We must begin by saying that what is spoken of here is not a physical city as we would know it. It is a community with inter-personal relationships. This is not speaking of where we shall live. Rather the City itself is the Bride, and the Body, and the People of God. What we have is not the dimensions of the home of many mansions. Remember that this is symbol and vision.

We can so humanize the picture and inanimate it when we think of pearly gates and streets of gold. That is the symbol but the symbol is not of a heavenly mega-city, it is of the people, the Bride herself. When brought here to consider the dimensions and distinctions, it is not that we are having described for us our home, but rather our perfected state, in a corporate manner.

1. The Dimensions⤒🔗

Paraphrasing Revelation 21, this City is shaped as a cube, with three gates on all four sides. The wall is about 200 feet thick, and the length, breadth, and height are of the same dimension; that is, about 1,400 miles.

Now there are some who will persist in the literalism of this and speak of it having enough space for all the elect, having in their minds eye layer upon layer of housing to create a galactic mega city nearly reaching from London to New York and as tall as broad.

If we take a symbolic approach the dimensions nonetheless are important, though we need not strain them. The number 12 frequently appears. This is a number of perfection and completion, particularly organisational perfection. The 12 stars were believed to organise the night sky. 12 had the sense of order and perfect government. We find that this city has 12 gates, 12 foundations, 12,000 stadia cubed, with a wall 12x12 (144) cubits thick.

Now what does this mean?

The Cube Symbolises PERFECTION←↰⤒🔗

In the ancient world, the square and more the cube were considered symbols of perfection. We would still use the phrase “four-square” implying correctness or perfection. We have already mentioned the perfections of the Bride. She is beautifully dressed. Christ died on the cross to pay the price for his people, and his perfect righteousness clothes them. We learn here that his work is not only a beautifying but also a perfecting work.

The Cube Symbolises GOD’S PRESENCE←↰⤒🔗

Solomon’s Temple had an entrance hall, then the Holy Place, and then, the most Holy place. The Holy of Holies was cube shaped, symbolizing that perfection. As this vision was brought before John he would have in mind the Holy of Holies, and the fact that because our Lord entered not the cube copy on earth, but entered heaven bearing his own blood, the Holy of Holies curtain was Born, and we can have access to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

As we consider this vision of the perfected saints in glory, the shekinah glory of God is shining from within. In this cube shaped “Holy of Holies” City God and his re-creation are in perfect unspoiled communion.

The Cube Symbolises CAPACITY←↰⤒🔗

Now I don’t want us to have a mental picture of a mega city with level upon level taking the city up 1,400 literal miles. But don’t throw out the whole image. This is a picture which speaks of capacity.

Don’t think of it showing us the many rooms of John 14, but the truth of John 14 should still be with us. In my father’s house are mangy dwellings. The city is capacious, as people come from every tribe and nation and tongue.

This vision must have struck John as to its expanse. The dimensions would have beggared belief, and certainly John must have found difficulty putting vision into words – of course, with the verbal help of the Spirit of God. What great dimensions this city has! How great is Zion, City of our God. How grand and great the number of the elect of God, gathered together here, in the symbol of a cube city of mighty proportions.

Does this not thrill your heart as we lament our smallness and how ineffectual our words and witness? How small the interest in the things of God these days; how slow the work; how disappointing. But saints, look up at this wonderful sight of a capacious city, beyond imagination, yet each individual is known and precious to God.

2. The Distinctions←⤒🔗

There are several notably distinct images that we are given. There is a great high and thick wall around this city. There are 12 gates. The names of the 12 tribes of Israel are written upon the gates. The wall has great foundations, 12 in fact, and on the foundations are written the names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb.

The fabric of the wall and gates is also distinct. The wall is made of jasper. The city is of pure gold. The foundations were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The gates were each made of a single pearl. The street was of pure gold.

Now let us take these things and endeavour to understand what this means, and what it means for us.

Entering this City←↰⤒🔗

You enter a city through the gate. These gates had names on them. They bore witness to the Old Testament people of God, the tribes of Israel. Indeed the Old Testament scriptures bore witness to the entering of this city. Furthermore we believe that in this city there will be the saints of Old Testament times. So it is good and right for us to see the names of the tribes on the gateways.

But what about the way in? How do we get into this city? How do you become a Christian? How do you come to be part of this wonderful vision?

Answer, you go through the Gate! In John 10 Jesus said “I am the Gate for the sheep”. Go to Jesus Christ, desiring your sins forgiven by his blood. He has paid the price. You must enter through him and be saved.

I remember someone trying to be clever and point out that there are 12 gates into heaven implying that there are many ways in, through many religions. Not so. These gates are not differing ways in, but all are symbolised as a pearl – a single pearl.

A pearl can bring to mind many things. How a pearl is formed? A tiny speck of dust irritates the mollusc and layer upon layer is put over this to cover it until the irritant is completely covered and overshadowed by this pearl. Fishermen may seek to find a great pearl, a large pearl, of great price.

Now what do we have in this picture? – but a magnificent and enormous pearl. He is the Pearl of great price. The irritant of our sin, he has completely covered and in the suffering of his death he has produced a beautiful and glorious gate to the kingdom, a pearl which is priceless – Jesus Christ himself and his atoning work.

The Security of this City←↰⤒🔗

Last time we made mention of the fact of the finished, completed, perfected nature of the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb. So too here, we have in the symbol of the walled city, the symbol of security. Of course there is no enemy in this picture at all, but nonetheless there is within this picture the assurance that all are safely gathered in and there is also something of an exclusion in this vision. This is brought out more explicitly in v 27 – “only those whose names are written in the lamb’s book of life.” But also here with the vision of a walled city there is the symbol of not only a secure inclusion but an exclusion.

The Magnificence of this City←↰⤒🔗

From staggering dimensions to eye-catching distinctions, this city is unsurpassed in its magnificence. Well of course it is, for it is also the Bride, the Wife of the Lamb, beautiful, splendid, radiant with the glory of God.

The redeemed people of God have such a magnificence that is beyond description within our feeble vocabulary, and our finite imagination. So we have set before us a magnificent and immense cubed city, bedecked with jewels, and with streets of gold. It is magnificently symmetrical and organised. It is magnificently ornate and beautified. The words of mortal tongues fail at this point. Here is the city whose builder is God; the city whose foundations are the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus as the chief corner stone.

What a carefully constructed election! What a magnificent masterpiece of divine predestination and purpose! What a stunning exhibit of his will and good pleasure! And wonder of wonders, what a inconceivable display of grace that the Lord Jesus Christ should call this city, this Bride, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.