What does heaven look like?

393 · Jerome, Against Jovinianus (Adversus Iovinianum) 2.28

But when Jovinianus supposes that the many mansions in our Father’s house are churches scattered throughout the world, who can refrain from laughing; since Scripture plainly teaches in John’s Gospel that our Lord was discoursing not of the number of the churches, but of the heavenly mansions, and the eternal tabernacles for which the prophet longed?“In my Father’s house,” He says, “are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again, and will receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.” The place and the mansions which Christ says He would prepare for the apostles are of course in the Father’s house, that is, in the kingdom of heaven, not on earth, where for the present He was leading the apostles.

1710–1714 · Matthew Henry, Commentary on John 14.1-3

See under what notion the happiness of heaven is here represented: as mansions, many mansions in Christ's Father's house. [1.] Heaven is a house, not a tent or tabernacle; it is a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. [2.] It is a Father's house: my Father's house; and his Father is our Father, to whom he was now ascending; so that in right of their elder brother all true believers shall be welcome to that happiness as to their home.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: John 14.2

In that vast abode of God there are many mansions. The earth is one of them, heaven is another. Whether here or there, we are still in the house, in one of the mansions of our Father, in one of the apartments of his vast abode.

1871 · David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on John 14.2

In my Father's house are many mansions—and so room for all, and a place for each. if not, I would have told you—that is, I would tell you so at once; I would not deceive you. I go to prepare a place for you—to obtain for you a right to be there, and to possess your "place."

1883 · Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah 5.11

As they believed in God, so let them also have trust in Him. It was His Father’s House of which they were thinking, and although there were ‘many mansions,’ or rather ‘stations,’ in it - and the choice of this word may teach us something - yet they were all in that one House. Could they not trust Him in this? Surely, if it had been otherwise, He would have told them, and not left them to be bitterly disappointed in the end. Indeed, the object of His going was the opposite of what they feared: it was to prepare by His Death and Resurrection a place for them.

1901 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 47 (1901) 2751

What sort of place, then, must it be that needs Christ Himself to prepare it? He might have said, "Angels, garnish a mansion for My Beloved." He might have spoken to the firstborn sons of light and said, "Pile a temple of jewels for My chosen." But, no, He leaves not the work to them, but He says, "I go to prepare a place for you."

1905–1910 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: John (chapters 1 to 14) 14.2

One other suggestion may be made without enlarging upon it. There is only one other occasion in this Gospel in which the word here translated ‘mansions’ is employed, and it is this: ‘We will come and make our abode with him.’ Our mansion is in God; God’s dwelling-place is in us.

c. 197–200 · Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor (Paedagogus) 2.13

We have heard, too, that the Jerusalem above is walled with sacred stones; and we allow that the twelve gates of the celestial city, by being made like precious stones, indicate the transcendent grace of the apostolic voice. For the colours are laid on in precious stones, and these colours are precious; while the other parts remain of earthy material. With these symbolically, as is meet, the city of the saints, which is spiritually built, is walled. By that brilliancy of stones, therefore, is meant the inimitable brilliancy of the spirit, the immortality and sanctity of being.

c. 260–304 · Victorinus of Pettau, Commentary on the Apocalypse 21-22

The city which he says is squared, he says also is resplendent with gold and precious stones, and has a sacred street, and a river through the midst of it, and the tree of life on either side, bearing twelve manner of fruits throughout the twelve months; and that the light of the sun is not there, because the Lamb is the light of it; and that its gates were of single pearls; and that there were three gates on each of the four sides, and that they could not be shut. I say, in respect of the square city, he shows forth the united multitude of the saints, in whom the faith could by no means waver. As Noah is commanded to make the ark of squared beams, that it might resist the force of the deluge, by the precious stones he sets forth the holy men who cannot waver in persecution, who could not be moved either by the tempest of persecutors, or be dissolved from the true faith by the force of the rain, because they are associated of pure gold, of whom the city of the great King is adorned.

c. 403–404 · John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Epistle to the Hebrews 6.11

