Revelation 21:1-8 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and 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 all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
This new Jerusalem
which John saw in his vision is the picture of our coming again into the realization of our oneness with our Father that Jesus prayed for in John 17. In this state of consciousness (which might also be called the kingdom of heaven, the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15), the Paradise of God (Revelation 2:7), the secret place of the Most High (Psalms 91:1) or Father’s house
from which all we prodigals wandered far (Luke 15:11ff) and to which we must all return) is the place where one experiences the righteousness, peace and joy which characterizes the kingdom of heaven (Romans 14:17 ) For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost).
As Paul reminds us, it is not meat and drink
; it is not about what we do or don’t do, but is rather about our knowing that we are dwelling in God and He is dwelling in us —and we are one. It is a place where God wipes away the tears that have come to us in this world
of sorrow, pain and death, the world
of our own creating by our belief in our separation from our Father. It is a place where the first heaven and the first earth
(heaven and earth as we conceived them to be), these former things are passed away.
It is a place where we know that in Christ it is done
or finished
—that He is the beginning and the end,
that He is all and is in all. It is a place where we again hear the great voice out of heaven
telling us that we are in God and He is in us. It is the place where the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations,
the mystery which is Christ in you, the hope of glory
(Colossians 1:26-27) has come to fruition in our lives.
It is the place where our thirst to know God is at last quenched as we drink freely
from the fountain of the water of life
which Jesus told us would flow out of our innermost man:
John 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
It is the place where we come into the recognition that we have at last returned to the bosom of the Father
(John 1:18), a place where we shall know even as also we are known
(1Corinthians 13:12) and these words of John will have become a reality to us:
1John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
For God will have appeared
as our God from whom we at long last accept our inheritance as His sons.
We have thought that all this is referring to a future event which takes place after we die. But notice that in John’s vision, the Christ instructs John to write
the true and faithful
words. And that John does. In the verse quoted above, he wrote, NOW are we the sons of God.
And in that same book, John wrote ever so much more. He wrote that our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ
and went on to say, These things write we unto you, that your joy may be full
(1John 1:3-4). He had been with Jesus and had seen eternal life manifested
(v 2). He had both looked upon
and handled
the Word of life
(v 1).
Reading this book of John, I must confess, has brought me more fear than comfort. Verses like the following have frightened me terribly:
1John 2:3-6 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
Jesus showed us clearly that we are incapable of keeping the commandments when he told us that our righteousness must EXCEED that of the Pharisees or we couldn’t enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:20). This same Jesus prayed that we would know the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent
(John 17:3). Now John appears to be saying that if we don’t keep His commandments, we cannot know him. We want to keep them, but we cannot. We cry out with Paul, O wretched man that I am? who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
(Romans 7:24). And we must find the same answer to our cry that Paul (and everyone else) has to find, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord
(v 25). We have to know, as John did, that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin
(carnal thinking that of myself I can do anything) (1John 1:7).
We read later in this book, Whosoever is born of God sinneth not
(1John 5:18) even though earlier John had written, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us
(1John 1:8) and that if we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us
(1John 1:10). We do indeed need the Spirit of Truth
to guide us into the truth of these seemingly contradictory statements (John 14:17; 16:13). We also need to know Him as Comforter
as we deal with the discomfort we can receive from misreading these Scriptures.
The only possible way I can see to read these Scriptures is to make the distinction which Paul made between the old man
or body of sin
(Romans 6:6) (our belief in an identity apart from God —which Jesus destroyed on the cross) and the new creature
—the man who is in Christ
(2Corinthians 5:17) or who has Christ as his true identity, the one whose false identity has been crucified with Christ so that Christ is living as him (Galatians 2:20). I think we would all agree that the Christ cannot
sin —hence John’s statement, Whosoever is born of God sinneth not
(1John 5:18). What is the new birth except the recognition that Christ is my very life? (Colossians 3:4).
As we read 1John with these distinctions in mind, we can find much comfort from the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth leading us into all truth. Our joy can indeed be full
(1John 1:4) when we realize that the government of our lives is on the shoulder of that Christ child which has been born in the manger of our very own hearts and is living the life that is pleasing in his sight
(1John 3:22), when we realize that truly we are dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God
(Colossians 3:3). We can indeed rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory
(1Peter 1:8) when we understand that Jesus took upon Himself that false identity and took it to the death and raised us with Him into this new life (Romans 6:4-6) of righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost
(Romans 14:17) —life in the New Jerusalem
where the tears are wiped away and all fear is gone.
It is again John who writes
and tells us by what means fear is removed from our lives.
1John 4:18-19 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us.
We know John as the disciple of love.
I think it very telling that he himself wrote this Scripture referring to himself:
John 13:23 Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.
This tells me that John knew for a certainty that he was loved by God; and of course that perfect love cast all fear from John. He knew that it was not his ability to love, but rather the love of God [which] is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us
(Romans 5:5) that would do all the loving John speaks about in 1John. He understood that the Christ in him would walk just as the Christ in Jesus walked (1John 2:6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.) —for it is the same Christ which was before Abraham
(John 8:58), before there was a descendant of Abraham called Jesus,
the same Christ that walked in Jesus. John knew that the Christ that was living in him could not hate his brother
(1John 2:10), for that Christ is not ashamed to call every man His brother (Hebrews 2:11).
John knew that the Christ that was living in him could not love the things of this world,
(1John 2:15) though of course this same John tells us in his gospel that God so loved the world
that He gave Himself to be us. This of course is not speaking of the world’s systems, but rather of all of us who felt we were living apart from God. And John knew that the Christ always did the will of God and would abide forever
(v 17).
