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I’ll admit it. I’m a sucker for stories of reconciliation. Especially ones that somehow weave a glimpse of future perfect reconciliation into a happy ending. If you’re not exactly sure what I mean, think of the line near the end of “The Return of the King” when Samwise Gamgee exclaims, “Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What’s happened to the world?” Or how at the end of “The Chronicles of Narnia” when Lucy “looked hard at the garden and saw that it was not really a garden but a whole world, with its own rivers and woods and sea and mountains. But they were not strange: she knew them all. ‘I see,’ she said. ‘This is still Narnia, and more real and more beautiful than the Narnia down below…’”

What is the draw to endings such as this? Perhaps it is because they appeal to something planted in each of God’s covenant people by His grace – the desire for something better – total reconciliation of all things to God.

That reality is seen at the end of the Story of All Stories – God’s Word – in what is easily the most misunderstood book therein, Revelation. (I’m not going to go into the different views on that book right now, as that’s a whole other debate, but I’ll just say that my view may be different than yours, but in the end it doesn’t matter because there’s one thing we can all agree on:  God wins.)

Revelation 21 opens this way: “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. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 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. 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.”

Observation #1:  God will be with us in a new and better way.  Yes, He is with us now. He has given us the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, and has assured us that He is with us always. (Is. 41:10, Matt. 28:20). But in the age to come it will be so much better. God’s presence with His people will be fully realized.  The current age is still marked by so much division – the division between heaven and earth, division between life and death, division between redeemed and unredeemed, and so on.  But these divisions will be gone in the age to come.  The dwelling place of God will truly be with man.  We’ve seen glimpses of this reality of this throughout history – the tabernacles and temples of the Old Covenant, and then the better New Covenant in which the temple was abolished once for all, as in the person and body of Christ we see what all the previous symbols really pointed to. Edmund Clowney explained it this way: “Precisely because Christ builds the temple in himself he can build it in his disciples.The significance of the temple symbol is the reality it symbolized: the dwelling of God in the midst of his people and their gathering together to meet with him. Christ builds the temple in himself as he actualizes the saving presence of God. Christ builds the temple in his people as he gathers them to himself.”

So in the final age, the beginning of eternity, God’s presence with man will finally be fully realized.  And what a change that brings! All the pain of life will be over. No more hurt, suffering, or any of the other crap life brings.  It will all be over.  All the enemies, even death – the last enemy – will have been defeated.  For God’s covenant people, all separation will be a thing of the past, forever.  The separation between the dwelling places of God and God’s covenant people will be a thing of the past.  The separation between the saints in heaven and saints on earth will be a thing of the past, as death will be a thing of the past.  The separation between the now and not yet will be a thing of the past, as there will be no more “not yet”.  This is summed up in even the sea being gone – long a symbol of division, uncertainty, terror, etc. – there will no longer be a place for it.

And then perhaps the most beautiful depiction – and the one that the majority of the remainder of Revelation is spent on – is the New Jerusalem – the Bride of Christ!

Observation #2:  We often think of the “New Jerusalem” being a physical place, a synonym for heaven, or the “capital city” of the new creation.  Maybe, but for the remainder of this post, bear with me and consider an alternate explanation.

Rev. 21:9-11 “Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.”

Verses 9-11 seem to be as clear as it gets: the New Jerusalem is not a physical city but rather a tangible representation of the perfected covenant people of God. Historically, Jerusalem represented the place where creation came for communion with God, as the Temple was in Jerusalem. After Christ came, earthly Jerusalem was seen to be just a foreshadowing of something even greater – all the nations coming to Christ, the true Temple – and the victorious reign of the saints with Christ in heaven.  But it seems there is something even greater still to come: John sees the “New Jerusalem” – perfected community between Creator and creation – coming down to the renewed earth. It seems that at the beginning of the eternal state, the saints from all throughout history will come from heaven, more alive than they ever were, and populate the renewed earth! Terms are used to describe the perfected, purified church as being like a most rare jewel – terms intended to describe how it is more precious than anything else in the eyes of its Maker and Lover.

Rev. 21:12-22 “It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed—on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel’s measurement. The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, 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 of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass. And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.”

Also present here is much symbolism of the continuity of the people of God, using imagery of the Old Testament people, the tribes of Israel.  John describes twelve gates, twelve angels, the names of the twelve tribes, twelve foundations, twelve apostles, and measurements of 12,000 stadia and 144 cubits (12 squared).  All of these signify the covenant people of God throughout history, from the foundational twelve tribes of Israel to the prominent twelve apostles of the New Testament.  Then we also see a reference to the twelve high priestly stones (which may conjure imagery of both Christ as the great High Priest, as well as the priesthood of all believers), and finally, no temple! – because God is with his people.  The old divisions have been done away with.  The physical separation is over.  God is there. And the new heavens have also changed – they are no longer needed for light, because God’s glory now illuminates everything.  All the world – all the covenant people from all the nations – now fully acknowledge the authority of God, as there is no longer any sin or deception.

Rev. 21:23 – 22:5 “And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

 

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”

Sometimes we get so focused on the specific details (are the streets really made of gold? will I have a nice mansion in the suburbs of the heavenly city with a white picket fence? do we each get a harp?) that we miss the big picture of what is really being conveyed here:  God will be there! And for God’s covenant people, this means the waiting period is over – we will finally all be together with Him. All will be reconciled; all will be restored.  The part about the gold, and the jewels, and so on – this may not be a depiction of where we’ll live, but rather… us!  This is how much the Creator values us.  We were chosen before all eternity, bought with a price, washed in His blood, and are seen here in terms of being like exquisite gold and precious stones – high priestly stones. Don’t miss this!  This is a picture of how much you mean to God, right here in the middle of a depiction of the perfect reconciliation of the eternal state, and more time is spent on this one aspect than anything else.  And rightly so, as we are described as the bride of Christ.  Let this sink in. This is how much you are valued. Christ’s blood proves that, and this is the end result – for all eternity!  No one will doubt His love at that day.  No more will community ever be broken.  No more will anyone fear, be hurt, fail to communicate, fail to know their worth, or question the Father’s love.  There will no longer be any pain, tears, depression, mourning, or uncertainty.  All will be one hundred percent healed.  The healing that sometimes seems so elusive in the present age will be fully realized. The living water promised throughout Scripture, from the breaking of the rock in Exodus to Christ’s conversation at the well with the Samaritan woman, will flow freely. All will be healed. Everything sad will have come untrue – and then some!   All these things will be perfect, in a perfection that has not been seen since that moment in the Garden of Eden when the creation tried to be as the creator.  This will be the True Eden – the first was but a foretaste, and since then all we have had is glimpses. But one day – it won’t be just a preview, but rather the Real Thing.

Focus not so much on the details – are the streets really gold? – as much as the big picture – God is there, all is new, all is reconciled, all is restored – and this is how much he values us. No one doubts. No more will community be broken.  No more will relationships be interrupted.  No more will people fail to communicate with God or fellow man.  All these things will be perfect, in a perfection not seen since that moment in the Garden of Eden when the creation tried to be as the creator.  This will be the True Eden – the first was but a foretaste, and since then all we have had is glimpses. But one day – it won’t be just a preview, but it’ll be the Real Thing.

Are you ready?