And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
5. And he that sat upon the throne said ] The first time that He speaks. The reference is rather to the eternal throne of Rev 4:2 than to the judgement-throne of Rev 20:11, so far as the two can be distinguished.
Behold, I make all things new ] Some O. T. parallels are alleged, e.g. Isa 43:19; Jer 31:22; but really the only close parallel is 2Co 5:17; and the meaning of this passage is, of course, even fuller than of that.
he said unto me ] Read only, he saith. It is doubtful whether the speaker is still “He that sat on the throne;” for a similar command to “write” has been given already, Rev 14:13, Rev 19:9; cf. Rev 10:4 either by an impersonal “voice from heaven” or by the revealing angel. The question is best left open. The repetition of the words “He said unto me” in the next verse is a reason against ascribing all three speeches to Him that sat on the throne; the fresh mention of a revealing angel in Rev 21:9 is perhaps a stronger one against supposing an angel to be speaking here; and the form of the words themselves against their referring to an impersonal voice.
Write: for ] Or perhaps, “Write, ‘These words are’ ” &c.: lit. that these words are ”.
true and faithful ] Read, faithful and true, as at Rev 3:14, Rev 19:11, and still more exactly Rev 22:6.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And he that sat upon the throne said – Probably the Messiah, the dispenser of the rewards of heaven. See the notes on Rev 20:11.
Behold, I make all things new – A new heaven and new earth Rev 21:1, and an order of things to correspond with that new creation. The former state of things when sin and death reigned will be changed, and the change consequent on this must extend to everything.
And he said unto me, Write – Make a record of these things, for they are founded in truth, and they are adapted to bless a suffering world. Compare the notes on Rev 14:13. See also Rev 1:19.
For these words are true and faithful – They are founded in truth, and they are worthy to be believed. See the notes on Rev 19:9. Compare also notes on Dan 12:4.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rev 21:5-8
He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.
The matchless Creator
Who is He that brings into existence on our planet a new order of spiritual things, that creates a new moral heavens and earth?
I. He is immutable truthful. What He has spoken not only has been done, but is being done, and must be done.
II. He is everlasting.
III. He is infinitely beneficent. He pours forth in all directions the refreshing and crystal streams. And all this freely, without any coercion, limitation, partiality, or pause; freely as He gives the beams of day and the waves of vital air.
IV. He is surpassingly condescending. Two things are here stated which suggest this amazing condescension:
1. This recognition of every individual who does his duty. He that overcometh shall inherit all things. That He should notice a man in the mighty aggregate may well impress us with His condescension, but that He should notice individual man, how much more! Here we have the universe won by self-conquest. Notice:
(1) Self-conquest as the grand work of man. The soul should be ruled by sympathy with God, sympathy with His character, His operation, His plans. In these two things self-conquest consists, and such conquests require battling–resolute, brave, persistent, invincible battling.
(2) Self-conquest as winning the universe. He that overcometh shall inherit all things. He gets the whole of it, he penetrates its meaning, appropriates its truth, admires its beauties, drinks in its poetry, revels in its spirit, exults in its God, and says, The Lord is my portion. He gets the whole of it to enjoy for ever.
2. The amazing condescension is seen in the affiliation of every individual man that does his duty. And he shall be My son. He only is a son who has the true filial instinct, involving trust, love, obedience, acquiescence. The great mission of Christ into our world was to generate in humanity this true filial disposition, enabling them to address the Infinite as our Father.
V. He is essentially sin-resisting. Sin is cowardice, sin is faithless, sin is abhorrent, sin is murderous, sin is lascivious, sin is deceptive and idolatrous. All these productions of sin are abhorrent to the Divine nature. It is the abominable thing which He hates, and He consigns sin to irretrievable destruction, for it is destined to have its part in the lake which burneth with fire. (Homilist.)
Christ the Renovator: an anticipation
There are two words in the original which are necessarily translated alike–new–in our Testaments. Of these two adjectives, one signifies new in relation to time, the other new in relation to quality–the first temporal novelty, the second novelty intellectual or spiritual. The Apocalypse is full of the Divine novelty implied by the latter of these two words. Up above we see a new heaven. Down below the long becoming of the evolution of history and nature is complete, the one far-off divine event is reached; we have a new earth. Out of the city that was in idea perfectly holy and beautiful, but which was marred by sin, and whose battlements were never steeped with the sunrise of the day for which we wait–out of it, as it were, grew the holy city, new Jerusalem. Christ is the One Renovator. He that sitteth upon the throne saith, Behold, I make all things new.
I. The source of the new creation is the new humanity, Christ the Second Adam. The Incarnation is the creation by God the Holy Ghost of a new member of the human family to be the head of a people that shall be born. It was not merely the most consummate possible evolution of pre-existing moral and historical elements. The gardener sees a stem which his experience tells him is endowed with peculiar capacities. He enriches it by grafting into it a new scion, not of or from the tree, but from another which is of a higher and nobler kind. Nothing less than this is in the mystery of the Incarnation. This, I believe, was foretold by Jeremiah (Jer 31:22).
II. The result of this is the creation in Christ and by Christ of a new humanity. I say, by Christ. Christianity has a history, but is not a history. Christianity has a book, but is not a book. An idea may be great, a history may be great, but a person is greater. Luthers work, or Napoleons work, is now linked to Luthers and Napoleons ideas or history, and to nothing else. We have the ideas and the history of Christ in the Gospels and Epistles, the most efficacious of all ideas, the most true and living of all history. But Christs work continues linked to Christs life. Christ is not merely the central figure of the Galilean idyll, or a form nailed to a crucifix, or a pathetic memory. Our relation to Him is not merely one of idea, or of recollection, or of literary sympathy. It is a present union of life with life. He does not say–because My words shall be gathered up and written down with absolute truth, My religion shall live. He does say–because I live, ye shall live also. This new creation by Christ begins in the depths of the human heart and life. One of the worlds greatest writers has illustrated the difference between true and false schemes of virtue by the difference between the work of the statuary and that of nature. The statuary deals with his marble piecemeal; he is occupied with the curve of a finger-nail, or the position of a lock of hair, and while so occupied can do no more. But nature is at work with a simultaneous omnipresence in root and leaf and flower. Christs renovation is unexhausted and inexhaustible. He says Himself, Behold, I make all things new.
III. We naturally–perhaps in these days uneasily–proceed to ask whether the words of the text admit of application to the intellectual as well as social progress of Christendom. Those of US who have seriously tried to reconcile that in us which thinks with that which feels and prays may entertain some misgiving. As we look back to the point from which we started many years ago we recognise the fact that, slowly it may be, but surely, we have advanced from our old position.
1. As we turn to nature, all of us at least who are over fifty will remember our youthful view of Genesis, with its rash anathemas and unhesitating dogmatism, with its crude schemes of premature conciliation. All things were flashed out of nothing, moment by moment, in six consecutive days of twenty-four hours. Reflection and knowledge have convinced us that the anticipation of exact science was not one of the purposes of the Bible. But there is a higher life than that of which science knows. There is a light in which it lives. The light for that life which is beyond science comes to us through the revelation of Moses. What, then, do we learn from the first pages of the Bible? We say, I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, not less truly than of old, but with a deeper and larger meaning. Christ says to us even as we repeat the beginning of our creed, Behold, I make all things new.
2. As we turn to Scripture we meet with a similar renovation of our earlier view. Consider, for instance, the question of the origin of the Gospels. It may be looked upon as ascertained that the Gospels were all written within the first century, none earlier than about a.d. 60, none much later than about a.d. 80. This historical fact in itself seems strange to certain primary notions from which most of us started. Yet a little reflection dissipates our uneasiness. In the bridal days which succeeded Pentecost the young Church was filled with a heavenly enthusiasm. At first, then, there was not–and there needed not to be–any official memorial of the life of Jesus. The apostles sermons were sometimes, perhaps generally, summaries of the characteristics of that life. In portions of the apostolic epistles particular incidents are touched upon briefly–e.g., the birth, the circumcision, the transfiguration, His poverty, the fact that He came of the tribe of Judah, His going without the camp bearing His Cross, the Abba, Father, the strong crying and tears of Gethsemane. It seems to be certain that an unwritten life of Jesus, graven upon the living heart of the Church, preceded the written life. In this, indeed, there is no derogation from the real glory of the written word. No ark of the new covenant, overlaid round about with gold, kept in its side the book of the new law. Yet the Holy Spirit–without a separate miracle working in each syllable and letter–freely used the memory and intelligence of apostles and their disciples, that Christs people in all ages might know the certainty of those things wherein they had been instructed; and that across the gulf of ages, through the mists of history, our eyes might see the authentic lineaments of the King in His beauty. Further, in the three first evangelists there is a certain common basis of similar, or identical, sentences and words. Critics may show that Matthew copied from Luke, or Luke from Matthew; may discuss whether Matthew is the primitive of Mark, or Mark of Matthew. Even without taking into account the promise of the Spirit to bring all things to their remembrance whatsoever. He had said unto them, such words from such a teacher could never perish from the earth. Thus, any change which criticism may make in our view of the origin and character of the Gospels tends to elevate our conception of their subject. We see in them a Saviour more exalted, if that were possible. We hear words yet deeper and more tender. Here, too, Christ saith, Behold, I make all things new.
3. As we contemplate the process of religious thought, we may be sometimes tempted to fear that a period is approaching when religion will be so spiritualised as to dissolve away. The answer is afforded by simply considering the abiding, irreducible elements in mans nature–his intellect, his conscience, his affections. (Abp. Wm. Alexander.)
Christ the true Reformer
The Church of Christ has been from its foundation a society for the promotion of the reform of mankind. You may not, perhaps, be willing to recognise this at first, for two reasons. First, so much has been accomplished. Remember the state of things in the world before Christ came. A world in which men and women were bound down in cruel bondage, in which there were no hospitals for the sick. How completely Christianity has changed the whole course of life. But there is another reason why you may find it very hard to identify the Christian religion with reform. It is because the reform which the Christian religion works is based on the life, the teaching, and the death of one man, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God.
(1) How true a reformer Jesus was in His life. He shared the fate of all reformers–He was despised and rejected of men, etc. Like Socrates, like Savonarola, Latimer, and John Huss; like many another in Church and State, He was killed by the people. Your true Reformer is no demagogue; he does not flatter the people: he tells them the truth.
(2) Notice Christs aims and His methods. His aim was not that of most reformers. He did not seek in the first place to make men happy, but to make them holy. As to His methods. In the first place, Christ began from the centre and worked towards the circumference. He did not come into the world with any elaborate scheme for the regeneration of society: He had no scheme for making men wake up some fine morning and find themselves all happy and good. Our Lord took people as He met them, singly, and got hold of their wills, and changed and converted them. This is the reform which alone can make other reforms beneficial.
(2) A second part of Christs method was that the reform was thorough and complete, extending to the body, soul, and spirit.
(3) The methods of reform adopted by Jesus Christ were gradual. He Himself compares His influence to the leaven, etc. So it has ever been with the influence and teaching of Christ.
(4) The stimulus or motive which Christ used is something very different from what many reformers have used, Fear, self-interest, jealousy have, alas! often been prominent motives. With Christ you have two motives put forward–The love of God and the love of man. (C. L. Ivens, M. A.)
All things new
I. The Divine method of effecting the great change.
1. It is spiritual. The evils which exist here are either the direct fruits of sin, or the necessary means of moral discipline for its removal. A remedy for them must be found, not in miraculous interference with the established order of nature, but in the gospel of salvation.
2. The gospel begins by regenerating man himself. The Spirit of God touches his heart, quickens his intellectual nature, kindles the imagination, develops the reasoning faculties, and imparts a desire for knowledge.
3. Herein is found the principle which is to regenerate society, which is to be the basis of a true civilisation. Even the science, so called, which scoffs at both God and revelation, owes to Christian schools its culture, to a Bible-taught people the ability to understand and use it, and to the generous protection of Christian laws the liberty to assert itself in defiance of the most sacred convictions of mankind with impunity.
4. Other millennial blessings are the abolition of the great social evils which have hitherto cursed the world–war, and slavery, and intemperance, and lust. The only effective way to reach these and similar evils is to make men themselves better.
5. But it is not alone the moral and social renovation of the world that is to be effected; it is the physical as well. The same power that makes mans heart new will ultimately make his body new, and so abolish disease and premature death.
II. The progress which has been made in the past towards this promised result. It was a hard soil in which Christianity, the Divine mustard-seed, was dropped eighteen hundred years ago. What was the reception He met with? Not frigid indifference, but violent opposition. At last the world was startled to hear that even Caesar himself had bowed at the feet of the Nazarene, and, by imperial decree, placed the hated religion on the throne of the empire.
II. What is yet to be done, and what is the prospect as to its completion?
1. The whole world is to become known and accessible to Christian nations.
2. Christianity is soon to become the sole religion of mankind. All others are on the wane.
3. Christianity is rapidly increasing in power.
4. Christianity, as never before, is inspiring the powers of the world, and directing them to the improvement of mankind. Science, art, commerce, wealth, are her handmaids. She is using them all to make the world better, and man happier.
5. Only one thing is wanting more, and that is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church and the nations.
6. The grand hope and expectation of the Church as to the future becomes thus more than an object of faith. (J. P. Warren, D. D.)
The renewal of all things
I. The need of a complete moral renewal. All visions of a political or economic millennium wreck themselves upon the obstinate fact of human depravity. With this, legislators, philosophers, and moralists have been found powerless to deal.
II. An adequate power. He that sitteth on the throne. He who created the human soul can renew it. Omnipotence rises up to work.
III. The wonder of regeneration.
IV. The secret of holding out.
V. The great need of the church–a regenerate membership.
VI. THE ULTIMATE RENEWAL OF ALL OUTWARD THINGS–nations, nature. (James C. Fernald.)
The new things of God
There are many new things spoken of in Scripture, some of more and some of less importance. Take the following as specially the new things of God:
I. The new testament or covenant (Mat 26:28). That which was old has vanished away. It was insufficient; it Could not help the sinner; it said nothing of forgiveness. But the new covenant is all a sinner needs: it comes at once with a free pardon; it presents a work done for the sinner, not a work for the sinner to do.
