We continue with John’s description of the New Jerusalem with Revelation 21:23. “And the city has no need of the sun nor of the moon to give it light, for the glory of God illuminates it and the Lamb is its source of light.” Notice, John says “the city” has no need of the sun or moon. That the sun and moon will give light to the eternal earth has already been established in previous lessons (Genesis 8:22; Psalms 89:35-37; Jeremiah 31:35-36). And remember, when John started this description of the city the first thing he noticed was the remarkable blue-green light emanating from it (Revelation 21:11).
Also, in my translation of verse 23 at the end I have “and the Lamb is its source of light”. The KJV says, “and the Lamb is the light thereof”. The NIV translates it correctly as “and the Lamb is its lamp”. The Greek is luchnos, sometimes incorrectly translated “candle” (candela, a word not found in either the OT or the NT), “light” (phos) or “torch” (lampas). However, luchnos is a portable oil lamp that could be carried from place to place or set on a lampstand. In this verse Christ (the Lamb) is the lamp or source of spiritual light in the city. This will make more sense when we look at the next verse.
“The nations will walk by its light and the leaders of the earth will bring their glory into it.” (Revelation 22:24) The “nations” are those who have lived through the tribulation period and the Millennium, then into the eternal earth. They are the ones who have refused to rebel against God and are now going to carry out what God originally told Adam and Eve to do in Genesis 1:26-28. When John says, “the nations will walk by its light”, he’s probably using a metaphor and saying the people who come into the city will be living according to the spiritual example of Christ. Can you imagine a world where everyone is Christ-like?
“And the gates of the city will never close during the day, and there will be no night there. And they will bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.” (Revelation 21:25-26) When I saw this I was reminded of Psalm 121:3-4 that says the Lord doesn’t sleep or slumber. Then in verse 26 the nations bring “their glory and honor” into it. This is not God’s glory and honor, but that which has been bestowed on the nations. “Glory” is doxa, here a reference to that eternal state of blessedness enjoyed by those who enter this time, realizing the full extent of what God has done for them. Then, “honor” is from time, a reference to the festive exhilaration felt by them because they have been given the privilege of entering the city, of partaking of its blessings and of being in the very presence of God. The New Jerusalem will be a place of continual, eternal celebration!
Then we come to verse 27, “But nothing that defiles will ever enter into it, nor anyone who commits abominations or practices falsehoods, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” And, as previously discussed in Lesson 75, John is not describing people present on the eternal earth that will be denied entrance into the city because of their sin or rebellion. He makes it clear that these no longer exist on the earth (Revelation 21:4-5, 22:3). He’s simply warning those who read his account of this vision that they cannot live their lives enslaved by these things and still expect to enjoy the blessings of this eternal city.
I’ll regress a little and deal with the meaning of “abominations” and “falsehoods” in verse 27, as I think they’re pertinent. The first is bdelugma, usually used to describe something highly esteemed by men, but disgusting to God. A good example is in Paul’s letter to Titus in 1:16, where he uses the adjective form (bdeluktos) to describe those who claim to know God but deny Him by the things they say and do. The idea is that they do what they do for their own gain (verse 11), so they are deceivers. That this word is used to reference religious deception is obvious. Remember the great whore destroyed by the Antichrist in Revelation 17. She was holding a golden cup in her hand said to be full of “abominations”, again, an obvious reference to religious deception.
“Falsehood” is closely related. Pseudos is used to describe anything that is calculated to deceive. For instance, the “lying wonders” of the Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians 2:9 used to deceive those who refuse to love the truth. The reason I wanted to explain these words is to show that those who may fit this description will not, in fact, cannot be present on the eternal earth. Further evidence of this is John’s statement that only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life can enter into the city, proving that all those who make up the nations of the eternal earth are redeemed and their loyalty and submission to God has already been established.
Then we move on to the final chapter of Revelation where John continues his description of the city. “And he showed me a river of the water of life as clear as crystal, flowing out from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” (Revelation 22:1) In an earlier lesson we looked at the river that flows out from the millennial temple Christ builds in Jerusalem and the life-giving properties it will have. Here we have another river flowing from the throne in the New Jerusalem. And, as John continues, this river looks similar to the millennial one, as we will see.
Due to the enormous size of the city and the fact that it has twelve entrances that may well be 500 miles apart, I suspect John is simple describing one of them. If that were the case, then there would be twelve rivers, one flowing out each gate of the city. The original Greek text does not say “the river”, as most translations say. It says “a river”, leading me to think there is more than one. Again, due to the size of this great city, it seems more reasonable that there would be a river flowing out each gate, rather than just one river flowing out of one entrance. Of course, all would come from the same source as it is described in this verse – “flowing out from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”
If we logically can assume these waters have the same supernatural properties as the millennial river, it would be possible that they would flow out of the city in every direction. The healing and life-producing properties of this water would then cover the earth (now absent the large oceans, Revelation 21:1), flowing into every stream, river, lake and small sea. The effect of this would, of course, account for the abundant production of both plant and animal food on the earth, contributing to the prosperity of the nations.