Chapter 21 the Notes

Revelation 21 Introductory Notes

Revelation 21  INTRODUCTION 

Is. 65:17 “For behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered
or come into mind.

Is. 66:22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth
that I make shall remain before me, says the LORD,
so shall your [Israel's] offspring and your name remain.

2Pet. 3:13  But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

The summary of the work of the redemption of Mashiach's redemption of the Kingdom of Israel can be found in 1Cor. 15. A vision of the reign of Mashiach in the last era of this creation has been given in Scripture elsewhere. Mashiach is the source and the beginning of the new creation, and in him is the resurrection of the dead. Yet, nowhere in the Holy Scriptures has an actual vision of the New Creation, the Eternal Creation, been given before. In the final two chapters of the Revelation of Yehoshua the Mashiach a vision of the beginning of Eternity is given. 

 However, the old nature cannot perceive the new nature. The fact that the new creation involves the redemption of the old creation does not mean that there is any continuation of the old nature in the new. There is no attainment of the new by the old. Just the opposite. This redemption is through the blood of the Lamb. There is a progression in the old from sin to repentance but that repentance is not itself what eradicates sin, or corruptibility. The repentance that can take place in the old nature is only the preparation that is accomplished by the work of the Spirit, which conditions the conscience and brings it into that state where it can be redeemed through death and resurrection and regenerated into eternal faith and repentance. For if this regeneration were not to take place the repentance evoked in the natural heart and mind could be again corrupted by sin.

It is by clearly seeing the vision of the literal New Jerusalem in the opening of the new, eternal form of creation, that we can best recognize how it is that creation that has entered into us now, according to which we are to live. It is the eternal faith and eternal repentance of thanksgiving of the New Jerusalem which now saves us. 

By further way of introduction, it is essential to remember most clearly that the truth of the Good News is the good news of the eternal embrace of Israel by her Messiah, both in his death and in his resurrection.  G-d did not send His son into the world, to establish His kingdom of Israel in freedom from the nations and from the evil inclination by their reception of him in his generation. The Son of G-d did not set out to seek to be anointed by the tribes of Israel in his generation but then, when he found that they all rejected him, cry out to G-d his Father to alter His plans and to have him become a sacrifice for the world, or even for Israel. G-d sent His son into the world to be the incarnation of Moshe’s prayer for the nation of Israel, that he himself would be sacrificed and not the nation, but that the nation would be forgiven for its sin.  It was never that G-d was as if surprised by Israel’s rejection of his Mashiach.  As high as Israel might ascend, in the end there had never been anything else but this rejection in Israel, nor could there be, nor had there ever been, nor could there be anything else but this rejection in all of humanity. G-d sent His son into the world in order to make this rejection powerless in Israel and thereby overcome this rejection in all the world. It is in this way that He establishes His kingdom of Israel in the resurrection of the dead. And it is in this way that He saves the whole world.  At the conclusion of the notes on chapter 22 we will return to this point.