NOTES for Rev 21:1-8
The Book of Revelation ends with a description of the new, transformed world, whose spiritual center becomes the heavenly Jerusalem. Evidently, the transformation of nature and the appearing of the heavenly Jerusalem turn out to be two sides of one and the same spiritual process, by which the first stage of the history of the Kingdom is completed, a Kingdom that fully includes the world transformed by the breath of God. Apparently, this is precisely the first stage, after which another, new one will follow, the content and meaning of which still remain a mystery for us. It is clear only that with the coming of the Kingdom, life by no means stops developing; it only takes on certain new forms that are still little understood by us. One thing is clear: the "new heaven" and "new earth" mentioned by John imply the complete renewal of creation, a qualitative change in the very nature of our world. The apostle's mention of the sea, which "is no more" (v. 1), testifies to the same thing.
In biblical books the sea usually symbolizes chaos, as well as the forces behind it and that generated it, forces opposing God and striving to destroy the world God created. It is no surprise that in the new, transformed world there is no longer any place for these forces. And Jerusalem turns out to be the center of the new world, which is no surprise: after all, it is precisely with Jerusalem and the Temple that the Presence is connected, the Presence that made the Hebrew people the people of God. It is not by chance that in John's visions the Throne often takes on the features and forms of the Temple or the Tabernacle. Now, after the transformation, the Throne becomes the spiritual center of transformed creation, its meaning and focal point. The "new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God" (v. 2) becomes the symbol of this focal point.
In the new world, at last, what had been partly revealed in the visions of the great prophets of Israel has been fulfilled: the abyss that previously separated God from His people has disappeared, an abyss connected not so much with the incomparability of God and man, which is surmountable for God, as with human sinfulness, which only the person himself can overcome through repentance and conversion. And now, when human sin and the evil of the world have disappeared, nothing any longer hinders that fullness of communion with God which the righteous and God's witnesses so desired (vv. 3-4).
This communion with God, evidently, now includes not only the human being but all creation, which has become far more receptive to spiritual influences. Before, the world, permeated by evil, barely reacted to them; now it has evidently become more responsive to God's will, and at the same time more dependent on His influence. "I make all things new" (v. 5) applies, perhaps, not only to the fact of creation's renewal and transformation, but also to its very existence: now even more than before, it is determined by that breath of God with which the Kingdom is permeated. The world exists by being constantly renewed under the influence of its Creator, and if before this was hidden, now the spiritual freshness and newness of creation, revealed to everyone, testify to God no less brightly than the righteousness of the faithful testified to Him before. Thus in the new, transformed world, human testimony merges with the testimony of nature renewed by the action of God's breath.