Revelation 21:22-27

We are now reading about what theologians have called “the eternal state,” when God will have recreated anew the heavens and the earth and only allowed righteousness to live in it. So far, an angel has showed the Apostle John the Bride, the wife of the Lamb, where the first thing John records is a huge “city” coming down to a “high mountain.”

This is where my mind starts to spin and ultimately smoke and catch fire. How high is the mountain, and will that matter, given that the city is 1400 miles high? To put it into context, Low Earth Orbit (LEO) ends at about 1200 miles (2000 km). The altitude of the top of the city would be in Middle Earth Orbit (MEO) at 1400 (1380) miles. For context, the atmosphere ends around 60 miles (100 km). Does it really matter how high the mountain is? That’s where my brain goes. If it’s an analogy, I cannot fathom what those distances apply to, and if it is to be taken literally, then, just wow.

What we can know for sure is that there will be no need for a temple or a sanctuary, because, and get this, God will live there and give the city and its residents light. Again, how amazing is this? There is no external illumination, and nothing is dark! We’ve talked about this before, in how God’s servants will transmit His light, rather than just reflect it as we do now, and that imperfectly because of our sin. Not then! We will apparently be perfect transmitters of His light, maybe physically, maybe more.

I broke the text down into the following thought units:

KV22: No Temple Required

22: I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

22-23: The Lord God and the Lamb are Everything

24-26: The City that Never Sleeps Has It All

27: Nothing Unclean will ever Enter

The title is a spoof on Phil Collin’s 1985 album title, No Jacket Required. It just kind of occurred to me, there is no other reason, but it is still true. It demonstrates that there is no temple, and why there is no temple in the verse text, and we will talk about that a little later. “I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” (Revelation 21:22) This isn’t the only song I commandeered for this purpose, I also used a line from New York, New York by Frank Sinatra and we will come to that. Let’s get into the study.

KV22: No Temple Required

22: I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

Things in the Eternal Kingdom of God will change significantly from what we know as life today. In ancient cultures in this world, a temple to the go of the nation held a prominent place in the city, and there may have been more than one god and more than one temple. The text mentions conspicuously that there is not a temple here, because God will dwell with His people in the city. That is the most radical change of all. It may indicate that this was the plan all along, but that is just speculation on my part. Let’s get into the text.

22-23: The Lord God and the Lamb are Everything

When I say everything, I mean everything. They are the entire reason there is such a place at all, and they are in some way represented by each part of it and glorified by it, especially by each individual believer present in that great place, because God is the one who redeemed each and every one of them, by faith alone, through grace alone, in Christ alone, presented in the scriptures alone, all to God’s glory alone. Here is where we will jump into the text.

22: I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

Think about this statement: The Church is the temple of God. In 1 Cor. 3:16, the Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians (and by extension all believers), “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” At this point in future history, we are all there in one place now, and so God will be in our midst, whatever that means. As we, the Church were His sanctuary, He will now be our sanctuary. We will no longer need saving because we will have been saved. Means of grace will cease when the end of Grace has come, will it not? Church government will give place to God’s government. We will have immediate, uninterrupted, direct access and communion with Him, and there will be no need for church government anymore. If you’ve been to one of our council meetings, you will likely be thankful. I know I will be.
There is no temple then because God’s presence will be everywhere! He will be worshipped throughout the city! Does it really matter where you would worship in this case? No! The Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are in the city and Their presence will be enough. In fact, Matthew Henry has a special term that he applies. I’ll read the sentence from His commentary: “And what words can more full express the union and co-equality of the Son with the Father, in the Godhead?” What? Co-equality? Wow, things really will be different. In that time and place, in that age of the world, we will have The God-given wisdom and maturity to act in that capacity with that responsibility. I have trouble even imagining this if I’m being honest. But that will be then and not now. So-called “little gods” theory is not talking about this time. They wish to bring that future reality into the here-and-now, which is biblically impossible. Maybe you’ve heard the argument. If a horse and a horse make offspring, what is it? “A horse” is the answer they give. If God makes offspring, what is it? This is usually where there is a pregnant pause while the false teacher waits for you to follow him down a false trail of logic based on false categories and premises. What you actually get is MEN, because that is what God set out to create, and He is not bound by the same categories or logic that He created and restricted life to. I’ve said enough about that.
The Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb will then, with the Holy Spirit, and ourselves, will all be one, according to John 17, the High Priestly prayer of the Lord, or the actual “Lord’s Prayer” if you will. John 17:20-21 reads, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
That’s big. At least as big as that huge cube called the City of New Jerusalem. You remember, it was 1400 miles high and about the size of the entire Roman empire for size on the planet. And it came down to rest on a high mountain. Some mountain. The top of the city reaches Mid-Earth orbit by present definitions. And it has a 144-cubit-high (approx. 72 yards) wall all around it? Whatever for, outside of the analogous language we have already considered? If your mind is being blown, welcome to the club. The important bit is that God will live there in us and we in Him, together at last.