II. The new man (Eph 4:24). This seems to correspond with the new creature (2Co 5:17); with the new heart (Eze 18:31); with the new spirit (Eze 11:19); with the heart of flesh (Eze 36:26); with the new birth (Joh 3:3); and the being begotten again (1Pe 1:3). Newness of nature, of heart, of life, of words, of the entire being, is the basis of all religion and true worship.
III. The new way (Heb 10:19). All Gods dealings with the sinner are on a new footing, that of free love, simple grace. It is a free way, a sufficient way, an open way, a perfect way.
IV. The New Song (Psa 23:3; Rev 5:9). Every new day brings with it a new song; or rather it brings materials for many new songs, which we should be always singing. Our whole life should be full of new songs. Yet the old songs are not thereby made obsolete; they do not grow tame or unmeaning. As the old songs of a land are always fresh and sweet, so is it with the old songs of faith. These new songs have to do with the past–for often, in looking into the past, we get materials for a new song–with the present, and with the future. They are connected with ourselves, our families, with the Church, with our nation, with the work of God just now, with resurrection, with the restitution of all things, with the glory, the New Jerusalem, and the new creation.
V. The new commandment (Joh 13:34; 1Jn 2:8).
VI. The new wine (Mat 26:29). He is Himself the giver and the gift. His blood is drink indeed here; much more hereafter. It is new here; it will be much more new hereafter.
VII. The New Jerusalem (Rev 3:12; Rev 21:3; Rev 12:10). This is no earthly city.
VIII. The new heavens and new earth (Isa 65:17; 2Pe 3:13).
IX. The new name (Rev 2:17).
1. Of love. The Fathers love will be in it.
2. Of honour. It will be no mean nor common name, but glorious and celestial.
3. Of blessing. It will proclaim blessing; it will be a name of blessing.
4. Of wonder. It will astonish the possessor, and every one who hears it; no one shall know it or guess it.
5. Given by Christ. I will give. As He gave names to Abram, Jacob, Peter, John, so will He give this new name, superseding our old earthly appellation.
6. Most suitable and characteristic. It will in itself summarise our past history and character. (H. Bonar, D. D.)
Making all things new
The love of new things is natural to man, but the love of old things is equally natural. How to reconcile these two instincts without doing wrong to either is a perpetual problem. The love of what is new takes three principal forms. First there are those who are always looking for something new. This is its lowest form. It is a perpetual demand for novelty, for new things simply as new. In such a mind thought is disorganised, and becomes a heap of sand. Interest in life fades away, for the heart is anchored to nothing. The soul drifts before every wind of accident. The power of attention is lost: many things are taken in, toothing retained. Secondly, there are those who are always contending for new things. The danger here is in narrowness and bigotry, for a man may be as bigoted to a new creed as to an old one, and as ready to persecute the conservatives as they are to persecute him. Nevertheless, by the help of this class the world moves forward. Thirdly, there are those who make all things new. And this is the highest and best style of reform, for it reforms the world by putting new life into it. Every spring God says, Behold I make all things new. The old types remain unchanged, the forms of the familiar landscape continue the same, the grass grows green in the valleys, the trees cover themselves with leaves, exactly as they have done ten thousand times. It is not novelty but renewal. And so the best things which can come to our lives are not novelties, but new inspirations of the one eternal life. Life, in all its forms, makes all things new, and makes the world new. Events which have happened a million times before are nevertheless always new with each recurrence. What can be older than birth, childhood, love, marriage, death? But what can be more new, more full of fresh influence, bringing a sudden influx of joy and mystery, awakening the soul to a new life, than these? A new truth makes all things new. I have often talked with men who were brought up on some dead creed, who were taught to go through certain forms of worship and call it religion. These doctrines had hardened their hearts, deadened their spiritual nature, and driven them from God into doubt and unbelief; for, as love casts out fear, so does fear in turn cast out love. Then they were led by some good Providence to see God in a new light–a being without caprice or self-will, with steadfast laws, always working for the ultimate good of all His creatures, wisely giving, wisely withholding, not willing that any should perish. This benign truth opened their soul, made all nature new, all life new, made a new heaven and a new earth, took away anxiety and fear, and filled their days with bright hope and joy in all work. So, too, a new love makes all things new. Do you remember the beautiful story of Silas Marner–how a man with no friendships, no affections, living alone in a solitary hut, devoting himself to saving a hoard of gold, was robbed of his money? And then, when he came back to his but in despair, he found a little abandoned child who had crept into his house and gone to sleep on the hearth, and how this little child stirred the hidden fountains of life in the misers heart, so that he devoted himself to the infant, and all the world became by degrees to him another world, old fears expelled and new hopes created by the power of this new affection? In this way Christ makes all things new, and if any man be in Christ he is a new creation. Christ gives us a new heart and a new spirit, not by any miraculous or supernatural power, but by the power of the new truth which He shows to us, and the new love with which He inspires us. We want no better world than this, no better opportunities than we have here. But we need a new spirit of faith and love, in order that Gods kingdom shall come, and His will be done in this world, making this a heaven. This heaven must begin in our own hearts, or it will be no heaven to us. I was told by a friend that, when at the Centennial Exhibition, he was accosted by a family who were walking about the grounds, who asked him how much it would cost them to go into all the buildings. Why, said he, it will cost you nothing. You paid at the gate when you entered the grounds the whole price. So I see persons who go to church year after year, and yet stand outside of Christianity, not enjoying the love of God. They stand outside of all these Divine comforts and hopes, and do not take hold of them, because they think they have no right to do so. To them I say, Go in at once, and take all you need. When God led you through the gate into Christianity the price was paid. You will not probably, it is true, become great saints at once. But you can begin now to receive Gods help, Gods power, Gods inspiration, and the hope of the gospel. Nothing is necessary but to go in. Thus God makes a new heaven and a new earth, wherever the truth and love of Jesus go. The new heavens first; the new earth afterwards. First, the inward convictions; then the outward life. First the seed, then the plant; the fruit last of all. (James Freeman Clarke.)
The new self
(with Eze 36:26; 2Co 5:17):–
I. Human hearts unappeasably cry out after change. Something new we all need; and because we need, we crave for it; and what we crave after, we hope for. The old we have tried, and it is not enough. We are still not right; we are not full; we are not at rest. In the future there may be what we need, and so long as there is a future, there is hope; but the past is dead. Now, the best lesson which the years can teach is, perhaps, this one: that the new thing we need is, not a new world, but a new self. Not change in any outward surroundings of our lives; not an easier income, not a cheerfuller home, not stronger health, not a higher post, not relief from any thorn in our flesh against which we pray; but a change within–another self. We have done evil, and the evil which we have done cleaves to us. We are the children of our own deeds. Conduct has created character; acts have grown to habits; the lives we have led have left us such men as we are to-day. And forward into the new year we must go, unaltered with this old, evil, dissatisfied self confirmed and stiffened and burdened only the more as the past behind us grows longer and longer.
II. At this point the gospel meets us. It is the singular pretension of the Christian gospel that it does make men new. It professes to alter character, not as all other religious and ethical systems in the world have done, by mere influence of reason or of motives, or by a, discipline of the flesh; it professes to alter human character by altering human nature. It brings truth, indeed, to satisfy the reason and powerful motives of every sort to tell upon the will, as well as law to stimulate the conscience; but in the very act of doing so, it pronounces all these external appliances to be utterly insufficient without a concurrent action of God from within the man. The real change it proclaims to be a change of heart or spiritual being; and that is the work of God. Born of a man who is flesh, and therefore flesh ourselves; we have to be born of another Man who is Spirit, that we too may become spiritual. And this other Man, of whom we have to be spiritually begotten, can beget, for He is our original Maker-the Lord from heaven. A race which includes God need not despair of Divine life; it can be divinely re-created from within itself. Think; to be a new creature! Men have fabled fancies of a fountain in which whoever bathed grew young again, his limbs restored to elasticity and his skin to clearness. To the old world it was as good a thing as priests could promise to the good, that when they died, the crossing of that dark and fateful river should be the blotting out for ever from the soul of all memorials of the past. But God gives us a better mercy than the blessing of forgetfulness. The Lethe which obliterates from recollection a sinful past is a poor hope compared to the blood of cleansing, which permits us to remember sin without distress, and confess it without alarm. With a new self, cut off from this dreadful moral continuity with the past, eased of ones inheritance of self-reproach, and made quick within with the seed of a new future, all things seem possible to a man. Old things pass away; all things become new.
III. Here I turn to some in whose bosoms these warm words find cold response. It is very beautiful to think of–this transformation of a man and of his life by the breath of God. Once you were as enthusiastic and hopeful about it as anybody. You desired it, you sought it; you believed and were converted. You found, certainly, a new peace, and for a while-your world did seem a changed world and yourself a changed man. You walked lightly, like one grown young; you could praise, and love, and rejoice. But that is long ago. The novel pleasure of being religious faded out of your days, like evening red out of the sky; somehow the old world resumed its place about you, and you returned by degrees to the old life. To-day God has given us a new year, and with it He has sent us a new message–To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your heart; to-day is the day of salvation. Dead again or never truly alive; what matters it? You surely do need now, at all events, the new heart and the new spirit. And the offer of it in Jesus Christ is as genuine and sincere as ever–to you as free as ever. The way to it lies through desire and petition and expectation.
IV. In proposing that we should all inaugurate the year by seeking, before everything else, that breath of life, that inward renewing of the soul through the inbreathed Holy Spirit of Jesus, which makes us new, I propose what will ensure to all of us a real new year. The new self will make all around it as good as new, though no actual change should pass on it; for, to a very wonderful extent, a man creates his own world. We project the hue of our own spirits on things outside. A bright and cheerful temper sees all things on their sunny side. A weary, uneasy mind drapes the very earth in gloom. Any great enthusiasm, which lifts a man above his average self for the time, makes him like a new man, and transfigures the universe in his eyes. Now, this power of human nature, when exalted through high and noble emotion, to make its own world, will be realised in its profoundest form when the soul is re-created by the free Spirit of God. Let God lift us above our old selves, and inspire us with no earthly, but with the pure flame of a celestial, devotion; let Him breathe into our hearts the noblest, freest of all enthusiasms, the enthusiasm for Himself; and to us all things will become new. (J. O. Dykes, D. D.)
The new creation
I. The resemblance.
1. In both there is the production of a new order of things. From chaos of old, God, by His creative fiat, brought life, beauty, light, etc., and from the corrupt soul of man, by His redemptive power, He evolves high spiritual virtues.
2. In both there is the production of something new by the Divine agency. Who created the heavens and the earth? etc. God, and He only. Who creates a soul? The same glorious Being.
3. In both there is a production of the new according to a Divine plan. Every part of the universe is created on a plan. Science discovers this. In conversion it is so (Eph 2:10).
4. In both there is the production of the new for His own glory. The heavens declare His glory. The conversion of men reveals the glory of God.
5. In both there is the production of the new in a gradual way. Geology and the Bible show that the work of creation is a very gradual work. It is so with the work of spiritual reformation–very gradual.
II. The dissimilarity.
1. The one was produced out of nothing, the other from pre-existing materials. In conversion no new power is given to the soul, but the old ones are renovated and wrought into right action.
2. The one was effected without any obstructing force, the other is not.
3. The one was produced by mere fiat, the other requires the intervention of moral means. Nothing in the creation came between the work and the Divine will. In spiritual reformation it does; hence God had to bow the heavens and come down and become flesh.
4. The one placed man in a position material and insecure; the other placed him in a spiritual and safe abode.
5. The one develops and displays God as the absolute Spirit, the other as the Divine Man. (Homilist.)
The renovation of all things
1. The Church in heaven will be new in respect of the number of its members.
2. We now dwell in earthly bodies. These vile bodies will be changed, and fashioned like to Christs glorious body.
3. It will be a new thing, and as happy as it will be new, to find ourselves freed from sin, and mingling with those, who, like us, are made perfect in holiness.
4. It will be a new thing to see all united in love. There will be no interfering passions, separate interests and party designs–no evil surmises and unfriendly insinuations. There will be one common interest, and one universal spirit of love to unite the whole. Jews and Gentiles, yea, angels and men will all meet in one assembly.
5. The saints, while on earth, experience a sensible delight in communion with God, and in the stated and occasional exercises of piety and devotion. But this delight is often interrupted by the infirmities of the flesh and the avocations of the world. In heaven the saints will be continually before Gods throne, and will serve Him day and night.
6. Here we need the Word of God to instruct and quicken us. We need threatenings to awaken us, promises to allure us, and precepts to guide us. We need sensible representations to affect the mind through the eye, and living sounds to reach the heart through the ear. But in heaven things will be new. There we shall be all eye, all ear, all intellect, all devotion and love.
7. Here we need the vicissitudes of day and night for labour and rest. But in heaven there is no need of a candle, for there is no night there; and no need of the sun, for the glory of the Lord doth lighten it, and Jesus is the light thereof.
8. Here we have our seasons of sorrow and affliction. Our joys are transient. In heaven things will be new. All friendship there will be the union of pure and immortal minds in disinterested benevolence to one another, and in supreme love to God. (J. Lathrop, D. D.)
The gospel of the new life
I. It is a saying which indicates consciousness of Divine power.
II. It is a saying which indicates a sublime plan.
III. It is a saying which indicates transcendent love. Man is not to remain in a fallen condition.
IV. It is a saying which indicates the most blessed and triumphant anticipations. (Family Churchman.)
The symbolism of the throne
is the symbolism of stability. It is the planted seat of power, the settled place whence authority springs. According to the paternal theory of government, the throne is the Fathers chair, from which the households law goes forth. Its very structure is suggestive. The throne lies upon the ground, broad and square and firm. Perpetuity is of the very essence of its nature. The waves of popular wrath rage and swell around it, the tides of public opinion ebb and flow; it, the centre of unity, the seat of authority, stands fast. This is the idea of the throne; and who shall deny that it is a most majestic one? Take the idea illustrated as we may see it in the life of any one of the great nationalities that have preserved their identity through long periods of time–take the story of England, with which we are familiar, and than which there could be no better for our purpose. Start with the throne on the day William the Norman set it up in the open space his sword had cleared, and follow its history, century by century, down to the present day. Mark how it stands unshaken as storm after storm of change sweeps over the face of the nation. Nobles conspire against it, ecclesiastics try to undermine it, popular risings threaten it, usurpers claim it once democracy put it aside for a season, again peaceful revolution transfers it to a collateral line, but still the throne survives, the same that the Conqueror founded, the centre of authority, the centre of national unity, the centre of the whole peoples associations, loyalties, and loves. What, then, is the truth that lies behind this symbolism of the throne? Briefly this, that in the universe of which we make a part there are two great principles at work; the principle of stability and the principle of change, and, furthermore, that the sovereignty–and this is the important point–belongs to the former–to the stability. (W. R. Huntington, D. D.)
