly the Lamb's wife, the New Jerusalem, had been seen in both capacities, in the final sketch of the history up to the very end. And now the Holy Ghost goes back to describe the same New Jerusalem, with reference to the millennial reign, and the kings and nations then to be on earth. We have seen the bride, the Lamb's wife, that had made herself ready, in chap. 19:7. We have had, in chap. 21. 2, the New Jerusalem spoken of as coming down from God out of heaven, still fresh in bridal beauty, after more than a thousand years have passed away. But now, in 21:9, the very important fact comes out, that the bride, the Lamb's wife, is the holy city Jerusalem. “There came unto me one of the seven angels and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me [not that great city, but] the holy city Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.” John was called to see the bride, and looking, he saw the heavenly Jerusalem. Thus, if we had the bride in relation to the Lamb, in chap. 19., and as the holy city, New Jerusalem, in relation to the eternal state, verse 9 and the following verses of this chapter show us that, during the interval between the marriage of the Lamb, and the new heaven and earth in the eternal state, she has a very blessed place in the eyes of God and man. It is the church's millennial display.
These few prefatory remarks may clear the way, and prove that I am not assuming more than can be demonstrated in taking the first eight verses as the proper sequel of the series of events found in chap. 19, 20., and the rest of this chapter from verse 9, as a retrogressive description of the millennial state. There are, evidently, the strongest reasons for it, and indeed, any other interpretation, is, I conceive, out of the question, if the context be duly weighed. It is impossible for an unbiased and instructed person, who carefully considers the circumstances here described, to suppose that what follows the 9th verse can synchronize with the section which immediately precedes. They are, as already remarked, two irreconcilable states of things.
What is it that the Holy Ghost shows the Apostle after the old heaven and earth had disappeared and 4 last judgment? “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and the sea was no more.” These words are not to be taken in a mere preparatory and moral sense. The prophet Isaiah had spoken in that way. In Isa. 65 a new heavens and a new earth were announced: but how differently! There the language must be taken in a very qualified sense indeed. “For, behold (ver. 17), I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old, but the sinner being an hundred years old, shall be accursed.” Clearly this is a very bright change, but it is an earthly condition. There are infants and old men here; and, though the description is purposely contrasted with anything the world has yet seen, still it is a time-state of blessedness, and not eternity. The Apostle John shows us, in the Revelation, the new heaven and the new earth, not in a relative sense but in the most absolute. In the Old Testament they are limited, because connected with Israel upon the earth. So it is said of the Lord, “He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.” This is an Old Testament hope, though said in the New, and it means, of course, that He shall reign over the house of Jacob as long as it exists as such upon the earth. When the earth disappears and Israel is no longer seen as a nation, they will be blessed, no doubt, in another and better way; but there will be no reign of Christ over them as an earthly people here below; so that this kingdom, while it has no end as long as the earth subsists, must necessarily be limited by the earth's continuance. It is thus that I understand the new heavens and the new earth spoken of in Isaiah. The New Testament uses the phrase fully and absolutely, as an unending state; but in the Old Testament it is tied down to the earthly relations of which. the Holy Ghost was then speaking.
What makes it still clearer is, that the next verse (Isa. 65:21) goes on to say, “And they shall build houses and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build and another inhabit mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord,” &c. Now all this is most cheering. So again, “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.” Glowing and beautiful as this picture is of what the Lord can accomplish, it is in connection with the earth and an earthly people. It is not the eternal state, but an exceedingly glorious day, when death will be the exception and life the rule. I say that death will be thus rare, at least in the Holy Land, because of that verse, “The child shall die an hundred years old, but the sinner being an hundred years old, shall be accursed.” The meaning is, that if a person dies at a hundred years old, he will still be comparatively a child; and that even when death occurs at that age, it is only as the result of an express curse of God. Thus will it be during the millennium.