23: And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.

Some theologians have taken this to mean that there will be no sun or moon, and that may be true, but it doesn’t have to mean that. There may well still be a sun and moon, we just won’t need them, because we will be living in the presence of the all-powerful, all-knowing, everywhere-present God of the universe. If there are seas, they may need tides, and those are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon. One has posited there will be no water making creation dependent on itself. I don’t know how true that is, but if it has any hint of truth to it, things will be very different, indeed.
What is said here is that it is the city that will have no need of the sun or moon. Other places on earth might. Other animals may need it. What does that mean? What new paths and processes will life follow in this new creation? We really have no idea from this briefest of glimpses into the eternal kingdom of God.
What we do know is that God is the one who provides the illumination. The Greek word used here for “illuminated” is ἐφώτισεν, the active aorist verb for “enlightened,” which puts a different emphasis in this. We aren’t talking about physical light alone, or the word would be φωτίζω (the noun) or one of its forms. We are speaking of what I view as a spiritual enlightenment or illumination of the thing being illuminated, which will be us! Is this a previously unknown state of life? It is certainly hinted at in those terms in Scripture. We have called it “eternal life,” or life as God has life. In that eternal state, will we indeed have a body that has life in itself? That is a HUGE theological question, because it allows the thought that God will share His aseity with us, and it is his first and principal attribute. Not even the angels have that, as near as I can tell. Again, this is now, and we do not have and cannot have such a thing now. Also, I have NO idea if that can even be true. I’ll leave it here by saying “I doubt it,” lest the internet brand me a heretic, and maybe rightly so. (A point: It isn’t heresy to have the thought. Heresy begins when you desire to make a doctrine about it, like the previously mentioned “little gods” theory to tickle ears and gain followers. We don’t care about that.)
Whatever that illumination, the Lamb is the mechanism by which that light is distributed, the Lamb being called in the text, the Lamp (λύχνος). This will make God’s people independent of creation for light. This illumining or enlightenment is nothing new to those of us who study His word. He must illumine or enlighten us by His Spirit (God the Holy Spirit in case you missed that) or we simply cannot see the truth of His word. Here is an example: Sure, there are books that can give you the tools to study the bible, but are you studying the bible, or what somebody else says about the bible? Do you see the difference? Can you? I’m not trying to be insulting. I am pointing out that there is a difference between getting into the text itself and looking up word definitions in the context of the text, and of history, and reading what amounts to devotional readings. Both have their place, both are appropriate for the believer, but I prefer the word itself and the rules we have to discern meaning from the text itself. I look at Jesus as the Word of God from John 1:1, and I think of the Scriptures as the person of Jesus in print. You can’t always get that from a devotional, even good ones.
“Shine on it” may also be translated “shine for her,” that is, the Bride, the wife of the Lamb, who is also the New Jerusalem, that great city of living stones, built together by God’s efforts and order. Whatever the case, the radiance of the glory of God is her light. Why all the speculation of the sun and moon? Isaiah tells us in 60:19-21, “No longer will you have the sun for light by day, Nor for brightness will the moon give you light; But you will have the LORD for an everlasting light, And your God for your glory. Your sun will no longer set, Nor will your moon wane; For you will have the LORD for an everlasting light, And the days of your mourning will be over. Then all your people will be righteous; They will possess the land forever, The branch of My planting, The work of My hands, That I may be glorified.” This is the same wording about the no longer needing the sun or moon, though they are present in Isaiah. The triune God imparts His light to His people. He has done it in the past; for example, J. A. Seiss said, “When Paul and Silas lay wounded and bound in the inner dungeon of the prison of Philippi, they still had sacred light which enabled them to beguile the night-watches with happy songs.” (J. A. Seiss, as quoted by J. MacArthur in his NT Commentary on this text, p. 285) He does it today. I cannot think of another reason I can sit for two or sometimes three days and just read scripture and research the history and Greek references. He will do it into the future, as we see in the text. And herein lies a divine purpose. It must be said, “If we want to have a relationship with God, we must put aside our sinful ways of living. To claim that we belong to God but then to go out and live for ourselves is hypocrisy. To prepare to live with Him in eternity, we must love the light and let it chase out any darkness in our lives.” THEN, we will need no sun or moon. NOW, we need them both, and more, we need that illumination. That quote, by the way, comes from the NASB Life Application Study Bible, 2nd Ed., notes on this passage.

