Revelation 21:1-8

“A New Heaven and a New Earth”

Revelation 21:1

Here is a vision of the new creation. This is the “restitution of all things” to which Peter refers in Acts 3:21, and the deliverance of creation from the bondage of corruption which Paul anticipates in Romans 8:21. No words can portray in positive description what that universe will be, and even the inspired writer has to confine himself to negatives. All he does is to name various elements of terror and dread, saying: This shall not be there, nor that, nor the other, all of which are the fell brood of human sin. The one great positive blessing will be that which was given to Israel in type, but then will be the perpetual experience of the human family. Compare Revelation 21:3 and Exodus 25:8. Let us see to it that here and now the Lord Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the A and Z of our life. If so, we may even in this mortal life begin to experience the life of the redeemed. We may now inherit all these things, and know the intimacy of Revelation 21:7. But we must overcome. Note that the fearful, that is, the cowardly, who draw back in the face of opposition, are classed with the abominable and murderers.