“Trust Jesus so you can go to heaven someday.” Maybe that’s the way you first heard the gospel, and it is a great comfort to know that the spirits of all those who trust Jesus go to be with Him when we die. After all, He told one of the thieves who died on the cross next to Him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43).

But in today’s passage, John has a vision of an even more marvelous truth: that the spirits of all of God’s people will return to earth with Christ. After all, the city that John saw did not remain in heaven, but came down to earth (Revelation 21:2). Just so, Paul taught the Thessalonians that the “dead in Christ will rise” on the day that He comes again, that their spirits will be rejoined with their transformed bodies, which will ascend to meet the Lord in the air and accompany Him on His triumphal return to earth (I Thessalonians 4:16-17).

And how will this world will be changed when Jesus returns? John says that we will have no more reason for sadness or pain. Death itself will be abolished, because God Himself, the ultimate source of life and joy and peace will live with us forever – and not as we float around as disembodied spirits in heaven, but here on this physical earth.

But if we are truly to be God’s people, if we are to be the children of God (Revelation 21:7) that means we must prepare ourselves for His coming, just as a bride adorns herself on her wedding day (Revelation 21:2). But John isn’t talking about making sure that we have on the right the kind of clothes. No, he has already said that we must dress ourselves in righteous deeds (Revelation 19:8), and that means that we must bring our lives into conformity with the will of our Husband, our Shepherd, our King every day.

So of course we shouldn’t do the sorts of things John describes in verse 8, for how could God allow any such faithless, selfish, brutal behavior to go on in His presence? Indeed, how can any marriage hope to survive if the spouses don’t care about what each other wants or thinks? No, if we would drink of the water of life, living with God forever, we must trust Him not only enough to save us but to direct every choice we make, every step we take.

For let’s be honest: if we don’t want God to be our Lord and King, if we don’t want to do what God says, if we don’t want God to know everything we do and to reign over every aspect of our lives today, why should we want Jesus to come again? For that’s the most important thing John tells us about the new heavens and earth – that God Himself will live among us.

Revelation 21:1-8 (ESV)

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.
2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 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.
4 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.”
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.
7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.
8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”