My point here is that the Lamb is the source of illumination by the Spirit of Christ (the Holy Spirit). To gain access to that kind of illumination of the truth, whether Scripture or the daily news, you must repent by changing your mind and renouncing your wrong actions, words, and even your very thoughts, with a commitment to stop living that way. Then you must make a commitment to God Himself that you will follow what He says from that point forward. (Turn from sin, turn to God, it is the same action.) After this you should tell God you’re sorry and that He is your Lord going forward. Unlike those silly word of faith preachers and their “little gods” false theology, I will not tell you that you will then be on easy street. Some things for you may get worse and more intense. However, as you now belong to Him, you will have the faith and grace He provides to you by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross to face whatever comes your way, even if that’s being thrown into a coliseum filled with wild beasts as dinner. Think about it: there will be a moment of pain, and then you will be in His presence forever, having overcome the world because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of your testimony, and not loving your life even when faced with death. Sound familiar? It should, it’s Revelation 12:11 but in the second person and applied to you personally. Next paragraph.

24-26: The City that Never Sleeps Has It All

The emphasis I see in this paragraph is that for the resident of the city, there will never be a need to go anywhere else or flee to safety like has happened in some places. I have vivid memories of the fire in Los Angeles in the Palisades because I saw those buildings burning through the magic of television. It is still an ongoing battle, too, to get the permits to rebuild. I think something like 26 have been granted to date. Pray for those people that God would help them according to His will.

But did you catch the moniker I used? “The City that never sleeps.” I can hear Ol’ Blue Eyes now, “I wanna wake up in the city that never sleeps // and find I’m king of the hill // top of the heap…” Frank Sinatra, of course, is referring to the city of New York, New York. This New Jerusalem by contrast, will not only never sleep, there will likely be no need, it will never CLOSE either! That has to do with the idea that God Himself will live there among His people, but we should get into the text.

24: The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.

