Revelation 21:7

These verses come straight after the great white throne, where the dead are judged and death and hell are cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11–15). Satan has been defeated and the conflict of Revelation 20 is over. John now turns from judgment to the new creation, and the rest of Revelation 21 and Revelation 22 describe it. The Bible that opens with God creating the heavens and the earth closes with him making them new, and the story that began in a garden ends in a city.

John wrote to churches under heavy persecution, likely in the reign of the emperor Domitian, who demanded that people worship the emperor. To believers who were losing their goods, their freedom and their lives, this vision said that God wins and that his kingdom will stand.

What John sees had been promised long before. Through Isaiah God said, “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind” (Isaiah 65:17), and he promised that the new heavens and the new earth would remain before him (Isaiah 66:22). Peter wrote, “we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13). Hebrews says that God will shake heaven and earth once more, removing the things that are shaken so that the things which cannot be shaken may remain (Hebrews 12:26–27).

The word for new, kainós, is the ordinary Greek word for new. It can mean recent, as of the new tomb where Jesus was laid, and it can mean fresh and unused, or new in the sense of better than the old. Everything around it here points to that last sense: a heaven and an earth free of the curse, the decay and the sorrow that marked the first. The first heaven and earth “were passed away”. The verb, parérchomai, is the common word for passing, for going by or going away, and here it marks the end of the old order.

“And I John saw.” John names himself as the witness of what he saw. The verb eídō is the plain word for seeing, used of the eyes and of the mind, and this sight is a revelation because God is the one showing it. John sees “the holy city, new Jerusalem”. Holy means set apart for God and free of all defilement. The earthly Jerusalem had been the centre of Israel’s worship and life, and it had also been corrupted and destroyed, so the name tells John’s readers that God’s city has come in its final and perfect form.

The hope of a heavenly Jerusalem was already known among God’s people. Abraham “looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10), and Paul writes, “But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all” (Galatians 4:26).

The city comes “down from God out of heaven”. It is God’s gift, made by him and given by him, and its coming down means that God’s dwelling and his people’s home now meet. Our final home is something he prepares for us, and it is his doing from first to last.

John then hears “a great voice out of heaven”. It speaks with heaven’s own authority, and what it says is the heart of the vision. The new creation is glorious because God himself is in it.

“Behold” (idoú) calls us to look. “The tabernacle of God is with men.” The word skēnḗ means a tent or booth, and it recalls the tabernacle Israel carried through the wilderness. God told Moses, “let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8), and promised, “I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God” (Exodus 29:45). Later came Solomon’s temple. In both, God’s presence was real and also veiled, and sinful people came near only through priests and sacrifices. The verb “he will dwell”, skēnóō, comes from the same word and means to pitch a tent, to live among, as God did in the tabernacle of old. Here the dwelling is for ever.

The prophets looked for this day. Through Ezekiel God promised, “My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Ezekiel 37:27), as part of his everlasting covenant of peace (Ezekiel 37:26–28). Israel, having lived through exile and the loss of the temple, longed for it. In the new Jerusalem John sees no temple, “for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it” (Revelation 21:22), and God’s servants “shall see his face” (Revelation 22:4).

“They shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.” These are the words of God’s covenant, repeated through Scripture, as in “and will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33). The word for people, laós, is a common word for a people or for the people at large, and what makes these people his is the promise itself: God claims them, and he gives himself to them. “God himself” stresses that he is present directly, and “with them” comes twice in the one verse. All that sin had broken between God and man, from Eden onward, is restored.

The same verb is used of Jesus: “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). He is Immanuel, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). Since his resurrection and ascension the Holy Spirit lives in believers, so that the body is “the temple of the Holy Ghost” (1 Corinthians 6:19) and the church grows into “an habitation of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:21–22). What we know of God’s presence now is a foretaste of this verse, where the throne of God and of the Lamb stands among his people and they see his face (Revelation 22:3–4).

The first thing said of God living among his people is that he wipes away their tears, and he does it himself. The verb exaleíphō means to smear out or blot out, the word for erasing something, and it is also used for blotting out sin. God takes away the tears and everything that caused them, and the sorrows of the past are fully healed. Isaiah foretold it: “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces” (Isaiah 25:8). Earlier in Revelation the Lamb leads his people to living fountains of waters, “and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes” (Revelation 7:17).

