Revelation 21:14 Commentary and Bible Study

This takes us to Ephesians 3 where the apostles and prophets of the New Testament are said to be the foundation of the church. Of course there is only one foundation of the church and that is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. The sense in which the church is built on the foundation of the apostles is that they were the channels of revelation to the world. Through them the gospel was preached to the world. Some of them were privileged to be penmen of Scripture. Their doctrine was foundational for the church, a church which is built on doctrine. The foundations viewed here are the foundations of the walls of the city. These walls of salvation are very tall as we will see. The foundations must therefore be very strong. The church can never leave this foundation. It can never depart from the apostles’ doctrine or else it has apostatised and will collapse. Only what is built on this foundation will survive into the world to come. The task of teachers is not to invent new doctrine of their own but to explore what has already been given. This is quite sufficient for a lifetime. The Canon of Scripture, the list of books rightly included in the Bible, was not determined by a church council sometime after the close of the New Testament. It was decided by the apostles during the New Testament times, so the foundation is the word, the twelve apostles of the Lamb.Though John does not mention this, he sees his own name among the apostles. How certain the future was for him. Though he was still living on the earth at the time, he knew that he could not avoid his God given future destiny. Treasures were stored up for him in heaven which must have drawn out all his desires towards the coming kingdom. But so it is for every believer. Our names are also written in heaven. Mortal man, formed from the dust of the earth will be exalted to a state of immortality and given a permanence that belongs to God alone. It is the Lord’s delight to give us a place in his kingdom which by grace bears no resemblance to our lowly origin. We are called there and we must finally arrive there. All our longings should be for that place.The blending together of Old and New Testament features shows that we are considering the church universal here. The names of the tribes of Israel are written on the gates, but those of the apostles of the Lord underlie the walls. This surpasses all chronological arrangement. It is an ideal representation of the church of God. Truth and doctrine are what matter. The Old Testament contained many glorious promises of the coming Messiah, but not until the fullness of time had come did the Son of God appear. Since his coming is the central truth of the whole Bible, it is right that the apostles who were particularly associated with the incarnation should be made foundational to the entire household of God.