Revelation 21:1-8--The New Heaven and the New Earth

Revelation 21:1-8
English Standard Version

The New Heaven and the New Earth
21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

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There is some debate about what it means for the old heaven and earth to pass away. We saw last time that "earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them" (Revelation 20:11).  This along with passages like 2 Peter 3:10 point me towards the idea of a cataclysmic "end of the world" scenario.  It says, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed."  My mind goes towards God telling go of the forces that keep the atoms and molecules held together and there being a huge fireball or another option would be the theorized matter/anti-mater reaction.  It is not necessary to have a scientific explanation, but we already have plausible scenarios that would make an end to the physical world as we know it. 

A New Heavens and a New Earth (new space/time containers) are made to contain a new type of place designed for a new type of people.  The New Jerusalem comes down from heaven and John recognizes it not just as a place, but as a people--the Bride of Christ (this is why I don't think the Church returned to earth with Christ in Revelation 19:11-21).  God speaks and declares that the doweling place of God and the dwelling place of man will once again be together, never again to be separated.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes so that there will be no more sorrow, pain, or regret and we will be caused to forget the things that were before (we will no longer miss anyone who chose not to be there--it will be a gift from God to not remember them, nor will we be grieved by anything we failed to do).  We will be like Adam and Eve when they woke up fully formed in the Garden that was fully formed and they didn't think twice about it because they didn't know any better.

There will be no more measurement of the passage of time in this place--no more of the day/night cycle because God will be the light of that City and so it will always be daytime.  There will be no more aging or death or disease because those are a result of the Curse of Sin, and there is no more sin.  There is no Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil there--only the Tree of Life, which is for the healing of the nations (more on that in the next chapter), and the River of Life flows from the throne of God to water the whole earth and give it life abundant and eternal.

This is the inheritance for all those who belong to Christ--the place that He has gone away to prepare for us (and that He is preparing us for).  This has been the goal since the beginning.  However, there are some who don't belong to God's family who will never inherit what belongs only to His children.  They are the "cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars."  Their part is in the Lake of Fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels.  It burns with fire and sulfur and is the second death (the eternal death of the condemned as opposed to the eternal life we see in the New Heavens and New Earth here for the redeemed).  Praise be to God for flawlessly executing this plan to redeem a people unto Himself from every tribe, tongue and and, in so doing, revealing all the good and glorious things about Himself that make Him worthy of all glory and honor and praise both now and forevermore.