And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea exists no more.
After the great white throne, John's vision turns from judgment to a new creation. Commentators ask three things: how new it is, why the sea is gone, and how it differs from Isaiah's promise.
The verse follows straight on from the judgment of the dead.
The previous chapter closed with the solemn scene of eternal judgment. Now a vision of the cloudless beauty of the eternal state of blessedness opens before our eyes. The contrast is as sudden as it is magnificent.
Isaiah also promised new heavens and a new earth. Commentators draw a line between his picture and John's. Two things mark the difference: righteousness, and the sea.
Today righteousness suffers. In the millennial day it reigns. But in the eternal day it dwells happily; it is quite at home... This is not what Isaiah refers to (Isa. 65:17). His new heavens and new earth are only new in a moral sense, to suit the millennium. The sea also exists there, for he speaks of "the coastlands far away."
The change from reign to dwell carries the weight.
During millennial days, we read that "a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice" (Isa. 32:1). In the eternal state, righteousness will dwell. Ruling supposes there is evil to be repressed. In the eternal state there will be no sin to mar the new heavens and the new earth.
Commentators differ here. Some read the new creation as the old one transformed, on the pattern of the body raised from the grave.
No doubt the new heaven and earth will be made out of the old. By the power of God, the resurrection body will be formed out of our present lowly body. The present earth and heavens are destined for a similar change. After the dissolution they will reappear in the form of the new heavens and earth.
Others argue that renovation is too weak a word for what happens here.
You cannot call a renovated thing a new thing, and an earth purified by fire would simply be renovated. In Revelation 20:11 the earth and the heaven flee from the sight of Him who sits on the great white throne, and no place is found for them. A renovated earth must have a place found for it.
Whatever happens to the old creation, it is not wiped out of existence.
Fire brings about this dissolution, not annihilation (2 Peter 3:10). Scripture says nothing about any future act of creating material in a literal sense. It says nothing either about what some foolishly argue for: annihilation, the total extinction of being... Our planet will be put in the crucible, altered, changed, and made new, to remain for ever.
An older translation read "there was no more sea." The Greek decides which reading is right.
As a question of exact translation... if the Greek word for sea had no article, the older translation would have been justified. As it stands, the right reading is "the sea was no more", whatever the interpretation. In verse 4 of the same chapter, the same rule about the article shows the right reading to be "death shall be no more."
Its absence carries two meanings. One is about distance between people. The other is about what the sea pictures in this book.
The sea forms a barrier to contact. So the first and most obvious thought is that there will then be no more separation. Then we remember the symbolic meaning of earth and sea in this book. The earth speaks of ordered government. The sea speaks of unorganised masses of people or nations that are not in subjection. It teaches that every part of the new earth will be in ordered subjection to God, under His governmental control.
There is also a plain physical side.
One broad physical fact marks off the eternal state from everything that has ever been: the sea is gone. As the world now is, the loss of the sea would be fatal to all natural life. How vast the change then! The fact is that all mere nature will have completely passed away. The course of God's dealings through the ages is then over. All will be fixed for ever.
Nothing in this state will ever change again.
All is new. All is according to God in His nature. All is fixed... This is not the scene of the Lamb fulfilling purpose and prophecy. It is not the kingdom Christ holds as Mediator, nor the reign of righteousness. It is the kingdom handed over, and God all in all.
- New after judgment. The vision opens the moment judgment ends. Beauty stands right against the great white throne.
- New beyond Isaiah. Isaiah's new heavens and earth are new in a moral sense and still have a sea; John's belong to eternity.
- New, not merely repaired. Commentators differ. Is the old creation transformed, or replaced? Neither side allows annihilation.
- New without the sea. No barrier between people, no masses outside His control — every part of the new earth in ordered subjection to God.
- New for ever. Righteousness no longer reigns over evil but dwells at home, and God is all in all.
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
The old heaven and earth have just passed away. Now John sees something arriving in the new creation: a city that is also a bride. Who is this city, why does she come down from heaven, and how can a city be a bride at all?
This chapter shows the same city twice, and the two scenes are a thousand years apart. The verse that comes later on the page describes the earlier moment.
The scene in verse 10 of this chapter comes a thousand years before this one in verse 2. In verse 10 John sees the "holy city, Jerusalem" in her glory during the thousand years, in relation to the earth of that day. In verse 2 that thousand-year kingdom has passed away for ever. John now sees the "holy city" coming down from the place she held during the kingdom, to take up her appointed place on the new earth. It is the "holy city," holy according to the nature of God. And it is "new Jerusalem," not the old one described in the Old Testament.
Many take the description as a picture of the believer's future home. One writer warns against reading a symbolic book literally here.
To grasp its meaning we must first clear our minds of one idea that sentiment has encouraged. It is the idea that the holy City is a literal description of the eternal home of believers. In a book where all the other visions are symbolic, it is unlikely that in this vision symbols should give way to literal description. Scripture names the City in so many words: "the Bride, the wife of the Lamb." So it is clear that the City is a symbol of the Church in glory. Yet many details show that it is not only a symbol of the saints themselves. It is a symbolic description both of the Church in glory and of her eternal home.
