The Great Renovation Text: Revelation 21:1-8
Introduction: God Doesn't Junk His Projects
There is a strain of popular evangelical piety that views this world as a sinking ship, a burning building from which we must evacuate souls before the whole thing goes up in smoke. In this view, our ultimate hope is to be beamed up, to escape this material prison and fly away to some ethereal, disembodied heaven. This is not Christianity; it is Gnosticism with a hymnbook. It is a profound insult to the God who, in the beginning, created the heavens and the earth and declared them to be very good.
God is not a failed artist who scraps His canvas and starts over. He is a master restorer. The Bible does not teach a doctrine of cosmic abandonment, but one of cosmic renewal. The story of Scripture is not about God rescuing us from His creation; it is about God rescuing His creation, with us in it, from the devastating effects of our rebellion. The cross was not Plan B. And the end of history is not God demolishing the house because the tenants wrecked the place. The end of history is the landlord evicting the rebellious tenants, fumigating the whole property, and moving in Himself to live with His faithful children.
Revelation 21 is not the description of a far-off, disconnected reality. It is the glorious blueprint of the finished project. It is the ultimate goal toward which all of history has been moving since the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This is the world made right. This is the final victory of the Lamb, not just in the souls of men, but over every square inch of the cosmos He created and redeemed.
The Text
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will WIPE AWAY EVERY TEAR FROM THEIR EYES; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain. The first things passed away.”
And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “They are done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I WILL BE HIS GOD AND HE WILL BE MY SON. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
(Revelation 21:1-8 LSB)
The Renewed Cosmos and the Conquered Sea (v. 1)
John's vision begins with the grandest possible scope.
"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea." (Revelation 21:1 LSB)
We must get the first word right. The word for "new" here is the Greek word kainos, not neos. This is a crucial distinction. Neos means new in time, brand new, something that has not existed before. Kainos means new in quality, renewed, restored, refurbished. God is not making an entirely different world. He is taking this world, the one He made and loves, and He is purging it of all sin, corruption, and death. The "first heaven and first earth" pass away in the same way that your old, sinful self passes away in Christ. You are not annihilated and replaced with a different person; you are made a new (kainos) creation. This world will be born again.
And in this renewed world, "there is no longer any sea." For the ancient Hebrews, the sea was not a vacation spot. It was a symbol of chaos, disorder, the abyss, and the tumultuous, rebellious gentile nations. It was the place from which the great beast of Revelation 13 arose. The absence of the sea signifies the final and total subjugation of all chaos and rebellion to the sovereign rule of Christ. It means a world of perfect peace, a world of shalom, where every force that opposes God has been utterly vanquished. The storms are over.
The City That is a Bride (v. 2-3)
Next, the focus of the vision narrows from the cosmos to the community of the redeemed.
"And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them.'" (Revelation 21:2-3 LSB)
Notice the direction of travel. The city does not go up; it comes down. The goal of salvation is not to get us to heaven, but to bring heaven to earth. This is the answer to the prayer Jesus taught us to pray: "Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." This is the ultimate fulfillment of that prayer.
And what is this city? It is the Church. We are the New Jerusalem. The city is identified as "a bride adorned for her husband." This is the language of covenant intimacy. The end of all things is a wedding. History culminates in the marriage supper of the Lamb, where Christ the Bridegroom is finally and fully united with His people, the Bride, washed and made beautiful by His blood.
The great declaration from the throne explains the significance of this event: "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men." This is the ultimate goal of the entire biblical narrative. From the Garden, to the Tabernacle in the wilderness, to the Temple in Jerusalem, to the incarnation of Christ ("the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us"), God has been working to restore His dwelling place with humanity. Here, that work is complete. No more veils, no more intermediaries. God Himself, in all His fullness, will live with His people in unmediated fellowship. The covenant promise is fulfilled: "They shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them."
The Great Reversal (v. 4)
The presence of God has consequences. It means the undoing of the curse.
"and He will WIPE AWAY EVERY TEAR FROM THEIR EYES; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain. The first things passed away." (Revelation 21:4 LSB)
Every single item on this list is a direct result of the fall of man in Genesis 3. Sin brought tears, death, mourning, crying, and pain into God's good world. The final victory of Christ does not just forgive our sin; it eradicates every last one of its miserable consequences. This is not a metaphor for a better state of mind. This is a promise of a real, physical, resurrected existence where the very possibility of sorrow and decay has been banished forever.
The phrase "the first things passed away" refers to this entire age of sin and death. The old order, with its funeral homes and hospitals and cemeteries, is gone. This is not the destruction of the good creation, but the destruction of the curse that has infected it. It is the final triumph of life over death.
The Divine Guarantee (v. 5-6)
The one on the throne, God the Father Himself, now speaks directly, underscoring the certainty of this promise.
"And He who sits on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.' And He said, 'Write, for these words are faithful and true.' Then He said to me, 'They are done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.'" (Revelation 21:5-6 LSB)
Notice the verb tense: "I am making all things new." It is a present, ongoing reality. The new creation was inaugurated at the resurrection of Christ, and it is advancing throughout history by the power of the gospel. The final state described here is the glorious consummation of a work that is already underway. Again, He is not making all new things, but making all things new. He is restoring, renewing, and glorifying His original creation.
The command to "Write" is a command to set this down as an official, unchangeable record. These are not vague hopes; they are "faithful and true" words from the God who cannot lie. The promise is so certain that He speaks of it in the past tense: "They are done." From the perspective of the eternal God, who is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end of all things, the victory is already accomplished.
And this glorious future is offered as a free gift. The invitation goes out to "the one who thirsts." This echoes Isaiah 55. If you are thirsty for righteousness, for life, for God Himself, the invitation is to come and drink freely. Salvation is not earned; it is received by faith.
The Overcomer's Inheritance and the Coward's End (v. 7-8)
The promise is free, but it is not unconditional. It is for a particular kind of person.
"He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I WILL BE HIS GOD AND HE WILL BE MY SON. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." (Revelation 21:7-8 LSB)
The inheritance belongs to the one who "overcomes." This is a key theme throughout Revelation. To overcome means to persevere in faith, to remain loyal to Christ in the face of trial, temptation, and persecution. It is not a call to sinless perfection, but to dogged, persistent faith in the one who has already overcome the world. And the inheritance is the ultimate prize: sonship. The covenant relationship is stated in the most intimate terms possible. We are adopted into the very family of God.
But there is another side. Grace has a hard edge. Verse 8 provides a stark and necessary warning. The kingdom of God has a border, and there are those who will be outside of it. Notice the first sin listed: "the cowardly." This is not talking about someone who gets nervous during a thunderstorm. This refers to those who, out of fear of man, refuse to confess Christ, who deny Him to save their own skin. It is the sin of apostasy.
The list that follows describes a character that is fundamentally opposed to the character of God. This is not a list of sins that a Christian might stumble into and repent of; it is a description of a settled, unrepentant lifestyle. For those who love their sin more than they love God, for those who reject the free gift of water, there remains only the lake of fire. This is the second death, the final and eternal separation from the God who is life. God is a consuming fire, and on the last day, you will either be in Christ, who is fireproof, or you will be consumed.