Renewal
When the Almighty says, Behold, I make all things new, He is giving expression, not to a suddenly formed purpose, not to an altered intention, but simply to a principle of action, a law of conduct by which we daily see that He does guide Himself now, and by which, so far as we know, He has guided Himself through the eternity of the past. In order to bring out the thought, let me lay down the general principle, that whatever thing is capable of life and growth, must, if it is to live and grow, be made the subject of continual renewal. Consider a plant growing in your window-garden. In one sense it is the same plant you put there a week or a month or a year ago; in another sense it is not the same. It has been continually taking in from the soil and from the atmosphere, through its roots and leaves, new material, and as continually it has been giving forth and putting away from itself the superfluous and dead products of the vital processes. As this is true of vegetable life, so is it true of animal life. It is true of man in both of his natures; true of him in his body, true of him in his soul. Nay, the principle is of still wider application. We may discern its working in the history of institutions. Societies, Churches, governments, all come under the law. It is Gods law, Behold, I make–yes, am continually making–all things new. He is for ever the Renewer. Life is Gods purpose, not death; and this is the meaning of His renewals. Clearly as the Christian sees that this is a dying world, still more clearly is he bound to see that it is a world continually coming into possession of new heritages of life. (W. R. Huntington, D. D.)
Gods work of renovation
Some boat is ashore. The timbers are fast breaking up. The cargo is washed away. The grim rib-work stands out on the horizon, the melancholy remnant of a sound and well-appointed vessel. No man would be proud to call himself the master of such a craft. A pile of noble buildings is burnt to the ground. No one would be particularly happy to call himself the lord of those gaping windows and dropping timbers and unsafe foundations. If the owner had not capital to reconstruct his property, he would very soon take steps to get it off his hands. And so God can never glory in His sovereignty over a nature that is dissolved by death. The declaration of His continued sovereignty implies that the ruin shall yet be reversed. He is not a God of the dead, but of the living. (T. G. Selby.)
The Christian hope respecting the world
Shelley calls this a wrong world; St. Paul, a present evil world. They saw it alike, but the apostle put into the word present a hope that the wrong and evil world will at last yield to a right world. (T. T. Munger, D. D.)
Finalty of good
Music has taught us that it is impossible to end upon a discord. This was Dora Greenwells way of putting the expectation expressed by the poet laureate, in the familiar lines:–
O yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill.
(J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.)
Gods law of continuity
His making all things new in the regeneration will not be His making them out of nothing, but rather His remaking them. Look about you and see if this view of the matter, full of comfort as we shall find it, be not substantiated by all that we are able to observe of Gods methods now. Do you anywhere find a new thing that is not in some way a product and result of an older thing? We are tempted into taking the despairing view of Gods law of renewal, because we think that the past is not only gone, but lost. This is a blunder. Nothing is lost of which we preserve the precious results. Your childhood, for example, is gone, but it is not lost. You could not be the man or the woman you are, save for that childhoods having been. How then can you say that your childhood is lost? It lives on in your mature character. No other childhood could have produced precisely the man or woman you are to-day. This continuity, this keeping up of the chain of connection, is what is really meant by that much used and much abused word, evolution. This is Gods way. He draws the new out of the old, not violently but slowly, gradually, continuously. The old that is fading away and ready to perish does not actually perish until the new one has been grafted upon it. Take that very best of all living products the world can show, a Christian character; how did it become what it is? Suddenly? Abruptly? No; but by the quiet, gradual, patient shaping and moulding of the hand of the Spirit. The saintliness of St. Paul is different from the saintliness of St. John. Why? Because John differed from Saul at the start; and even in recreating them God would not neglect His own law of continuity. Sainted, they are just as much unlike each other as they were unsainted. In making all things new for both of them, He that sitteth upon the throne has respected and preserved the identity of each. We see the same law holding in the larger life of the whole Church. The Christian Church of this nineteenth century is certainly different, in very many ways, from the Church of the Crusades, for instance, as that in its turn differed from the Church of the catacombs and the martyrs, and yet it was one holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church through all the generations, the same body from first to last. Nay, we may push the principle further still in the same direction, and affirm that from the dawn of history there has always been a Church on earth, always an elect people of God, and that the Church of the gospel is joined to the Church of the law and the prophets by ties and ligaments that bleed if you attempt to sever them. But let us lift our thoughts to their grandest and best fulfilment. How will it be with the new heavens and the new earth? Will they be cut off by an impassable gulf of oblivion from all the memories, all the associations, all the home feeling of the old life? No, we do not so read the mind of God either in His works or His Word. His way of making all things new is not by the utter destruction and annihilation of the old, but rather by the remoulding and readjustment of it. Nothing could be more new than was the resurrection life of Christ, and yet how intricately, how indissolubly was it wrapped up with the old life out of which it came forth. And as with the resurrection body of the Christ so with His body mystical, His Church, there will be change, adaptation to new conditions, fitness for larger and fuller life, and yet at the same time a continuity, a remembrance of the battles and the victories–yes, and of the defeats–of the far back militant days, when on the old earth and under the old heavens and before the former things had passed, it lived and struggled and endured. (J. F. B. Tinling, B. A.)
The course of Divine justice
This was the culmination of the fearful scenes which had passed before the apostle as the vision of the course of Divine judgment was unrolled before him. At length, when these fearful works of judgment are completed, he saw the great white throne and Him that sat upon it, and the earth and the heaven fled away. Then the books were opened, and the dead, both small and great, who stood before God, were judged, every man according to his works. Then it is, after this awful consummation, that the apostle sees a new heaven and a new earth, and He that sat upon the great white throne said, Behold I make all things new. Such in brief is the burden of the Book of Revelation. It will be observed that it involves these two cardinal points. First the judgment and extirpation of all that is evil by woes, fearful struggles and agonies. And secondly, after all these terrible experiences, all things are made new. The first part of the process of the Divine administration consists of a series of scenes of misery, distress, and bloodshed than which nothing more terrible can be imagined. Visions of the destruction of the elements of human society, even of the heaven and the earth, are brought before us, until men are reduced to cry to the very mountains and rocks to cover them. These dread scenes, these fearful judgments are depicted as inevitable preliminaries in the manifestation of the Divine will, the establishment of the Divine kingdom. The New Testament begins with a promise of peace, and it ends with a vision of peace and glory, in which God will wipe all tears from off all faces. But the warnings conveyed to us through the last apostle are that this blessed consummation cannot be reached except through the manifestation of Divine justice on the earth, which will bring upon the earth and mankind inconceivable miseries. The Book of Revelation, in its fearful scenes, is but a true description of the actual experience of mankind. The slaughters, plagues, and other dreadful visitations which that book depicts have, as a matter of fact, been realised. It is through scenes of suffering of this nature that the world is being conducted by Divine justice to its ultimate goal. But we have the more reason to be inexpressibly thankful that the goal revealed is one of peace and bliss. When we bear in mind the miseries and agonies of the Book of Revelation, we recognise the full force of the promise with which it concludes. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, etc. Seeing what the world has been hitherto, and the miseries by which it is beset now, we might well despair of such a result unless we had the express assurance of Revelation that there is One sitting upon the throne who gives this as the very definition of His work, Behold I make all things new. We should indeed be ungrateful not to recognise that the state of things around us tends in itself to give us some earnest of this blessed renovation. Still no men feel more gravely than those who have the conduct of human affairs how slight would be our hope of a complete peace on earth did it depend simply upon the wisdom and strength of even the wisest leaders of mankind. They cannot extirpate the passions which are the real ultimate cause of the miseries wars bring upon us. All our hope lies in the assured faith that all the terrible scenes which the earth has witnessed are under the control of Him that sitteth upon the throne working out the great purpose of true justice, of Him who counts all men, small and great, as subject to His unerring judgment. Finally, when the issues of right and wrong have been worked in this world in a way vindicating truth and righteousness, God will fulfil that good work on which He is even now engaged–the making of all things new. We are not able with our limited earthly vision to discern the work of God from the beginning of the world, His mysterious methods for establishing His kingdom and making His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We must submit to take our part, whatever it may be, in His mysterious dispensations, possessing our souls in patience with such assurance as the words of His Book can alone supply. Our personal private lives reflect in greater or less degree the stern experiences which this book describes in the case of the world at large. We have our sins, and as the consequence of our sins our sufferings, and sorrows, hindrances, and fears. We must expect to bear them in greater or less degree until the moment of our departure arrives, and by Gods grace we are allowed in some measure to anticipate the privilege which is held out to the world. This is our own ultimate hope, the blessed promise that God will make all things new, not merely afterwards, but if we will trust and do His will in our hearts and souls, while we are still upon earth. (H. Wace, D. D.)
It is done.—
Life done
It is very solemn to think that we shall one day look back to our own lives, and all on earth will be past and done. It is done. How the word brings us to a standstill, taking us to the end of all things! And surely here is the only true way to look at life. We do not value what looks fair to the eye, but what is real and enduring. We do not praise a promising plan, but a successful result. Wisdom is that which gains its end. In a burning house, mens first impulse is to save what is most precious. What shall we save from the ruin of the burning world? Not the pleasures of the body, act lands and houses, not earthly wealth, or health, or beauty, none of those things which are now much valued and sought after. Surely, then, if we are wise, we will ponder these things now. We shall say to ourselves, what will come of my present life? If men have to think and toil, and reckon carefully and patiently for the mere fruits of that earth, year by year, is it not reasonable for us to think and reckon what sort of harvest we are likely to have in eternity, off the broad field of life? If our religion does not run through our whole life, if the thought of God and judgment is banished from our conscience, it is not real religion, It must colour, our whole life, of course, when we bring ourselves to the Light of Eternity. And having once been moved to choose the better part, let not Satan dismay us by telling us we cannot persevere, If we only have the faith and resolution heartily, to throw ourselves into, Christs service, land yield up our hearts and lives to Him, He will never leave us. (Literary Churchman.)
The end of all things
In one word did our Lord upon the Cross sum up the whole of mans salvation and His own eternal purpose for our redemption, It is finished. In one word doth He here, revealing Himself as He sitteth upon His throne in glory, sum up the whole of time, It is done. This one great word, in a manner, stood over against, and carries on and enlarges the other. It is done. What a Word is that! As it sounds, what a world of busy restlessness it seems to cut off at once. Well may it! For it is the end of the whole world itself, of all but God. We are, mostly, ever looking forward, and this Voice turns us round at once, and bids us look back. We are, too often, living in an earthly future; then, all of earth will he past and done. Now men are looking on; and hope is as that glass which enlarges things distant; look back, and all shrivels and contracts into a speck, and can no longer fill eye Or heart. The past preacheth stern truth, if we will but hear. It is real It has come to an end; and so in it we may see things as they shall be in the end. Call no man happy before his death, said once a wise heathen We judge of things as they tend towards their end; contain, in a manner, their end in themselves, secure it. Wall laid schemes ye call those which in every step look to, advance towards, their end. Worldly wisdom is that which gains its end. And shall not Divine wisdom be that which gains its own unending end, the end of all ends, the Everlasting God? This, then, can be the only measure of the value of things in time, what shall be their value when time itself is gone? Even a heathen wast taught of God to say, The whole life of the wise is a thinking on death. That only is wise to be done which in death ye shall wish ye had done. Seasons of sorrow or sickness or approaching death have shown persons a whole life in different colours from what it worse before; how what before seemed grace was but nature; how seeming zeal for God was but natural activity, how love of human praise had robbed men of the praise of God; how what they thought pleasing to God was only pleasing self; how one subtle self-pleasing sin has cankered a whole life of seeming grace. Wherever, then, we may be in the course heavenwards, morning by morning let us place before ourselves that morning which has no evening, and purpose we to do that and that only which we shall wish we had done when we shall see it in the light of that morning, when in the brightness of His presence every plea of self-love which now clouds our eyes shall melt away. (E. B. Pusey, D. D.)
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.—
The King of saints
There is no doctrine more universally accepted in these days than the doctrine of human progress. And it is observable that this idea of human progress is not alien from the general representation of Scripture. What is the first picture and the last of the race of Adam? The Bible opens with the picture of the single man and woman in the garden of Eden, standing in the midst of the profuse but undeveloped riches of creative goofiness, holding the Divine commission to subdue the earth, and appropriate its resources to their own use. It leaves the same race gathered within the walls of the New Jerusalem, the city of God, built up and embellished with all the bright things and the glorious which the Lord hath made. The successive revelations of Himself to Adam, to Noah, to Moses, in Christ, the gradual straitening of the moral law, as men were able to bear it, which is the true explanation of the imperfections discernible in the worthies of the Old Testament, are all indications of the progressive character of human life–stages in its journey towards the golden city. But while this is so, very marked is the solemnity with which it declares that in the Person and work of Christ a point was touched beyond which there is nothing. And He that sat upon the throne said unto me, It is done–I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. From the commencement of our era, the words have been felt to form one of the sublimest descriptions of Him in whom we have believed. Let us see how and with what results they may be adopted as a true description of our blessed Lord.
