The subject of the New Jerusalem is very little studied in comparison with the intense interest it should have for every one of us. Even on earth we sing, “There is no place like home,” and to it our thoughts always turn in all our wanderings. How much more then should our hearts enjoy the consideration of our eternal home — that Jerusalem of which Bernard of Cluny wrote so long ago:
“With jasper glow thy bulwarks; thy streets with emeralds blaze;
The sardius and the topaz unite in them their rays;
Thine ageless walls are bordered with amethyst unpriced;
Thy saints build up its fabric, and the cornerstone is Christ;
Jerusalem the glorious! The glory of the Elect!
Oh dear and future vision our eager hearts expect;
E’en now by faith I see thee; e’en here thy walls discern;
To thee my thoughts are kindled, and strive and pant and yearn.”
The City
In Revelation 21:9 we find that the heavenly Jerusalem is itself the bride, the Lamb’s wife. It is divine in its origin — it comes from God — it is heavenly in its character. It will be over the earthly Jerusalem to which it will give light and glory (compare Isa. 4:5). Although it is the bride of the Lamb that John sees, it is as a city he describes it, this being its appearance to the earth below. We are destined to know the deepest affections of Christ, as His bride, but to the world we shall be the center of heavenly rule, transmitting the glory and power of our Lord to the furthest parts of the redeemed world.
A Transparent Cube
The city is further described by the Apostle as a perfectly transparent cube, 1,500 miles in every direction, having the glory and brilliance of gold, and the crystal clearness of glass or jasper. This city is secure; she has a great and high wall (a symbol only) and 12 gates, or seats of judgment, of which angels are the doorkeepers (see also Heb. 2 and 1 Cor. 6:3), and at each of which a Jewish tribe is judged according to the Lord’s words in Matthew 19:28: “Ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (See also Luke 22:30.) The foundations of this glorious city are the 12 apostles of the Lamb, according to Ephesians 2:20. Such is the new and heavenly capital of the government of God. The foundations are precious stones (that part most seen from the earth), showing all the varied glories of Christ.
Creation, Grace and Glory
We get these glories figured by precious stones three times in Scripture. We find His glories shown in creation in Ezekiel 28:13. We get the varied glories in grace in the high priest’s breastplate, and we get them all in glory here. The pure white light of Christ’s glory is thus split up by the media through which it passes into its varied characteristics, as displayed among and apprehended by men. This city differs from the earthly one in having no temple, for the all-pervading presence of the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb is there. Such then is the general glorious aspect of our future home.
The City as a Light Bearer
The city is a crystal cube, having in it the seat and center of glory, of God and of the Lamb (Rev. 22:3). Every ray of the divine glory must pass through this transparent cube, to reach this earth, and comes from Christ alone, though it is all transmitted through the saints who will then form a perfectly transparent medium. They enjoy direct light; the earth, transmitted light. What a joy to think that then we will perfectly fulfill our high destiny of being light bearers of the glory of the Lamb.
Paradise Regained
In this wonderful panorama, we get again, in all their divine perfection, those things from which man was shut out in the earthly paradise, here reappearing in the paradise of God. This city is the source of the river of blessing; the tree of life grows there, its fruits doubtless for the inhabitants of the city, its leaves bestowed in grace to the nations for their healing. God and the Lamb, now united in glory, have their throne in the city, and those who compose it are their happy servants. God’s glory being seen in the Lamb, we get but one God; hence, they “shall serve Him: and they shall see His face” (Rev. 22:3-4). They too, like the Lamb (Rev. 11:15), shall reign forever and ever.
Our Position in It
We shall have our home in the immediate presence of Christ, whose face we shall ever see, and we shall be used to transmit His glories to the millennial earth, over which we shall reign with Him. We shall be secure from all evil; none of the defiling influences that will be seen on earth toward the close of the Millennium will ever mar our ceaseless joy. Death, sorrow and pain will all be forgotten words, save as they remind us, as we gaze on His still pierced hands, of the mighty cost which has secured to us all these endless joys. Oh, how the heart longs and sighs for the realization of those glorious scenes! However, thanks be to God, they are all secure, and surely we shall behold the King in His beauty and enjoy to the full those realms of bliss we have been considering.
Never-Fading Beauty
In the first four verses of Revelation 21, we find another glorious fact. In the new heavens and new earth succeeding the Millennium—when all sin is forever done away, when Satan has been cast into the lake of fire to deceive no more — in the eternal state, our glorious home remains unchanged and is seen descending from out of heaven as fresh and beauteous as at the beginning of the Millennium in verse 10. It may seem strange to some that verse 10 should really date before verse 2. The explanation is that the first eight verses of this chapter close the subject of chapter 20, and in verse 9 a new scene opens in which the angel describes to John the appearance of the new Jerusalem during the Millennium.
Too briefly have we considered it, but let not its glories be forgotten when this short article is laid aside, but let it be the means of awakening new and lasting desires for the moment when faith shall be changed to sight and prayer to praise.
A.T. Schofield (adapted)