For if when we go out into a plain, and there see the soldiers’ tents fixed with curtains, and the spears, and helmets, and bosses of the bucklers glittering, we are lifted up with wonder; but if we also chance to see the king himself running in the midst or even riding with golden armor, we think we have everything; what thinkest thou [it will be] when thou seest the everlasting tabernacles of the saints pitched in heaven? (For it is said, “They shall receive you into their everlasting tabernacles”— Luke xvi. 9 ) when thou seest each one of them beaming with light above the rays of the sun, not from brass and steel, but from that glory whose gleamings the eye of man cannot look upon?

c. 1550 · Louis of Blois, Spiritual Works The Rule of the Spiritual Life, Chapter XXXV. On the Delights of Our Heavenly Country

O LIFE eternal! most desirable abode! heavenly Jerusalem, who can describe thee? who can speak of thee, or rightly understand thee? In thee is that good, that joy, that solace, which “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man” (1 Cor. ii. 9); for the sake of which so many legions of martyrs have most readily welcomed death. Thy gates shine with choice pearls; thy streets are paved with the purest gold; thy walls are bright with most precious stones. In thee, delicious gardens and pleasant vales are ever fresh; in thee, perennial flowers and violets continually flourish; in thee, the cinnamon and balsam incessantly breathe forth an ineffable odour of sweetness; in thee, all kinds of beautiful things abound without fading, remain without passing away, exist without corruption, are eternal without change. In thee is a climate temperate and serene, beyond all human conception; in thee, are peace and repose surpassing all imagination; in thee, is eternal day, and one life in all; in thee, is certain security, and secure eternity, and eternal tranquillity, and tranquil happiness, and happy sweetness, and sweet joy: in thee shall the just shine as the sun (Matth. xiii. 43). No one can seek, or desire, or love anything, which he will not find in thee. That only which is nothing worth, is not in thee. Oh, what an ocean of unalloyed bliss, what a torrent of unmixed joy, what an abyss of purest delight is it to see the God of gods in Sion (Psalm lxxxiii. 8), to discern that incomprehensible glory of the Most Holy Trinity: clearly to contemplate that surpassing fairness, perfectly to taste that ineffable sweetness, from whence flows out all the beauty and sweetness of created things; to behold the most Blessed Mother of God, to join the chorus of Angels, to have perpetual fellowship with the holy Patriarchs and Prophets, with the holy Apostles and Martyrs, with the holy Confessors and Virgins: to know all the citizens of heaven, and to rejoice with each of them in their eternal happiness.

c. 1611 · Lewis Bayly, The Practice of Piety 3

And in him we shall enjoy them in a far more perfect and blessed manner. He himself will then supply their use: nay, the best creatures which serve us now shall not have the honour to serve us then. There will be no need of the sun nor of the moon to shine in that city; for the glory of God doth light it (Rev. xxi. 23.) No more will there be any need or use of any creature, when we shall enjoy the Creator himself.

1692 · Thomas Watson, The Lord's Prayer 2

The stately palace is large and has several storeys. The dimensions of it are twelve thousand furlongs, or, as it is in some Greek copies, twelve times twelve thousand furlongs, a finite number put for an infinite; no arithmetician can number these furlongs. Rev 21: 15. Though there be an innumerable company of saints and angels in heaven, yet there is infinitely enough room to receive them. The palace of this kingdom is lucid and transparent; it is adorned with light, and the light is sweet.

1712 · Matthew Henry, Commentary on Isaiah 60.15-22

As completed in what it shall be. It should seem that in the close of this chapter we are directed to look further yet, as far forward as to the glory and happiness of heaven, under the type and figure of the flourishing state of the church on earth, which yet was never such as to come any thing near to what is here foretold; and several of the images and expressions here made use of we find in the description of the new Jerusalem, Rev. xxi. 23; xxii. 5. As the prophets sometimes insensibly pass from the blessings of the Jewish church to the spiritual blessings of the Christian church, which are eternal, so sometimes they rise from the church militant to the church triumphant, where, and where only, all the promised peace, and joy, and honour will be in perfection. 1. God shall be all in all in the happiness here promised; so he is always to true believers (v. 19): The sun and the moon shall be no more thy light. God's people, when they enjoy his favour, and walk in the light of his countenance, make little account of sun and moon, and the other lights of this world, but could walk comfortably in the light of the Lord though they should withdraw their shining. In heaven there shall be no occasion for sun or moon, for it is the inheritance of the saints in light, such light as will swallow up the light of the sun as easily as the sun does that of a candle.