Some theologians in the past have erroneously created the impression that the city will be for the righteous, but the nations outside will still be the same old nations with crime and stuff like that. If you were with us for Revelation 20:11-15, you will know that is error. All wrongdoers who did not repent, angel or human, were cast forever into the lake of fire forever, and then in verse 13 and 14, Death and Hell, personified in the text, were also cast into the burning lake of sulphur. No sin or death will exist in God’s new creation at this point. It will be a reality in which only righteousness dwells.
The word used in the text for “nations” here is ἔθνη, where we get our English word “ethnic.” It isn’t so much the concept of sovereign nations that we hear in the news for the last couple of years, but more a nod at the saved being taken from every tribe, language, and location around the globe. Will there people group divisions? Sure. Will they have the meanings they have today? I doubt it, because all the identity politics of today will have been dealt with finally in Revelation 20:11-15. Then, it will be an item of worship of God for His true diversity of beings. Today’s definitions are a special kind of stupid. It is my belief here that we may read this as “All people” will walk by its light just as easily, though the text says what it says.
Whatever it says, the people will walk by its light. “It” here refers to the glory of God and the Lamb. If everyone is walking by its light, then there is no more sin in creation. Personally, I want that. I know my own heart, and I want to be done with sin. Christ paid the penalty for my sins, and He is currently setting me free from its power. Someday, I will be delivered from its very presence. I wait and long for that day. I could say much more, but won’t.
The kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. There are a couple of things I see here. The first is that there are righteous rulers, and have been throughout history. We will see then who they were. I will not judge before then if I can help it. An example I have heard about is the former king of the Netherlands, William of Orange. It was he that both indirectly as the founding political leader of the Dutch Republic and directly through his son, Prince Maurice of Nassau. Maurice’s intervention through William’s actions made the Synod of Dort possible. After his 1584 assassination, Maurice sided with the Contra-Remonstrants against the Remonstrants (Arminians). In 1618-1619, a national and international synod met at Dordrecht and produced the Canons of Dort. These produced both the Belgic Confession and the Heidelburg Catechism, both of which we recommend as reading here at BereanNation.com if you want to understand the history of Protestantism. Both men are seen as “heroes of Protestantism” to this day in the Dutch Reformed Church. Ask Dr. W. Robert Godfrey from Ligonier! He produced something like a six-DVD set of lectures on Church history it you’re interested. You can get them at Ligonier.org.
Also, I see that all men will be equal in that kingdom. The kings bring their glory in, and Peter calls us a “royal priesthood.” 1 Peter 2:9 says, “But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light…” I think the point is that our permanent relationship with the Godhead will convey to us royal status in creation. That is speculation, but I think if you read the English there, you will see why I think this. And we will all worship God in that state in that place for all of the rest of time, now long-since irrelevant. Like today, this is intended to be everything we do, thoughts, words, and deeds.
The light itself has some things to notice. The nations shall walk by means of her light. “Her” here can only refer to the city itself, who is the Bride, the wife of the Lamb, those living stones built up together into one, and now blissfully unified with her Lord for the ages of the ages. Amen and amen. Next verse.

25: In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed;

The implication of the verse is that the city gates will never be shut. The city is immersed now forever in eternal day. Again, this does not imply that unsaved people are still roaming around outside the New Jerusalem. That was, for the record, dealt with in Revelation 20:11-15 at the “Second Death.” Woe to those who will find out what that means personally. Beloved, if that’s bothering you, then turn to Christ now and repent of your sins, by the faith that He died on the cross in your place. I cannot say it more clearly than that.
It is true that ancient cities closed their gates at dusk as a means of defense. There will be no night there! No darkness at all! Since there will be no dark, and because all evil will have been eradicated by the second death, there is simply no need to close them. All will be peace and security. They will remain open permanently. This also implies, with the open gates, that there will be a great amount of activity in comings and goings through the open gates, but that’s just a speculation I came across. I do know that we will be serving Him there as we serve Him here. What that means is only suggested by the stones on the foundation stones we looked at last time. Personally, and I said this then, we will have Lucifer’s old job. What that entails, I have no idea; but the precious gems that were present on Lucifer on the day he was created (Eze. 28:13) now adorn the stones of the foundation of this great city, and if you follow that analogy, it conveys the majesty, authority, and power that these stones symbolize onto the great city itself, the Bride, the wife of the Lamb, that great city of living stones built up into a spiritual building that is so big it covers the entire Roman Empire on the ground, and reaches mid-earth orbit by today’s definitions. I said it before: Beloved, this is BIG!
“Meanwhile, we continue to live in a fractured world. But Jesus commands us and enables us to be peacemakers. Every day we live on earth as temporarily misplaced citizens of God’s Kingdom, we can begin to demonstrate our true citizenship by offering our splendor, glory, and honor to the Lord each day. Praise God for the peace he brings you now and pray for the fulfillment of his reign on earth.” NASB Life Application, Bible, 2nd Ed.