1. Now there is a habit of mind common in our day with regard to religious truth, the habit of dwelling with a morbid particularity upon minute objections, and forgetting the broad evidence upon which the general structure of the faith is built. The description of our Lord in the text, as the Alpha and Omega, suggests one of these broader lines of evidence. If it be true that Christ Jesus is in His Person and in His doctrine the central figure in the worlds history, that His life and ministry is the key which unlocks the mysteries of Gods providence, then we have surely here a solid argument that we have not followed cunningly devised fables. We may begin by reminding you of the manifest preparation for Christs appearance through the previous ages of the world. We will take up the Old Testament, not now as inspired, but simply as a most ancient history, and it is surely unparalleled how in the multiplicity of books which make up the Bible, through all the varied maze of narrative, poetry, philosophy, runs ever in deep undertone the idea of One who should be in His day the author of a new era of holiness and truth. The worlds history, so marvellously is the thread of Jewish life woven into the web of the old worlds life, the worlds history before Christ points unto Christ. And not less remarkable is that which follows. There are two great facts, it has been said, which are standing witnesses to the truth of the Christian revelation, the Israelitish race and the Catholic Church. The former in their earlier career, in their disruption and dispersion within our Lords generation, exhibits a destiny unmistakably mixed up with Him. The latter, notwithstanding the sullying of its first purity, the dissolution of its first unity, notwithstanding the slowness of its progress in some ages, Rs withdrawal from certain districts in others, is still the section of the human family in which all that is noble and great in man is developed. And when we contemplate the life of Christ, still more markedly does He vindicate to Himself the title of the Alpha and Omega, with all the claims therein involved. The character of Christ is the fulfilment and embodiment of the conscience of humanity. A marvellous testimony it is, that unbelief ventures not to touch the ark of that immaculate purity; on the contrary, with but the single exception of a single infidels after-thought (Vide Notes to Shelleys Poems), it recognises Him frankly as the pattern man. In Him, it is granted, and in Him alone, gentleness never degenerates into weakness, nor wisdom into craft, nor severity into harshness. And it adds to the force of these thoughts, that although, when the life of Christ in all the ineffable beauty of its Divine lineaments is presented to it, the heart of humanity throbs at once in sympathy; yet human philosophy never imagined beforehand the character. And not less observable is it that no man has ever reproduced that image. The saints have copied it in their measure since it was unveiled to mortal vision; but just as it was said of the heathen, that being unable to comprehend God as a whole, they broke up the Deity into fragments, and worshipped one or other of His attributes apart from the rest; so has it been with the followers of Christ. They have seized upon portions of His character, and imitated Him, some in meekness, some in boldness, some in patience, but not one of all the mighty assembly of the saints has individually presented again to the world the complete likeness of his Lord. Anal in this, the very imperfection of their discipleship, have they been witnesses to His divinity. I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. Is it indeed so that in Him is at once the source and limit of all our conceptions of the holy and the good, the measure of truth, and purity, and love? Then what an argument is here for rendering unto Him our worship, and building on Him our hopes.
2. And when we pass from the person of Christ to the system of Christianity, we find yet another illustration of the text. The sublime title there claimed belongs to Him upon this ground also, that is the Christian faith is to be found the alone instrument for purifying and consolidating society. There are two characteristics of our blessed Lords teaching and example, which are well worthy of note under this head. The first is, that those precepts which are most startling, such as the unconditional forgiveness of injuries, non-resistance of evil, benefiting those from whom no return is possible, whilst like Christs own character they were never anticipated by man, are yet the only precepts which we can conceive the Lord God to give His creatures. We recognise their Divinity by the light of what they have wrought. The second speciality of the character as proposed in the preaching and pattern of Christ, is its universal adaptability. It stands equally detached from, yet equally blended with, poverty and wealth, youth and age, learning and ignorance. The more you compare Christ as a teacher with any other teacher, the more conspicuously does He stand forth as the Alpha and Omega of all practical righteousness. And this view of our Lords teaching, we may observe in passing, throws a fresh light upon His miracles. Those miracles were not marvels designed simply to arrest attention, they were indications of the character in which He came. That He is the Renewer of all that is broken and worn and corrupt in humanity; that alike for the moral diseases of the soul, as for the miseries of this earthly life, He is the one everliving Physician; that in His religion lies the only cure for our individual and social ills, the only sure principle of union and benevolence; this is the truth which underlies all those wonders of omnipotence–the healing of the sick and the raising of the dead. If of all truth He is the Beginning and the End, superseding or concluding in His religion all other methods of educating man, then if miracles upon mens bodies are to be shadows of His work upon the heart, the stamp on the visible of His office towards the invisible, I should expect, that whilst in former ages miraculous cures might be worked occasionally by great renovators of society, herein types of Him, yet that in His life this miraculous agency would culminate, and that after Him (not perhaps suddenly and sharply, for Gods providences ever shade off gradually into each other) miracles would cease. And this is just the Scripture account. The Bible recognises a miraculous gift in prophets and apostles, but in strict subordination, both in number and authority, to His wonder-working; leaving Him still distinctly witnessed unto as the Alpha and Omega of all moral healing. I have seen the end of all perfection, but Thy commandment is exceeding broad. Who then will mot bow down his head and worship before Him–the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last? There is a double moral cowardice amongst us from which the cause of truth equally suffers, first, the moral cowardice of those who, not daring to proclaim their entire unbelief in Revelation, profess to receive the cardinal doctrines of Christ, and question and cavil at those which are offshoots therefrom; hiding the broader scepticism under the veil of a loss. The second exhibition of moral cowardice is that of the men who do believe firmly, but shrink from confessing their faith, and so love to speak of Christian doctrines and facts under a sort of vague philosophical terminology, thus undermining their own steadfastness and withholding their testimony from the truth. Against these two forms of evil let my last words warn, urging you to a manly confession, in your speech, and in your lives, of Christ Jesus before men, as the Alpha and the Omega of all that has been, and shall be. (Bp. Woodford.)
Alpha and Omega
I. The Description, which contains the speakers character.
1. It regards His personal nature, and shows the duration and immutability of His being.
2. It regards agency, and is intended to express not only its continuance, but its peculiarity and exclusiveness; that He is the commencer, and that He is the completer; that in all influences He is all and in all. First, let us look at creation. Here, it is true, He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Without Him was not anything made that was made. Secondly, let us look at salvation; and here it is equally true that He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Thirdly, in providence. Fourthly, in the Church He is Alpha and Omega.
II. Let us proceed to consider the promise, in which we shall find the sinners hope, and therefore cur hope. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
1. The excellence of the blessing itself. Observe the representation; it is water–it is water from the fountain. He is a fountain; always full, always flowing, always fresh.
2. The manner in which it is to be imparted–freely. Worthiness has no recommendation here, and unworthiness has no barrier.
3. The distinction by which the recipients are, characterised. I will give to him that is athirst of the water of life freely. Enjoyment does not arise only from the excellency of the object, but from its adaptation to our state, to our wants, to our wishes, and to our hopes. Then the gratification it affords is satisfaction; and this is the case here. Without this thirst, what is even the water of life itself? (W. Jay.)
The beginning and the end.—
The beginning and the end
It is done. There is often a difficulty not of the reason so much as of the imagination, in thinking that anything will end, or at least anything in which we are actively interested. Men look out for a graduated sequence in the course of events. Catastrophes, we are told–catastrophes are discredited. Why events ever began to succeed each other at all, to what events are tending as their final goal–these vital questions are never raised; but this one-sided way of looking at the facts of life is seized upon greedily by the imagination, which thus will clog and choke the equitable action of the reason, will throw unwelcome facts into an arbitrarily-chosen background, will involve plain conclusions in some cloud of mystic indefiniteness, and will thus create a confidence that, somehow or other, things will for ever go on very much as they do. Now this appears, first of all, in the power we many of us have of putting aside altogether the thought of death. You are a young man or woman just entering life; will you be, some little time hence, admired, well spoken of, or the reverse? You do not know. Will your family life, some years hence, be a centre of warm affection, or a scene of unspeakable discomfort and misery? You do not know. You do not know how you will die, but of the inevitableness and certainty of death itself you are, or you ought to be, as well assured as of your own existence. Each stroke of the bell echoes the voices of the angels, echoes the voice of God: It is done, It is done. And the same difficulty of entering into the fact that that which exists now, and here, will come to an utter end, appears in our way of thinking about organised human life, about society. You study a section of human history, you mark mans progress from a lower to a higher stage, you observe the steps of social and political growth; the task of imagination in conceiving that it will all utterly end becomes increasingly difficult. It looks so stable and so strong, so vigorous, so justly self-reliant, so based upon high courage, upon keen sagacity, upon hard common-sense, that nothing, it seems, can avail to shake it. It is so easy to put out of account that which is not obtruded upon the sight, to make no allowance for the unforeseen, to assume that the apparent is the real, and that the real of to-day is always permanent; and so men drift on until something happens that startles the world out of its dream of security. And still more difficult do men find it to accustom themselves to the conviction that one day this earthly home on which we live will itself be the scene of a vast physical catastrophe. The course of nature–the phrase itself helps to disguise from us the truth–the course of nature seems so ascertained, and, within certain limits, so unvarying, that the mind recoils from the thought that one day all this ordered sequence of movement, of life, of growth, and of decay, will suddenly cease, buried in the ruins of a vast catastrophe. Law, it seems, will effectually prevent the occurrence of any such catastrophe; it could only, we are told, be anticipated even by an apostle in the unscientific age. Now, let us observe that such a catastrophe need by no means imply the complete cessation of what we call law, but only the suspension of some lower law or laws through the imperial intervention of a higher law. We see this suspension of lower by higher laws constantly going on around us; indeed, it is an almost necessary accompaniment of mans activity on the surface of this planet. You and I never lift our arms without so far suspending and defying the ordinary operation of the law of gravitation. St. Peter, when arguing against the scoffers of his day that because all things continued as they were from the beginning, therefore the promise of Christs coming had become practically worthless, points to the flood, points to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. And yet these catastrophes were brought about by the operation of existing laws; and if this was so, is it inconceivable that He, in whose hands and whose workmanship we are, should have in His illimitable universe other and more imperative laws beyond even those which more immediately surround our puny life?–moral laws which have their roots in the necessities of His eternal being, and not mere physical laws which He has made to be just what they are according to His own good pleasure. These are the three elements involved in the Christian representation of the second coming of Christ: the end of all human probations, the final dissolution of the organised or social life of mankind, the destruction of mans present home on the surface of the globe-there is nothing in them, to say the very least, violently contrary to our present experience, nothing more than an extension of the facts of which we have present experience. Individual life abounds with the presages, with the presentiments, of death. The aggregate life of man, human society, contains within itself many a solvent which threatens its ruin, and the planet which we inhabit is a ball of fire, which may easily one day pour out over its fair surface the pent-up forces which already surge and boil beneath our feet. And when all is over, what will remain? He said unto me, It is done; I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. God, the Almighty, the All-wise, the Compassionate; God, the Infinite, the Immeasurable, the Eternal Father, Son and Spirit, undivided essence God remains. There are two principal reflections which you should try to take home with you. One is the insignificance of our present life. It is natural that, so long as they can, those who believe in no future life should exaggerate the worth of this; it is indeed their all, and when before their eyes it begins to break up, they have no resource but despair. But we Christians have a hope, sure and steadfast, of a future which is infinitely greater than the present, and which can assure to our immortal spirit true union with Him who is the true end of its existence, a satisfaction which is here impossible for us. The instability and perishableness of all human things are but a foil to the eternal life of God. And the other reflection is the immense importance of life. Yet, this life, so brief, so transient, so insignificant, so made up as it is of trifles, of petty incidents, of unimportant duties, is the scene upon which, in the case of every one of us, issues ere decided, the importance of which it is impossible to exaggerate, issues immense, issues irreversible. (Canon Liddon.)
I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.—
The free invitation of the gospel
I. The blessings here offered–the fountain of the water of life. The figure is descriptive of the inestimable worth and efficacy of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is a living stream, flowing from the throne of God, through the waste howling wilderness of this world.
II. The persons to whom the offer is made. I will give unto him that is athirst of the water of life. He who is athirst is just the individual who is destitute of, and ardently longing for, happiness.
III. The freeness by which the gospel offer is characterised. I Will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. Such is the munificence of our gracious Benefactor, that He will not sell His benefits. (P. Grant.)
The fountain of the water of life
I. The character under which the Lord Jesus represents himself. The Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Ascended up on high, far above all principalities and powers, He is constituted Head over all things to the Church; and from Him, as an inexhaustible fountain, all spiritual and eternal blessings flow.
II. The persons to whom a blessing is here promised by the Alpha and Omega are those who are athirst. They alone will receive with gratitude the boon which He so graciously offers.
III. The blessing to re bestowed is water–the water of life. This expression denotes the various benefits procured for man by the adorable Redeemer, and which are distinctly set forth in the Gospel; more especially the influences of the Holy Spirit, by which alone that mighty transformation is produced on the human soul.
IV. The manner in which this blessing will be bestowed next demands our consideration–freely. The precious benefits here referred to are a free, unmerited boon, wholly undeserved on the part of man, and graciously of His free favour bestowed by God. It is when, as a helpless debtor, he has not one farthing to pay, that he is frankly forgiven all. (T. Bissland, M. A.)
Good news for thirsty souls
I. Explanation.
1. All souls by nature are in great and dire want. Our Lord here speaks of those who are athirst, and thirst is the index of one of our most pressing necessities. It this thirst be not quenched you are in a desperate plight indeed.
2. Some persons begin to be conscious of their souls great need, and these are they of whom the Saviour speaks as athirst: they have a dreadful want, and they know it. I would have you know that frequently those are the most thirsty who thirst to thirst.
3. Thirst is a desire arising out of a need. Now, so long as you have that desire, you need not stop to question your right to take Christ. A man is thirsty, even if he cannot explain what thirst is and how it comes.
4. The text promiseth water from the fountain of life to the man that is athirst; but thirst cannot quench thirst. Some seekers act as if they thought it would. Oh, say they, I am not thirsty enough; I wish I felt my need more: but your thirst will not be quenched by being increased. I should have some hope, says one, if I were more sensible of my danger. Yet that is not a gospel hope. Why should a mans despairing because of his danger operate to deliver him from danger? As long as you stop where you are you may get more and more sensible of danger until you reach the sensitiveness of morbid despondency; but you will be no nearer salvation. It is not your sense of need, it is Christs power to bless you, and your yielding yourself up to Christ, that will bring you salvation.
II. encouragement.
1. Our Lord Jesus Christ keeps open house for all thirsty ones. Let him that is athirst come; and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
2. Now, as if it were not enough to keep open house, our Lord Jesus goes further; for He issues many invitations of the freest kind (Isa 55:1).
3. Does any one say, Well, I know that the ever-blessed Saviour keeps open house, and that He invites men freely; but still I am afraid to come? Peradventure, we may overcome your diffidence if we remind you that our Lord makes a proclamation, which has the weight of His personal dignity about it, and comes as from a king (Joh 7:37).