And this seems to answer a question often asked: What will become of all the righteous people during that wonderful reign? If the first resurrection is then past, and in the second resurrection none but the wicked dead are raised, what can be the destiny of the righteous who live during the millennium 1 The truth is, there is no Scripture-proof that such die during the thousand years. What is said supposes the contrary. Therefore, if they die not during the millennium, there are no righteous to be raised at the end of it. The resurrection at the end remains, consequently, for the wicked dead solely. The righteous will be raised before the millennium, the wicked after it. The just who live during the reign of Christ are not called to die at all, as far as Scripture informs us. We may be sure that these millennial saints will be changed into the likeness of Christ, they will be transplanted into the new heavens and earth. We are not called upon to conjecture how this will be. It is sufficient for us to know that (though they are not described as dying during the millennium, and therefore do not need to be raised) yet, when the new earth appears, men are found upon it, quite distinct from the New Jerusalem, (i.e., the symbol of the glorified heavenly saints). I believe that verse 3 warrants this statement. “Behold, the tabernacle of God (or the city that descends) is with men,” &c.
Another proof that Isaiah does not speak of the eternal state described here is this. When the new heavens and earth are seen by the New Testament prophet, the old are said to be passed away, and the sea no longer exists. Not so in Isaiah's prophecy. There it was rather the spirit or pledge of the new that came into the old; a shadow of what was to be, and not the very image or accomplishment of the thing. They are said prophetically to be “new,” because of the great joy and blessing that God will give to His people Israel and their land. In the Revelation “there was no more sea.” In the Old Testament, on the contrary, “the abundance of the sea (it is said) shall be converted unto thee.... Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships Tarshish first” (Isa. 60) There can be no just doubt that this chapter speaks of the same time as chap. 65. “For thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” This and other passages prove that there is still to be sea at the time spoken of by Isaiah: the isles and ships necessarily suppose it; and “the isles afar of” are introduced between the two statements of the new heavens and new earth in Isa. 65 and 66.
Here, in Revelation, not merely the present dispensation, but the present heaven and earth have passed away, and give place to “all things made new.” Doubtless the new heaven and earth will be made out of the old. Just as the resurrection-body will be formed out of the present body of humiliation by the power of God, so are the present earth and heavens destined to a kindred transformation. After the dissolution, they will reappear in the form of the new heavens and earth. “No more sea” would be impossible without a miracle, as long as life in its present condition has to be maintained. The sea, as my reader knows, is absolutely necessary to animated nature as it is. Man could not exist without it; and so with regard to every animal and even vegetable upon the face of the earth, not to speak of the vast world of waters. But when time is done—when there is no longer the natural life that is sustained by God—when the millennium shall have yielded the brightest witness to this as well as to every other fruit of His wisdom and goodness and power—a new state of things altogether will ensue, and this perfect and everlasting. There will be new heavens and a new earth; for the first heavens and first earth are passed away, and there is no more sea.
But that is not all. Into this dwelling-place and scene of order that God will have made, so remarkably distinguished from all that has been before, and even from that which accompanies the reign of? His own Messiah, John sees the “holy city, New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice out of heaven, saying, Behold the tabernacle of God [is] with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, their God,” (ver. 2, 3). I apprehend that the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God. It is where He abides in a very special sense. And this tabernacle of God descends out of heaven to be with men. The heavenly saints compose the tabernacle of God; while those that are found upon the new earth are simply described as “men.” They are no longer Jews and Gentiles then, as in the millennium; this will have all passed away, with “the first or former things.” Every distinction which had to do with time is at an end. When a saint is risen or changed, he is no longer a Jew or a Greek; he is a man, though bearing the image of the heavenly. So here God has to do with men, and “he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people; and God himself shall be with them, their God.” Instead of regarding it from a distance, God will not merely come to visit the scene that His hand has made for man, as of old in the garden of Eden; but He will dwell eternally in their midst. “And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; and no sorrow, nor crying, nor pain shall any more be; for the first things are passed away,” (ver. 4.) Unquestionably the figures that are used to describe this state of things are derived from Isaiah—figures which the Spirit of God had applied primarily to millennial blessedness. Isaiah predicts a glorious but earthly condition, which God will make true of the just during the millennium. Blessedness will then be the rule, sorrow the exception. Similar terms, but with striking differences, the Holy Ghost now takes up and applies in a far deeper and really unqualified sense.