c. 1714 · William Tong, Commentary on Revelation 21.9-27

As the city had four equal sides, answering to the four quarters of the world, east, west, north, and south, so on each side there were three gates, signifying that from all quarters of the earth there shall be some who shall get safely to heaven and be received there, and that there is as free entrance from one part of the world as from the other; for in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, Barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free. Men of all nations, and languages, who believe on Christ, have by him access to God in grace here and in glory hereafter. [5.] The materials of these gates—they were all of pearls, and yet with great variety: Every gate one pearl, either one single pearl of that vast bigness, or one single sort of pearl. Christ is the pearl of great price, and he is our way to God.

c. 1714 · William Tong, Commentary on Revelation 21.9-27

The subject-matter of the vision—the bride, the Lamb's wife (v. 10); that is, the church of God in her glorious, perfect, triumphant state, under the resemblance of Jerusalem, having the glory of God shining in its lustre, as uxor splendit radiis mariti—the bride comely through the comeliness put on her by her husband; glorious in her relation to Christ, in his image now perfected in her, and in his favour shining upon her. And now we have a large description of the church triumphant under the emblem of a city, far exceeding in riches and splendour all the cities of this world; and this new Jerusalem is here represented to us both in the exterior and the interior part of it.

c. 1714 · William Tong, Commentary on Revelation 21.9-27

The temple of the new Jerusalem, which was no material temple, made with men's hands, as that of Solomon and Zerubbabel, but a temple altogether spiritual and divine; for the Lord God Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple thereof. There the saints are above the need of ordinances, which were the means of their preparation for heaven. When the end is attained the means are no longer useful.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Revelation 21.intro

Its general appearance, Rev 21:11, Rev 21:18, Rev 21:21. It is bright and splendid - like a precious jasper-stone, clear as crystal, and composed of pure gold. (2) its walls, Rev 21:12, Rev 21:18. The walls are represented as "great and high," and as composed of "jasper." (3) its gates, Rev 21:12-13, Rev 21:21. The gates are twelve in number, three on each side; and are each composed of a single pearl. (4) its foundations, Rev 21:14, Rev 21:18-20. There are twelve foundations, corresponding to the number of the apostles of the Lamb.

1843 · Henry Edward Manning, Sermons, Volume 1 26

On the twelve gates of the heavenly Jerusalem are “the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel;” on the twelve foundations “the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb;” the hundred and forty and four thousand were sealed each one in the name of his tribe; to him that overcometh shall be given “a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” Each one several and distinct, even as here, so shall he be there; each one shining forth in his own blessedness; and yet the song of the redeemed, the everlasting chant of “all nations, and kindred, and people, and tongues,” is but one; their voices without number, yet but one accordant hymn; so shall all perfection, and all righteousness, and all bliss, and all thanksgiving, be perfect in every saint, and united in one heavenly glory, which shall encompass the righteous.

1855 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 1 (1855) 10

I have a palace! and its walls are not made of marble, but of gold; its borders are carbuncles and precious gems; its windows are of agates; its stones are laid with fair colours; around it there is a profusion of every costly thing; rubies sparkle here and there; yea, pearls are but common stones within it. Some call it a mansion; but I have a right to call it a palace too, for I am a king. It is a mansion when I look at God, it is a palace when I look at men; because it is the habitation of a prince.

1871 · A. R. Fausset, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on Revelation 21.12

twelve angels—guards of the twelve gates: an additional emblem of perfect security, while the gates being never shut (Re 21:25) imply perfect liberty and peace. Also, angels shall be the brethren of the heavenly citizens. names of … twelve tribes—The inscription of the names on the gates implies that none but the spiritual Israel, God's elect, shall enter the heavenly city.

1871 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 17 (1871) 978

The Lamb is the temple of heaven (Revelation 21:22), the light of heaven (Revelation 21:23), his marriage is the joy of heaven (Revelation 19:7), and the Song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, is the song of heaven (Revelation 15:3). Not all the harps above could make a heavenly place if Christ were gone; for he is the heaven of heaven, and filleth all in all.

