Trevor Laurence
During Advent, the church has historically utilized the weeks leading up to the celebration of Jesus’ first coming at Christmas as a season to anticipate and long for his second coming. Indeed, the two advents of Christ are inextricably related: what Jesus began in the mission of his incarnation will be brought to fulfillment when he returns in glory.
Everything we celebrate in Christmas is, in a very real sense, incomplete on its own. We need the assurance of God’s future to truly rejoice in the accomplishments of God’s past. Everything we celebrate in Christmas pulls us into the promise that, in Christ, God will finish what he has started—that the new creation that dawned in Jesus’ birth from the womb and from the tomb will usher in the new creational, resurrectional, rebirth of the world.
John appears to make this very point in the way he tells the story of Jesus. Luke is often credited with offering a two-volume narrative of Christ’s life and action in his Gospel and the book of Acts, but John has done something quite similar with his Gospel and the book of Revelation. If John’s Gospel is about the incarnate Christ’s decisive works in history, John’s Apocalypse is about the ascended Christ’s continuing works in history, bringing to completion and fullness all that was initiated in the incarnation.
The prologue of John 1 and the concluding visions of the new Jerusalem in Revelation 21–22 bookend John’s two-volume composition,1 and the two passages are intentionally crafted with lexical repetitions, thematic connections, and patterns of imagery that signal that the work of God that commences with the light of Christ breaking into darkness to tabernacle with sinners made children reaches its apogee in a new heaven and new earth illumined by the never-setting glory of God and the Lamb, a cosmic tabernacle where God tabernacles with saints who are sons.
The structure of John’s Gospel and Apocalypse presses the attentive reader of the incarnational prologue to meditate in anticipatory worship on Jesus’ consummation of history and invites the hearer of John’s final visions to marvel in loving gratitude at the gift of the incarnation of the Son of God.2
Christmas is ordered toward the resurrection of the cosmos. New creation is the culmination of Christmas.
The following chart presents several of the parallels that link the prologue of John’s Gospel with the conclusion of his Apocalypse. Examined individually, some of the associations admittedly may seem tendentious, but taken cumulatively, they testify to the careful architecture of John’s narrative and to the inseparability of Christmas and consummation in the purposes of God.
| John 13 | Revelation 21–224 |
| He was in the beginning with God (v. 2) οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν | I am . . . the beginning and the end (21:6; 22:13)5 ἐγώ . . . ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ τέλος |
| All things were made through him (v. 3) πάντα διʼ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο | Behold, I am making all things new (21:5) Ἰδοὺ καινὰ ποιῶ πάντα |
| In him was life (v. 4) ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν | the Lamb’s book of life (21:27) τῷ βιβλίῳ τῆς ζωῆς τοῦ ἀρνίου the water of life (21:6; 22:1, 17) τοῦ ὕδατος τῆς ζωῆς the tree of life (22:2, 14, 19) ξύλον ζωῆς |
| the life was the light of men (v. 4) ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων The light shines in the darkness (v. 5) τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει The true light, which gives light to everyone (v. 9) Ἦν τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινόν, ὃ φωτίζει πάντα ἄνθρωπον | The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God lights it up, and its lamp is the Lamb (21:23, NET) ἡ πόλις οὐ χρείαν ἔχει τοῦ ἡλίου οὐδὲ τῆς σελήνης ἵνα φαίνωσιν αὐτῇ, ἡ γὰρ δόξα τοῦ θεοῦ ἐφώτισεν αὐτήν, καὶ ὁ λύχνος αὐτῆς τὸ ἀρνίον they will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will shine on them (22:5, NET) οὐκ ἔχουσιν χρείαν φωτὸς λύχνου καὶ φωτὸς ἡλίου, ὅτι κύριος ὁ θεὸς φωτίσει ἐπʼ αὐτούς |
| The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (v. 5) τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶ ἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν | and there will be no night there (21:25) νὺξ γὰρ οὐκ ἔσται ἐκεῖ And night will be no more (22:5) καὶ νὺξ οὐκ ἔσται ἔτι |
| There was a man sent from God, whose name was John (v. 6) Ἐγένετο ἄνθρωπος, ἀπεσταλμένος παρὰ θεοῦ, ὄνομα αὐτῷ Ἰωάννης | And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel (22:6) καὶ ὁ κύριος ὁ θεὸς τῶν πνευμάτων τῶν προφητῶν ἀπέστειλεν τὸν ἄγγελον αὐτοῦ |
| He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light . . . . He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. (vv. 7–8) οὗτος ἦλθεν εἰς μαρτυρίαν ἵνα μαρτυρήσῃ περὶ τοῦ φωτός . . . . οὐκ ἦν ἐκεῖνος τὸ φῶς, ἀλλʼ ἵνα μαρτυρήσῃ περὶ τοῦ φωτός. John bore witness about him (v. 15) Ἰωάννης μαρτυρεῖ περὶ αὐτοῦ | I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches (22:16) Ἐγὼ Ἰησοῦς ἔπεμψα τὸν ἄγγελόν μου μαρτυρῆσαι ὑμῖν ταῦτα ἐπὶ ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις |
| The true light . . . was coming into the world (v. 9) Ἦν τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινόν . . . ἐρχόμενον εἰς τὸν κόσμον | I am coming soon (22:7, 12, 20) ἔρχομαι ταχύ |
| But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name (v. 12) ὅσοι δὲ ἔλαβον αὐτόν . . . τοῖς πιστεύουσιν εἰς τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ | and his name will be on their foreheads (22:4) καὶ τὸ ὄνομα αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τῶν μετώπων αὐτῶν |
