There is no doubt that the bible is full of Scripture that illustrates this point: that heaven will be a life of abundance. We will start with Ephesians 2:7, where Paul declares “that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
This grace is illustrated for us in Revelation 22:1-2, as the writer (John) speaks of a river of life flowing from the throne of God in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21). But this grace of God is not just a symbolic illustration of His grace and kindness to us in the future. It is a vision as best John can describe of what he actually sees. We will start with verse one and the first part of verse two.
Revelation 22:1-2a
Then he [an angel] showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 2 in the middle of its street.
So, John sees in his vision (as an angel points out to him) a river flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, “in the middle of its street.”First of all, I take this to mean that this river—the river of the water of life—will be flowing from the throne of God and winding around in the middle of all the streets of the heavenly city, New Jerusalem.
As for the streets of the city, they will not be like anything we know in our time. Our streets are mainly for transportation with gas-powered automobiles. But no such thing will be needed in heaven. We will be able to fly or go from place to place with just a thought. So, the mention here of “streets” is probably more like the public square—the place where neighbors will go to hang out, a place to fellowship. Oh, it will be a beautiful area where the streets are of pure gold (Rev. 21:21). These beautiful golden streets will be everywhere, in every neighborhood of the city. And in the middle of these places will be the flowing clear river of life with fruit trees all along its banks (v. 2). But we are getting ahead of ourselves. First, I want to talk more about the river.
Our text tells us that it is “a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God.” Hence, it is not like our H2O. It is of a divine substance and without any impurities; for its source is from God. It is no doubt the same water that Jesus spoke of to a woman from Samaria (in John 4:7-14). In this interaction Jesus asked her for a drink of water from a nearby well called Jacob’s well. And when she was surprised that He would ask her for water (since Jews had no dealings with Samaritans), Jesus boldly said to her,
“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” 11 She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? 12 “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
So here, Jesus speaks of living water, and if we (or anyone) drink of it we will never thirst again. In fact, this water will become in us a well of water springing up to eternal life. Hence, I think we can say that when we were first saved we did in fact take and drink of this living water; and it has been our source of eternal life ever since. Yes, I am saying that every believer has this living water flowing in him; it is what makes him a Christian—one that walks by the Spirit of God.
In verse two John writes,
On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
I picture here beautiful gardens all throughout the New Jerusalem, where there will always be a sparkling, clear river nearby, and fruit trees on either side of the river, and golden streets to walk upon and pick the fruit. And though there is no mention of it, I think there will be beautiful flowers everywhere, and also vegetables of every kind to eat. And though we will have no needs of sustenance, everything in the garden and of the trees will have a beneficial effect on us when we eat of it—not for our health but for our pleasure and for the satisfaction in knowing that God continues to love us.
And for our variety we are told that each month for twelve months there will be a new crop of fruit. Thus, it seems that God is expecting us to eat all the fruit of the trees bare in one month. And then each month a new crop of fruit will appear. And I imagine that there will be many kinds of fruit: apples, pears, peaches, cherries, and many more.
And a side note of importance. I do undoubtedly believe that the river and the fruit trees are literal. But there is a deeper meaning here. The flowing of the river may represent the moving of God’s Spirit in me, continually living in me and empowering me. And the fruit on the trees no doubt represents the fruit of God’s Spirit always flowing in me. Hence, each time we see and hear the river and taste of the fruit, we will be reminded of what God is to us and is doing in us.
And now, what of the vegetables? Do we eat them raw or cook them? I don’t know. But we are told that the leaves of the fruit tree (or trees) will be for our healing. What does that imply? John MacArthur writes that since the Greek word for healing is translated therapia from which we get our English word therapeutic that the leaves “somehow enrich the heavenly life—if only through the pure joy of eating.”3
Yes, there is much to look forward to—endless pleasure and abundance. It is definitely true that we will enjoy Him forever.
3 John MacArthur, The Glory of Heaven (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1996), p. 115.
Stephen Nielsen 