Revelation 21:10

And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,

A mountain, great and high ... John had needed no such vantage point as this for viewing the great whore (Revelation 17:3); but it was only from such a lofty pinnacle as this that he could behold the glory of the Lamb's wife. "The heavenly city is to be described only from an exalted viewpoint, perhaps the high point of faith."[27]

Coming down out of heaven from God ... What an incredibly wonderful thought is this! That the church, which is made of ordinary mortals who came through the toils, struggles, temptations, and sorrows of life shall at last possess and exhibit the very glory of God himself - this indeed is the reward of the saints. "Till the dawn of eternity itself, this holy Jerusalem can never appear any other way than as 'coming down out of heaven from God'; for it owes its total existence to the condescension of God, and not to the works of men."[28]

[27] Leon Morris, op. cit., p. 249.

[28] G. B. Caird, The Revelation of St. John the Divine (New York: Harper and Row, 1966), p. 271.