"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth had 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."
This seems to be the consummation alluded to by Paul, when he speaks of Christ at the end "delivering up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all authority and power... when all things (including the last enemy, death-see verse 26) shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all" (1 Cor. 15:24, 27). It is manifest that the full accomplishment, at the end of the thousand years, of the work of Christ who came to "take away the sin of the world," and therefore death, the effect of it, will require a change in the constitution of things. There has been a gradual change since the beginning. The introduction of sin caused a breach between man and his Creator, whose benevolence and wisdom proposed a healing of the breach by gradual measures which should bring more glory and joy at the last than if no breach had taken place. These measures began with worship at a distance-outside of Eden-through the medium of sacrifice. The next stage brought a whole nation close to God as His chosen people, under an arrangement, however, which was but "a shadow" of the final form of the proposed goodness; for "the law (of Moses) was a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image thereof" (Heb. 10:1). The next stage introduces Jesus and often him to the world as the medium of approach on the part of a few among mankind who should respond to the invitation to "come out from among them," and in the midst of the surrounding alienation, to become "sons and daughters of the Lord God Almighty." The next stage shows this class glorified with Christ, at the restoration of the kingdom again to Israel at the return of Christ, and the subjection of all nations to the sceptre of the house of David in his most righteous hands. In this stage of the plan, his accepted brethren rule all the world for a thousand years as "kings and priests" for the purpose of bringing the world to God. All nations are brought into a worshipping relation to God, but still it is worship at a distance, so to speak. They are a mixed multitude with godliness in the ascendant, but still with an element of the constitutional diabolism of human nature not altogether latent. They use sacrifice and they approach God through the millennial priesthood. A thousand years of this arrangement provides from amongst the nations a sufficient population of enlightened and obedient members of the human family to occupy the earth as its immortal, joyous, and God-glorifying inhabitants. These by resurrection and transformation are glorified, and the remnant destroyed. Sin and death have disappeared. What need then for priesthood? What need for the institution of a kingdom, designed, with iron rod, to keep the world in subjection, and the nations in the way of light and life? Manifestly, there must needs be a change. The nature of the change in its details we cannot know. We should need experience of the Spirit-nature to understand. Suffice it to note that the Father is no longer in the background: "the Son himself is subject." God himself is "with men" and "their God": and there is a cessation of every evil and every curse: "no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away." In this state of things, Jesus and his brethren will always occupy the highest rank of the firstborn; but they and earth's entire population are all one, and worship God without mediation. This is the promised "New heaven and new earth" not literal heavens and literal earth: for these have been from of old and shall be for ever (Psa. 78:69; Jer. 31:35-36; Psa. 89:36-37); but new heavens and new earth in the figurative sense of a new system of things-a sense constantly exemplified in the writings of the prophets (Isa. 13: 10-19 , Jer. 4:23-28; Isa. 65:17-19). The making of these "new heavens and new earth" begins at the commencement of the thousand years in "planting the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth" (Isa. 51:16). But they are not seen in their finished form till the consummation depicted in the chapter we are considering: When they are finished, there is "no more sea"-no more sea in the apocalyptic sense. This sense is defined in chap. 17:15: "The waters which thou sawest where the whore sitteth, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues." When the end of the thousand years is reached, these will have ceased to be. The world will be one race and one family-and that, a new race, an immortal race-the last Adam in multitude-as the heir of the first Adam in multitude who will then have passed away. This last Adam multitude being in Christ are all the seed of Abraham, as Paul says, "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed." Being Abraham's seed, they are Israel. Consequently, in their sole occupation of the earth when "the former things shall have passed away," there will be a fulfilment of what God says by Jeremiah concerning the House of Israel: "Though I make a full end of all nations among whom I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee" (Jer. 30:11)...
There remains one point of apparent discrepancy to be considered. Rev. 21:2 represents the New Jerusalem coming down from God at the close of the thousand years, whereas the line of remark just indulged in points to her manifestation at the commencement of that period. The explanation is doubtless to be found in the fact illustrated in the case of the new heavens and the new earth, which while commencing with the thousand years, have their special and final manifestation in the state of things reached at the close of that period.
(By Robert Roberts)