And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of
heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband [Rev. 21:2].
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made
ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
This is the part which should interest us. I believe that the New Jerusalem is
where those of us who are children of God are going to live. When you talk about
going to heaven, what do you think about it? To most people it is just “a
beautiful isle of somewhere.” However, it is a definite place. It is a city
called the New Jerusalem. It is a planet within itself. Very candidly, very
little is said in Scripture about heaven—but here it is, and that is the reason
this ought to be important to us.
“I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made
ready as a bride adorned for her husband.” This New Jerusalem should not be
identified with the old Jerusalem, the earthly Jerusalem down here.
I cannot think of a lovelier description than this: “… made ready as a bride
adorned for her husband.” It has been my privilege in my many years in the
pastorate to have married several hundred couples. I have never seen an ugly
bride—they are always lovely. At the wedding ceremony, after the solos have been
sung, the preacher walks in followed by the bridegroom and the best man. Nobody
pays any attention to the bridegroom except his mama. She smiles at him and
thinks he’s wonderful, but nobody else looks at him. In a minute here comes the
bride–to–be and, I tell you, everybody stands up and looks at her. I have never
yet seen an ugly bride. On occasion when I would return from a wedding which my
wife did not attend, she would always ask me, “Was the bride beautiful?” And I
would always answer, “Yes. I’ve never seen an ugly one.” Don’t think that I am
just a doting old man when I say that. I have seen some brides before they got
married or after the wedding, and I have wondered if she were the same girl who
had come down the aisle. God gives to them at that time a radiance and a beauty.
That is a thrilling moment for the bridegroom to look down the aisle and see the
one whom he is going to make his own—she will belong to him. It seems that for
that moment God transforms every girl into a lovely bride. I think the reason He
does it is that the New Jerusalem where we are going to live is like the bride
adorned for her husband. What a picture we have here!
The New Jerusalem is the habitation, the eternal home that is prepared for the
church. The Lord Jesus said: “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that
where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2–3). You could not have a more
lovely or more appropriate picture given. We have seen in Revelation 19:7–8 that
ushering in the millennial period, actually before Christ returned to the earth,
was the marriage of the Lamb, and the bride was the church.
This passage is the fulfillment of what Paul wrote to the Ephesians: “Husbands,
love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word”
(Eph. 5:25–26).
At the judgment seat of Christ, there will be the straightening out and the
judging of believers. Everything that is wrong will have to be corrected. All
sin will be dealt with there. Rewards will be given out. And He is going to do
something else—He is going to cleanse the church with the Word. The Word of God
is a mighty cleansing agent. “That he might present it to himself a glorious
church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be
holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:27).
This is the picture we are getting here in chapter 21. The holy city, the New
Jerusalem, is coming down from God out of heaven, adorned as a bride for her
husband. The marriage took place before the Millennium, and the Millennium is
now over. This has sure been a long honeymoon, hasn’t it? I think it is one that
will go on into eternity.
Paul continues to talk about this marvelous relationship between Christ and the
church, comparing it to human marriage down here. “So ought men to love their
wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man
ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord
the church; for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For
this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his
wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak
concerning Christ and the church” (Eph. 5:28–32). This idea is a mystery that is
now being opened to us. The marriage relationship is the most beautiful and
wonderful relationship. It is the oldest ceremony that God has instituted for
man. It goes right back into the Garden of Eden, to the very beginning, and it
is all–important. It is such a profound mystery that, even with all these
marriage counselors and all the books they have written, I do not really think
they have touched the fringe of how wonderful marriage could be for believers.
By the way, Paul is talking here to believers who are filled with the Spirit.
All of these instructions are for Spirit–filled believers. They are not given to
the lost world at all, and they are not given to the average believer. At the
beginning of this section Paul says, “… be filled with the [Holy] Spirit” (Eph.
5:18). That is the only commandment in Scripture in which you are required to do
something about the Holy Spirit.
We find here something that is difficult to understand, but it gives us another
insight into marriage. The wife is the same flesh as the man. How can that be?
Have you ever seen a beautiful child that looked like the mother and had a mean
disposition like the father? That is where they come together, that is where
they are one flesh. But it is deeper than that. When a man loves his wife, he
actually loves himself. This is true of the wife also. When she loves her
husband, she is actually loving herself. You cannot have it any more intimate
than that.
When I injure my foot, I do not ignore it. I do all I can to care for it. I go
to the doctor and if necessary have it put into a cast. It may not be very
pretty, and I might like to leave my foot at home, but it is part of me.
Likewise, my wife is part of me. She is my flesh. We are the same flesh. This is
difficult to understand, but that is how intimate it is. This takes us back to
the time of creation: “And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of
my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore
shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and
they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and
were not ashamed” (Gen. 2:23–25). They were naked, and they knew each other. It
was an intimate and a very personal relationship. After a couple gets married,
when they have their first fight, the wife often turns over in bed, and he is in
a huff and maybe goes to the sofa and lies there. Then they wonder why there is
disintegration in their marriage relationship. When your foot gets sick, you
don’t ignore it. You don’t get angry with it. You don’t kick with it. If you do,
you are in deeper trouble. The thing that you are to do with the flesh is to do
everything to doctor it and try to get it well again. This is the reason that
young couples ought never to have a squabble without sitting down and talking
things over. I think the wife ought to be very frank with her husband and tell
him everything—how she feels, how he offends her, and what she thinks is wrong.
And he ought to do the same thing. You see, they are the same flesh; they are
one. They have been brought together in this very intimate, this very wonderful
relationship in which a man leaves his family—his father, his mother, and his
brothers and sisters. He has now been joined to a woman, and they are one flesh.
They have started a new creation, if you please, and that is what the marriage
relation should be. How wonderful it is to see a family where the man and his
wife have no barrier between them. She knows him like a book, and he knows her
like a book. They simply know each other, and they love each other. Until that
kind of relationship is established, my friend, you are going to have trouble in
the marriage, because God made us that way. Marriage is more than an arrangement
to live together and to sleep together. When a man chooses a wife and a wife
accepts her husband, they must understand that they are one flesh—and you would
not hurt yourself, your own flesh, intentionally for anything in the world.
“This is a great mystery,” Paul says, “… but I speak concerning Christ and the
church” (Eph. 5:32). In heaven we are going to be like Him. John writes, “… it
doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we
shall be like him …” (1 John 3:2). We are going to have glorified flesh like He
has. We are going to be one with Him. We are part of His body, and we are going
to be joined to Him. He said, “… I go to prepare a place for you…. that where I
am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2–3). How glorious that we can be with Him
throughout eternity! As far as I know, no other creatures, including the angels
of heaven, are going to have this personal and intimate relationship with the
Lord Jesus Christ. That is going to be the most glorious day! We are going to
celebrate throughout eternity the very fact that we are with Him and that we
have been joined to Him.
McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Prophecy (Revelation 14-22)
(electronic ed., Vol. 60, pp. 164–168). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.