Heaven Is a Place on Earth: Daily Thoughts from Revelation (Revelation 21:1-8)

John Lennon wrote, “Imagine there’s no heaven. It’s easy if you try. No hell below us. Above us only sky.” But in fact, we’re to imagine just the opposite. And even though no imagining can begin to encompass the glory of that place, we must try.

John gets a glimpse of it and does his best to describe it to us.

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

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he 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 spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”(Revelation 21:1-8, ESV)

Now that death has been done away with and Satan has been removed forever, it is time for life on earth to be what it was always meant to be, a domicile in which we and God live together in perfect love.  It is time for a new heaven and earth where there is no symbol of utter chaos, the sea, but only order and peace.  This is the dwelling place of the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city of God come down to earth.

Then is fulfilled in its most complete way the promise God has made His people from the beginning:  You will be my people and I will be your God and I will dwell among you (for example, Leviticus 26:11,12).  And when God dwells among us He will remove all sources of pain and sorrow.  To be in His presence in this way means no more suffering of any kind.  “Death shall be no more.”

The Father declares that He is making all things new.  I like new things.  But new things wear out and become old things.  This world has become old and needs renewing.  It has suffered the deterioration of mankind’s sin.  We need to be made new, too, and God is going to accomplish all that.

He is the alpha and omega (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet), the first and the last, the beginning and the end.  He alone has this kind of eternal existence and what He began is all coming back to focus on Him.

His promise to those who have conquered, that is, who have kept the faith no matter what, is that they will drink from the water of life freely and will enjoy that unique relationship a father has with his son.

There will be no place in God’s world, however, for the cowardly (those who love their lives more than Christ), the faithless who will not put their trust in Him, the detestable who do detestable things, those who take the lives of God’s precious human creatures, those who practice immorality and sorcery and idolatry, and those who lie.  The lake of fire is their destination and abode.

This is heaven, and heaven is heaven on earth, the renewed earth. This is family as it was meant to be. This is what our hearts have longed for all along. Nothing will be able to spoil this Eden. Not even us. Are you ready?