Revelation 21:11 Commentary and Bible Study

What an atmosphere of power and majesty. and purity and wonder; all the attributes of God are somehow felt and radiant. She is like a jasper stone, the very same stone which was used to symbolise the glory of God himself in Revelation 4:3. The word translated ‘jasper’ here is nowhere else apart from in the Book of Revelation, and nobody is quite sure what it is. The thing that we refer to as jasper is a kind of speckled stone, but this is different because it is clear as crystal. The favourite guess is that it is some kind of a diamond, which reflects back whatever light it receives. The light of the whole gathered company of believers – millions upon millions of them with glorified bodies in the new Jerusalem, the new church – is like a giant diamond, reflecting back the glory of God, which shines upon it. When you consider that every single believer who is in eternal glory will be pure beyond imagination, a wonderful person and character with a God-given purity and attributes. All this will somehow radiate out of each one of the saints. But there isn’t just one with enough glory and light to illuminate the whole world, but there are millions of them. What a sight, beyond the imagination!She has been made a bride fit for the Lord. He has given her a glory of her own. It is hard for us to grasp the transformation that must take place in us before the marriage of the Lamb. We are now so earthly in spite of the fact that we are born from above. So much corruption remains in us. Sin clings so closely to us. But this is contrasted with a future radiance that gives no hint of our lowly origin. It will be hard to understand what degradation the church has been delivered from when she is seen in that day.