_THE NEW JERUSALEM._
REV. xxi. 1-xxii. 5.
The first part of the final triumph of the Lamb has been accomplished,
but the second has still to be unfolded. We are introduced to it by
one of those preparatory or transition passages which have already
frequently met us in the Apocalypse, and which connect themselves both
with what precedes and with what follows:--
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and
the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more. And I saw
the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great
voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is
with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His
peoples, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God: and
He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be
no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any
more: the first things are passed away. And He that sitteth on the
throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He saith, Write:
for these words are faithful and true. And He said unto me, They
are come to pass. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and
the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of
the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit these
things; and I will be his God, and he shall be My son. But for the
fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and
fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their
part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone:
which is the second death (xxi. 1-8).
These words, like many others that have already met us, throw light
upon the principles on which the Apocalypse is composed. They show in
the clearest possible manner that down to the very end of the book
chronological considerations must be put out of view. Chronology
cannot be thought of when we find, on the one hand, allusions to the
new Jerusalem which are only amplified and extended in the next vision
of the chapter, or when we find, on the other hand, a description of
the exclusion from the new Jerusalem of certain classes that have
already been consigned to "the second death." By the first-mentioned
allusions the passage connects itself with what is yet to come, by the
second with what has gone before. For the same reason it is
unnecessary to dwell upon the passage at any length. It contains
either nothing new, or nothing that will not again meet us in greater
fulness of detail. One or two brief remarks alone seem called for.
The Seer beholds _a new heaven and a new earth_. Two words in the New
Testament are translated "new," but there is a difference between
them. The one contemplates the object spoken of under the aspect of
something that has been recently brought into existence, the other
under a fresh aspect given to what had previously existed, but been
outworn.[561] The latter word is employed here, as it is also employed
in the phrases a "new garment," that is, a garment not threadbare,
like an old one; "new wine-skins," that is, skins not shrivelled and
dried; a "new tomb," that is, not one recently hewn out of the rock,
but one which had never been used as the last resting-place of the
dead. The fact, therefore, that the heavens and the earth here spoken
of are "new," does not imply that they are now first brought into
being. They may be the old heavens and the old earth; but they have a
new aspect, a new character, adapted to a new end. Of the sense in
which the word "sea" is to be understood we have already spoken.[562]
Another expression in the passage deserves notice. In saying that the
time is come when _the tabernacle of the Lord is with men, and He
shall dwell with them_, it is added, _and they shall be His peoples_.
We are familiar with the Scripture use of the word "people" to denote
the true Israel of God, and not less with the use of the word
"peoples" to denote the nations of the earth alienated from Him. But
here the word "peoples" is used instead of "people" for God's
children; and the usage can only spring from this: that the Seer has
entirely abandoned the idea that Israel according to the flesh can
have the word "people" applied to it, and that all believers, to
whatever race they belong, occupy the same ground in Christ, and are
possessed of the same privileges. The "peoples" are the counterpart of
the "many diadems" of chap. xix. 12.
And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls,
who were laden with the seven last plagues; and he spake with me,
saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the wife of the
Lamb. And he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain great and
high, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God, having the glory of God: her light was like unto
a stone most precious, as it were a jasper stone, clear as
crystal, having a wall great and high, having twelve gates, and at
the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the
names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. On the east
were three gates, and on the north three gates, and on the south
three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city
had twelve foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve
apostles of the Lamb. And he that spake with me had for a measure
a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the
wall thereof. And the city lieth foursquare, and the length
thereof is as great as the breadth: and he measured the city with
the reed, twelve thousand furlongs: the length and the breadth and
the height thereof are equal. And he measured the wall thereof, a
hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a
man, that is, of an angel. And the building of the wall thereof
was jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto pure glass. The
foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all manner
of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second,
sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth,
sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth,
beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprase; the eleventh,
jacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve
pearls; each one of the several gates was of one pearl: and the
street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.