Then come four things that end. Death, thánatos, from the verb thnḗskō, “to die”, is named first, the enemy Paul calls “the last enemy that shall be destroyed” (1 Corinthians 15:26). Sorrow, pénthos, is grief and mourning. Crying, kraugḗ, is the outcry of distress. Pain, pónos, is toil and anguish, the hard labour and suffering of body and mind in a fallen world. Together they cover the whole range of human suffering, and the repeated “no more” and “neither” leave all of it behind.

“For the former things are passed away” gives the reason. The former things are the old order, marked by sin, decay, suffering and death, and the verb here, apérchomai, means to go away or depart. The first readers knew suffering well: the loss of loved ones, rejection by their neighbours, prison and martyrdom. To them, and to every believer who has wept, God promises a day when he himself comforts his people. Paul calls our present troubles “light affliction, which is but for a moment”, set beside “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17).

Now, for the first time in this vision, “he that sat upon the throne” speaks. It is God himself, enthroned over all things, and his throne stands above every emperor who demanded worship from John’s readers. “Behold, I make all things new” sums up everything John has seen. “All things” takes in the heavens and the earth, God’s people in body and soul, and the moral order itself, cleansed of sin, suffering and decay. The word is kainós again, the new that is better than the old.

God has always been the God of new things. Through Isaiah he said, “Behold, I will do a new thing” (Isaiah 43:19). Hebrews says that in speaking of a new covenant “he hath made the first old” (Hebrews 8:13). Through Christ God reconciles all things to himself (Colossians 1:20), and he has already begun the work in everyone who is in Christ, the new creature of 2 Corinthians 5:17. The newness that starts in a believer’s heart now will one day fill the whole creation.

Then God tells John, “Write: for these words are true and faithful.” The command to write, gráphō, preserves the message for every generation of believers, much as the LORD told Habakkuk to write the vision and make it plain. True, alēthinós, means truthful, genuine and real. Faithful, pistós, means trustworthy and dependable. So these words describe what will really happen, and God will keep them. Christ himself bears the same two names, for the rider on the white horse “was called Faithful and True” (Revelation 19:11), and he is the Word of God (John 1:1) made flesh (John 1:14).

“It is done” translates a single Greek word, gegonen, from gínomai, “to become, to come into being”. Its tense marks something that has come about and stands. All that God has promised, the defeat of evil, the new creation and his dwelling with his people, is as good as accomplished. On the cross Jesus cried “It is finished” (John 19:30), using a different word, tetelestai. The two belong together: the cross completed the work of redemption, and these words announce its full result in the new creation.

“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.” Alpha, A, is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, and Omega is the last, so the title takes in everything from first to last. God is the source from whom all things come and the goal to which all things move, and all of history is in his hand. The God who began the work of creation and redemption is the God who finishes it. Jesus takes the same title, “the beginning and the end, the first and the last” (Revelation 22:13), for the Son shares the Father’s eternal rule.

“I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.” To be athirst, dipsáō, is to thirst, literally or figuratively, and here it is the deep longing of a soul that only God can satisfy. The promise is for those who know their need. A fountain is a spring that keeps flowing, and the water of life is God’s own life and grace, given in a supply that never runs dry. “Freely”, dōreán, means as a gift, at no cost. Nobody earns or buys this water. God’s invitation has always been in these terms: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1).

Jesus made the same offer in person. He told the woman of Samaria about living water (John 4:10–14), saying, “whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst” (John 4:14). At the feast he cried, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” (John 7:37). In the city John sees a pure river of water of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Revelation 22:1), and the book closes with the invitation still open: “whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17).

“He that overcometh” uses the verb nikáō, to conquer, prevail or get the victory. It runs through the letters to the seven churches (Revelation 2–3), where each letter ends with a promise to the one who overcomes: to eat of the tree of life (Revelation 2:7), to be clothed in white with his name kept in the book of life (Revelation 3:5), and to sit with Christ on his throne (Revelation 3:21). For John’s readers, overcoming meant staying faithful to Christ under persecution, false teaching and the pull of the world. The victory comes through faith in the one who has already won it. Jesus said, “be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33), and John writes, “this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (1 John 5:4–5). On the cross Christ triumphed over the powers of darkness (Colossians 2:15), and his people overcome in him.