1893 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 39 (1893) 2292

Heaven is not like such lonely places. We look upon Heaven, not as a spot where there will be half-a-dozen people of our own views and sentiments, but as a great city where there will be a wide fellowship among a multitude that no man can number! It will be a city for security, within walls that never can be attacked, and with streets where there shall never be known an adversary. Heaven is a city because it is a place of splendor!

1930–1933 · A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament: Revelation 21.2

"The New Earth must have a new metropolis, not another Babylon, but another and greater Jerusalem" (Swete), and not the old Jerusalem which was destroyed A.D. 70. It was called the Holy City in a conventional way (Mt 4:5; 27:53 ), but now in reality because it is new and fresh (καινην), this heavenly Jerusalem of hope (Heb 12:22 ), this Jerusalem above (Ga 4:26ff. ) where our real citizenship is (Php 3:20 ).

c. 260–304 · Victorinus of Pettau, Commentary on the Apocalypse 21-22

The river of life sets forth that the grace of spiritual doctrine flowed through the minds of the faithful, and that manifold flourishing forms of odours germinated therein. The tree of life on either bank sets forth the Advent of Christ, according to the flesh, who satisfied the peoples wasted with famine, that received life from One by the wood of the Cross, with the announcement of God’s word. And in that he says that the sun is not necessary in the city, he shows, evidently, that the Creator as the immaculate light shines in the midst of it, whose brightness no mind has been able to conceive, nor tongue to tell. In that he says there are three gates placed on each of the four sides, of single pearls, I think that these are the four virtues, to wit, prudence, fortitude, justice, temperance, which are associated with one another. And, being involved together, they make the number twelve. But the twelve gates we believe to be the number of the apostles, who, shining in the four virtues as precious stones, manifesting the light of their doctrine among the saints, cause it to enter the celestial city, that by intercourse with them the choir of angels may be gladdened.

c. 1714 · William Tong, Commentary on Revelation 22.1-5

The heavenly state which was before described as a city, and called the new Jerusalem, is here described as a paradise, alluding to the earthly paradise which was lost by the sin of the first Adam; here is another paradise restored by the second Adam. A paradise in a city, or a whole city in a paradise! In the first paradise there were only two persons to behold the beauty and taste the pleasures of it; but in this second paradise whole cities and nations shall find abundant delight and satisfaction.

1754 · John Wesley, Explanatory Notes on Revelation 22.2

In the midst of the street - Here is the paradise of God, mentioned, chap. ii, 7. Is the tree of life - Not one tree only, but many. Every month - That is, in inexpressible abundance. The variety, likewise, as well as the abundance of the fruits of the Spirit, may be intimated thereby. And the leaves are for the healing of the nations - For the continuing their health, not the restoring it; for no sickness is there.

1871 · A. R. Fausset, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on Revelation 22.1

water of life—infinitely superior to the typical waters in the first Paradise (Ge 2:10-14); and even superior to those figurative ones in the millennial Jerusalem (Eze 47:1, 12; Zec 14:8), as the matured fruit is superior to the flower. The millennial waters represent full Gospel grace; these waters of new Jerusalem represent Gospel glory perfected. Their continuous flow from God, the Fountain of life, symbolizes the uninterrupted continuance of life derived by the saints, ever fresh, from Him: life in fulness of joy, as well as perpetual vitality.

1889 · William Milligan, The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Revelation Chapter XVII. The New Jerusalem

The outward helps needed by men in leading the life of God in their present state of imperfection are dispensed with. There is no temple therein: for the Lord, God, the Almighty, is the temple thereof, and the Lamb. The city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it: for the glory of God lightens it by day, and the lamp thereof by night is the Lamb. There is in it no sin, and every positive element of happiness is provided in abundance for the blest inhabitants. A river of water of life, bright as crystal, flows there; and on this side of the river and on that side is the tree of life, not bearing fruit only once a year, but every month, not yielding one only, but twelve manner of fruits, so that all tastes may be gratified, having nothing about it useless or liable to decay. The very leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations, and it is evidently implied that they are always green. Finally, there shall be no curse any more. The throne of God and of the Lamb is therein. His servants do Him service. They see His face. His name is in their foreheads. They are priests unto God in the service of the heavenly sanctuary. They reign for ever and ever.

