What does Revelation 21:1 mean when it says, "There was no longer any sea"?

AFTER the solemn scene of eternal judgment, unfolded at the close of the preceding chapter, a vision of the unclouded beauty of the eternal state of blessedness is displayed before our eyes. The contrast is as abrupt as magnificent. No sooner had John recorded the doom of those who appeared before the great white throne than he proceeds: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." (v. 1) Isaiah is the first to make mention both of new heavens and a new earth. He says, speaking in the name of Jehovah, "Behold, I create new heavens, and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." (Isa. 65:17.) And again, "As the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain." (Isa. 66:22.) While, however, the words, new heavens and new earth, appear in the prophecy, it is yet evident, from the context of the passages cited, that they do not contain the same significance as in our chapter. In Isaiah, indeed, scarcely more is meant than that the heavens and the earth shall be morally new during the millennium, that, as the heavens will be cleared from Satan and Satan's power (see Eph. 6:12; Rev. 12:10, etc.), and the earth will be freed in large measure from the effects of the curse (see Psalm 67 and 72), they will be in this sense new. The apostle Peter supplies the link between Isaiah and Revelation. Taking up, as led of the Holy Spirit, Isaiah's prophecy, and giving to it a deeper meaning, he says, after describing the dissolution of all things, "Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." (2 Peter 3:13.) This, as will be at once perceived, goes much further than the kingdom during the thousand years, the characteristic of which is that righteousness will reign (see Psalms 96 - 99; Isaiah 32, etc.); inasmuch as Peter speaks of a scene wherein righteousness shall dwell. This could be no other than the eternal state, telling of a scene without and a scene within which answer to all that God is, a scene which is in fact the consummation of the new creation.

The first heaven and the first earth are thus for ever displaced;* and it is specially noted that there was no more sea. This fact may have a twofold significance. The first and most prominent thought is, since the sea interposes a barrier to intercourse, that there will be then no more separation. Then, as we remember the symbolic meaning of earth and sea in this book, that the earth speaks of ordered government, and the sea of insubject and unorganized masses of people or nations, it teaches, that every part of the new earth will be in ordered subjection to, and under the governmental control of, God. All will be the perfect expression of His own will; and then will be fulfilled that far-reaching petition in the prayer the Lord taught His disciples, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." It was so done by our Lord Himself; but in these "new and blessed scenes," it will be also so done by every one among all the countless throng of the redeemed.

The first heaven and the first earth are thus for ever displaced;* and it is specially noted that there was no more sea. This fact may have a twofold significance. The first and most prominent thought is, since the sea interposes a barrier to intercourse, that there will be then no more separation. Then, as we remember the symbolic meaning of earth and sea in this book, that the earth speaks of ordered government, and the sea of insubject and unorganized masses of people or nations, it teaches, that every part of the new earth will be in ordered subjection to, and under the governmental control of, God. All will be the perfect expression of His own will; and then will be fulfilled that far-reaching petition in the prayer the Lord taught His disciples, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." It was so done by our Lord Himself; but in these "new and blessed scenes," it will be also so done by every one among all the countless throng of the redeemed.

399 This closes the scene of this busy world - closes it finally, and for ever. In the first eight verses of the next chapter (Rev. 21) we have the wholly new creation, where God is all in all: a new earth and a new heaven, and no more sea. Some remarks are called for here. And, first of all, how little is revealed! The course and judgment of the state we are in, and the glory of the heavenly city, is so largely; but of the post-millennial state scarcely anything, save some great general principles, which mainly bear upon our present condition. "Sea" bears a general notion of what remains vague and unreclaimed, unsubject to man, not reduced into any order, or regularised relationship to God or amongst men. This exists no more. I suppose fully this will be physically true, and many appropriate physical changes would be associated with it; but into this I do not venture myself. Atmosphere would cease - human life, by breathing and blood. I refrain, the rather, as it is simply negative, and, I think, meant to be so. The imperfect waste of tumultuous separation would have no existence there. All would be connected and in order. Further we get the heavenly city (the Lamb's bride, the assembly) coming down to be the tabernacle of God amongst men - not a special people, but the glorified church, the seat of His power and presence amongst men. It is not said how these are changed to be ever there, or what their peculiar state. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor corruption inherit incorruption. More we cannot say: only God "dwells with" (not "tabernacles over," as in Revelation 7) men. They are His people, and He Himself shall be with them and their God. The whole family of man, redeemed men, have this relationship, such, after all, as angels, cannot boast of; though more glorious in other respects, they are never called His people. Previous orderings of this, such as Israel and the temple, were only premonitory and preparatory to this great and blessed position. But His temple we are. The church never loses its own proper and peculiar place, but the two forms of blessing - the temple or tabernacle, the dwelling-place of God, and the people of God, positions brought out in the church and Israel - are maintained for ever. Only Israel was more figurative and passing than the assembly, because it was in flesh, the church not. All sorrow would here have ceased for ever.

