This earth is a beautiful creation. Men have built cities, parks, buildings, and campuses that are marvels of technology and splendor. The natural splendor of this earth is overwhelming. But, never has this earth seen beauty as we are destined to view. Ancient Babylon was known as one of the wonders of the world. Chariots raced on and around the tops of its walls, and the Great Euphrates River flowed beneath its towering strength. Yet, when New Jerusalem descends out of Heaven its glowing beauty will dazzle the world. Never has this world viewed anything so glorious and so massive. The streets of gold are the most common of all its riches. This city will actually be Heaven on earth.
God Himself, in the excellent glory of His person, and His exalted glorified Son will dwell in the midst of this city. It will become a temple or a sanctuary of His sovereign presence, and worship will fill every beautiful inch. I cannot explain the presence of the Heavenly Father, but I can assure you that there are not human words to fully describe Him. He is awesome in holiness, and that characteristic will be the overarching expression of Him. No sin can live or even approach Him. His holiness is not acquired but issues forth from Him. He is the one and only source of all holiness, and it absolutely fills His person to overflowing. All that come near to Him will take on His holiness in them and reflect it throughout this matchless city.
The Son of God in all His glorified manhood will, along with His Father, be the Light of the city and of the New Heaven and New Earth. The brilliance of that light will create a lighted world without shadows. Everywhere you look will be this brilliance of Light so remarkable that it will appear to reflect off and out of everything. It will be Light that forever and totally eliminates the presence of darkness so that the entire universe has a God-like splendor. The Son of God Himself is the source of this Light. When He said, “I am the light of the world” (John 9:5), it was a divine statement. When we see Him there will be a satisfaction in us that forever fulfills the greatest hunger known to man. Every pain, sadness, or sorrow known to the human family is but a deep need to be filled with Him. In His literal presence is fullness of life, and we will never have emptiness again. “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (I Corinthians 13:12).
The massive walls of this city are fifteen hundred miles high and are created with jewels of great value and beauty. The city will be foursquare, equal on each side to its height. There will be three identical gates on each side of the city of the same height as the twelve levels of city walls. They will add splendor because they will be solid pearls polished to their highest perfection. There is nowhere in God’s universe that this city will not be visible. The Bible does not tell us how it will be set in conjunction to the new earth, but it must be seen because within it is the source of all light and there is no darkness. The gates will bear the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the twelve foundations will bear the names of the twelve apostles. These twenty-four representations reflect the same complete type as seen in chapter four when the Rapture occurred. They are His raptured saints from the Old and New Testament. The number twenty-four is but a type of a multitude.
The “New Heaven” assures us that the heavenly bodies, the weather patterns, and the very atmosphere will be purified unto perfection. The great planets, stars, and other celestial bodies will be the source of beauty and heavenly splendor that will make the sky above to glisten in perfect clarity. It will be picture perfect, and the weather will never be anything but the source of life. When it rains, it will be like drinking water bathing His created world. Snow and ice flakes will fill His world with a carpet that delights His entire creation. The birds, earth animals, and the sea creatures will spend their lives in playful delight, and God’s family will love every moment of it.
The earth will bring forth nothing but that which delights our appetites. Fruit trees will never bear imperfect fruit. The vineyards will provide its vintage flavors to man. The entire earth will be a garden and flowers will explode in their beauty. There will be nothing on the earth or produced by the earth but those things that man enjoys. The earth will be so pure that God Himself will find delight in a renewed fellowship with His family. He will walk among us as He visited Adam in the garden. Labor will be sweet and we will tend our gardens with delight. Every moment on God’s earth will be like Heaven.
The twentieth first chapter of Revelation is the single place in God’s World that the Book of Life is called by its full title. John wrote as the Spirit gave witness, “And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, nor maketh a lie: but they which are written in the “LAMB’S BOOK OF LIFE” (Revelation 21:27). Nothing on His earth, in His Heaven, or in New Jerusalem will be unclean. Nothing that defiles can enter His eternity. The total culture and population will be His redeemed saints. Holiness will be the lifestyle and love will be the emotion that fills this universe and His holy city forever. Sinners that refused to repent and surrender only to Christ will already have been cast into the Lake of Fire.
“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. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 21:1-4).
Dwelling in the midst of this city and of His own family will be the Father Himself. The Son of God loves His Father with a love that can only be called divine. Yet, this divine love has a component of manhood because He was begotten of the Father in His earthly pilgrimage. This city is the Son’s gift to His Bride. After He brings His Bride into the city, He proceeds to exalt His Father to be with Him and His Bride and to be their God. One of the greatest mysteries that we shall soon discover is voiced in words that show this future honor that the Son gives His Father. “Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death” (I Corinthians 15:24-26).
Joseph R. Chambers
jrc@pawcreek.org