The Victor’s Hope

The first entry in this series can be found here.
The previous entry can be found here.

A good story takes you on a ride. There are ups, downs, twists, turns, frights, and thrills. There’s parts that make you scream and parts that make you cry tears of joy. In the best stories, the conclusion satisfies. You are happy with the ending, the loose ends are tied up, and–on rare occasions (at least for me)–you are ready to start the book all over again (and the only thing that keeps you from doing so is your already-too-long reading list).

The Book of Revelation has now come to the point where we are nearing the conclusion. The action ramped up the past few weeks, but as of 20:11-15, the antagonists have all been done away with. In literary circles, we would refer to the next section (21:1-22:5) as the falling action.

John continues his Revelation of Jesus Christ by describing the Christian’s hope:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea no longer existed. I also saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.

Then I heard a loud voice from the throne:

Look! God’s dwelling is with humanity,
and He will live with them.
They will be His people,
and God Himself will be with them
and be their God.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Death will no longer exist;
grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer,
because the previous things have passed away.

Then the One seated on the throne said, “Look! I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give water as a gift to the thirsty from the spring of life. The victor will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son. But the cowards, unbelievers, vile, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars — their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.””

Revelation‬ ‭21:1-8 ‭HCSB‬‬

As I mentioned above, 20:11-15 shows the end of all antagonists to Jesus. However, 21:8 seems to repeat the message of 20:11-15. Does this mean that the story is not over yet? Weren’t they already thrown into the lake of fire?

This is a good question. And it’s one of the beautiful things about the book of Revelation. Not that people end up in the lake of fire; that’s not beautiful–it’s tragic. The beautiful thing is that the book of Revelation continually offers the blessed hope of life with God to its readers: Don’t end up damned! Choose to follow Christ instead!

And that’s one of the beautiful things about this specific text. Whereas in the literary flow of 19:11-21:8, these verses (21:1-8) occur after the final judgment, a closer look at the text reveals something else.

Trying to figure out when this takes place chronologically in history (including future history) misses the point. Some of this has already come to pass; other aspects will come to pass in the future, but since the Church is the Kingdom, God is even now doing many of these things through his Church today (this is true of the text all the way through to 22:5). It will be finally fulfilled at the second coming–the second resurrection (20:5) — but it happens in miniature even today.

This is why the Church must unite and must improve its reputation in this world. The Church is supposed to be the hands of feet of Jesus (God) in this world, but when the Church causes people pain, how can the world believe that God truly wants to wipe tears from peoples’ eyes (Revelation 21:4) or comfort the oppressed (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)? That’s right. . . . they CAN’T. We have to submit to Christ and seek to be molded and transformed by his love and grace. If we resist him, we will find ourselves spat out of his mouth on the last day (Revelation 3:16). We must repent and believe anew!

This section (21:1-22:5) is the antithesis of Revelation 17:1-19:5. There we saw the destruction of the evil world system opposed to God. Here we see the establishment of God’s eternal city — the New Jerusalem — the Church of Jesus Christ. We must recognize that whereas the world system will crumble in lament and woe, the Church marches on in joy and peace. Which one do you want to be a part of?

We will look next time at the specific contrast between the New Jerusalem and the whore of Babylon. But today, John wants to draw our attention to the promises of God for his people: Christians. He also wants to ask us if we will be victorious or not. It is to these two themes we now turn.

The believer’s guarantee

The believer is guaranteed so many things in these verses. The first thing we are guaranteed is God’s presence (21:3), in words that ring with an echo of John 1:14 — “the Word became flesh and took up residence among us” — since both texts contain forms of the word σκηνη (“tent, tabernacle”). While God physically lived on the earth for 33 years, and while he spiritually resides with us today, in the eternal state he will again physically dwell with us. This is a beautiful promise.

Another promise is that death, crying, pain, and grief will be no more. In a world racked by depression, cancer, shootings, and all the other kinds of bad news you can imagine, how utterly amazing is this promise? We can’t even begin to grasp the beauty of this promise, because we don’t have a mental category for a perfect utopia at present. We have ideas of our perfect utopia, but what about the perfect utopia for all? This eludes our mental capacities.

God says, “the previous things have passed away” (21:4), but then follows that up by saying, “I am making everything new.” Whereas the first is explained as a past reality, the latter is present. God is making everything new through his Church, his Kingdom.

This doesn’t mean pursuing a certain party’s political ends. This means preaching the gospel, converting hearts, and letting people pursue activism that betters life on this planet. The modern Western ideas of education, medicine, workers’ rights and the outlawing of the slave trade (eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) were all results of Christian influence and activism. We complain about a lot in our world today — and justifiably so — but if not for Christianity, this world would be a lot worse off. Things need help, and God has called his people not to hole up within the walls of a Church on Sunday morning and then hide their light throughout the week — but to be empowered to help make all things new throughout their week as a result of Sunday morning. What task has God called you to?

Two promises throughout this text are expanded in later texts. The promise of the New Jerusalem coming out of heaven (21:2) will be expanded next time in 21:9-27, and the promise of the water from the spring of life (21:6b) will be expanded in 22:1-5.

Finally, God declares that “It is done.”

What is done?

It is worth noting that this term is different from the phrase “It is finished” in John 19:30. So this is not referring to Jesus’ work on the cross. Rather, this text matches the declaration in Revelation 16:17. It is probably valid to understand the text in Revelation 16:17-21 as taking place at the same time as Revelation 20:7-10. Thus, the thing that is “done” here in 21:6 is the whole saga of redemption. Judgment has concluded and eternal life has been fully realized.

Are you a victor?

The last two verses of this section describe the victors–those who finally will inherit eternal life. The victors are described positively as children of God. The specific reference to “son” is because in the ancient world it was usually only sons who were eligible for inheritance (though cf. Numbers 27:1-11).

However, the main description of the victors is given in negative terms. Victors are “not cowards, unbelievers, vile, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, or liars.”

• Cowards would be likely to recant to escape persecution (cf. 2:13; 13:10; 14:12).
• Unbelievers are missing the basic Christian qualification (cf. 2:10, 13, 19).
• Vile is a description of the enemy of the Church and the antithesis of the New Jerusalem, the Whore of Babylon (cf. 17:4-5).
• Murderers hate life (cf. 9:21; 21:6; 22:1-2, 14).
• Sexual immorality is a repeated emphasis in Revelation (cf. 2:14, 20-21; 9:21; 14:4, 8; 17:1-2, 4-5, 15-16; 18:3, 9; 19:2).
• Sorcerers seek spiritual control apart from God’s way (cf. 9:21).
• Idolaters worship things besides God (cf. 7:15; 22:3).
• Liars are incompatible with the one who is Faithful and True (cf. 2:2; 3:9; 14:5).

We could take the time to convict people of these sins and reiterate the danger of continuing in them, but instead of that, I would simply ask: Have you trusted in Christ?

If you have, John says Jesus “has set us free from our sins by His blood” (1:5).

And I know how difficult it is to break free from patterns of sin. I can’t speak to what these verses mean about continued struggle, though I choose to believe that God is gracious, that the Lord who ate with sinners doesn’t expect immediate perfection.

But if you don’t think your sinful lifestyle (the one described in Revelation 21:8) is a problem, then you’re going to be severely disappointed.

Become a victor and leave your life of sin! Enjoy the benefits of eternal life — even today!

In this with you.

Thanks for reading.

The next entry can be found here.

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