The Vision of the Completion of the New Covenant – Part 2

The book of Revelation is the last book of the New Testament. It is the end of the New Testament just as the book of Matthew is the beginning. But it is also the end in another sense. It is the book that presents the completion of the new covenant taught about in the New Testament, the end or goal toward which the new covenant and God’s entire plan are leading.

The majority of the book of Revelation is a series of visions and explanations of those visions. The very last vision in the final two chapters, Revelation 21 and 22, is a vision of the completed plan of God, the human race as God wanted it to be from the beginning and will bring it to be in the end. It is this that we will focus on.

The wedding (marriage) of the Lamb. Just before the final vision, there are two preparatory visions. The first is the vision of the whore of Babylon, the city that represents the worldly, idolatrous society and civilization that stands opposed to God’s plan for the human race and persecutes the saints of God. Its ruler is ultimately Satan, the dragon, the prince of this world. The second is the vision of the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, come down from heaven in his Second Coming. He engages in the last battle when he destroys the kingdom of Satan on earth.

Before Christ comes down, however, there is an anticipatory celebration of what he will accomplish:

“Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals, crying,

‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure”—
for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.”’ 

Revelation 19:6–9

The result of the Second Coming will be the marriage of the Lamb, Jesus Christ.

We use the word “marriage” to speak of two different but related things. We use it to speak of the relationship of husband and wife, which endures, hopefully, throughout life. We also use it to speak of the process that begins or institutes their marriage relationship. In the latter sense, the chief step is the wedding, which is often simply called the marriage. We say, “My friend invited me to his marriage,” meaning to be present when he got married.

The New Jerusalem. The last vision begins with an annunciation of what John, the author of Revelation, was seeing:

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 of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.

And he who sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 

Revelation 21:1–5

The vision is a vision of the new heaven and new earth, prophesied in Isaiah 65:17–25. At the end, God is not just going to rescue the human race and “bring them to heaven.” He is going to re-create everything, including the earth, the place where human beings live, so that it will be the way he wants it to be. As a result, the effects of fallenness, the mourning and crying and pain and especially death will be gone. Everything will be on earth as it is in heaven (Mt 6:10). Heaven will be joined to earth in a new way.

The vision is also a vision of a city, the new Jerusalem, the restored Jerusalem prophesied in Isaiah 65:17–25, now brought into existence as part of the creation of the new heaven and earth. This city stands in contrast to the whore of Babylon, and is presented as a virgin bride, a people faithful to their covenanted Lord and not having adulterous intercourse with idols and false gods. The bride is adorned for her husband, that is, clothed in the righteous deeds of the saints (Rev 19:8).

This city is coming down out of heaven. It is not built up by human hands, a city and tower of Babel or Babylon, reaching up to heaven, claiming equality with God. It is constituted by a relationship with God, coming from God himself and offered to the human race, to establish it as a people of God, a community in Christ. It is, as a loud voice from the throne of God proclaims, both a temple, a place where God will dwell with human beings, and a covenant relationship uniting God and human beings so that he will be their God and they shall be his people.

The final vision in Revelation begins with another proclamation from God the Father, the one who sat upon the throne:

“And he who sat upon the throne … said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the fountain of the water of life without payment. He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be his God and he shall be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.’” 

Revelation 21:5–8

God proclaims that it is done! This is the true completion of all the work which God had done in his creation (Genesis 2:3). The proclamation is a promise to those who hear – a promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit, the fountain of the water of life and the heritage or inheritance of the relationship of sonship with God, the full blessing of Abraham spoken about in Galatians 3:14. Those who thirsted in their earthly life for God and his life will have this. Those who lived in wickedness and immorality cannot have this, but will experience the second death.

Then an angel from heaven comes to John and summons him to a fuller view of the new Jerusalem. Like all the visions in the book of Revelation, it is a composite picture, in this case, a picture of the things that have been prophesied about the completion or consummation of all things.

“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 in the Spirit he carried me away 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. 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 the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

“And he who talked to 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 breadth; and he measured the city with his rod, twelve thousand stadia; its length and breadth and height are equal. He also measured its wall, a hundred and forty-four cubits by a man’s measure, that is, an angel’s. The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, clear as glass. The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every 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, transparent as glass.” 

Revelation 21:9–21

John was taken up to a great high mountain, like the mountain that Ezekiel was taken to so he could see the new Jerusalem (Ezekiel 40:2). The city was a cube, a holy of holies like the holy of holies on earth (also a cube), and was coming down onto that mountain. The city had a wall with twelve gates and twelve foundations. The gates had the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel, the twelve patriarchs who were the sons of Jacob, the ancestors of the old covenant people of God. The foundations had the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, the “patriarchs” of the new covenant. Together they made up the twenty-four elders (Revelation 4:4), who functioned as a wall to protect the city of God. The city was a new covenant city built upon the Apostles who established the new Israel out of the twelve tribes of the old covenant Israel.

The city was adorned with twelve stones, like the robe of the high priest when he officiated in the temple (Exodus 28:17–20) and like the robe of Adam in paradise (Ezekiel 28:13). It was built of pure gold, itself like a most rare jewel. But first and foremost, it had the glory of God. The city was a temple and was arrayed in priestly adornments, because God dwelt in it. But God’s presence had so filled this temple, his glory was so fully entered into a material medium, that the city was like clear glass, radiant with or glowing with God’s glory. John saw a city, but at the same time he saw the manifest presence of God on earth.