(V. 1) Coming to Revelation 21:1-8, we have the testimony of the Apostle John to the eternal state. John has seen "all enemies" put under Christ's feet; the final doom of the devil, and "the last enemy" — death — cast into the lake of fire. Every enemy having been annulled, there rises up before him this glorious vision of "a new heaven and a new earth." The new heavens and a new earth, that Peter can say "we look for," John can speak of as having seen, though truly it was but in a vision. In this vision he tells us "there was no more sea." The sea speaks of separation, and how often separation means marred love, blighted hopes, and broken hearts. On earth, sin separates, circumstances separate, age separates, time separates, and above all death is the great separator. So it comes to pass, too often, on earth that the dearest friends are parted, closest relations are divided, families are broken up, and the saints of God scattered. Of all this separation the sea is the symbol. Little wonder that Jeremiah can say there is "sorrow on the sea." But if at times we have to part with loved ones down here we can look on to the blessedness of the eternal state, where there will be no more separations, for there will be "NO MORE SEA."

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.

Revelation 20:11 has indicated that at the time of the Great White Throne the earth and the heaven flee away. Now John sees a new heaven and a new earth, and the earth had no more sea. The earth is transformed. It is not a different earth, but a renewed earth, just as a sinner being renewed becomes a new creation in Christ. The sea is typical both of the nations in constant tumult (Rev. 17:15) and of the flesh in its swelling unrest and vanity (Isa. 57:20). Wonderful to know that all this will be gone in the eternal state! Verses 1-5 briefly refer to this eternal state of heaven and earth. This will be the eternity of God's rest after ages of His laboring with mankind.

Revelation 20: 11 has indicated that at the time of the Great White Throne the earth and the heaven flee away. Now John sees a new heaven and a new earth, and the earth had no more sea. The earth is transformed. It is not a different earth, but a renewed earth, just as a sinner being renewed becomes a new creation in Christ. The sea is typical both of the nations in constant tumult (Rev. 17: 15) and of the flesh in its swelling unrest and vanity (Isa. 57: 20). Wonderful to know that all this will be gone in the eternal state! Verses 1-5 briefly refer to this eternal state of heaven and earth. This will be the eternity of God's rest after ages of His laboring with mankind.

FROM THESE DREADFUL scenes John lifts his eyes to behold scenes of everlasting felicity in a new heaven and a new earth. In our present earth the sea is the great dividing element, and into its salt water flow the impurities created by man in his sinful state, and they are rendered harmless. It will not be needed in that blissful day when the impurities and the divisions are no more. The first eight verses of chapter 21 give us, then, the eternal state, which will succeed the millennial age, and abide.

Thus the eternal state, the eternity of the future, begins. Then, righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13). There is no more sea—neither restless nations nor defilement (Rev. 21:1). We do not know if this is simply figurative of what the sea speaks of (Rev. 17:15) or literal also. Certainly, with His own in bodies of glory and He fully in charge of the new earth, the oceans as we know them are not needed.

— “And the sea is no more.” The continuity of the earth, the same in substance after the deluge and after its destruction by fire, seems evident. It exists, but as remade. “The sea is no more.” This great, restless, destructive, and separating element of nature shall cease to exist. The sea, now essential to animal and vegetable life on earth, is not needed in God’s eternity. He is not only the source of life as He ever was and is, but is then the direct sustainer of it. The sea exists in the millennial age. There we read of nations, and seas, and rivers, but in the eternal state these no longer exist. It is God and men, and an earth without sea, all brought into ordered subjection. The conditions of life are so different in the everlasting state that time conditions of life and happiness are no longer needed. No sea in the new and eternal earth gives, of course, an immensely extended land surface, far exceeding that which presently exists. The countless hosts of saved Jews and Gentiles on earth during the millennial reign shall then people the new earth, but not, we apprehend, in any distinctive or national sense, but simply as men in direct relation to God.