| he gave the right to become children of God (v. 12) ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἐξουσίαν τέκνα θεοῦ γενέσθαι | so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates (22:14) ἵνα ἔσται ἡ ἐξουσία αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τὸ ξύλον τῆς ζωῆς καὶ τοῖς πυλῶσιν εἰσέλθωσιν εἰς τὴν πόλιν |
| he gave the right to become children of God (v. 12) ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἐξουσίαν τέκνα θεοῦ γενέσθαι | The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God, and he will be my son (21:7) ὁ νικῶν κληρονομήσει ταῦτα καὶ ἔσομαι αὐτῷ θεὸς καὶ αὐτὸς ἔσται μοι υἱός |
| And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (v. 14) Καὶ ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν | Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them . . . (21:3) Ἰδοὺ ἡ σκηνὴ τοῦ θεοῦ μετὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ σκηνώσει μετʼ αὐτῶν |
| we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father (14) ἐθεασάμεθα τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ, δόξαν ὡς μονογενοῦς παρὰ πατρός | the holy City Jerusalem . . . have the glory of God (21:10–11) τὴν πόλιν τὴν ἁγίαν Ἰερουσαλὴμ . . . ἔχουσαν τὴν δόξαν τοῦ θεοῦ for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb (21:23) ἡ γὰρ δόξα τοῦ θεοῦ ἐφώτισεν αὐτήν, καὶ ὁ λύχνος αὐτῆς τὸ ἀρνίον |
| full of grace and truth (v. 14) πλήρης χάριτος καὶ ἀληθείας grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (v. 17) ἡ χάρις καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ ἐγένετο | These words are trustworthy and true (22:6) Οὗτοι οἱ λόγοι πιστοὶ καὶ ἀληθινοί The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all (22:21) Ἡ χάρις τοῦ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ μετὰ πάντων |
| No one has ever seen God (v. 18) θεὸν οὐδεὶς ἑώρακεν πώποτε | They will see his face (22:4) ὄψονται τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ |
| and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’” (v. 15) καὶ κέκραγεν λέγων· Οὗτος ἦν ὃν εἶπον· Ὁ ὀπίσω μου ἐρχόμενος ἔμπροσθέν μου γέγονεν, ὅτι πρῶτός μου ἦν | I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.” (22:8–9)6 ἔπεσα προσκυνῆσαι ἔμπροσθεν τῶν ποδῶν τοῦ ἀγγέλου τοῦ δεικνύοντός μοι ταῦτα. 9 καὶ λέγει μοι· Ὅρα μή· σύνδουλός σού εἰμι καὶ τῶν ἀδελφῶν σου τῶν προφητῶν καὶ τῶν τηρούντων τοὺς λόγους τοῦ βιβλίου τούτου· τῷ θεῷ προσκύνησον. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last (22:13) ἐγὼ τὸ Ἄλφα καὶ τὸ Ὦ, ὁ πρῶτος καὶ ὁ ἔσχατος |
| For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace (v. 16) ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ πληρώματος αὐτοῦ ἡμεῖς πάντες ἐλάβομεν καὶ χάριν ἀντὶ χάριτος | let the one who desires take the water of life without price (22:17) ὁ θέλων λαβέτω ὕδωρ ζωῆς δωρεάν |
| the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known (v. 18) μονογενὴς θεὸς ὁ ὢν εἰς τὸν κόλπον τοῦ πατρὸς ἐκεῖνος ἐξηγήσατο | the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it (22:3) ὁ θρόνος τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἀρνίου ἐν αὐτῇ ἔσται |
If we expand the scope of investigation just a bit wider, additional resonant associations begin to present themselves. As but one example, in John 1, Jesus the Word of God (vv. 1, 14) enters his creation and is heralded as God’s Lamb (vv. 29, 36, who takes away the sin of the world. In Revelation, the Word of God (19:13) rides upon a white horse to judge in righteousness as King of kings and Lord of lords, and the Lamb is for his cleansed and adorned Jerusalem simultaneously groom (21:9) and king (22:3), temple (21:22) and lamp (21:23), source of light and life (22:1).
The Christ who cried in the manger was born to cry out, “It is finished!” upon the cross (John 19:30). And when he returns in glory, he will be met with a divine voice from the throne thundering, “It is done!” (Rev 21:6), because what was started in Jesus’ birth and definitively accomplished at his death will be brought to full fruition when Jesus raises the cosmos as God’s holy house and raises his people as his temple and city and bride.
“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20).
Trevor Laurence is the Executive Director of the Cateclesia Institute and the author of Cursing with God: The Imprecatory Psalms and the Ethics of Christian Prayer (Baylor University Press, 2022).
Image: Domenichino, Saint John the Evangelist
- So Peter J. Leithart, Revelation 1–11, ITC (New York: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2018), 22.[
] - Which is to say, the traditional practice of anticipating Christ’s second advent during the celebration of his first is not merely a product of theological synthesizing but finds exegetical justification in the very text of Scripture.[]
- All English translations are from the ESV unless otherwise noted.[]
- Where multiple citations are listed, the Greek text reflects the first Scripture reference.[]
- Intriguingly, this claim is repeated by the one seated upon the throne in Revelation 21 and by Jesus in Revelation 22. Jesus was in the beginning with God and, with God, is the beginning.[]
- Note that, just as John the Baptist consciously points past himself to Jesus the light, the angel sent from God to bear witness to Jesus eschews John’s adoration, affirming by his denial that “he was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light” (John 1:8).[]