What will heaven look like according to the Bible?
Scripture does describe heaven — a city of gold and precious stones, a river, a throne, an open gate that never shuts — but almost every commentator points out that the descriptions circle back to one Person rather than to architecture. The question worth asking is not only what the place looks like, but what gives it its character.
The Pictures Scripture Gives
The last chapters of Revelation show John being carried away to see "the bride, the wife of the Lamb" — and what he sees is a city. One writer walks through John's inventory and notices that the list of what is missing is as important as the list of what is there:
Hamilton SmithHe tells of its jasper walls, great and high; he speaks of its gates of pearl, the streets of gold, and the foundations decorated with every kind of precious stone — and all this is exceedingly beautiful, but we ask, "Is this all?" And John as it were answers back, "Oh no, I can tell you more, I can tell you the things that are not there. I saw no temple, no sun, no moon, no candle, no night, no evil, and no curse." And again we say this is very blessed, but is there nothing more? "Indeed there is," John seems to say, "for in the middle of all the glories, and above all the glories of this heavenly city, I saw the Lamb."
Some of those details land differently when set beside the earthly Jerusalem the prophets describe. The same materials appear, but in a changed relation:
F. B. HoleThe glory of the earthly will be the temple, described in verse 13 as "the place of My feet." The LORD will have His feet on the earth; but in the heavenly there is no temple, for "the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple." It is the place of His presence rather than the place of His feet. The earthly will know a glory brighter than the sun; but the heavenly will have no need of the sun, for the Lamb is its light. Gold will be brought plentifully into the earthly; but in the heavenly it forms the street, and they walk on it.
Reading the Symbols
The materials are not simply expensive; commentators read them as pictures of moral realities.
J. N. Darby"Gold" is divine righteousness. You can see the meaning of this symbol from the mercy seat of gold which received the blood. As to "precious stones," I do not know that I could explain more than the light of God shown in variety through His saints — as, for instance, the light of the sun through a prism. God is light; and the church is the perfect prism, in which the light of God brings out in detail all the beauties of His glory.
What Will Not Be There
The promise that God will wipe away every tear is not a passing comfort. One writer counts how often it is repeated, and draws a conclusion from the repetition:
F. A. HughesThere is a moment coming when tears will all be gone. Three times in Scripture we are told that God will wipe away all tears: Isaiah 25:8; Revelation 7:17; Revelation 21:4. Two references would have been enough testimony to the fact; but we have the Holy Spirit's complete testimony that the day is coming when God Himself will remove all tears, and the cause of those tears will be gone forever... Every true tear recorded; every true tear valued by God; but every tear wiped away.
The Presence That Makes It Heaven
Every writer above treats the scenery as secondary. One puts the distinction sharply:
The Christian's FriendHeaven itself is no scene of mere negations; it is not the absence of sin and sorrow and suffering that gives it its character, nor is it even the light and the glory and the many rooms of the Father's house. We may be permitted to speak of these as its scenery and circumstances; but what will give it its character, what will make up its essential blessedness, will be the presence of that Saviour who is there waiting for us — and of God Himself too, our Father.
The Father's House
Jesus spoke of His Father's house before He spoke of a city. Commentators note how deliberately He avoided the language of rank:
William KellyHe would not have raised a hope that could not be realised... If He reveals His own bright home with the Father, there is ample room for them as for Him; and His love, which was giving Himself for them, would keep back nothing else... There are many rooms in the Father's house. It is not a question of crowns, or cities, or place in the kingdom... here differences vanish before the infinite love that will have us with Himself before His Father.
What We Will Be, and What We Will Do
Heaven changes the ones who enter it. The change reaches the body as well as the mind:
J. G. BellettThis heaven too will be one scene of God's own rest; and the saints, tasting the same refreshment in their measure, will live in that rest in bodies made like Christ's glorious body. They will be like Him in His glory, seeing Him as He is... In mind, body, and condition they will be conformed to the Beloved. And there will be the seeing or understanding of all the precious revelation of God — not as through a glass, dimly, but face to face, knowing even as we are known.
That state is active, not idle:
Samuel RidoutWhat is the occupation of heaven? Joy and praise, surely, and a place for service as well. All our redeemed powers will be happily employed there. Perfect intelligence as well as perfect bodies will be fully in exercise. But what is it that gives fragrance to it all — that makes heaven the place of unspoiled, unspeakable delight? It is that worship permeates it all. We still serve, and shall worship as we serve.
Summary
- Seen — John reports gold, pearl gates, jasper walls and foundations of precious stone; the picture is real and detailed, not vague.
- Unseen — his second list matters as much: no temple, no sun, no night, no evil, no curse, no death, no tears.
- Centre — above every glory John names, he saw the Lamb; the presence of Christ and the Father, not the scenery, is what makes heaven heaven.
- Home — Jesus called it His Father's house with many rooms, where questions of rank and reward give way to nearness.
- Occupation — we will be like Him and see Him face to face, serving and reigning at once, with worship running through everything.