Earlier in the book John saw a false woman and a false city. This one is their opposite.
In the future the Church is pictured as a Woman and a City… The Bride is spoken of as the Lamb's Wife, and is likewise described as "that Great City, the Holy Jerusalem." It is interesting that Revelation 17 presents the doom of the false bride, and chapter 18 of the false city — the Christian world that has abandoned the faith in the last days.
The verse gives two facts about where the city comes from.
It descends "from God," since it is all His own workmanship. And it comes "out of heaven," for its calling was from heaven. To heaven it had gone when the Lord Jesus came for all His saints.
Time wears out earthly brides. It has not touched this one, and now she comes the whole way down to the new earth.
Earlier she was only coming down from heaven towards earth. Now she comes right down to earth, because God has suited the new earth to this heavenly city… I have seen a good many brides in my day. I have met them a few years later, and what lines are on the brow, what cares are plain on the face, and how soon grey hairs have appeared… But what does John see? He sees, coming down from heaven, the one who has been the Lamb's wife for a thousand years, and she looks as bright, as beautiful and as fresh as the day she went up. Not a grey hair, not a wrinkle can be seen.
Scripture uses two words for her, bride and wife, and each carries a different sense.
The bride is more an object for the affections. The wife speaks of a vessel fully fitted to be a helper to the man… In her eternal place she is seen as "a bride adorned for her husband", and the term wife is not used. It suggests the closest possible relationship. It shows the place of favour and nearness we shall have with the Son throughout that eternal day.
The last four words of the verse turn a vision of the future into a question about the present.
"Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband!" Let us think about these last four words. In the light of them, could we bear the thought of being indifferent to His wishes now? Thank God, SHE will be for HIM then.
- Timing. Verse 2 stands after the thousand years. Verse 10 shows the same city a thousand years earlier, in her kingdom glory.
- Identity. The city is a symbol, not a street plan — she is named the bride, the wife of the Lamb. The picture covers both the church in glory and her eternal home.
- Origin. She descends "from God" because she is entirely His work, and "out of heaven" because heaven was her calling.
- Contrast. Babylon was the false bride and the false city, judged in chapters 17 and 18; this is the true one.
- Result. After a thousand years not a wrinkle shows. The word chosen for eternity is bride — the nearest place of affection, held for ever.
And I heard a loud voice out of the heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God [is] with men, and he shall tabernacle with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, their God.
A loud voice announces that God has come to live with people, in the language of Israel's ancient tent of worship. Older translations read "the tabernacle of God is with men" — so what is this tabernacle, and who are the "men"?
The word points back to Moses. After Israel crossed the Red Sea, Moses sang about preparing a dwelling for God. Older translations of Exodus 15:2 read "I will prepare him a habitation."
Moses says, "The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation; I will prepare Him a habitation," a tabernacle. But God says, I will prepare Myself a tabernacle. At the end of the times, after the millennium, this desire of God will come true, just as Revelation 21:3 says. The word tabernacle always has the sense of a habitation of God with men.
God once offered this to Israel on terms, and the terms were never met.
The tabernacle was God's first dwelling place on earth among His people Israel, after He redeemed them out of Egypt. While still in the wilderness... the LORD gave this promise, a promise conditional on their obedience: "I will make my dwelling among you... And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people" (Lev. 26:11-12). This promise, because of Israel's transgressions, was never entirely fulfilled... Coming to our scripture, we find almost the same words again. Only now they are not a promise, but a statement of fact and accomplishment.
The verse names a dwelling and it names men. Commentators read these as two different groups.
I understand that the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God. It is where He lives in a very special sense. And this tabernacle of God comes down out of heaven to be with men. The heavenly saints make up the tabernacle of God. Those on the new earth are simply called "men."
Being God's house and being God's people are not the same blessing, yet neither is a lesser one.
They are not, as the church is, the dwelling place of God, but their place and blessing are as perfect in their relationship as the church's are in hers. There are differences which God in His sovereignty has been pleased to make, but these only illustrate His own perfections and grace.
The verse says two things, not one: the dwelling is here, and then God Himself is here.
"He shall tabernacle with them." This emphatic statement is an advance on the previous one. There we read, "The tabernacle of God is with men"; now, "He shall tabernacle with them." In the one case it is the tabernacle. In the other it is Himself. What an amazing truth, that God, the very God, the Maker and Sustainer of heaven and earth, will actually and really dwell with men on earth.
God has been with people before, but not like this.
God dwelling with men — not merely as a visitor, as He was with our first parents in the garden of Eden, but as one who lives there.
The old labels that divided humanity do not survive into this scene.
In the eternal state, when everything will be according to God's mind, nationality will be gone. The distinction between Jew and Gentile, between one nation and another, will have perished. All the redeemed, with one heart, one object, and one occupation, will be "HIS people."
The title itself is not new, but its scope is. Then the verse comes closer still.