4. Peradventure a trembler replies, Ay! here is a proclamation; but I should be more comforted if I could read promises. Our text is one of the freest promises possible, I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. Come and test the promise now, and see if it be not true. But if you require another, turn to Isa 12:17.
5. Our gracious Lord, still further to encourage souls to come to Him, has been pleased to give many gracious explanations of what He meant. You will find one in the fourth chapter of John. How sweetly He explained to the woman at the well what living water is, and what drinking of it is.
6. Furthermore, our Lord, in order to make this very plain, has set before us lively emblems. Rock in wilderness. Also see Psa 107:5.
7. Our Lord has given us, besides, many encouraging instances of men who have thirsted for grace (Psa 42:1-11; Psa 62:1-12.).
8. Our Lord has been pleased to give His own special blessing to the thirsty ones; for, when He opened His mouth upon the mountain and gave out the benedictions which commence His memorable sermon, He said, Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst, etc. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The fountain of the water of life
I. The promised is also the Giver.
II. The gift is Himself.
III. The effects. Water softens, fertilises, satisfies.
IV. The receiver.
1. There is one qualification needful in order that we may share the gift, and only one–desire.
2. There is great wisdom in Gods mentioning this qualification.
(1) Those who have nothing but this desire would be likely, in very humility, to abstain from asking unless they had special encouragement. But this very cause of despondency is made a ground of hope.
(2) None others could value the gift. (Homilist.)
He that overcometh shall inherit all things.—
Overcoming
The Bible closes with a great outburst of hope and courage. The words I have quoted are words that correspond to many others which are to be found in the Book of Revelation–promises to him that overcometh. I ask at once what is meant by the overcoming that is spoken of again and again in the earlier chapters as well as in this later chapter of the great Book? There is no special difficulty, there is no peculiar struggle of the life spoken of. It takes life as a trial, and represents the great relationship which man is to hold to life. He that overcometh, not this or that special difficulty, not this or that peculiar struggle in which he is engaged, but he that in his whole life comes forth as victor, it is to him that the great promises are given. And we recognise at once, and think something which occurs to us in all our observation of the world, in all the experience of our life–the way in which man is either overcome by this world or overcomes this world. Either it becomes his master or it becomes his slave; he gets it under his feet or is trampled under its feet. We do not know what may be beyond, what new experiences, what other trials, what other chances and new opportunities may be offered to the soul that has failed in this world, but we do know that there are failures in this world and we do know that there are successes. And every man has it in his power to conquer the world, for man is stronger than circumstance, because man is the child of God and circumstance is only the arrangement of God for the service, the development, and education of His children. What is it to overcome? It is to know that the one great power that is in this universe is our power. We talk about power, and men may grow conceited as they lift themselves up and say, I will be strong and conquer the world. Ah! it is not to be done so. There is one real and true strength in this universe, and that is Gods strength, and no man ever did any strong thing yet that God did not do that strong thing in him. A man makes himself full of strength only as the trumpet makes itself full, by letting it be held at the lips of the trumpeter; so only man lets himself be made strong as he lets himself be held in the hand of God. As the chisel is powerless–if it tries to carve a statue by itself it goes tumbling and stumbling over the precious surface of the stone–as the chisel becomes itself filled and inspired with genius when it is put into the hand of the artist; so man, putting himself into the hand of God, loses his awkwardness as well as his feebleness, and becomes full of the graciousness and the strength of the perfect nature. Know God your Father; recognise what your baptism means, that it was the claiming of your soul for the Father-soul of God; give yourself to Him in absolute, loving obedience. Give yourself to Him as the child gives himself to the father as the most natural and true thing in all your life; and then, His power glowing through your power, the world shall become yours as it is His, and in overcoming you shall inherit all things–inherit, because they are your Fathers, so they shall become yours. (Bp. Phillips Brooks.)
The character and blessing of him that overcometh
What, then, are the qualifications of him who would fight successfully?
1. The first is faith; such is the express and repeated declaration of Scripture. This is the victory that overcometh the world, etc.
2. Secondly, he who overcometh must exercise constant and unremitting watchfulness. In the spiritual, as in mortal warfare, the hour of fancied security is that of most evident danger. When you blindly indulge the wishes which arise in your hearts, or follow unguardedly the maxims and example of the world, you wilfully expose yourselves to the most imminent hazard of being betrayed into sudden misery and danger.
3. A third, and the most important weapon in the hand of him who overcometh, is prayer. Weak, indeed, are the children of men, wavering in their opinion, inconstant in their affections, inconsistent in their conduct. To vessels, thus weak, thus insufficient, thus destitute of power in themselves, there is strength from on high.
4. Another of the requisites in him that overcometh is self-denial. We are seldom just judges of what is truly for our own benefit. Even in the plainest cases of duty we are often miserably misled by passions, prejudices, or evil inclinations. The ruling passion, the favourite inclination, of every man is, in fact, his weak side, through which he is most apt to be betrayed into the sin that doth most easily beset him. Here, therefore, the prudent man is particularly on his guard, lest he should be betrayed by it, and brought to experience the truth, that for all things God will bring him to judgment.
5. Lastly, it is essential to him that overcometh, that he persevere. There are many who set out in life with a fair outward appearance of success. They contend for truth with energy and zeal, but, by degrees, their zeal waxes cold, their energies abate, lassitude and indifference creep upon them, religion wearies and disgusts. They begin by entertaining doubts as to some of its doctrines, and by throwing of all respect for its precepts. (The Scottish Pulpit.)
The battle of sonship and the inheritance of the conqueror
The great hindrance to our full belief of all such words as these lies in the very grandeur of the truth to be believed. We turn from the mighty inheritance promised to the Christian conqueror to survey our own fives; and because amidst their poverty and insignificance, their low earthly tendencies and deep spiritual infirmities, we can discover no traces of a battle whose results will be so sublime, we find the promise hard to be believed. But yet the very position of this promise at the end of the last book of Gods revelation, shows that it is simply the natural and necessary result of redemption, and therefore belongs with all its greatness to every redeemed man. It is not an end to be sought by the greatest souls alone, but is the birthright of every faithful man. And the lowest, poorest Christian on earth may see, by looking beneath the outward things of life into lifes spiritual meaning, that he is actually fighting a battle, which, if he do but fight out faithfully, will render him an heir of all that God can give, or immortality bestow.
I. Why does our sonship demand a conflict? We must begin by laying down two facts, which prepare the way for the answer, and avoid two errors into which we are prone to fall.
1. The struggle is not to become sons of God; it results from our being so already. The grace by which God makes us feel that we are His sons–that we could not have made ourselves such–gives rise to a conflict in the soul. The power of the Holy Spirit acting on our nature creates at once s spiritual war. The faith that closes the weary effort to make ourselves Gods children, in the belief that we are such, creates at once a deep life-long struggle. The love that flows into our hearts from God witnessing to our adoption, transforms our hearts into fields of battle.
2. The conflict rising from sonship is not created by any outward circumstances, but by the state of the soul itself, in all conditions of life and ages of time. Take the first moment in which a man hears Gods voice, and becomes conscious of the Divine summons, and you will see how the battle begins. Aroused, perhaps, by trial, sorrow, the sense of lifes vanity, he sets out as a pilgrim of the eternal. In the first dim twilight of spiritual life there comes to him the voice of God. At once it seems to isolate him; he feels alone with God and his sin; he discovers the awfulness of individuality. Then commence the first clashings of the spiritual war of which his soul is the battle-field. The earthly and the heavenly, the human and the Divine, the selfish and the holy, conflict in one loud storm of emotion.
II. Why must the conflict be pepetual? Is there no earthly state in which it will cease? Can we achieve the victory only on the heavenly side of the grave? I answer, it must be long as life, because the old war between the two natures manifests itself in three forms, from which there is no escape.
1. The spirit pants for the invisible–the flesh or the visible world. Is it not manifest that there can be no pause, no safety no repose, till God crowns us as victors in His heaven?
3. The spirit lives in God–the flesh creates temptation to oppose Him. If it be true that all lifes circumstances–solitude or companionship, wealth or poverty, joy or sorrow, ease or labour, are filled with temptations, through the shadowy power of the carnal, where can there be a pause in the battle but on the deathless side of the grave?
3. The tendency of the flesh is to be a creature of circumstances: that of the spirit is to be their king. Carnal men move in masses, are swayed by every influence, lose their individuality, and become slaves to the spirit of the world. All spiritual men have found that this loneliness, this separation with God, formed part of their life-struggle. And this, too, is an undying form of our battle as sons of God. Worship success, gold, power, is the cry of the carnal. Worship God and measure life by heavenly laws, is the voice of the spiritual. Translate your commonplace toils into this meaning, and they become transfigured. You, in your obscure sphere of work, if you are true to heavenly laws, are in spirit a great warrior. You are taking a part in the spiritual battle of the ages, and if faithful unto death, the full glory of perfected sonship will be yours. He that overcometh shall be My son.
III. The inheritance of the conqueror. He shall inherit all things. The very conquest of the carnal nature brings us so near to God that all things become our own.
1. Our struggles become our possessions.
2. Inheriting God, we inherit all things. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)
The conquerors reward and the cowards doom
I. The fountain for the sons of men.
II. The conqueror and his reward. As believers we are saved, as conquerors we get the recompense.
1. The inheritance of all things. We are heirs of God; joint-heirs with Christ.
2. The Divine portion. I will be his God–a repetition of Abrahams blessing (Gen 17:7). Does not this include everything? (1Co 3:21; 1Co 3:23).
3. The Divine adoption. The conqueror becomes a son, and all that is contained in sonship is his, all the paternal love, all the Divine patrimony, all the endless glory.
III. The cowards doom (verse 8). Though the fearful or coward is specially singled out here, yet there are others associated with him in his awful doom. They are all of earth, sons of Adam, men–not devils.
1. The fearful. This means the cowards who refused to come out from the world and join Christ, though their consciences urged them; who shrunk from confessing Christ; who, through fear of men, of the world, of their good name, of earthly honour and gain, either kept their religion to themselves or threw it away.
2. The unbelieving. These are the rejecters of Christ. Oh the hatefulness of unbelief! What must it be to refuse Gods testimony to His Son! to refuse that Son Himself!
3. The abominable. Those who were partakers of the abominations and filthiness mentioned before (Rev 17:4)–revellings, banquetings, riots, blasphemies.
4. Murderers. Whose hands are red with blood; whose heart is full of angry passions, envy, malice, revenge, grudging; whose lips give vent to irritating and angry words.
5. Whoremongers. All who give way to their lusts, who live in uncleanness; those whose eyes are full of adultery, and who cannot cease from this sin.
6. Sorcerers. They who have taken part in Babylons sorceries and witchcrafts; all allies of the evil one, and workers of the lying wonders of the last days.
7. Idolaters. Not only the heathen worshippers of graven images, but all who have chosen another god; who love the creature more than the Creator; who worship mammon, pleasure, art, splendour, or gold, for covetousness is idolatry.
8. All liars. All who speak falsely in any way; who practise dishonesty; who care not for truth. (H. Bonar, D. D.)
The saints inheriting all things
The little child believes that all things belong to it, and claims everything it can touch, book, or toy, or picture, stretching out its hands for the moon with a divine sense of ownership. And the child is not wrong: the child is never wrong in its spontaneous conduct, acting out what God puts into it, reflecting the thought of the face that its spirit beholds. All things do belong to it, and are withheld only while it is in its spiritual minority for purposes of discipline, and until it learns to distinguish between the good and the evil. But at last Gods children become heirs, inherit, and all things become theirs. (T. T. Munger.)
I will be his God, and he shall be My son.—
The restored sonship
I. Let us think of what is conveyed to us here, when God promises that he will be our God. He is the God of all the world now, for He rules it, and is calling men out of it; and whether they honour Him or not, He presides over them, and directs their destinies after the counsel of His own almighty will. Still, God is not the same to man now as He was to him before he fell from his first estate in paradise. Whosoever has a hard thought of God, disowns His Deity; and it is thus with many a sinner now. But we shall have no hard thoughts of Him when we shall see Him as He is. He shall be our God, our very own; and it shall be in this respect, as it is with men on earth, we shall low what belongs to ourselves. Let it be, therefore, that God is not in one sense the God of the sinner. He is, and shall be, of His people; the place which He does not occupy in the hearts of the one, He shall in the hearts of the other. Every thought which the saints have shall confirm Him in the high position which He holds. And how could it be otherwise? When we have inherited all things, shall we not see the fruits of His beneficence all around? God shall be, as it were, written upon all; and because God is written upon all, therefore all shall be for man; for man shall then be in the possession of all things which belong to God. And shall not this supremacy of the Deity be delightful for us to own? Then also shall we understand the dispensations which perplex us now so much; we shall no longer wonder at the short triumph which the ungodly had for a season, at the momentary gloom which for a while seemed to eclipse the Christians sun; all these shall appear well connected parts of one great plan, which was to issue, as now indeed it shall be seen to have done, in the glory of God, and the happiness of the saints. But to see and to understand are not enough to satisfy. Far more than these is conveyed in the promise that the Most High will be our God–the saints shall possess and enjoy the liberality of His heart: there shall be positive ownership exercised by the redeemed; they shall make all these things their own. And keeping in mind the point on which we are now immediately engaged–namely, that God on His part will restore man to his high original, and indeed to something more, we might remind you again that such as overcome shall dwell in His very presence for ever. But what more, it might be asked, is contained in the promise, that the Lord will be our God? We answer, all those especial developments of the Deity which God has withdrawn from us because of our sin, He will then openly make; and amongst these we might notice this, that He will display His omnipotence in us. Let us think what that power can do. Can it not make us noble, and rich, and perfect, and exalt us beyond the ordinary advancement of man? Undoubtedly it can. And as God will not have any around Him who are not fitted for His court, we may reasonably expect that all this shall be done for us. The Master is noble, and the servant shall be as his Master; he shall be free from the taint of everything that defaces or defiles. Then there shall be no more predisposition to sin, no more contraction of heart, no more sordidness of thought, nothing that is unworthy of God Himself. And our attainment of this will be a display of Divine omnipotence; nothing less than that could accomplish anything with such intractable hearts as ours. But nothing shall be impossible with God.
