It is given to the saints to pronounce the word of judgment against Satan. It is they who have the authority, through Christ, to bind and to loose. It is God's Spirit, sometimes working through angels, who exercises the execution of sentence.

It is the dance of two armies.

Man permitted Satan to enter the earth. Christ has come in the fullness of Divine authority to enable man to drive Satan from the earth.

The saints will judge the angels. The saints also will judge mankind.

Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand; To execute vengeance upon the heathen [nations], and punishments upon the people; To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord. (Psalms 149:5-9)

The Divine judgments on men and angels that will take place in the future will be administered by God's elect, His saints. The saints will be God's judges forever, maintaining order in the creation—angels and the nations of the saved being subject to their decisions.

It is not possible for the saints to rule in judgment until they have been created in Christ's image and brought into union with the Father through Christ.

The saints, as they are filled with the Spirit of God, will decide who is permitted to enter the Kingdom of God and who is held under judgment. It is a terrible authority and responsibility.

Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. (John 20:23)

The wall of defense around the Glory of God. Of all that would be of interest to people concerning the new Jerusalem, what the inhabitants do, the type of dwellings and parks, the music, the children playing on the grass, the emphasis instead is on the wall and its twelve foundations. We have been given two short chapters describing our eternal destiny, and God has seen fit to occupy several verses with the wall !

And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: (Revelation 21:12)

And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. (Revelation 21:14)

And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. (Revelation 21:17-20)

"And had a wall great and high." "And the wall of the city had twelve foundations." "And the building of the wall of it was of jasper."

To be continued.