Having viewed the city from the outside, John was then enabled to view the city from the inside:

“And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light shall the nations walk; and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory into it, and its gates shall never be shut by day – and there shall be no night there; they shall bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean shall enter it, nor any one who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” 

Revelation 21:22–27

John saw no temple building in the city. The city itself was a holy of holies. The temple for this city was simply the indwelling presence in it of the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb, which no longer needed to be distanced and so veiled from the people by an intervening material form.

Moreover, the glory of God is its light and its lamp is the Lamb. The Lamb is the lamp or the lampstand or the candlestick, depending on how the word is translated. He is the incarnate one, a material being within this world, but he contains the glory of God, which is light, and he is so transparent that that light is a light for the whole city of God. Paul saw the glory of God in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). John now sees Christ, the lamb of God himself, and from him the glory of God shines and fills the city. The whole city becomes a holy of holies because the glorified Christ is present in it with his divine glory fully manifested or unveiled and reaching everything.

To this city that is a temple the nations, the Gentiles, will have full access and will come through its open gates as prophesied (Isaiah 60:11). They will bring all the wealth they have to make offerings to God, glory here probably meaning, as it often does, “wealth.” This city is the new Jerusalem. Jerusalem was and is the city of David, the city of the anointed king, the messiah. It is the capital of the land the Lord gave his people and the place of government of those people. It is also the place where the Lord God’s people come up to keep festival. It was prophesied that at the end all the nations would come up and celebrate the feast of Tabernacles with the Jewish people in Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:16–21), and that is being described here.

All the nations will come up to the new Jerusalem, but not every individual. Only those written in the Lamb’s book of life, only those who belong to Christ, will come. They come because they have submitted to Christ, their king and Lord, and now bring the gifts that express that submission. As in the initial proclamation, the human race has been sorted out. Those who have been committed to and practiced immorality and uncleanness will be banished. Those who belong to the Lamb and are clothed in the righteous deeds of the saints will enter.

The vision continues. Now John sees the life of those who live in the city keeping festival:

“Then he 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; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There shall no more be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall worship him; they shall see his face, and his name shall be on their foreheads. And night shall be no more; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they shall reign for ever and ever.” 

Revelation 22:1–5

The water of life, as we have already seen, is the Holy Spirit. That water flows from the throne of God and the Lamb in the temple, as in the prophecy of Ezekiel 47. It gives life to the city. This expresses the old truth from the beginning that God’s creation only finds life and blessing in God’s kingdom. It is only when God rules and when rational creatures submit to that rule that they have true life.

The water of life allows the tree of life to grow in the city of God. Paradise, the Garden of Eden, is restored in the city. The tree of life has become twelve trees, providing food for each month of the year and for each tribe of the people of God, which now includes all the nations of the earth. They come to the city of God and find healing and life in it. The wounds of sin and fallenness are gone, and the wholeness of new life prevails.

All that is accursed is now gone from the city and therefore from the restored human race. Such things cannot exist in the presence of God and cannot exist where his rule is effective. The throne of God and the Lamb are in the city, and that which is accursed has been destroyed. Only the holy can stand God’s presence.

The inhabitants of the city of God are his servants, a priestly people. They are keeping festival there, worshipping him. The image is not one of an overlong liturgy, sure to tire everyone out. It is an image of a liturgical celebration, including a banquet, a celebrative meal, with much singing and dancing and dramatic events. It is the image of people rejoicing in what God has done.

The source of that joy is God himself. This is the beatific vision. That phrase means a sight that by itself is enough to make people blessed or happy. The sight is the sight of God. Now his servants can see his face. They do not see him as in a dark mirror where they can barely make out who he is (1 Corinthians 13:12), as they did in the first stage of the new covenant where they walked by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:6). They see him face to face. They can see him this way, and they can have confidence that they will always remain there, because his name is on their forehead, as it was on the crown of the old covenant high priest (Exodus 28:36; 39:30). They belong to him and will belong to him for all eternity in his everlasting covenant.

Night will be no more. The old sources of light, sun by day and lamp by night, are no longer needed (Is 60:19). As this description began (in verses 22:22–23), so it ends. God is the light of the city of God. His presence, like the presence of the sun in the material world, brings the warmth and light that allows human beings to stay alive and to function as human beings. Life flows from the throne. The glory of God in the kingdom of God fills the city of God with life and blessing.

God’s servants shall reign forever and ever. They keep festival, but they also care for God’s material creation, bringing it to the purpose for which God made it. The whole of creation, tended by the hands of the new human beings, becomes a perfect material reflection of the immaterial glory of God.

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This article, The Vision of the Completion of the New Covenant: Christ’s Second Coming – Part 2, © 2017 by Stephen B. Clark is excerpted from Reading the Old Testament in the Light of the New: The Stages of God’s Plan, Chapter 11, published by Emmaus Road Publishing, Steubenville, Ohio, USA.

• The Completion of the New Covenant: Christ’s First & Second Coming – Part 1
• The Vision of the Completion of the New Covenant – Part 2
•  The Beginning and the End – Part 3

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¹ Christopher West, The Theology of the Body Explained: A Commentary on John Paul II’s “Gospel of the Body” (Boston: Pauline Books & Media, 2003), 12.