II. We turn now to that which is said concerning ourselves. One blessing, then, to which we may look forward in the promise that we shall be His sons, is this, that the unfilial feeling of terror shall be done away. Let the peace of sonship here be an earnest of how sweet the communion of sonship shall be hereafter. And let us not forget, that not only shall all un-son like feelings of terror pass from the bosom of the saints, but that filial delight shall return, delight keener, sweeter, than that which Adam had in paradise. He shall be my son! Does not this speak volumes? What we shall feel in heaven? With whom were we so happy when we were in the state which approaches the nearest to innocence? To whom did we cling the most? In whose smile did we bask with the greatest joy? Is not a parents figure almost the only one which we can see in the long perspective of the past? From this we can learn what Adam felt in Eden, what we shall feel in heaven. This long lost feeling shall return, our sonship shall act, we shall see that there is none equal to our Father, that from Him everything flows, in Him all blessing centres, that He is All in All. And one great element of our blessing shall be this; the consciousness of connection with Him shall come back to us again. (P. B. Power, M. A.)
But the fearful and unbelieving shall have their part in the lake.
Who are the fearful?
The cowards would express the sense more accurately, at least in modern English. Those condemned are those who are afraid to do their duty, not those who do it, though timidly and in spite of the fears of nature: still less those who do it with fear and trembling in St. Pauls sense. (W. H. Simcox, M. A.)
The cowards
We learn from the context where they failed.
1. The irreligious or unbelieving found that a religious life required hardness, restraint, restrictions; whereas it was easier for them to float with the tide of inclination than against it.
2. The dishonest man found it easier to be dishonest than honest: his gains were quicker; he had not to wait and struggle with poverty as the honest man had.
3. The liar had not the courage to tell the truth and face the consequences; but shirked it.
4. The sensualist found it easier and pleasanter to live a life of unrestrained self-indulgence, than to keep his body under, and bring it into subjection, by reining in his unruly appetites. These are the lost, moral wrecks, the cowards in lifes hard battle, who had not the courage to do right. For these there is no promise–they had no thirst after God–their lot, or portion, is the second death. Whatever this may mean more, it is here placed in direct contrast, and as the opposite to the promise made to the conquerors. They are within, these are without. They are the sons of God, these are dogs. They inherit heaven, these drop into the abyss. They are fit company for God and the holy inhabitants of the heavenly city, these for that of devils. (Proctors Gems of Thought.)
The final doom of impenitent sinners
I. The persons. They are, in short, all kinds of sinners, unless they timely repent and instantly forsake their sins.
1. Of these we have a long catalogue in the text, beginning with the fearful, who place their fear on a wrong object, and dare not venture to run any hazard for the sake of religion and a good conscience. These lead the van in this long list of sinners, as being the largest in number, and of all others the most egregious and insolent offenders. For no manner of good can be done by persons of so mean a character, who are left destitute of manly courage and rational conduct, and have quite perverted the order of things by estimating the loss of wealth and grandeur to be the only formidable accidents, and the loss of innocence and integrity readily to be dispensed with in hopes of gaining them. Religion, but above all our strict and pure religion, requires that we undergo cheerfully the greatest temporal losses in the service of our Lord and Master, to whom we have vowed dutiful allegiance and persevering obedience. Now, this criminous fear we are speaking of makes us desert and prove traitors upon the least intimation of approaching ill. The most valiant and courageous men are those who, fearing God above all, dare run any hazards in order to serve Him.
2. The unbelieving come next to be considered. By these undoubtedly are meant–
(1) Such as did not yield a full assent to the truths revealed in the gospel.
(2) Such as neglected to live according to that belief.
3. The abominable. By the abominable we are to understand those polluted wretches who have given up their bodies to the commission of the foulest and most unnatural lusts.
4. Murderers. He is one that has no regard to the image of God stamped upon our nature, no concern for the welfare of his neighbour and brother.
5. Whoremongers. Their guilt, I suppose, is legible enough in that most awful threatening (Heb 13:4). Temperance, soberness, and chastity are the most sweetly-becoming ornaments of the Christian life; intemperance, sensuality, and incontinence, the lasting blemishes and utmost scandal of it (Jude, verse 13).
6. The sorcerers. They are such as deal by magic and unlawful arts with the devil.
7. Idolaters.
8. All liars it seems must come in for their share among the rest. All that upon any pretence or occasion willingly and deliberately offend against the truth, or, in other words, such as speak not the truth from their hearts.
II. Their punishment. Fire and brimstone.
1. It contains our being deprived of the beatific vision, and of all that is good.
2. Our being tortured with the miseries of hell, and all that is evil. (R. Warren, D. D.)
The doom of the righteous and the wicked
I. The first prejudice which we intend to attack is this: A life spent in ease and idleness is not incompatible with salvation, if it be free from great crimes. Against this we oppose this part of our text, He that overcometh shall inherit. In order to inherit, we must overcome. Here vigilance, action, and motion are supposed.
II. The second prejudice is this: A just God will not impute to His creatures sins of infirmity and constitution, though His creatures shall be subject to them during the whole course of their lives. Against this we oppose these words of the apostle, The fearful and whoremongers shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.
III. The third prejudice is this: Speculative errors cannot be attended with any fatal consequences, provided we live uprightly, as it is called, and discharge our social duties. Against this we oppose this word, the unbelieving. The unbelieving are put into the class of the miserable.
IV. The fourth prejudice is this: Religions are indifferent. The mercy of God extends to those who live in the most erroneous communions. Against this we oppose the word idolaters. Idolaters are considered among the most criminal of mankind.
V. The last prejudice in this: None but the vulgar ought to be afraid of committing certain crimes. Kings will be judged by a particular law: the greatness of the motive that inclined them to manage some affairs of state will plead their excuse, and secure them from Divine vengeance. Against this we oppose these words, abominable, sorcerers, and all liars, which three words include almost all those abominations which are called illustrious crimes. (J. Saurin.)
The character and condition of the lost
I. The character of the lost. There is but one way to heaven, but there are many ways to hell. It is true that all, like sheep, have gone astray, but every one has turned to his own way. There are the fearful who have followed the way of cowardice. There are the unbelieving or the faithless who could not take God at His word. There are the abominable or the abominated, who through association with wickedness and sin are defiled in mind and conscience. Unbelief and wrong-doing are more nearly connected together than many people think. There are murderers also, not merely those who have imbrued their hands in the blood of their fellow-men, but those also whose hearts have been dead to the voice of pity and love, who have shut up their bowels of compassion from the poor and needy. The fornicators are there also, those sinners against the laws of moral purity which teach us to keep our bodies in temperance, soberness, and chastity. Sorcerers are there likewise, who have used curious arts and familiar spirits, intruding into those things which they have not seen, vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind. Following Satans deceit, they find at last their lot with him, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. Idolaters, too, are there, who have followed the example of King Ahaz (2Ch 28:24). There are idols of the heart as well as idols of the hand. All liars, also, are there. The word literally is lies, and it includes all forms of deceit, hypocrisy, fraud, whatsoever loveth and maketh a lie, counterfeits and shams, self-deceit, tongue-craft, the lying life. The phrase, indeed, may be intended not so much to indicate a distinct class of sins and sinners as to stamp the falseness of the seven kinds of iniquity already enumerated. The catalogue is like that of the works of the flesh named in Gal 5:19-21, and it sets forth the tale of mans disobedience to the whole law of God. Moreover, we may trace in this succession of sins a gradation of wickedness. Men shrink from the trouble and effort of a godly life, and take refuge in unbelief. This brings them into willing association with sin, and those who sin against their brethren become sinners against their own souls, and intruders into the secret counsels of the Most High. They have practically denied the God that is above, and the result is the idolatry of the creature; and thus (Rom 1:25).
II. The condition of the lost. A similar description of the lot of the wicked is that given by St. Paul (2Th 1:7-9).
1. First, the loss which the finally impenitent will undergo will be the loss of God indicated in that awful phrase, the second death. This language is evidently intended to distinguish this state from another which may be called the first death. But what is the first death? Not, it would seem, the separation of body and spirit in natural death. The context tells us that there shall be no more death in this sense (verse 4); and the period to which our text refers is subsequent to the resurrection of the body. Rather does the term, the second death, lead us to think of the first death as the present spiritual state of those who are not renewed by the Holy Spirit. Such are, to use St. Pauls language, dead in trespasses and sins, etc. (Eph 2:1-2; Eph 4:18). Separation from God, which sinners chose on earth, they find in hell, and what they thought so desirous here they find, with their quickened sensibilities, to be their sorrow there. Cut off from their former opportunities of sin and facilities for ignoring spiritual things, they are face to face with their real position, and they find in it the bitterness of death. The dream of vanity and folly and sin, from which no word or judgment could rouse them here, has vanished, and they wake up now to shame and everlasting contempt.
2. For this second death is an actual judgment as well as a woeful loss. The golden sceptre of grace shall be exchanged there for the iron rod of discipline. (James Silvester, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. Behold, I make all things new.] As the creation of the world at the beginning was the work of God alone, so this new creation.
These words are true and faithful.] Truth refers to the promise of these changes; faithfulness, to the fulfilment of these promises.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And he that sat upon the throne, that is, Christ,
said, Behold, I make all things new; behold, I will put a new face upon all things; the state of my people shall not for ever be a troubled and afflicted state.
And he said unto me, Write: because the vision is to be for an appointed time, and what I now tell thee will not be accomplished of many years, and yet the knowledge and prospect of it, and meditations upon it, are of highest importance to keep up the spirits of my people under all their sufferings, during that time of the dragon (the Romish heathen emperors) not yet run out, and the twelve hundred and sixty years of antichrist, &c., therefore write it, that all my people in all ages may know it, believe it, and suffer patiently in the hopes of it.
For these words are true and faithful; for, what I tell time is what comes from the true and faithful Witness, and shall have a certain being in its time.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. satGreek,“sitteth.”
all things newnotrecent, but changed from the old (Greek, “kaina,“not “nea“). An earnest of this regeneration andtransfiguration of nature is given already in the regenerate soul.
unto meso Copticand ANDREAS. But A, B,Vulgate, and Syriac omit.
true and faithfulsoANDREAS. But A, B,Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic transpose, “faithfuland true” (literally, “genuine”).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he that sat upon the throne said,…. By whom is meant, either God the Father, who is often represented in this book as sitting on the throne, and as distinguished from Christ the Lamb; see Re 4:2 Re 5:13 and who may seem the more to be intended, since he is by adopting grace the God and Father of his people, and they are his sons and daughters; or rather Christ, who not only is set down on the same throne with his Father, but has a throne of his own, called the throne of the Lamb, and was seen upon one by John in the preceding vision, Re 20:11 which though in order of time will be after this, yet in the order of the visions was seen before; and especially since the person on the throne speaking, calls himself the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, as Christ does in Re 1:8 and seeing he it is that gives to thirsty souls of the water of life, Joh 7:37 and makes promises to the overcomer so largely and frequently in Re 2:7. He addresses John, and delivers the following things to him,
behold, I make all things new; which is to be understood not of the renovation of persons at conversion, when a new heart and spirit are given, and men are made wholly new creatures; for this is the work of the Spirit, and which is done daily, and is not peculiar to any particular period of time; nor of the renewing of the church state at the beginning of the Gospel, when the Jewish church state and ordinances waxed old, and vanished away, and a new covenant took place, a new and living way was opened, and new ordinances appointed, since all this was before John had this vision; nor was there any need of it to represent it to him; but of the making of the new heaven, and the new earth, which Christ ascribes to himself and of his forming his church anew, making it a new Jerusalem, bestowing new glories upon his people, both in soul and body, and so presenting them to himself a glorious church; and of the new administration of his kingdom in a very singular and glorious manner; so that it respects a new people, a new habitation, and a new manner of ruling over them; all which is his own doing, and is marvellous; and because it is a matter of great importance, and is wonderful and certain, therefore a “behold” is prefixed to it; see Isa 43:19. The Jews say z, that the holy blessed God will make ten things new in the future state, or world to come; the first is, he will enlighten the world; (See Re 21:11) the second is, he will bring living water out of Jerusalem; (see Re 21:6) the third is, he will make trees to bring forth their fruit every month; (see Re 22:2) and the fourth is, all the waste places shall be built, even Sodom and Gomorrha; the fifth is, Jerusalem shall be built with sapphire stone; (see Re 21:19) the sixth is, the cow and the bear shall feed; the seventh is, a covenant shall be made between Israel, and the beasts, fowls, and creeping things; the eighth is, there shall be no more weeping and howling in the world; the ninth is, there shall be no more death in the world; the tenth is, there shall no more be sighing, and groaning, and sorrow in the world; see Re 21:4.
And he said unto me, write; what John had seen, and Christ had said, and was about to say; and particularly what concerned the renewing of all things, the whole being a matter of moment, and worth noting and taking down in writing, that it might be on record for saints to read, and receive comfort and advantage from; and to denote the certainty of it, as well as to show that it was a clear point, and to be known, whereas, when it was otherwise, he was bid not to write; see Re 1:11.
for these words are true and faithful; both what he had said, and was about to say; they were “true”, because they came from God, who cannot lie, and “faithful”, because they would be punctually and exactly fulfilled; see Re 19:9. The Syriac version adds, they are God’s, and so the Arabic version.
z Shemot Rabba, sect. 15. fol. 101. 3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Behold, I make all things new ( ). The first time since 1:8 that God has been represented as speaking directly, though voices have come out of the throne before (21:3) and out of the sanctuary (Rev 16:1; Rev 16:17), which may be from God himself, though more likely from one of the angels of the Presence. This message is not addressed to John (Rev 7:14; Rev 17:7; Rev 21:6; Rev 22:6), but to the entire world of the blessed. See Isa 43:18f. for the words ( ). The idea of a new heaven and a new earth is in Isa 65:17; Isa 66:22; Ps 102:25. For the locative here with ( ) see Rev 7:10; Rev 19:4 (genitive more usual, Rev 4:9; Rev 5:1; Rev 5:7; Rev 5:13, etc.). See 20:11 for the picture.
