THE NEW JERUSALEM, PART 1

Revelation 21:1-8 (NASB)
David Bruce Linn, Pastor-Teacher
10 December, 2000
All Rights Reserved

The modern world is not comfortable putting things off. We want instant breakfast, instant stock trades, instant auto loans, and instant gratification. The trend toward living by emotions rather than rational thought has increased the demand for immediacy. People are looking for a great experience, and they want it right away! That has made it hard for the church to describe and promote the benefits of eternal life through faith in Christ. While the benefits of new spiritual life begin immediately, their fulfillment awaits our arrival in heaven.

The message of many churches has bent to accommodate this trend by speaking more about what God can do for people's earthly lives than about the mind-blowing, intense satisfaction of our deepest longings when we enter the presence of God in heaven. They say: "Come to Christ! He will fix your (choose from the following) health, finances, family, mental state, social status, or loneliness." But are these the primary benefits of eternal life? They are minuscule compared to the spiritual ecstasy of knowing God intimately, dwelling in his presence, and worshiping him forever in the beauty of holiness. It is, in fact, disingenuous and dangerous to promise that God will fix earthly problems and fulfill earthly desires. When people discover that God may permit them to keep their troubles for his own purposes, they may reject God altogether.

Revelation 21:1-8 begins a description of life in the eternal New Jerusalem of God with the faithful of all ages. These truths must be part of the gospel message which we share with people.

1. ETERNAL LIFE IN THE NEW JERUSALEM
   
   The first thing we learn about the eternal state in the New Jerusalem is that that we will not exist in some ethereal, disembodied state: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband" (Rev. 21:1-2). Eternity does not look like a bunch of people floating in space with clouds all around. It looks like earth, only not as we know it. We know it only in its sin-damaged form. In the same way that resurrected believers will receive purified, glorified bodies with a transformed life principle, the earth will go through a similar regenerative process to suit it for eternity.
   
   Paul wrote of this transformation in his letter to the Romans: "For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God" (Rom. 8:20-21). We will live on a perfect earth in normal time and space. Every thing we see that is damaged on the earth today will be regenerated. There will be the ultimate urban renewal! On the fallen earth cities are the work of human beings collaborating to amplify their wills against God. On the new earth there will be one great city, the New Jerusalem, which will be a creative act of God, peopled with those who are joining their wills together to love and worship God. There will be no red light district in the New Jerusalem, no threat of mugging, no insider trading, no mob politics--no crime at all. There will be no reason for fear whatsoever! That is a condition deserving the title: "the holy city."
   
   God, and all who love him, will rejoice at the replacement of the defiled and besieged city of Jerusalem. In God's plan for the nation Israel, it was to be God's holy city, from which his truth and justice would radiate out over the earth. Today, just as throughout the history of ancient Israel, Jerusalem is a city of strife and blood. Murders and mobs mar God's city. It is defiled by those who hate the one true God, even among those of Israelite ancestry. Only a handful of modern Israelis are worshipers. Rabbi Yeshua is easily the most influential rabbi of all time, yet the average Israeli does not have even a basic understanding of his teachings. It was no different when Jesus was alive. His so-called "triumphal entry" into Jerusalem was to a city which officially rejected him and which would shortly crucify him. That will all be repaired in the New Jerusalem, where God's name will be honored above all others, and where the inhabitants will all be genuine worshipers.
   
   All debilitating effects of sin will be removed in the eternal state, the central one of which is the fatal separation between man and God: "And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them'..." (Rev. 21:3). We will walk with him and talk with him. It will be like the biggest family reunion ever. All the deep yearnings of every person to know his Father God will be satisfied, like the way a desperately thirsty man feels when given a huge tumbler of clean, cold water.
   
   This occurs because God will have taken the initiative to remove the reason why mankind ran away from him in the first place. Mankind lived in sweet fellowship with God until the sin of Adam and Eve created the barrier of sin. The effect of sin was to create guilt and shame in mankind for the very first time, and so the first man and woman ran away from God. The account in Genesis reveals this truth: "And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, 'Where are you?' And he said, 'I heard the sound of Thee in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.' And He said, 'Who told you that you were naked?'" (Gen. 3:8-11a).
   
   There had never been any shame in nakedness before the fall because there had been no reason for it. From the fall onward the shame of spiritual nakedness caused by rebellion impelled mankind to run away from God. Every child born into the human race is born to parents who have already run away. The key to this account in Genesis is that it records not only mankind's first impulse to run from God, but the beautiful, bittersweet picture of the God who chases after the fleeing humans. All of redemptive history is the story of God seeking, as the apostle John wrote, those who would worship him in spirit and in truth. The New Jerusalem is the consummation of God's plan to redeem that which was tragically lost at the very beginning of the human race. You are invited to be a part of it.
   
   In the eternal New Jerusalem, the greatest shadow hanging over the human race will be removed, namely, death and all its morbid effects: "...And He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away" (Rev. 21:4). The whole human race is like a man who lives under a huge rock perched precariously on a mountain side. His house is right in the way. His place of work is right in the way. Every day and night he wonders if the vagaries of surficial geology are going to release the rock and crush him to death, either immediately or after a long agony. It is impossible to calculate how much the reality of the rock of death overshadows every part of our lives. In the eternal New Jerusalem every tiny aspect of death's ugly effect on us will be removed.
   
