NOTES for Rev 22:3-4
As is known, the word "apocalypse" means in Greek "revelation". And, when we pronounce this word, we have in mind rather often the corresponding biblical book. But even more often - disasters, universal cataclysm, the end of everything and all. This point of view is spread today even among Christians, not talking of others. And however the book of Revelation ends with the description not of disasters, but of complete and definitive renovation of the world, the triumph of the Kingdom, about which the Christians of the first generation dreamed, hoping that it will occur during their life. And what about man in this renewed world? Physically he is obviously renewed in the same way as all the rest of the universe; and spiritually?
Here is, John speaks about this spiritual side, by describing a new spiritual quality of life of the faithful in the Kingdom revealed till the end. There is nothing "cursed" in the Kingdom. There is nothing and anybody opposing God there. In the current period, at the time of the Kingdom to come, opposition is present, and the more it is remarkable and the more it is lively, more the Kingdom reveals itself in the environment, which is hostile to it. But after the complete transformation of the world, as we see, there is no place in it for any strength hostile to God.
But it is the picture of the New World in general; what about man particularly? For man, as we see, change qualitatively, are renewed the relationships with God and with Christ (in John’s visions, Christ often appears in the form of the Lamb). Now they see the Savior face to face, see Him all the time, and not sometimes, as it was before when the world was transformed, but was not yet totally transformed, and see clearly, and not as it was often done before when His face appeared, as through a fog. And the problem here is of course not only in the change of the physical nature of the man.
The problem is above all, particularly in the renewal of the spiritual life, in the renewal of these relationships, which connect man with God and with Christ, in this renewal of the union-covenant, about which spoke again Jeremiah. Relationships new not darkened by any sin form the spiritual basis of this new union-covenant. And indeed, the Kingdom is based in particular on relationships - of its inhabitants with God and with one another, they with Christ, finally Christ with His Heavenly Father. And when these relationships become complete, then the Kingdom reveals itself to the world in all its transformative fullness.