And if we look for a moment at 2 Peter 3, we shall find, I think, a link between Isaiah and Revelation. It is written in 2 Peter 3:10, “The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth, also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up.... The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.” Now it appears to me plain, that this is what takes place at the epoch of the great white throne. For the moment the Lord is on that throne, the earth and heaven flee from before his face, and there is found no place for them. It is a part of “the day of the Lord;” which day comprehends the whole time from the Lord's interference to judge the world, taking His great power and reigning, until He delivers up the kingdom, after the millennium and the subsequent judgments are over. “ Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness; looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.”
Now this is the state of things described, with fuller details of time, &c., by the Apostle John. The new heaven and earth are what we find in the beginning of chap. 21. These are the new heavens and earth, “wherein dwelleth righteousness.” Righteousness is at home there, because there God dwells, and this can only be because righteousness is the pervading feature. It is plain that the Holy Spirit in Peter refers to the passage of Isaiah, as it is said, “We according to his promise.” But still He gives it a larger and deeper meaning. And the Apostle John, the last of the New Testament writers, takes up the same thought, and puts each detail in its place. He shows us that while the millennium may be a partial fulfillment of it, the full force of the expression will not come out till the millennium is over; and then, when all is according to divine thought and purpose, God will rest, and men—not Israel only, but redeemed and glorified men—shall be His people, and He their God.
One other Scripture I must refer to, in order to connect the various passages which bear on the eternal state. In 1 Cor. 15:23 we read that every one is to be raised in his own order: “Christ the firstfruits (who is raised already); afterward they that are Christ's, at His coming. Then cometh the end, when He delivers up [which is the true reading] the kingdom to God, even the Father, when He shall put down all rule and all authority and power.” This is the task of Christ during the millennium: He will abolish all opposing rule, subjecting to Himself every adversary and all things unto the glory of God the Father, for such is the ultimate object of His exaltation, as we see from Phil. 2 “For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” This exactly harmonizes with Rev. 20; 21, where we find, first, the reign of Christ, then death destroyed, and after that the new heaven and earth, which is the time when Christ is said in 1 Cor. 15:24 to deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father. Not that Christ will cease to reign divinely: but the special human reign of Christ will terminate—that is, His reigning for a given period over an earthly people, and the world at large, which the heavenly saints, in glory, will share along with Him. This will end. All the righteous will at last be in a risen or changed condition, all the wicked dead cast into the lake of fire, and the kingdom closes. Its surrender to God the Father in no way touches the personal glory of the Lord Jesus. The kingdom that Christ has during the millennium is not what He has as God, but as the risen man—as the One who was humbled, but has been exalted. This He delivers up to God even the Father, (Himself also as man taking the place of subjection in glory, as of old He did in grace on the earth,) that God—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—may be all in all—God, as such, having the place of supremacy throughout eternity. But although the human and mediatorial kingdom of Christ will terminate, not so the divine kingdom; and therefore we, being made partakers of the divine nature, are said to reign forever and ever. (Rev. 22). So, in Rom. 5, it is said, “We shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” Of course, partaking of the divine nature does not touch the incommunicable glory of the Godhead. But it remains true, that we have an eternal life, and that its endless character flows from the fact that it is given to us by One who, though truly man, is a divine person, by Him who is the living One and was dead, and, behold, is alive for evermore. “We shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ” —a reign which is not limited in time any more than sphere.
