"No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him."
(Revelation 22:3)
What’s heaven like? Or to ask the same question by a different angle, what’s it like in the New Jerusalem? Scripture constantly contrasts the world of men and the rule of God. Jealous and angry Cain killed his righteous brother Abel. Noah lived as a righteous man in the midst of a world in rebellion against God. The Lord chose Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans, separating him from idolatry and delivering him from the world. Sodom and Gomorrah perished because of their great sin while God delivered Lot. Daniel and his friends did not defile themselves with the Babylonian king’s food but lived distinctly from them as God’s children. But how do you capsule this distinct atmosphere in the New Jerusalem? Abel, Noah, Abraham, Lot, and Daniel still sinned and still lived in a sinful world.
John puts it so precisely that it captures the entire atmosphere of this holy place. “There will no longer be any curse...” In repetitive fashion, John has already used that same phrase to alert us to the distinctly different atmosphere of heaven. “And there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain.” Then he summarizes all of these things: “the first things have passed away” (21:4). “There will no longer be” (ouk estai eti) is the optimum phrase. Why will there no longer be these things? The answer lies in the cross of Christ. Death, mourning, crying (for sorrow), pain, curse, and night as a metaphor for spiritual darkness met their match at the cross. These wretched fruits from the fall were borne by the Incarnate God, Jesus Christ, as He took them out of the way by His death. Summed up by the “curse,” a term that means something that is accursed by God, the cross severed its head and crushed it in defeat. The final redemption fully applies what Jesus accomplished in removing death and destroying every work of the devil (Heb. 2:14-15; 1 John 3:8). So ponder this: there will no longer be any curse. Listen to the nightly news, read the news reports, and then ponder, “There will no longer be any curse.” Though living in the not yet, we have the divine approbation that the day will come when every taint and trace of sin’s effects in this world are gone — gone forever!
(Phil A. Newton)
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