“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.”
-Revelation 21:1–4
If you have read my previous writings, you could most likely be able to tell that I focus heavily on two truths. 1. The Cross of Christ and 2. The Glory of God. There is a specific element to those two things that I emphasize, and that is suffering. As I have said many times before, suffering is synonymous with the Christian life. Jesus’s words to the disciples are clear in John 16:33 “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” Notice the verbiage used in that sentence, yes the Lord says “you MAY have peace.” but He follows that up with “You WILL have tribulation.” Therefore, the peace that Christ gives us is just as promised and guaranteed as the tribulation that life gives us!
Now, I include that fact not to write an article on John 16:33, but rather to use the truths in John 16 to point to the grander truth that we are reading in Revelation 21. And that grander truth is the Glory of Christ displayed! In the tail end of John 16:33, Jesus tells us to “take heart” because He has “overcome the world.” I believe the picture painted in Revelation 21 is the “what” and “why” of the encouraging promise given in John 16:33. In other words, Revelation 21 gives us the reason WHY we are to take heart in life’s tribulations and WHAT Jesus overcoming the world will look like. We read that it begins with the passing away of the old earth and installation of the new earth, the perfect earth, an earth that is not ruled by the dominion of sin, rather the dominion of HIM! I am a firm believer –and this may get me in trouble with some– that the main purpose of Revelation is not to focus so much on raptures or beasts or whether Russia symbolizes this and Israel symbolizes that. Instead, I would dare to say that the purpose of Revelation is to point toward what will happen in chapter 21. Please don’t misunderstand me. Yes, the controversies surrounding eschatology are important topics for discussion; but by no means, should they dilate our spiritual vision and blind us to the beauty of Christ Jesus returning with His glory in hand!
Now that has been made clearer, something which convicted me recently is that in my writings I have focused so heavily on the “suffering” and not much on the glory that is coming! More specifically, I have not written much on what that “glory” really is. Yes, we know that our “momentary suffering is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory that is beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:16) but what does that weight of glory entail? What does it look like? What will we really experience? Well dear reader, I am glad to say that the Scripture does not leave us clueless. For it is right here in this text!
In verse 3, we are told what the Glory is; in verse 4, we are told of how we are going to personally and intimately experience that same glory. Let’s look at verse 3: “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.” THIS is what makes heaven, heaven. It is not the pearly gates or streets of gold, nor is it the perfect peace. But, it is that man gets to be in the same presence where the All Holy, All Powerful, All Sovereign Lord God Almighty DWELLS. And it is because of His dwelling presence, that we experience what is gifted to us in verse 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.” THIS is why we are to take heart in suffering (John 16:33), THIS is why we are to count all things as loss before Christ (Philippians 3:8), THIS is why to live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21), THIS is why the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed to us (Romans 8:18). THIS, my beloved, is why we live… Because there is coming a day where all the pain that we have suffered until that point will be cast into the sea of forgetfulness, where our sins will already be! Despite the ease of access that we have to this truth in our day and time, there are people who still need this hope, there are still people who are perishing because they do not know that Christ has died for them, has risen, and is coming back with His Glory with Him. Yes, the eternal dwelling is secured for you, saved saint! But is it secured for your neighbor? If not, that should burden you. It should burden you to such a point that pushes you to share the Gospel with them and do so ten times more. Even when ridicule is in your mailbox and tribulation in your home, live for the coming glory! Not so that you may relish your security for yourself, but you may boldly invite others to dwell in it with you! So, read Revelation 21 and walk away with a brave joy! For Christ is coming folks… And Glory is coming with Him!