You will observe that it is God who is prominent through this portion, exactly answering to what we saw in 1 Cor. 15:28. “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he saith [to me,] Write; for these words are true and faithful.” (Ver. 5). He speaks that sits on the throne. We do not get the Lamb mentioned. It is the glory of God in the fullest possible sense that we have here. “And he said to me, they are done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” No doubt Christ is the Alpha and the Omega too, as we find in chap. 22. 13 but it is not the Lord as such that acts and speaks here, but God. “I will give him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit these things; and I will be a God to him and he shall be a son to me.” (Ver. 6, 7). Nothing can be plainer than that it is God as such who is speaking all through. “But for the cowardly, and unbelievers, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all the false, their part [shall be] in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” (Ver. 8). A most awful word of warning, and especially as used here! For mark the force of it. It is then God shall be in all—God who is love. But He is not merely love, which is a false and infidel thought; He is light, as well as love. It as much appertains to God to be holy as to be gracious; and it is the very same portion of the word which teaches us both truths. And here is the final proof of it. In love He comes down to be with His people. They may be men, but they are no longer in weakness and sorrow, for God Himself has wiped away every tear from their eyes. But He is light, and therefore in presence of all things new, where righteousness dwells in peace, when there is no evil or sin, but separation from it forever by the power of God; even then the portion of the wicked is in the lake burning with fire and brimstone. Note well that this is the eternal state. Remember that in the eternal state there is the doom, the never-ending doom, of those who have rejected Christ and taken their stand on their own miserable self. Here is the award from God Himself. Their part is the second death, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched, as the Lord Jesus so touchingly expresses it. No declaration more solemn than that of Rev. 21:8, not only because of its character, but because of its place. When God will have rest in the new heavens and earth—when He will come down to abide among men, because there will no longer be any evil to check His dwelling with them—then it is that the awful scene presents itself of evil and its hopeless unending torment. This is what God teaches us in His picture of the eternal world. There is not only the bright side, but none the less the lake of fire, which has its course; nor does a word intimate that its horrors will ever come to an end.
But now the Holy Ghost, having brought us to “the end” in the most absolute sense, leads us back again. We have seen the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, when this eternal condition begins. But what is its relation to the millennial earth? If we had only the previous revelations, we could not have answered this clearly. The bride, the Lamb's wife, has had her joy consummated in heaven; then as the New Jerusalem after the millennium, she has taken her place as regards the new heavens and earth; but what is her relation to those here below during the millennium? This is now made plain. “There came one of the seven angels that had, &c.... and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Its luster [was] like a stone most precious, as a jasper stone crystal-clear.” It appears to me that this account of the city's bright luster like a jasper has a very close connection with what had just before been said of it, as having “the glory of God.” For when God Himself was seen on the throne in chap. 4., He was in appearance like a jasper and a sardis. Here the New Jerusalem has God's glory, and its luster is jasper-like. But this is not all. “It had a wall great and high,” and after this we are told in the 18th verse, that “the building of its wall was of jasper.” Hence it is plain that this is peculiarly the stone which is used to describe the glory of God, as far as it can be seen by a creature—not that glory of God which the creature cannot see. For God has a glory which no man can approach unto. But He is pleased also to display His glory suitably to the capacity of a creature; and the precious stone used to set this forth is, in the book of Revelation, the jasper.
Besides this, we are told it had “twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names inscribed, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel.” The number “twelve” is particularly mentioned throughout the account of the New Jerusalem. It was just before said that the city had the glory of God, in the hope of which we rejoice (Rom. 5:2). Here we find that this hope, for which we wait and in which we rejoice, is enjoyed, But God is pleased to remember that He is dealing with people on the earth, and the New Jerusalem has a very special relation to men during the millennium, Accordingly, there are twelve gates with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel written upon them. At the gates stand twelve angels, showing their subordination. In this day of glory the angel is happy to be a porter at the gate of the heavenly city—happy, if he do not enter, to have his work and mission outside. “Unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak” (Heb. 2) “Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world Know ye not that we shall judge angels!” (1 Cor. 6) “And the wall of the city hath twelve foundations, and on them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb” (ver. 14). Eph. 2:20 gives us, I think, the force of the symbol. “Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints.... and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone.” No doubt the whole building is growing up into an holy temple in the Lord. But we are built upon “the foundation of the apostles and prophets,” both of the New Testament. If Old Testament prophets had been meant, they would, naturally, to avoid mistake, have been set before apostles; but the expression, as it stands, seems purposely framed to guard against such a misconception. The prophets of the Old Testament were the filling up of the law, besides testifying future things, judgments, the new covenant, &c. The law and the prophets, as it is said, were until John (see also Matt. 5:17). Their authority never can be destroyed. But when Messiah was rejected by Israel, and redemption was accomplished on the cross, there was a new foundation laid for a new work of God, entirely distinct from what the law, or the prophets, or even John the Baptist, contemplated. It is the foundation of the [New Testament] apostles and prophets, and it is upon this that the New Jerusalem is built. Now God has brought out His full mind as a foundation of truth.