And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God the Almighty, is the
temple thereof, and the Lamb. And the city hath no need of the
sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it: for the glory of God
did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb. And the nations
shall walk amidst the light thereof: and the kings of the earth do
bring their glory into it. And the gates thereof shall in no wise
be shut by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall
bring the glory and the honour of the nations into it. And there
shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that maketh
an abomination and a lie: but only they which are written in the
Lamb's book of life. And he showed me a river of water of life,
bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the
Lamb, in the midst of the street thereof. And on this side of the
river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve manner of
fruits, yielding its fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree
were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no curse
any more: and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein;
and His servants shall do Him service: and they shall see His
face; and His name shall be on their foreheads. And there shall be
night no more; and they need no light of lamp, neither light of
sun; for the Lord God shall give them light: and they shall reign
for ever and ever (xxi. 9-xxii. 5).
The vision contained in these verses is shown the Seer by the angel
forming the third of the second group associated with Him who had
been described at chap. xix. 11 as the Rider upon the white horse, and
who at that time rode forth to His final triumph. The first of this
group of three had appeared at chap. xix. 17, and the second at chap.
xx. 1. We have now the third; and it is not unimportant to observe
this, for it helps to throw light upon the artificial structure of
these chapters, while, at the same time, it connects the vision with
Christ's victory upon earth rather than with any scene of splendour
and glory in a region beyond the place of man's present abode. Thus it
contributes something at least to the belief that there where the
believer wars he also wears the crown of triumph.
The substance of the vision is a description of the holy city, the new
Jerusalem, the true Church of God wholly separated from the false
Church, as she comes down from God, out of heaven, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband. Her marriage with the Lamb has taken
place,--a marriage in which there shall be no unfaithfulness on the
one side and no reproaches on the other, but in which, as the
bridegroom rejoices over the bride, the Lord shall for ever rejoice in
His people, and His people in Him. Then follows, to enhance the
picture, a detailed account of the true Church under the figure of the
city which had been already spoken of in the first vision of the
chapter. The treasures of the Seer's imagination and language are
exhausted in order that the thought of her beauty and her splendour
may be suitably impressed upon our minds. Her _light_--that is, the
light which she spreads abroad, for the word used in the original
indicates that she is herself the luminary--is like that of the sun,
only that it is of crystalline clearness and purity, _as it were a
jasper stone_, the light of Him who sat upon the throne.[563] She is
"the light of the world."[564] The city is also surrounded by _a wall
great and high_. She is "a strong city." "Salvation has God appointed
her for walls and bulwarks."[565] Her walls have _twelve gates_, and
_at the gates twelve angels_, those to whom God gives charge over His
people, to keep them in all their ways[566]; while, as was the case
with the new Jerusalem beheld by the prophet Ezekiel, _names were
written on the gates, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the
children of Israel_.[567] These gates are also harmoniously
distributed, three on each side of the square which the city forms.
The _foundations of the city_, a term under which we are not to think
of foundations buried in the earth, but rather of courses of stones
going round the city and rising one above another, are also _twelve_;
and on them are _twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb_.
The Seer, however, is not satisfied with this general picture of the
greatness of the new Jerusalem. Like that in Ezekiel, the city must be
measured.[568] When this is done, her proportions are found, in spite
of the absence of all verisimilitude, to be those of a perfect cube.
As in the Holy of holies of the Tabernacle, the thought of which lies
at the bottom of the description, _the length and the breadth and the
height thereof are equal_. _Twelve thousand furlongs_, or fifteen
hundred miles, the city stretches along and across the plain, and
rises into the sky,--twelve, the number of the people of God,
multiplied by thousands, the heavenly number. The wall is also
measured--it is difficult to say whether in height or in thickness,
but most probably the latter--_a hundred and forty and four cubits_,
or twelve multiplied by twelve.
The measuring is completed, and next follows an account of the material
of which the city was composed. This was gold, the most precious metal,
in its purest state, _like unto pure glass_. _Precious stones_ formed,
rather than ornamented, its twelve foundations. Its gates were of pearl:
_each one of the several gates was of one pearl; and the street of the
city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass_. In all these respects
it is evident that the city is thought of as ideally perfect, and not
according to the realities or possibilities of things.