26: and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it;

I know this seems a little repetitive, but I don’t think it is. In verse 24, it talks about how the nations will walk by the light of the glory of God and the Lamb, and then it talked about how the kings of the earth would bring their glory, or worship, into the city where God Himself lives, but here it talks about how this glory and honour comes directly from the ἐθνῶν, the people themselves, is the way I read that. There may be various groups of people within the kingdom, like the “singers” in ancient Israel, but the impression I get here is that this is one big happy family of humanity. I can remember as a younger man, I used to long for world peace. It will finally be achieved in that place, and it will never again be broken. It says in Micah 4:3, “And He will judge between many peoples and render decisions for mighty, distant nations. Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they train for war.” For those that long for peace on Earth, hold onto the hope that it is certainly coming. We know things will get worse before they get better, but it is coming.
It says they will bring the glory into it, and I equate that to worship, but there is more. It is a form of the Greek word δόξα, and in the New Testament, it signifies an opinion, estimate, and hence, the honor resulting from a good opinion. Remember, this is the glory of the people. If there were sinners in the mix, this would look much different than it does here. It also says they bring their honour into it. This is the Greek word τιμή, rather a form of it, and it means, “a valuing,” and objectively a price paid or received, but if that is the meaning, then the glory really belongs to Christ, who paid the price for all of our sins. All of this is what the nations bring into the city, the wife, the building. Do you understand why I take a while to unpack this? It’s difficult! Moving on.

From what we have examined here, we should see that it will be very different in that age of the world. We cannot just assume that everyone gets to show up there, either. Universalists will say that we will all be in this world, and then try to tell you against all logic that this is now. It is the same with many Word-Faith heretics, who suggest that all the powers that we may or may not have in that place are available to us today, and that we have the authority to go about healing people or raising people from the dead, all while babbling some made-up nonsense syllables and calling it a heavenly language for prayer that is proof you are saved. I said it earlier, but to believe any of that is a special kind of stupidity, and one that is very difficult to unravel for people. It doesn’t seem to matter that you know what the Greek says, it doesn’t matter that you can tell them what the Scriptures mean, the morons will stubbornly hold to their false knowledge like their very lives depend on it. Yet, it is the very thing that will end their lives in an ultimate sense.

Rather, we should see this as a future set of conditions that will be brought about by our Lord Jesus and the great events that God Himself will cause to happen, which are also recorded previously in this book. If you’ve been with us for some of this, you know.

27: Nothing Unclean will ever Enter

After all of this glorious biblical consideration of these great and eternal realities waiting for all real believers in Christ, this verse is almost inserted sideways. Out of nowhere, after all of this blessed holiness spilled all over the page, we have a STARK reminder that it is not yet this way. Let’s look into the text.