And he saith ( ). Probably this means a change of speakers, made plain by (to me) in many MSS. An angel apparently (as in Rev 14:13; Rev 19:9) assures John and urges him to write ( as in Rev 1:11; Rev 2:1; Rev 2:8; Rev 2:12; Rev 2:18; Rev 3:1; Rev 3:7; Rev 3:14; Rev 14:3). The reason given (, for) is precisely the saying in 22:6 and he uses the two adjectives ( ) employed in 19:11 about God himself, and 3:14 about Christ. In 19:9 occurs also about “the words of God” as here. They are reliable and genuine.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
True and faithful [ ] . The proper order of the Greek is the reverse, as Rev., faithful and true.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And he that sat upon the throne said,” (kai eipen ho kathemenos epi to throno) “And the one who was sitting on the (central) throne said; The God of the universe spoke, Rev 4:2; Rev 4:9; Rev 5:1; Rev 20:11; 1Co 15:24-25.
2) “Behold, I make all things new,” (idou kaina poio panta) “Behold I (do) or make all things new; 2Co 5:17; For the new heaven and new earth with new creatures in Christ Jesus, a new era of eternity begins with new purposes, desires, and ambitions, free of covetousness for the first time since the fall of man, Heb 12:10; Mat 5:48.
3) “And he said unto me, Write.” (kai legei grapson) “And he says, Write thou,” record it, report it, John, Rev 1:11; Rev 1:19. This book claims a rightful place in ones direct obedience to God. John was directed to write it, and it pronounces a blessing upon (1) all who read it, (2) all who hear it, and (3) all who keep, guard, or respect the things Written, Rev 1:3.
4) “For these Words are true and faithful,” (hoti outoi hoi logoi pistoi kai alethinoi eisin) “Because these are true and faithful (trustworthy) Words; These words are reassuring to doubtful hearts and claim respect and obedience as the Inspired Word of God which is “true from the beginning,” Psa 119:160; Rev 19:9; Rev 22:6; Rev 22:19.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THE SECOND VOICE.The voice of Him who sitteth on the Throne (Rev. 21:5-8).
(5) And he that sat upon the throne . . .Better, And he who sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. And he saith (the words unto me should be omitted) write; because these words are faithful and true. It is the Throned one, the One who rules over all things from the beginning, and who has presided over all the changing scenes of earths history, who speaks; it is He who makes even the wrath of man to praise Him, and who causes all things to work together for good to them that love Him, who gives this heart-helping assurance. I am making all things new. In spite of the moral disorder, the pain and grief, the dark shadows of life and history, the new creation is being prepared, and will rise, like the early creation, out of chaos. The analogy between the old and new creation is the reason why the first chapter of Genesis and the earlier verses of this chapter are appointed as the morning lessons for Septuagesima Sunday; as out of an earth without form and void rose the world of order and beauty, which God pronounced very good, so out of the world, so full of distress and tears, and overshadowed by so many clouds of sin, will emerge the glad new world, wherein dwelleth righteousness. The closing words of the verse, perhaps an instruction from the angel, but more probably still the voice of Him that sits on the throne, adds the further assurance, These words are true and faithful.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
b. Divine announcement of its blessedness and conditions, Rev 21:5-8 .
5. The throne What throne? Probably the throne of Rev 4:2. That throne of revelation did not disappear with the old earth, (note on Rev 4:11😉 and the throne of judgment, (Rev 20:11,) appeared simply as one of the visional phenomena, just like any other symbol in the vision. The throne in the New Jerusalem (Rev 22:1) has not yet appeared. The throne of revelation, like the angel of the last plagues, (Rev 22:8,) continues to the close.
New This is the grand, final renovation.
Write these words Of this apocalyptic revelation. This is a divine authentication of what the seer is bidden to write. Note Rev 22:6.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And he who sits on the throne said, “Behold I make all things new”.’
In case this all seems too good to be true God Himself now confirms it personally. Previously He has been passive while the action He has initiated goes on around Him. But now He speaks, for it is His own people who are involved, and He declares ‘Behold, I make all things new!’ And then goes on to outline His intentions on the basis of the fact that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the Ending. Now He will prove Himself to be the Ending. he will bring His work to a satisfactory conclusion. (We can compare the similar situation in Rev 11:3 when God said ‘I will give’, in contrast with ‘it was given’ in Rev 7:2; Rev 9:5).
Compare here Isa 43:18-19. God is doing a new thing and is providing life-giving waters, giving drink to His people, to His chosen (Isa 43:20, see Rev 21:6 here), having Himself blotted out their transgressions and stopped remembering their sins (Isa 43:25). Compare also 2Co 5:17 where men in Christ form a new creation and all things become new. This is the final fulfilment of those first beginnings, brought about by the work of Him Who reconciled His people to Himself through Christ. The groaning of the old creation (Rom 8:18-25) has ceased and all is now fully restored.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
‘And he says, “Write. For these words are faithful and true”. And he said to me, “They have come about. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, and I will give freely to him who is thirsty of the water of life”.’
Elsewhere it is Christ, the Word of God, Who is faithful and true (Rev 19:11, compare Rev 3:14). It is He Who is the faithful witness (Rev 3:14, compare Rev 1:5). But now God’s words spoken here are also faithful and true. There is no doubt of their fulfilment for they are the promises of One Who can be fully relied on.
‘They have come about’ – in the new Jerusalem all that He has promised has happened, and can be seen as already fulfilled. (This phrase is written as ‘It is done’ in an equal number of authorities – compare Rev 16:17, but the final significance is the same).
For ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega (see on Rev 1:8 and compare Rev 1:17), the beginning and the end’ (see also Rev 22:13). All things came from Him, He is the source of all things, and all things lead to Him so that He is all in all (1Co 15:28). Thus He sums up in Himself the whole of existence. And that in itself is the guarantee of the fulfilment of His future purposes and promises.
‘I will give freely to him who is thirsty of the water of life.’ This was the cry of the water-seller on God’s behalf in Isa 55:1, water, wine and milk without money and without price. Compare also Joh 7:37, ‘if any man thirst let him come to me and drink’. Water was the life-giving commodity that all men craved. Without it they could not survive for it was the very basis of life. Now it is freely available as the water of life (see Rev 22:1; Rev 22:17). Here is promised fullness of life.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
(5) And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. (6) And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
Though these distinctions of character, belong in common to all the Persons of the Godhead, ( Isa_43:10; Isa_44:6; Isa_44:8 ) yet I should humbly conceive, that in this place Christ is the Speaker; because in this Millennium state of the Church, it is Christ reigning with his saints. And how very delightful are those declarations to this redeemed? Reader! do you know Christ, under these precious characters? Doth Jesus sit upon the throne of your heart? Hath he there made all things new? Hath he taken away the heart of stone, and given you an heart of flesh? Are your desires, your affections, your appetites, become new, and spiritual? Is he indeed, the Alpha, and the Omega, in your creed? If the Lord hath created your heart anew, sure I am, you must have made him the Alpha of this great work; for creating work, you cannot then but know to be his. But do you know him as the Omega too; that is, the Finisher, as well as the Beginner of salvation? If creating-work be his, so is renewing-work, confirming-work; strengthening-work, recovering after backslidings, and raising up again after falls. Do you know the Lord Jesus under all? Then do you make him what God the Father had made him, and what he here declares himself to be, the Alpha and Omega; the beginning and the end. Oh! it is blessed, as we begin, so to go on, upon a free grace bottom. This is a tried way, a sure way, yea, the good old way, which, when a child of God walks in it, he finds rest to his soul. But to halve it with Christ, is robbing Christ of his glory, and the soul of happiness, Jer 6:16 .
Reader! listen to what Jesus saith, in the close of this scripture. I will give to him that is athirst, of the fountain of the water of life freely What! is there no qualification needed beside? No! if Christ be welcome to the thirsty soul, that soul is welcome to Christ. Observe, it is a gift, not a purchase. It is bestowed upon the thirsty, not the full. Could a poor sinner but see this, he would discover, that the only qualification, is a sense of want, and a view of the Lord’s goodness to supply. Hence the ignorance of this is the sad cause of all our misery. And Jesus taught this to the woman of Samaria. She was ignorant that Christ was the gift of God. And to that ignorance, the Lord ascribed the cause, wherefore she asked not for living water from Christ. It is blessed to feel our want, blessed to know where alone is the supply of that want, and blessed to see God the Father’s gift in the provision, and blessed when God the Spirit leads to Christ, for the mercy, see Joh 4:42 and Commentary.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
Ver. 5. Write; for these words are faithful ] Though few men will believe them; for if they did, what would they not do or forego to get heaven? Cleombrotus reading Plato’s book of the immortality of the soul, was so ravished with the conceit thereof, that he cast himself headlong into the sea. But how many reading this better book of heaven’s happiness, are no whit wrought upon thereby, or in the least measure moved to affect those things above, that run parallel with the life of God and line of eternity!
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The first and only time that God addresses the seer, or indeed (apart from Rev 1:8 ) speaks at all. The almost unbroken silence assigned to God in the Apocalypse corresponds to the Egyptian idea of the divine Reason needing no tongue but noiselessly directing mortal things by righteousness (Plut. de Iside , 75; hence the deity is symbolised by the ciocodile, which was believed to be the only animal without a tongue).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Revelation
AN IMPOSSIBILITY MADE POSSIBLE
Jer 13:23
Put these three texts together. The first is a despairing question to which experience gives only too sad and decisive a negative answer. It is the answer of many people who tell us that character must be eternal, and of many a baffled man who says, ‘It is of no use-I have tried and can do nothing.’ The second text is the grand Christian answer, full of confidence. It was spoken by one who had no superficial estimate of the evil, but who had known in himself the power of Christ to revolutionise a life, and make a man love all he had hated, and hate all he had loved, and fling away all he had treasured. The last text predicts the completion of the renovating process lying far ahead, but as certain as sunrise.
I. The unchangeableness of character, especially of faults.
Now we do not need to assert that a man has no power of self-improvement or reformation. The exhortations of the prophet to repentance and to cleansing imply that he has. If he has not, then it is no blame to him that he does not mend. Experience shows that we have a very considerable power of such a kind. It is a pity that some Christian teachers speak in exaggerated terms about the impossibility of such self-improvement.
But it is very difficult.
Note the great antagonist as set forth here-Habit, that solemn and mystical power. We do not know all the ways in which it operates, but one chief way is through physical cravings set up. It is strange how much easier a second time is than a first, especially in regard to evil acts. The hedge once broken down, it is very easy to get through it again. If one drop of water has percolated through the dyke, there will be a roaring torrent soon. There is all the difference between once and never; there is small difference between once and twice. By habit we come to do things mechanically and without effort, and we all like that. One solitary footfall across the snow soon becomes a beaten way. As in the banyan-tree, each branch becomes a root. All life is held together by cords of custom which enable us to reserve conscious effort and intelligence for greater moments. Habit tends to weigh upon us with a pressure ‘heavy as frost, and deep almost as life.’ But also it is the ally of good.
The change to good is further made difficult because liking too often goes with evil, and good is only won by effort. It is a proof of man’s corruption that if left alone, evil in some form or other springs spontaneously, and that the opposite good is hard to win. Uncultivated soil bears thistles and weeds. Anything can roll downhill. It is always the least trouble to go on as we have been going.
Further, the change is made difficult because custom blinds judgment and conscience. People accustomed to a vitiated atmosphere are not aware of its foulness.
How long it takes a nation, for instance, to awake to consciousness of some national crime, even when the nation is ‘Christian’! And how men get perfectly sophisticated as to their own sins, and have all manner of euphemisms for them!
Further, how hard it is to put energy into a will that has been enfeebled by long compliance. Like prisoners brought out of the Bastille.
So if we put all these reasons together, no wonder that such reformation is rare.
I do not dwell on the point that it must necessarily be confined within very narrow limits. I appeal to experience. You have tried to cure some trivial habit. You know what a task that has been-how often you thought that you had conquered, and then found that all had to be done over again. How much more is this the case in this greater work! Often the efforts to break off evil habits have the same effect as the struggles of cattle mired in a bog, who sink the deeper for plunging. The sad cry of many a foiled wrestler with his own evil is, ‘O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ We do not wish to exaggerate, but simply to put it that experience shows that for men in general, custom and inclination and indolence and the lack of adequate motive weigh so heavily that a thorough abandonment of evil, much more a hearty practice of good, are not to be looked for when once a character has been formed. So you young people, take care. And all of us listen to-
II. The great hope for individual renewal.
‘If any man be in Christ he is a new creature,’ or as the words might be rendered, ‘there is a new creation,’ and not only is he renewed, but all things are become new. He is a new Adam in a new world.
Now a let us beware of exaggeration about this matter. There are often things said about the effects of conversion which are very far in advance of reality, and give a handle to caricature. The great law of continuity runs on through the change of conversion. Take a man who has been the slave of some sin. The evil will not cease to tempt, nor will the effects of the past on character be annihilated. ‘Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,’ remains true. In many ways there will be permanent consequences. There will remain the scars of old wounds; old sores will be ready to burst forth afresh. The great outlines of character do remain.
b What is the condition of renewal?
‘If any man be in Christ’-how distinctly that implies something more than human in Paul’s conception of Christ. It implies personal union with Him, so that He is the very element or atmosphere in which we live. And that union is brought about by faith in Him.
c How does such a state of union with Christ make a man over again?
It gives a new aim and centre for our lives. Then we live not unto ourselves; then everything is different and looks so, for the centre is shifted. That union introduces a constant reference to Him and contemplation of His death for us, it leads to self-abnegation.
It puts all life under the influence of a new love. ‘The love of Christ constraineth.’ As is a man’s love, so is his life. The mightiest devolution is to excite a new love, by which old loves and tastes are expelled. ‘A new affection’ has ‘expulsive power,’ as the new sap rising in the springtime pushes off the lingering withered leaves. So union with Him meets the difficulty arising from inclination still hankering after evil. It lifts life into a higher level where the noxious creatures that were proper to the swamps cannot live. The new love gives a new and mighty motive for obedience.
That union breaks the terrible chain that binds us to the past. ‘All died.’ The past is broken as much as if we were dead. It is broken by the great act of forgiveness. Sin holds men by making them feel as if what has been must be-an awful entail of evil. In Christ we die to former self.
That union brings a new divine power to work in us. ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.’
It sets us in a new world which yet is the old. All things are changed if we are changed. They are the same old things, but seen in a new light, used for new purposes, disclosing new relations and powers. Earth becomes a school and discipline for heaven. The world is different to a blind man when cured, or to a deaf one,-there are new sights for the one, new sounds for the other.