Nor is this all. The glory of the city is still further illustrated by
figures bearing more immediately upon its spiritual rather than its
material aspect. The outward helps needed by men in leading the life
of God in their present state of imperfection are dispensed with.
There is _no temple therein: for the Lord, God, the Almighty, is the
temple thereof, and the Lamb. The city hath no need of the sun,
neither of the moon, to shine upon it: for the glory of God lightens_
it by day, _and the lamp thereof_ by night _is the Lamb_. There is in
it no sin, and every positive element of happiness is provided in
abundance for the blest inhabitants. _A river of water of life, bright
as crystal_, flows there; _and on this side of the river and on that
side is the tree of life_, not bearing fruit only once a year, but
_every month_, not yielding one only, but _twelve manner of fruits_,
so that all tastes may be gratified, having nothing about it useless
or liable to decay. The very _leaves of the tree were for the healing
of the nations_, and it is evidently implied that they are always
green. Finally, _there shall be no curse any more. The throne of God
and of the Lamb is therein. His servants do Him service. They see His
face. His name is in their foreheads._ They are priests unto God in
the service of the heavenly sanctuary. _They reign for ever and ever._
One important question still remains: What aspect of the Church does the
holy city Jerusalem, thus come down out of heaven from God, represent?
Is it the Church as she shall be after the Judgment, when her three
great enemies, together with all who have listened to them, have been
for ever cast out? Or have we before us an ideal representation of the
true Church of Christ as she exists now, and before a final separation
has been made between the righteous and the wicked? Unquestionably the
first aspect of the passage leads to the former view; and, if there be
anything like a chronological statement of events in the Apocalypse, no
other may be possible. But we have already seen that the thought of
chronology must be banished from this book. The Apocalypse contains
simply a series of visions intended to exhibit, with all the force of
that inspiration under which the Seer wrote, certain great truths
connected with the revelation in humanity of the Eternal Son. It is
intended, too, to exhibit these in their ideal, and not merely in their
historical, form. They are indeed to appear in history; but, inasmuch as
they do not appear there in their ultimate and completed form, we are
taken beyond the limited field of historical manifestation. We see them
in their real and essential nature, and as they _are_, in themselves,
whether we think of evil on the one hand, or of good on the other. In
this treatment of them, however, chronology disappears. Such being the
case, we are prepared to ask whether the vision of the new Jerusalem
belongs to the end, or whether it expresses what, under the Christian
dispensation, is always ideally true.
1. It must be borne in mind that the new Jerusalem, though described
as a city, is really a figure, not of a place, but of a people. It is
not the final home of the redeemed. It is the redeemed themselves. It
is "the bride, the wife of the Lamb."[569] Whatever is said of it is
said of the true followers of Jesus; and the great question,
therefore, that has to be considered is, whether St. John's
description is applicable to them in their present Christian
condition, or whether it is suitable to them only when they have
entered upon their state of glorification beyond the grave.
2. The vision is really an echo of Old Testament prophecy. We have
already seen this in many particulars, and the correspondence might
easily have been traced in many more. "It is all," says Isaac
Williams, as he begins his comment upon the particular points of the
description--"It is all from Ezekiel: 'The hand of the Lord was upon
me, and brought me in the visions of God, and set me upon a very high
mountain, by which was as the frame of a city;'[570] 'And the glory of
the Lord came into the house by the gate toward the east;'[571] The
Lord entered by the eastern gate; therefore shall it be shut, and
opened for none but for the Prince.[572] Such was the coming of
Christ's glory from the east into His Church, as so often alluded to
before."[573] Other prophets, no doubt, who prophesied of the grace
that should come unto us, who testified beforehand of the sufferings
of Christ and the glories that should follow, are to be added to
Ezekiel, but, whoever they were, it is undeniable that their highest
and most glowing representations of that future for which they
longed, and the advent of which they were commissioned to proclaim,
are reproduced in St. John's description of the new Jerusalem. Of what
was it, then, that they spoke? Surely it was of the times of the
Messiah upon earth, of that kingdom of God which He was to establish
with the beginning, and not with the end, of the Christian
dispensation. That they may have looked forward to the world beyond
the grave is possible; but any distinction between the first and
second coming of our Lord had not yet risen upon their minds. In the
simple coming of the Hope of Israel into the world they beheld the
accomplishment of every aspiration and longing of the heart of man.
