This is another in a series of excerpts from The Book of Life: What the Bible Says about God’s Registry of the Redeemed from High Street Press and available at Amazon. This except comes from Chapter 3: the Lamb’s Book.

---

In John’s stunning view of New Jerusalem, he reminds us, “Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev. 21:27). 

This verse focuses more on what and who are excluded from New Jerusalem than it does on what and who are welcomed into the city. John’s description of New Jerusalem in Revelation 21 – 22 is comprehensive in terms of its outward appearance and inward features. But what lies outside the city invites our immediate attention. John writes that nothing unclean will ever enter New Jerusalem. 

So, what does John mean by “unclean”? The Greek word is koinos, which means “common, ordinary, shared by all.” The Jews understood it to mean “unhallowed, profane, or ritually unclean.” Just as the filth of Old Jerusalem was carried outside the city walls and burned, nothing defiled is allowed into the heavenly city. Interestingly, Jesus is crucified and buried outside the city walls as one cursed or condemned (Heb. 13:11-14). Yet, it’s through his sacrifice on the cross, at the base of a hill beyond the city’s gates, that entrance into New Jerusalem is opened to all who trust in him.

Every ancient city had its outsiders, those considered unclean and unworthy to enter, especially those whose names were absent from the registry of citizens. Outcast groups, such as prostitutes, often lived outside the city gates. The unclean always had been excluded from God’s house so long as they remained in that state. 

But John’s words in Revelation 21:27 refer to spiritual or moral uncleanness. John already has described the wicked as cast into the lake of fire for all eternity (Rev. 20:15). Here, he presents them from another perspective: as pariahs excluded from the heavenly city. 

It’s remarkable that John, the so-called apostle of love, writes so graphically about the terrors of hell. In Revelation 20:11-15, he portrays gehenna as a lake of fire into which the unrepentant wicked of all time – humans and angels – are cast (cf. Matt. 25:41; Rev. 14:10-11, 19:20). Then, he describes those whose names are missing from the book of life and thus are denied access to the city: “But the cowards, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars ​— ​their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8). 

There are two types of behaviors mentioned in Revelation 21:27 that exclude a person from the city: doing what is detestable, and doing what is false. The Greek word translated “detestable” is bdelygma, which means a foul thing, and it commonly refers to objects pertaining to idolatry. 

Human beings have made idols for themselves since the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve, for example, make idols of their autonomy. The Israelites coming out of Egypt make idols in the form of golden calves. The Canaanites make idols of the weather and the elements. Enemies of Christ make idols of their fleshly desires (“their god is their stomach” – Phil. 3:19). 

Today, we worship these same idols in modern clothes: critical theory, gender fluidity, relativism, abortion “rights,” intersectionality, and so on. All these gods – whether we call them gods doesn’t change the false deity invested in them – compete for our devotion to the one living and true God, who created the good things we’ve chosen to corrupt and then worship in his place (see Rom. 1:18-25). 

When we come to faith in Christ, we abandon our idolatry and acknowledge the Son of Man, who is God in human flesh, and we receive his provision for our sin through a sinless life and substitutionary death on the cross. While Christians are prone to sliding back into idolatry, or adding idols to our set-apart lives, God promises to sanctify us now – that is, conform us to his image – and glorify us in the future, when, in resurrected bodies, the last vestiges of sin are purged, and we become like our Savior. 

In New Jerusalem, we are fully and finally separated from sin. What’s more, the city itself, God’s dwelling place, continuously burns away the dross that gathers outside. 

The Greek word for “false” in verse 27 is pseudos, which means “a lie, conscious and intentional falsehood … of perverse, impious, deceitful precepts.” Jesus ties this term to Satan, the father of lies (John 8:44). Paul says the unbeliever has exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature instead of the creator (Rom. 1:25).

Paul further instructs Christians to speak the truth to our neighbors and put away lying (Eph. 4:25). He writes that the antichrist (the lawless one) is under the power of Satan, who deceives with “every kind of miracle, both signs and wonders serving the lie [that the antichrist is the true Messiah] … for this reason, God sends them a strong delusion so that they will believe the lie” (2 Thess. 2:9, 11). 

The last reference to pseudos in the Bible is found in Revelation 22:15. There, outside the city gates, are “the dogs [evil, infamous people], the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” 

Lastly, John says those who are welcomed into the city have their names written in the Lamb’s book of life. The word “written” in Greek is gegrammenoi, a perfect passive participle of grapho, meaning to write. This communicates permanent effects. Those who have overcome all the powers of evil by the blood of the Lamb have their names permanently written in the Lamb’s book of life and therefore gain access forever to the holy city.

The contrast between personal purity within the city and impurity outside the city reminds us that the saints enter eternity in a glorified state. When Christ calls us from the graves, we see him as he is and are made like him (1 John 3:2). The last vestige of the old man – the flesh that desires and surrenders to sin – is cast out. Its presence is gone, as is its power to corrupt. 

We’re reminded that in the earthly Jerusalem, there’s always been a mixture of the holy and the unholy, the pure and the impure, the consecrated and the discarded. But in New Jerusalem, there is only holiness, purity, and consecration. 

New Jerusalem is swept clean of personal and corporate sin. The glorified saints enter freely as citizens, and the city sparkles with untarnished brilliance. As for the church, from its very beginning there have been sheep and goats, wheat and tares, good and bad fish. And it remains so until the shepherd, the farmer, and the fisherman gather them all together and then separate them. 

By the time New Jerusalem descends from heaven, the gathering and separation have been done. Only the sheep, wheat, and good fish are brought through the city gates, while the goats, tares, and bad fish are taken outside the city and discarded. 

It’s not meritorious human works that determine who’s welcomed into New Jerusalem, for the best of our works are as polluted clothes – literally, soiled menstrual garments – in the sight of God (Isa. 64:6). Rather, it’s by the blood of the Lamb that names are entered permanently into the book of life. This book is opened at final judgment, when the sheep and goats, the wheat and tares, and the good and bad fish are separated – one group into everlasting bliss, the other to everlasting punishment. 

While in old times city gates are closed at night, John learns that the gates of New Jerusalem are never shut. God’s glory forever blazes from the center of the city, so much so that there is no night there, no need of artificial light, and no need of sentries in the watchtowers. The people are secure, having been washed in the Lamb’s blood, clothed in his righteousness, adopted as his Father’s children, and sheltered in the never-ending glow of his divine presence. 

Matthew Henry notes that New Jerusalem is free from two corrupting influences. First, it’s free from the openly profane. The church on earth sometimes welcomes those who celebrate what God condemns – sexual perversion, personal autonomy, wealth, power – but the heavenly city casts them out; they have no place in the presence of divine holiness.

Second, Henry says the city is free from hypocrites:

These will creep into the churches of Christ on earth, and may lie concealed for a long time, perhaps all their days; but they cannot intrude into the new Jerusalem, which is wholly reserved for those that are called, and chosen, and faithful, who are all written, not only in the register of the visible church, but in the Lamb’s book of life.

Next: Why is it the Lamb’s book?