This contemplation is not to be a detailed study of 1John, but rather, as the title indicates, a look at the meaning of the New Jerusalem. However, I don’t wish to leave the book without calling attention to John’s assurance that
1John 2:27 … the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
This anointing
is that Spirit of Truth Jesus promised to us and upon which we can depend to guide us into all truth.
We also want to partake of the comfort which comes from this verse:
1John 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God:
This takes us back to the New Jerusalem where we started, the place where God promises that He will be our God and we will be His son (Revelation 21:7).
But it is quite jarring to read the very next verse:
Revelation 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
If we read this verse literally, by the letter
which Scripture itself tells us killeth
(2Corinthians 3:6), we must assume that God is assigning to eternal torment everyone falling into the above categories, which would include most of us —since the first two categories are the fearful
and the unbelieving.
But we have just read in 1John that perfect love casts out all that fear which has torment (4:18).
And what is the second death
? We read earlier in Revelation that
Revelation 20:14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
So the second death cannot be our being assigned to eternal torment since both death and hell itself are cast into the lake of fire. If we accept that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation
(2Corinthians 5:19), how can we also accept that He does impute our trespasses unto us and renders the punishment of everlasting torment? Either Jesus (who of course is God) took upon Himself those trespasses, or we bear them ourselves.
I believe our answer comes from Paul when he tells us that every man’s work shall be revealed by fire
and that if any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire
(1Corinthians 3:13,15). John tells us that God is love
while the writer of Hebrews tells us that our God is a consuming fire
(12:29). This of course is a quotation of Deuteronomy 4:24 (KJV) which adds that He is a jealous God.
All this says to me that as long as we believe that our old man
(our humanity) is our identity and live our lives out of that identity, we will produce the works of the flesh
listed in Galatians 5:19 (KJV)ff, a list very like the one in Revelation 21. Paul adds that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God
(v 21). We are the prodigal who, although he squandered his inheritance, has all of it yet awaiting him when he comes to himself
and returns to Father’s house —or the kingdom of God, or the New Jerusalem.
And those works of the flesh
must be burned by the fire of God; for He is indeed a jealous
God who loves us far too much to not strip from us all that keeps us from experiencing His perfect love —the love that will cast out all the fear of wrath and judgment.
Jesus told us
John 5:22 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:
and
John 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
And of course we know that the Son does only what He sees His Father doing (John 5:19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.) He is doing what He sees the Father do when He says to the woman caught in adultery, Neither do I condemn thee
(John 8:11).
But I am here to personally testify that it does indeed FEEL like wrath and judgment when
Matthew 15:13 … Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.
When all that I have produced in my humanity (good, bad or indifferent) begins to be rooted up,
stripped away or burned up in the fire of God’s love, I feel as if I am experiencing the second death
—the first death
being the belief that I am separated from God, the death that God was referring to when He said that in the day we ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil we would surely die (Genesis 2:17). That was the day we took power from God Omnipotent and ascribed it to evil, the day we left the Garden of Eden (the kingdom of God which was all good and very good
) for this world
of both good and evil.
But this rooting up
is actually God’s love bringing me to the place of knowing that of mine own self I can do nothing
so that I am willing to let that self
(old man
) go to the death and be resurrected into the Christ identity. I am experiencing Jesus’ words:
Matthew 16:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
Crucifixion is not a pleasant affair. Paul tells us that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God
(Acts 14:22). We must experience a birth, the birth of the Christ. Paul uses this metaphor:
Galatians 4:19 ) My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
And in Revelation 12 we have a description of the birthing of this child.
We find the great red dragon
(all our false beliefs about God and our relationship to Him) ready to devour this child as soon as it is born
(v 4). All the voices in the universe that are not God’s voice are telling us that it is blasphemy to believe that the Christ could be birthed in us and that we could actually enter into that kingdom where that same Christ rules over the nations
(all our false beliefs) with a rod of iron
(v 5). But we read that the child is brought forth and is caught up unto God, and to his throne
(v 5). And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God
(v 6) —and the war in heaven
begins. This is the stripping away of the false identity; it is a war
taking place as the false beliefs war against the truth.
But we can take heart. We are in a place prepared of God
and know that however fierce the war, the Devil, the Satan, which deceiveth the whole world
(the old man
) is cast out.
Now comes the joy unspeakable and full of glory.
Revelation 12:10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
Now the Christ is birthed in us and we have entered the kingdom of heaven. Our false identity is under the power of the Christ in us and cannot accuse us any more. We thought the accusations were coming from God; but, no, we were always in the Presence of God as our false identity before our God
accused us both day and night.
Then comes the verse which has puzzled so many of us:
Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
Of course we know that the blood of the Lamb
cleansed us from the sin
of believing that we were separate from God our Father by destroying that old man
on the cross. What I want to emphasize is they loved not their lives unto the death.
Remember, Jesus told us that we must lose
our life and Paul tells us that we must reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord
(Romans 6:11).
There is no getting around it; the false identity has to go to the death in order for the Christ to be birthed in us. Every work of that old man
must be burned so that the Father that dwells in us can do the works as we present to Him our bodies as a living sacrifice
(Romans 12:1) to do His works through. No longer will we even attempt to love or do good works in our humanity (which is dead); we will just keep our minds stayed
on Him and put all our trust in Him —which will result in our experiencing perfect peace
(Isaiah 26:3), the peace that the Christ inside gives, the peace the world cannot give; then our hearts are no longer troubled
and afraid
(John 14:27).
We have returned to Father’s house from whence we wandered and have found rest for our souls
(Matthew 11:29). The New Jerusalem has descended out of heaven, and our dwelling place is again in God our Father.