"They shall be His people" — that is, God will take the eternal dwellers on the new earth for Himself. Israel of old was the LORD's people. Now the name "His people" takes on a breadth and depth of blessing completely unknown in Old Testament times... "And God Himself will be with them as their God." In this marvellous statement God, so to speak, comes out of His tabernacle and is personally with His people. Nothing is mentioned here that stands between God and His people — no tabernacle, nothing at all. He is "with them," apart from any covering or outward means of communication.
The change of word marks a change of era.
It is remarkable that Revelation 21:22 uses the word "temple" for the church in millennial display. But when we come to the fixed eternal state, we get the word "tabernacle."... The last glimpse we have is of God dwelling among His people for eternity. May we anticipate that day by taking up the divine thoughts even now.
Nothing screens God off, because nothing needs it.
There will be no question of a distinction between light and darkness. There will be no possibility of anything contrary intruding... No shrine is seen, for the glory of God shines from every atom of its constitution. There is no holy place nor holy of holies, for every part of it is new creation, in which righteousness dwells!
- Desire. Moses offered to prepare God a dwelling; God said He would prepare Himself a tabernacle, and this verse is that desire accomplished.
- Promise. What God offered Israel on condition arrives here not as a promise but as an announcement of fact.
- Dwelling. The tabernacle comes first, then God Himself — He no longer visits as He did in Eden, He stays.
- People. Nation, race and every time-bound distinction are gone; all the redeemed are simply "His people" — and God Himself is with them, as their God.
- Openness. The word is tabernacle, not temple: no shrine, no holy place, no holy of holies — the glory shines from everything.
And he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall not exist any more, nor grief, nor cry, nor distress shall exist any more, for the former things have passed away.
John's vision has just shown a new heaven and a new earth, with God Himself living among people. Two questions follow: when does this happen, and why does God Himself bend down to dry human eyes?
Commentators place this promise after Christ's thousand-year reign on earth, in the eternal state. Writers give two reasons. Sorrow is not wholly gone from the earth even under Christ's rule. And the same words about tears appear earlier in the book, describing a different scene.
Only in the eternal state does God remove every physical and moral effect of sin. The thousand-year reign, as we have seen, is not a perfect condition. Even under the good rule of the Lord people will still weep on earth. The words, "He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes," are repeated word for word in Revelation 7:17. There, however, it is a millennial scene; here it is the everlasting state. Neither here nor in the earlier scene is the wiping away of tears the work of the Lamb. God does it. If He wipes away every tear, then He removes every cause and occasion of sorrow.
The comfort here is not just that grief stops. It is who stops it. One writer dwells on how personal the wording is.
Not a trace of former sorrow shall remain, and God Himself will remove it. What infinite tenderness that God Himself will do this! A mother gently wipes away her child's tears. In the same way God Himself will delight to wipe away all tears from the eyes of His people. And once wiped away they can never return, for "death shall be no more." Think how many tears death has drawn from grieving people in this world!
Tears end for good only because God dealt with their source. One writer traces the whole story back to Eden and forward to the cross.
God had gone to the source of everything that brought in sorrow, and swept it away in the judgment of the cross. The former things had passed away. God once had to drive the man and the woman out of Eden in tears — the garden He had made for them before they fell. Now He can meet us at the door of a new heaven and a new earth as the One who wipes all tears from our eyes.
The verse says these things will be "no more." That phrase carries its own weight: the evil is gone, and it cannot come back.
Not only has He taken away the evil, but it is never to be any more. That is, there is now full and perfect security and blessedness. All the evil is gone. So are all the trials that tested man and brought him to the point where he could truly meet God. The love of God takes the place of everything. He fills all things with Himself, so evil can never enter again. That is the opposite of the old paradise man was given.
Notice how the verse says almost nothing about what the new scene contains. It describes the blessing by naming what is gone.
Death, and all the trials, pains, and griefs bound up with human life in this world are gone, abolished for ever. Sin has now been taken away (John 1:29; Hebrews 9:26). That is the final result of the death of Christ on the cross. So death is gone from the scene, and with it all the other bitter fruits of sin. Life has swallowed them up in victory. It is not the positive side of eternal blessedness, but the negative.
This is not just information about the future. One writer says why God tells us now.
And He reveals all this to us now, so that we may live in its light through faith. In it we find a remedy for present trials. We also find a rich encouragement to set our minds on things above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.
- Cause removed. At the cross God went to the source of all that brought in sorrow and swept it away in judgment.
- God's own hand. Tears do not just stop. God Himself wipes them away, with the tenderness of a mother drying her child's face.
- Never again. "No more" means more than relief. The evil is gone and cannot return, because the love of God fills the scene.
- Not yet, but certain. Commentators place this in the eternal state. Tears are still shed during the thousand-year reign, and the same promise in Revelation 7:17 belongs to that earlier scene.
- Live by it now. The picture comes in negatives — no death, no mourning, no pain. God gives it now so faith can use it today as a remedy for present trials.