And they were right. The distinction which experience taught the New
Testament writers to draw was not so much between a first and a second
coming of the King as between a kingdom then _hidden_, but afterwards
_to be manifested_ in all its glory.
3. This ideal view of the Messianic age is also constantly brought
before us in the New Testament. The character, the privileges, and the
blessings of those who are partakers of the spirit of that time are
always presented to us as irradiated with a heavenly and perfect glory.
St. Paul addresses the various churches to which he wrote as,
notwithstanding all their imperfections, "beloved of God," "sanctified
in Christ Jesus," "saints and faithful brethren in Christ."[574] Christ
is "in them," and they are "in Christ."[575] "Christ loved the Church,
and gave Himself up for it; that He might present the Church to Himself
a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but
that it should be holy and without blemish,"[576]--the description
evidently applying to the present world, where also the Church is
seated, not in earthly, but in "the heavenly, places" with her
Lord.[577] Our "citizenship" is declared to be "in heaven;"[578] and we
are even now "come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem, to innumerable hosts of angels, and to the
general assembly and Church of the first-born, who are enrolled in
heaven."[579] Our Lord Himself and St. John, following in His steps, are
even more specific as to the present kingdom and the present glory. "In
that day," says Jesus to His disciples, "ye shall know that I am in My
Father, and ye in Me, and I in you,"[580] and again, "And the glory
which Thou hast given Me I have given unto them; that they may be one,
even as We are one;"[581] while it is unnecessary to quote the passages
meeting us everywhere in the writings of the beloved disciple in which
he speaks of eternal life, and that, too, in the full greatness both of
its privileges and of its results, as a possession enjoyed by the
believer in this present world. The whole witness of the New Testament,
in short, is to an ideal, to a perfect, kingdom of God even now
established among men, in which sin is conquered, temptation overcome,
strength substituted for weakness, death so deprived of its sting that
it is no more death, and the Christian, though for a little put to grief
in manifold temptations, made "to rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable
and glorified."[582] From all this the representation of the new
Jerusalem in the Apocalypse differs in no essential respect. It enters
more into particulars. It illustrates the general thought by a greater
variety of detail. But it contains nothing which is not found in
principle in the other sacred writers, and which is not connected by
them with the heavenly aspect of the Christian's pilgrimage to his
eternal home.
4. There are distinct indications in the apocalyptic vision which
leave no interpretation possible except one,--that the new Jerusalem
has come, that it has been in the midst of us for more than eighteen
hundred years, that it is now in the midst of us, and that it shall
continue to be so wherever its King has those who love and serve Him,
walk in His light, and share His peace and joy.
(1) Let us look at chap. xx. 9, where we read of "the camp of the
saints and the beloved city." That city is none other than the new
Jerusalem, about to be described in the following chapter. It is
Jerusalem after the elements of the harlot character have been wholly
expelled, and the call of chap. xviii. 4 has been heard and obeyed,
"Come forth, My people, out of her." She is inhabited now by none but
"saints," who, though they have still to war with the world, are
themselves the "called, and chosen, and faithful." But this "beloved
city" is spoken of as in the world, and as the object of attack by
Satan and his hosts before the Judgment.[583]
(2) Let us look at chap. xxi. 24 and xxii. 2: "And the nations shall
walk by the light thereof; and the kings of the earth do bring their
glory into it;" "And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of
the nations." Who are these "nations" and these "kings of the earth"?
The constant use of the same expressions in other parts of this book,
where there can be no doubt as to their meaning, compels us to
understand them of nations and kings beyond the pale of the covenant.
