Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. From His presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And He who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
Revelation 20:11-21:5
There’s a lot in this text to unpack, but I’ll be brief. First, when John sees earth and sky flee from Christ’s presence on the throne, He sees what Christ had said during His earthly ministry, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away” (Matthew 24:35). (In Hebrew thought, the sky is the first heaven, the cosmos the second heaven, and the third heaven is where God is.) He sees heaven and earth pass away, then he sees Death and Hades cast into the lake of fire (what we typically call Hell). And then, after seeing the current earth and heaven pass away, he sees a new heaven and a new earth, and New Jerusalem coming down so God might dwell with His people forever. God’s promise of old will thus be fulfilled in the New Jerusalem. He promised them, “I will make My dwelling among you, and My soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be My people” (Leviticus 26:11-12). This will be fulfilled in the New Jerusalem, the city where the One sitting on the throne says, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3).
Then we get a brief description of the politics of this place, so to speak. There will be no tears of sorrow; death shall be no more, for it will have been cast into the lake of fire; and there shall be no more mourning, crying, or any sort of pain, “for the former things have passed away” (v. 4). That is, when the heavens and the earth pass away, that means everything else within them will pass away as well, and that means death and suffering.
Many Christians are content with simply dying and going to heaven, but going to heaven is not our final hope. It’s not that heaven isn’t a good place, because it’s a wonderful Paradise, but heaven is not our telos—our goal, or aim. Remember, heaven and earth will pass away, so you better hope you’re not still in heaven when it passes away! Rather, our telos—and our hope—is in the new creation, which is to say the bodily resurrection. God created human beings with bodies; we are not meant to be some nebulous, ethereal, incorporeal form. Christ’s own resurrection shows us this; that is why He had St. Thomas touch His wounds and why He ate fish with St. Peter. If we are to have a resurrection like His (Romans 6:5), this means we, too, shall rise bodily. We will have our bodies as they are now, yet perfect and glorified just like Christ’s body (1 Corinthians 15:35-49; Romans 8:17). That is our hope, and that is God’s promise.
The Lutheran Column 