One of the most glorious truths is the real hope that God offers his people. It's a real, substantial hope of a future on a renewed earth, with renewed bodies, free of suffering, with God himself living among us.
Where might we look in the Bible to see this renewed-earth future promised?
So far we've looked at 1 Corinthians 15, 1 Thessalonians 4, Philippians 3, John 5, and then most recently John 11.
Today, one final passage to look at, Revelation 21.
Reluctantly
I came here last, and slightly reluctantly.
Why so? The book of Revelation has a long history of mis-interpretation, over-interpretation, fanciful interpretation, and much more besides. I would be reluctant to base any doctrine on something that is taught in Revelation but found nowhere else in Scripture. A general principle when it comes to interpreting the Bible is to interpret what is difficult in the light of what is clear.
However, this does not mean that the book of Revelation has nothing to teach us. As God's Word, if it says something, then God says that thing. It is a book that is meant to be understood — it's job is to reveal and not to shroud in mystery.
Revelation is a colourful book. It's a noisy book. It's a vibrant book. It's an energetic book. It grabs every one of our senses and involves us in its visions, so that we are thoroughly caught up in the world that Revelation inhabits. That means that one of its purposes is to take truths we know cognitively from elsewhere, and to write them deeply into our imaginations and our identities in ways that are vivid and that stay with us.
This is why Revelation 21 may not have been the best text to come to first. If I'm going to argue that Revelation 21 teaches us about God's ultimate hope, I would want to show you that it only says things that we have already seen elsewhere. But this is also why Revelation 21 is not a text we can ignore in this discussion. Ultimately, we need these wonderful truths of hope to be etched upon us in a way that they drive us to live in the light of their truth.
Nothing New
Accordingly, then, there is little new in Revelation 21. It is largely a medley of the prophecies in Isaiah 25 and Isaiah 65. Revelation 21 is taking longstanding (8th Century BC) prophecies of the Messianic Age, and saying that "now, at last, they come true". In the period of time that we have reached by this stage in the book of Revelation, those Messianic Age prophecies find their final fulfilment.
Yet Vivid
Who would not want this to be true:
Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’ for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death” or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’ (Revelation 21:1-4)
Yes, it's poetry and it's picture language. All the more reason to let the poetry work on our imaginations, because the realities that the poetry is describing must be truly wonderful.
God himself living among his people. A renewed world without any sea (chaos / evil). The end of death, sadness and pain. The end of the whole old order, marred by sin and everything sad that flows from that.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 22:1-5)
The tree of life is there to ensure that we can live forever. The curse from Eden is gone. The nations of the world are restored to wholeness. God himself lives among us, so we have no need of any light external to the world - light itself, light personified, now lives in the world. We will see God's face, and forevermore be known as his. And, with everything in its proper order, we will reign in the renewed world forever, as it was always meant to be.
The End of the Greatest Story
We could draw much more out of each of these details. But for now, notice how earth-bound the vision is. God had an original purpose for this world that he made, and for placing us (the human race) upon his world. That purpose, and our race, were marred by sin. However the Bible ends, not with God replacing his original plan with another one, whereby we can join him in a place that never got spoilt. The Bible ends with God's original purpose fully fulfilled, shining brighter even than you would have guessed from reading the beginning of the story.
The Bible ends, not with us relocating to heaven, but with heaven relocating to earth.
Having read the other Bible passages I've taken us to, and the many others that time has prohibited from also looking at, the story could end in no other way.
Only this story does not come to an end. It goes on, with each chapter better than the one before.
What a future God has indeed promised!
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