The New Jerusalem

I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.

Rev 21:22-25

The New Jerusalem is a city of beauty and of symmetry, as long as it is wide, as tall as it is long. Not only is the size and shape of the city revealed, but the materials from which it is made are given to us. The wall was made of jasper and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. You have heard many jokes about Peter and the pearly gates, which we usually imagine as a single pair of gates. But there are twelve gates, each one a gigantic pearl. God must have some huge oysters in this new universe! Beauty comes from pain in an oyster. A pearl is formed when a grain of sand gets inside an oyster's shell and the oyster becomes very uncomfortable. To relieve its pain, it covers the irritant with a soft lustrous nacre that hardens into a beautiful pearl. This describes how the redeemed come from the pain of Jesus. The redeemed will never forget for all eternity the pain of the cross of Christ.

All through Revelation, we have seen a temple in heaven described. That temple remains throughout the millennium. But in the new heavens and earth there is no temple. Why? Because the true temple, of which the one in the old heavens is a picture, is the True Man, Jesus himself. Paul says, Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you? (1 Corinthians 6:19a). If God dwells in you, you are a part of this heavenly temple. You share the honor of being the home of God, the dwelling place of God. And from that comes radiant light. People can see all things by that truth. So glorious is it that there is no need for the sun or the moon. It does not say they are not there; it simply says there is no need for them in this city of God. There will never be night there, because it is lit continually by the glory which is God in man. The gates will never be shut, because there is no night and therefore no need for protection. Cities close their gates at night because of danger, but there is nothing to destroy in this new world to come. The kings of the earth will bring their glory in, not to compete with the glory of God, but to have it revealed by the light of God. Nothing impure will enter, because only the redeemed are admitted.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for the pain you endured that I might one day inhabit this beautiful city. Amen.