1909 · E. W. Bullinger, Commentary on Revelation (The Apocalypse, or 'The Day of the Lord') 20

Paradise is always used in Scripture of a definite place from Genesis to Revelation. It is described in Gen. ii.; it is lost in Gen. iii.; its restoration is spoken of in Luke xxiii. 43; it is seen in vision, in 2 Cor. xii. 2, 4; it is promised in Rev. ii. 7. And here (Rev. xxiii. 1-5, 14, 17), we see the promise fulfilled, and the lost Paradise become Paradise regained. "The tree of life" and "the water of life" were, and will ever be, its chief distinguishing marks of blessedness.

c. 370–419 · Jerome, Letters 46.6

And he measured the walls thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. And the building of the wall of it was of jasper; and the city was pure gold”—and so on. Now where there is a square there can be neither length nor breadth. And what kind of measurement is that which makes length and breadth equal to height? And how can there be walls of jasper, or a whole city of pure gold; its foundations and its streets of precious stones, and its twelve gates each glowing with pearls?

1692 · Thomas Watson, A Body of Divinity, Contained in Sermons upon the Westminster Assembly's Catechism 5.8

The Greek word for undefiled alludes to a precious stone called Amiantus, which cannot be blemished. Such a place is heaven, undefiled, nothing can stain it; there is no sin there to eclipse its purity. For holiness and undefiledness it is compared to pure gold, and to the sapphire and emerald. Rev 21:19. ‘The sapphire has a virtue,' says Pliny, ‘to preserve chasteness, the emerald to expel poison.' These are the lively emblems of heaven, to show the sanctity of it; no fever of lust; no venom of malice; none but pure virgin spirits inhabit it.

1740 · Jonathan Edwards, The Portion of the Righteous 1

The glory of his residence is what we cannot conceive of; and this is one of those things spoken of in 1 Cor. ii. 9. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Therefore in the descriptions that are given of it in the Scriptures, the images made use of to shadow it forth to us, are the most glorious with which we are conversant in the world. Such is the glorious description of it by John, as represented to him in the apocalyptic vision.

1784–1785 · John Newton, Messiah: Expository Discourses on the Scripture Passages Contained in Handel's Oratorio, Volume II (Sermons XXVI-L) 41

From disease and anguish, from weeping friends, and often from a state of indigence and obscurity, in which they have no friends to compassionate them, they remove to a state of glory, honour and immortality, to a mansion in the realms of light, to a seat near the throne of God. In the language of mortals, this ineffable honour and happiness is shadowed out to us, by the emblems of a white robe, a golden harp, a palm-branch, (the tokens of victory) and a crown, not of oak or laurel, not of gold or diamonds, but a crown of life.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Revelation 22.5

If it be asked now why John, in the account which he has given of the heavenly state, adopted this figurative and emblematic mode of representation, and why it did not please God to reveal any more respecting the nature of the employments and enjoyments of the heavenly world, it may be replied: (a) That this method is eminently in accordance with the general character of the book, as a book of symbols and emblems. (b) He has stated enough to give us a general and a most attractive view of that blessed state.

1845–1861 · Charles G. Finney, Sermons on Gospel Themes 3

Spiritual truths are revealed by natural objects: e.g., the gates and walls of the New Jerusalem, to present the splendours and glories of the heavenly state. A spiritual telescope is put into our hands; we are permitted to point it towards the glorious city “whose builder and Maker is God;” we may survey its inner sanctuary, where the worshipping hosts praise God without ceasing. We see their flowing robes of white—the palms of victory in their hands—the beaming joy of their faces—the manifestations of ineffable bliss in their souls. This is heaven portrayed in symbol. Who supposes that this is intended as hyperbole?

1909 · E. W. Bullinger, Commentary on Revelation (The Apocalypse, or 'The Day of the Lord') 20

And there shall be no longer any night: and they have no need of a lamp or (lit., and) light of the sun; because the Lord God will give them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.] There is a similar provision for Millennial days (Ezek. xlvii. 12). But these final Visions of Paradise regained are as far beyond the Millennial City, as that will be beyond the past and present Jerusalem. All are literal and real.

1916 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 62 (1916) 3526

All these joys are without sediment of sin. Gold on earth is a dull thing. You cannot look into it. But the joys of Heaven, if compared to gold, must be transparent. "Pure gold like unto clear glass"—all the earth taken out of it, all its earthly grossness. The joy of Heaven is Divine!