But if so, the difficulty of realizing the situation at a point of
time beyond the Judgment appears to be insuperable, and may be well
illustrated by the effort of Hengstenberg to overcome it. "Nations,"
says that commentator, "in the usage of the Revelation, are not
nations generally, but always _heathen_ nations in their natural or
christianized state; compare at chap. xx. 3. That we are to think here
only of _converted_ heathen is as clear as day. No room for conversion
can be found on the further side of chap. xx. 15, for every one who
had not been found written in the book of life has already been cast
into the lake of fire."[584] But the words "or christianized" in this
comment have no countenance from any other passage in the Apocalypse,
and in Hengstenberg's note at chap. xx. 3 we are referred to nothing
but the texts before us. On every other occasion, too, where the word
"nations" meets us, it means unconverted, not converted, nations; and
here it can mean nothing else. Were the nations spoken of converted,
they would be a part of that new Jerusalem which is not the residence
of God's people, but His people themselves. They would be the light,
and not such as walk "by the light" of others. They would be the
healed, and not those who stand in need of "healing." These "nations"
must be the unconverted, these "kings of the earth" such as have not
yet acknowledged Jesus to be their King; and nothing of this can be
found beyond chap. xx. 15.
(3) Let us look at chap. xxi. 27, where we read, "And there shall in
no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that doeth an
abomination and a lie." These words distinctly intimate that the time
for final separation had not yet come. Persons of the wicked character
described must be supposed to be alive upon the earth after the new
Jerusalem has appeared.
5. Another consideration on the point under discussion may be noticed,
which will have weight with those who admit the existence of that
principle of structure in St. John's writings upon which it rests.
Alike in the Gospel and in the Apocalypse the Apostle is marked by a
tendency to return at the close of a section to what he had said at
the beginning, and to shut up, as it were, between the two statements
all he had to say. So here. In chap. i. 3 he introduces his Apocalypse
with the words, "For the time is at hand." In chap. xxii. 10,
immediately after closing it, he returns to the thought, "Seal not up
the words of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand;" that
is, the whole intervening revelation is enclosed between these two
statements. All of it precedes the "time" spoken of. The new Jerusalem
comes before the end.
In the new Jerusalem, therefore, we have essentially a picture, not of
the future, but of the present; of the ideal condition of Christ's true
people, of His "little flock" on earth, in every age. The picture may
not yet be realized in fulness; but every blessing lined in upon its
canvas is in principle the believer's now, and will be more and more his
in actual experience as he opens his eyes to see and his heart to
receive. We have been wrong in transferring the picture of the new
Jerusalem to the future alone. It belongs also to the past and to the
present. It is the heritage of the children of God at the very time when
they are struggling with the world; and the thought of it ought to
stimulate them to exertion and to console them under suffering.
FOOTNOTES:
[561] Trench, _Synonyms_, second series, p. 39.
[562] Comp. pp. 227, 357.
[563] Chap. iv. 3.
[564] Matt. v. 14.
[565] Ps. xxxi. 21; Isa. xxvi. 1.
[566] Ps. xci. 11.
[567] Comp. Ezek. xlviii. 31.
[568] Comp. Ezek. xl. 2, 3.
[569] Chap. xxi. 9.
[570] Ezek. xl. 1, 2.
[571] Ezek. xliii. 2.
[572] Ezek. xliv. 1-3.
[573] _The Apocalypse_, p. 438.
[574] Rom. i. 7; 1 Cor. i. 2; Col. i. 2.
[575] Col. i. 27; 1 Cor. i. 30; Phil. iii. 9.
[576] Eph. v. 25-27.
[577] Eph. i. 3.
[578] Phil. iii. 20.
[579] Heb. xii. 22, 23.
[580] John xiv. 20.
[581] John xvii. 22.
[582] 1 Pet. i. 8.
[583] Comp. Foxley, _Hulsean Lectures_, Lect. i.
[584] Commentary in _Clark's Foreign Theological Library_, _in loc._