27: and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

After the incredible meditations on what true holiness will resemble, we have this verse that tells us that nothing unclean will ever enter the city, who is the Bride, the wife of the Lamb, that house of living stones built up into the city of New Jerusalem. It even goes into some detail as to what that means.
The first thing I need to say, or rather to repeat, is that this does not imply that there will be evil unbelievers running around outside the city. This is a new creation wherein only righteousness dwells! All unrepentant sin, evil, and unrighteousness were dealt with in Rev. 20:11-15 in the lake of burning sulfur. Rather, this is John letting people know they will not be here unless their names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
No one who practices abomination. The Greek word here is βδέλυγμα, meaning an object of disgust, a destestable thing. Despite the similarity in sound to the English word “deluge,” there is no connection to the idea of the flood linguistically. Conceptually, if you wanted to say that the detestable sins that caused God to send a deluge to destroy all life save eight by water, I guess you can, but there is no connection to it in Hebrew. It is closer to “that which makes a stench,” a description of our sin in God’s nostrils, so to speak. We could get into its uses in LXX, but it agrees with me here.
No one who practices lying. That’s ψεῦδος in the Greek text, and it simply means “a falsehood.” That which is not true. This can be done in literally hundreds of ways just off the top of my head, and mostly we lie to ourselves. “I’m a good person,” is a common one. “God won’t send me to hell, He loves me.” Although we agree God loves you and does not want to send anyone to hell, He will let you choose the path you want. That will, in the natural, bring you on a straight-line easy course down the road to hell. “I’m a Christian,” is another common one, when they give no hint that it is important to them in their lives for anything other than fire insurance. “Men can become pregnant (without medical intervention.” “Some women have penises.” “A car thief makes a great church treasurer.” Like that. If you will not live like it matters, you have no right to name Christ as your own. You certainly aren’t making Him your Lord. How dare you claim it? Tell me another porker. You know, people have referred over time to the Apostle John as the Apostle of Love. Isn’t it odd how the rightly named Apostle of Love speaks so much about the terrors of Hell at the same time?
None of these will ever enter this kingdom, never mind the Assembly of the Saints of God and the wife of Jesus Christ, God the Son. You will only ever enter here if your name is written on that primal list, the Lamb’s Book of Life. The only way you can have your name written there is for God to choose you from before the foundation of the world. I don’t think there is anything else that would qualify you. What that looks like in time and space is that at the God-appointed time, He will irresistibly call you to Himself, and you will WANT to obey that call and turn to Christ in repentance and faith. If that’s you now, please take the opportunity where you are now to do so. Send us an email, or leave us a comment in the comment section. We love to read stories of people who have turn to Christ in repentance and faith.
If you will do that, God will save you from His coming wrath, which, if you have been here for any of our studies up to this point, you will have seen that it is total destruction of the planet and a permanent banishing of all who will not turn to Christ in repentance and faith into conscious, eternal torment in a sulfurous burning lake for the rest of eternity. In that salvation, God Himself will perfect you in holiness. Right now, it is difficult. We have what Matthew Henry calls a “sad mixture of corruption” that really hinders our service to God. But then, we will truly be set free to serve Him in absolute holiness, safety, and real peace, not the fake détente we have now. There will be no more threat of condemnation then, but only peace, joy, and love. I know, it sounds mushy, but it will happen for those who are living for Him now.
“As nothing unclean can enter heaven, let us be stirred up by these glimpses of heavenly things, to use all diligence, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God.” This is from Matthew Henry, on this very text. Let the reader understand.

This introduces a purpose that I would be remiss not to mention: to stir us up. Although it is true that we can do nothing of our own to gain all this, it is a worthy thing to desire, and one to which we should all aspire. I think it was Alex that I was speaking to recently about this, but the gist of our conversation was that Sanctification is not strictly monergistic, to use theological terms.

When you read things like the Ordo Saludus in Romans 8:29-30, there is a part of salvation that is not mentioned in that list, though it may be inferred. That is Sanctification. I have no doubt that it is God Himself who makes us holy, but it is something in which He allows us to cooperate, making it synergistic, and I suspect this is so we can learn not only how to obey Him, but, for lack of words here, what it feels like. I hesitate to put it that way, but I remember my dad, when he was teaching me to wrestle, let me win a few times, so I could learn what it meant and felt like to win. That is what I am attempting to describe.

That glorious meditative text on the eternal kingdom ends with this stern warning, and we do well to heed it. That’s what I saw in the text this time through.

Next time, we will look at Revelation 22:1-5. I thought a bit about taking it out through verse 9, but I’m afraid of biting off more than I can chew. Given what we are getting out of the smaller portions, I am justified in continuing that next time.