   Death is a consequence of sin, and since there will be no more sin in the New Jerusalem, death will be done away. All the processes of death on our bodies will be stopped. All the crushing fear of death will be removed and replaced with a holy peace. All the sorrow we experience due to the death of people we love will be done away. The horrors of famine, where death stalks the land, will be removed. The pain of crippling and deadly diseases will be gone. There will no longer be any aging process, since aging is the decree of God to enforce the sentence of physical death upon sinners. All these will be gone, to be replaced by peace, rest, and indestructible life. If you ever looked at a failing body part, or perhaps your whole body,and said to yourself: "I wish I had a new one of these," you will get your wish. "And He who sits on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new'" (Rev. 21:5a).
   
   Have you ever noticed how much all people love new things? This sentiment is a small reflection of our God-created yearning for his presence, in which all things will have become new--absolutely everything. We were built to desire the things of God, and we grope for them in ignorance. God has given and protected his sure word, the Bible, so that we need not grope any longer. Tell your friends and loved ones that the things they want most are found in God, not at the mall or auto dealer.
   
   And on what basis do we make such an assertion? "And He said, 'Write, for these words are faithful and true'" (Rev. 21:5b). God's promises are staked upon his character. He is faithful and true, and so are his words. We all want the security of being able to rely upon some sure guidance about spiritual things. God has provided that security. And how can God be so sure that this picture of a future reality will come to pass? "And He said to me, 'It is done'" (Rev. 21:6a). Because God knows all things, the fulfillment of his redemptive promises is already done from his perspective: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end" (Rev. 21:6b). Before time and history as we know it, there was nothing but God. For his own purpose to glorify his own name, he created everything that we know. When mankind fell, the story of history became the story of redemption. In eternity future, everything and everyone goes back to God--some to receive eternal life and some eternal death (cf. 1 Cor. 15:20-28). He has done all--hallelujah!
   
   
2. THE BASIS OF PARTICIPATION IN THE NEW JERUSALEM
   
   The basis of our participation in the blessedness of God's grand plan is given next: "'I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son'" (Rev. 21:6c-7). Eternal life is free. It can neither be bought nor sold. All the benefits of living forever in the presence of God are received as a gift or not at all. This glorifies God the most, and should shut our mouths regarding any thought that we have contributed to our salvation by the performance of religious duties of any kind. Another way to put this is that God saves people because he loves them, and you can never buy genuine love. Paul expressed this in a passage worth memorizing in its entirety: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:8-9).
   
   This purpose statement of God gives us an important clue to the identity of those who will be blessed to live in the new Jerusalem as expressed in the next verse: "He who overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son" (Rev. 21:7). When we studied the seven letters to the churches at the beginning of the book of Revelation, we saw that the overcomer is identified by the Apostle John in his first letter: "And who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" (1 John 5:5). The one who genuinely believes in Christ shall receive the blessings of eternal life. But why is that person called the overcomer? What is he or she overcoming? The passage quoted above in Ephesians gives the purpose (not the cause) of our salvation as good works. The overcomer is the person whose faith bears fruit in deeds which glorify God.
   
   It is overcoming because we all have things we want in our fleshly nature. Our selfishness is, in fact, a huge monster which will just keep demanding greater acts of self-aggrandizement to prove that we are getting our own way. "I want mine!" is the rallying cry of every lost soul, and it explains the description of the people who will be excluded from the New Jerusalem: "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death" (Rev. 21:8). While we find it easy to excoriate the people who do the things on this list, there is another way to look at it. This is a list of the ends to which people are willing to go to get what they want out of life. In fact, in the modern world, such people are often admired as good examples of effective self-actualization. No one who reveals their self-orientation with deeds like these will receive eternal life, no matter what religious experience they have had, or what they profess. A profession of faith is not proof of genuine belief. The overcomer faces his selfish desires in the power of the Holy Spirit, engages the process of sanctification, and chooses to do deeds which honor God rather than honor self.
   
   In the last several hundred years of modern church life there has been a persistent attack of the Father of Lies, the Devil, to sell the idea that faith can be compatible with extreme self-oriented behavior. Entire churches and movements have been raised up to embody this lie. It is always done by diminishing the authority of Scripture and elevating the idea of mere agreement with the gospel. Of Scripture Jesus said: "The words I have spoken to you are spirit and are life" (John 6:63b). There is no way to gain eternal life without adherence to Scripture. Mere agreement with the plan of salvation is proved false by the kinds of extreme self-oriented behaviors listed here. Any so-called gospel which does not deal with the matter of sin is a false gospel, no matter who is saying it. It is identified by the welcoming of people into the benefits of God with no call to forsake their sins. It is the solemn duty of every true Christian to tell people with a false profession that they have no claim upon the future blessing of God.
   
   What is at stake is our participation in this precious promise: "I will be his God and he will be My son." Sonship here is not a reference to masculinity but full adoption as children of God with no reservations. We, who have no right to be called God's children, receive through the atonement of Christ comprehensive entrance into God's family. This was his purpose in the program of redemption from the very beginning. Are you an overcomer--do you believe and actually follow Christ? Have you chosen to seek him rather than your own ways? Then every blessing of eternity with God in the New Jerusalem is yours.