The overcomer “shall inherit all things”. The verb klēronoméō means to be an heir, to receive something by inheritance. An inheritance comes to a child because of who the child is, and it is God’s gift to his children by grace. “All things” is the whole of the new creation: the city, the water of life, freedom from sorrow, and above all God’s presence. Those who wash their robes have the right to the tree of life and enter the city (Revelation 22:14). Christ is the true heir, for all things were made by him and for him (Colossians 1:16–17), and believers are “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17).

“I will be his God, and he shall be my son.” The covenant promise of verse 3 is now spoken to each overcomer, and it is made even closer. God promised David concerning his son, “I will be his father, and he shall be my son” (2 Samuel 7:14), and that same promise is now given to everyone who overcomes through Christ, son and daughter alike. The word huiós, son, speaks of a child who belongs in the family with all its love and security. This is adoption. God sent his Son so that we might receive the adoption of sons and cry, “Abba, Father” (Galatians 4:5–7), “Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:7). John marvels at it: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God” (1 John 3:1–2).

The promise to the overcomer is followed at once by a solemn warning. God’s grace is offered freely to all, and those who refuse it to the end have no share in the city. The list describes lives and hearts set against God, with unbelief at the root of them.

• “the fearful”: The word deilós means cowardly or fearful. Jesus used it when the disciples panicked in the storm, “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26, Mark 4:40). Here it describes those who, for fear of persecution, deny Christ or give up their faith, and so choose their own safety over him.
• “and unbelieving”: ápistos means disbelieving or faithless, those who refuse to trust Christ and reject God’s truth.
• “and the abominable”: those who are detestable to God, a word often joined with idolatry and impurity.
• “and murderers, and whoremongers”: those who take life unjustly, and those who live in sexual immorality.
• “and sorcerers”: pharmakeús, one who practises magic and witchcraft, which in that world often used drugs in its rituals, and which Scripture condemns.
• “and idolaters”: eidōlolátrēs, those who worship anything other than the one true God. For John’s readers that included the emperor cult and the many gods of the Greeks and Romans.
• “and all liars”: all who live in deceit, set against the God whose words are “true and faithful”.

“Shall have their part”: méros is a part, share or portion. The overcomer’s share is all things, and this is the share of the others. “The lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” brings together límnē, a lake, kaíō, to burn, pŷr, fire, and theîon, sulphur or brimstone. It recalls the brimstone and fire the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24). Jesus speaks of “everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41), and Hebrews warns those who go on sinning wilfully after knowing the truth of “a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation” (Hebrews 10:26–27).

“Which is the second death.” Deúteros means second, and with thánatos it names the death that follows the first. The first death is the death of the body, which came into the world through sin and passed upon all men (Romans 5:12). The second death is the lake of fire itself (Revelation 20:14), final separation from God, the source of all life. “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Over those who belong to Christ, “the second death hath no power” (Revelation 20:6).

Every promise in these verses rests on Jesus Christ. By him “were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible” (Colossians 1:16), and the one who made the first creation makes the new one. His resurrection is “the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20), the first part of the new creation and the pledge of the rest. As the last Adam he undoes the curse brought by the first, so that in the city “there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it” (Revelation 22:3), and his servants serve him and reign for ever (Revelation 22:3–5).

He is “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), dealing with the root of all our tears. Through death he destroyed him that had the power of death and delivered those who through fear of death were held in bondage (Hebrews 2:14–15). Because of him Paul can write, “Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54–57), and Jesus can say, “I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death” (Revelation 1:18).

Verse 8 shows us what we were. Every one of us is by nature unbelieving, prone to fear and caught in sin, and Christ is the only way out of the lake of fire. “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). He offers faith that casts out fear and eternal life to all who believe (John 3:16), and he cleanses and changes the hearts of those who come to him, making them fit for the city. He is the resurrection and the life, and “whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:25–26).

The suffering, injustice and decay of this world belong to the former things, and they are passing. God’s plan reaches beyond rescuing us from the world to remaking the world we will live in with him, and he has written it down so that we can rely on it. That gives us strength to endure with patience, knowing that our afflictions are light and short beside what is coming.

The promise shapes how we live now. A bride is being made ready, and so we pursue holiness, living by the values of the kingdom that is coming. The God who will dwell with us already lives in us by his Spirit, and we can come to him today. And the water of life is still offered freely. Whoever is thirsty may come to Christ and drink, and the God who says “It is done” will finish all he has begun.