All this is true in the measure in which we live in union with Christ.
So no man need despair, nor think, ‘I cannot mend now.’ You may have tried and been defeated a thousand times. But still victory is possible, not without effort and sore conflict, but still possible. There is hope for all, and hope for ME.
III. The completion in a perfectly renewed creation.
It is like some exotic that does not show its true beauty in our greenhouses. The life of a Christian on earth is a prophecy by both its greatness and its smallness, by both its glory and its shame, by both its brightness and its spots. It cannot be that there is always to be this disproportion between aspiration and performance, between willing and doing. Here the most perfect career is like a half-lighted street, with long gaps between the lamps.
The surroundings here are uncongenial to the new creatures. ‘Foxes have holes’-all creatures are fitted for their environment; only man, and eminently renewed man, wanders as a pilgrim, not in his home. The present frame of things is for discipline. The schooling over, we burn the rod. So we look for an external order in full correspondence with the new nature.
And Christ throned ‘makes all things new.’ How far the old is renewed we cannot tell, and we need not ask. Enough that there shall be a universe in perfect harmony with the completely renewed nature, that we shall find a home where all things will serve and help and gladden and further us, where the outward will no more distract and clog the spirit.
Brethren, let that mighty love constrain you; and look to Christ to renew you. Whatever your old self may have been, you may bury it deep in His grave, and rise with Him to newness of life. Then you may walk in this old world, new creatures in Christ Jesus, looking for the blessed hope of entire renewal into the perfect likeness of Him, the perfect man, in a perfect world, where all old sorrows and sins have passed away and He has made all things new. Through eternity, new joys, new knowledge, new progress, new likeness, new service will be ours- and not one leaf shall ever wither in the amaranthine crown, nor ‘the cup of blessing’ ever become empty or flat and stale. Eternity will be but a continual renewal and a progressive increase of ever fresh and ever familiar treasures. The new and the old will be one.
Begin with trusting to Him to help you to change a deeper blackness than that of the Ethiopian’s skin, and to erase firier spots than stain the tawny leopard’s hide, and He will make you a new man, and set you in His own time in a ‘new heaven and earth, where dwelleth righteousness.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rev 21:5-8
5And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” 6Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. 7He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My Song of Solomon 8 But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Rev 21:5 “And He who sits on the throne said” God speaks several times in Revelation (cf. Rev 1:8 and probably Rev 16:1; Rev 16:17). There seems to be a purposeful ambiguity as to who sits on the throne, YHWH or Messiah (cf. Rev 22:3). See fuller note at Rev 20:11. As the first creation was brought into being by God’s (i.e., Father through the Son) spoken word (cf. Gen 1:3; Gen 1:6; Gen 1:9; Gen 1:14; Gen 1:20; Gen 1:24; Psa 33:6; Psa 33:9), so also will His new creation.
“I am making all things new” This is the promise of Isaiah 60-66. This refers to the new age of the Spirit, the age of the Messiah, the age of righteousness, which Jesus inaugurated at His first coming and will consummate at His second coming. This is a metaphor for the certainty of God’s will becoming a reality (cf. Rev 1:19; Rev 14:13; Rev 17:17; Rev 19:9).
“these words are faithful and true” This phrase was used to describe (1) Jesus, cf. Rev 1:5; Rev 3:7; Rev 3:14; Rev 19:11; (2) Jesus’ followers, cf. Rev 17:14; and (3) God’s word cf. Rev 19:9; Rev 21:5; Rev 22:6. Often God is described as “righteous and true” (cf. Rev 15:3; Rev 16:7; Rev 19:2). The Hebrew thought behind this Greek phrase would imply trustworthiness.
Rev 21:6 “It is done” This is a perfect active indicative. This could relate to the certainty of God’s promises regarding both wrath for unbelievers and deliverance for believers (cf. Rev 6:11; Rev 10:7; Rev 16:17), or the immanence of God’s promises (cf. Rev 1:1; Rev 1:3; Rev 3:11; Rev 10:6; Rev 12:12; Rev 22:7; Rev 22:10).
“I am the Alpha and the Omega” This is used of God in Isa 44:6 and Rev 1:8; however, it is extremely significant that this phrase, although a title for the Father, is also used for the Messiah in Rev 1:17; Rev 22:13. It is another example of the NT authors applying titles for God to the Son.
There are several inclusive types of phrases which describe God’s eternal, unique existence:
1. “the first and the last,” cf. Isa 41:4; Isa 44:6; Isa 48:12; Rev 1:17; Rev 2:8; Rev 22:13
2. “beginning and the end,” cf. Rev 21:6; Rev 22:13; and KJV Rev 1:8
3. “who is and who was and who is to come,” cf. Rev 1:4; Rev 1:8; Rev 4:8
All of these are related to God’s covenant name, YHWH, which is the causative form of the Hebrew verb “to be” (cf. Exo 3:14; Isa 43:10; Isa 43:13; Isa. 46:41; Psa 90:2; Psa 93:2).
“I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost” The OT allusion is to Isaiah 55. The invitation is for everyone and it is absolutely free (cf. Rom 3:24; Rom 6:23; Eph 2:8)! What a tremendous invitation from God Himself of the availability of forgiveness. Mankind’s redemption has always been central in the heart and mind of God (cf. Rev 9:20-21; Rev 14:6-7; Rev 16:9; Rev 16:11; Rev 22:17).
In the OT springs of water are often associated with God providing for the spiritual needs of mankind (cf. Psa 36:9; Isa 12:3; Isa 44:3; Isa 49:10; Jer 2:13; Jer 17:13; also Joh 4:10).
Rev 21:7 “He who overcomes” This is a present active participle, which is a continuing reference to the doctrine of perseverance amidst a time of terrible persecution. This phrase occurs throughout the letters to the seven churches (cf. Rev 2:7; Rev 2:11; Rev 2:17; Rev 2:26; Rev 3:3; Rev 3:5; Rev 3:12; Rev 3:21), which link the opening chapters of the Revelation to the conclusion. See Special Topic on Perseverance at Rev 2:2.
“will inherit these things” The reward of inheritance in Rev 21:7 (cf. 1Pe 1:4-5; Rom 8:17) and the warnings in Rev 21:8 are against the backdrop of potential apostasy in an age of persecution. The series of wicked apostates (cf. Rev 21:8) is somewhat similar to the one found in 1Co 6:9-10.
“and I will be his God and he will be My son” These are covenant phrases (cf. Rev 21:3) which are so common in the OT (cf. Exo 6:7; Exo 29:45-46; Lev 26:11-12; 2Sa 7:14; Psa 89:26-27; Jer 7:23; Jer 11:4; Jer 30:22; Jer. 33:38; Eze 11:20; Eze 14:11; Eze 34:30; Eze 36:28; Hos 2:23; Zec 8:8; Zec 13:9) and are also used in the NT (cf. 2Co 6:16; 2Co 6:18).
The concept of covenant is probably the unifying theme of the Bible. Mankind has been alienated from God (cf. Isa 53:6; Rom 3:9-18; Rom 3:23). Mankind cannot find God. God reaches out for us; God is pursuing us! His offer of reunion is one of covenant. He initiates (cf. Jer 31:3; Joh 6:44; Joh 6:65); He sets the agenda, but mankind must respond in specified ways. These ways have varied in content (Adam/Eve, forbidden tree; Noah, a boat; Abraham, a land, a son; Moses, a law code), but the form of acceptance, faith in the faithfulness of God, remains the same (cf. Romans 4). The Old Covenant had requirements; so does the New (cf. Mar 1:15; Act 3:16; Act 3:19; Act 20:21). Mankind must respond both initially and continually in faith, repentance, obedience, service, worship, and perseverance.
See SPECIAL TOPIC: THE SON OF GOD at Rev 2:18.
Rev 21:8 It is unusual to find this series of sins when judgment has already occurred and the wicked have supposedly been removed (by the victory of Jesus at the Second Coming, cf. Rev 19:5-21 and the White Throne, cf. Rev 20:11-15). This is not to say that some believers have not committed these sins but that their lives are not characterized by these sins (cf. 1Jn 3:6; 1Jn 3:9). This seems to be a literary technique to show the eternal difference between the saved and the lost or an aspect of apocalyptic drama (repeated for emphasis).
“the lake that burns with fire. . .the second death” Obviously the lake of fire is synonymous with the second death or our concept of Hell, which Jesus called Gehenna (a Greek term which does not appear in Revelation). See SPECIAL TOPIC: Where Are the Dead? at Rev 1:18.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
sat = sitteth. Literally the (One) sitting.
upon. App-104. with texts.
said = saith.
unto me. The texts omit.
words. App-121.
true, &c. The texts read “faithful and true”. Compare Rev 19:11.
true. App-175.
faithful. App-150and App-175
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Rev 21:5. [226]) A more ancient reading is, ; and answers to the single word , and ought not to be separated. This is a word implying publication, and not command.
[226] Ah Vulg. Iren. read : B and Syr. : Rec. Text, , without good authority.-E.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rev 21:5-8
2. THE INHERITANCE PROMISED
Rev 21:5-8
5 Write: for these words are faithful and true.—The one sitting on the throne gave John the command to write. Whether Christ or God is not absolutely certain. Verse 6 favors Christ, but verse 7 the other view. The question is really unimportant since Christ and the Father are one; whatever Christ does the Father does through him. The words “Alpha and the Omega” refer to Christ in Rev 1:18, which is presumptive evidence that they have the same reference here; but these words just as appropriately describe characteristics of God. “All things new” probably include not only the new heaven and earth, but the new method and manner of serving God. In that state the reign will be turned back to the Father. (1Co 15:24.)
The command may be construed two ways: “Write these things, for they are faithful and true.” That is, the speaker was assuring John that what he was to write was the exact truth. Or, write this sentence: “These words are faithful and true.” That would be John’s guarantee to the readers that he was delivering a true revelation of facts.
6 They are come to pass.–This does not mean that all had happened when John wrote, but all will have come to pass at the time indicated by the symbol. In this vision John was standing before the new Jerusalem, and was speaking from that point of view. All previous symbols had to appear as fulfilled at that time. To those who “hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Mat 5:6) there will be the privilege of drinking the “water of life freely.”
7 He that overcometh shall inherit these things; –This is substantially the same promise made to the seven churches, with the same condition imposed–they must overcome. See chapters 2 and 3. “I will be his God” means I will continue to be.
8 In the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone.–Here we have another brief reference to the abominable characters whose part shall be in the lake of fire. This statement contains another feature of encouragement to him that overcometh namely, he will never again be tormented by their ungodly conduct or brought under the spell of their temptations. He will never tremble in their presence nor be intimidated by their power. From the second death there is no relief.
Commentary on Rev 21:5-8 by Foy E. Wallace
5. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are faithful and true.-Rev 21:5.
He who sat on the throne gave this command which the angel communicated to John, and in a parenthetical phrase John referred to the original command given to him by Christ in Rev 1:19. The Seer was ready to do what he had been commanded to do at the beginning; and they were here attested to be faithful and true words; it was in the character of swearing to the truthfulness of what John was about to write, a form of an oath in affirmation of veracity. It was before the visions were received that the voice of chapter 1 had prompted John to record the things which would be heard and seen.
It was the same voice which had first commanded him to write which now was heard to say: Behold, I make all things new. This same expression has been used to distinguish spiritual Israel from fleshly Israel (2Co 5:17); and that phrase was employed here in distinction of the new heaven and new earth from the old system of Judaism.
With the fall of the old Jerusalem, the destruction of its theocracy, the termination of the Jewish state, and the removal of the last vestige of Judaism, a new order would prevail under new surroundings.
6. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely-Rev 21:6.
With the proclamation it is done the vision proper concerning the church in tribulation had ended, and the Revelation had ended, and the Revelation was ready to assume the new aspect of the church in the glory of victory rather than in the defeat of persecution. God and Christ are the Alpha and Omega because they are the beginning and the end in creation and in salvation, and here in the promises made to the churches, in faithfulness to finish what had begun. It meant that the vision was completed and the things envisioned would be fulfilled. When God said in the beginning, Let there be light–there was light; and of everything that God said in creation, it was done. The accomplishment of the things envisioned in the apocalypse rested upon the eternal being of God and Christ whose word is true from the beginning and whose righteous judgments endureth forever (Psa 119:160); and the voice which John heard represented it all as having been done–Gods word was sure.
The inducement offered to all to drink from the fountain of the water of life freely was the gospel invitation, to all the thirsty people under the blight of heathenism in the land, to come to the fountain of the living waters Christianity– there was unrestrained liberty to preach salvation and unhindered access to its blessings to all men. It was a restatement and a reproclamation of the Saviours precious invitation: Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me . . . for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Mat 11:28-30) The word yoke signified government, and the Lords words were chosen for the comparison of his righteous rule in the hearts of men with the tyrannical rule of the Caesars; and of his power to save men from sin with the dark and despairing hopelessness of heathenism. This vision of the new Jerusalem in the new world of liberation from the evil powers was the offer of gospel blessings to the whole world.
7. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my Song of Solomon-Rev 21:7.
The expression he that overcometh was employed here the first time since the repeated use of the phrase in the letters to the seven churches, which is a plain indication that the reference was to that period and to the events that belonged to it. The term inherit imports the thought of the privileges of citizenship in the heavenly Jerusalem; and to inherit all things was inclusive of that which had been described in preceding verses and the implied in the following words:
And I will be his God, and he shall be my son. Here was an allusion to the promises of Samuel to David (2Sa 7:14), concerning the Davidic throne, which were quoted by Paul (Heb 1:5) as having been fulfilled in Christ. The old Davidic order of Judaism had ended, and this promise had a new significance; the old tabernacle of David that had fallen down (Act 15:13-17) was rebuilt in the church which it had typified, and all of the spiritual blessings included in the sure mercies of David (Act 13:33-34) were available in the new tabernacle. Therefore, all who had overcome the tribulations were entering anew into all of the promises of the New Jerusalem, theretofore hindered by the rival opposition of Judaism; but that hindrance having been removed, the full and free blessings flowing from the fountain of the water of life (verse 6) would be the unmingled spiritual inheritance of the overcomers.
(2) The characters cast into the brimstone lake-Rev 21:8.
But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and the whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death-Rev 21:8.
Here was the pronouncement of doom on all classes of the persecutors and all parties and accomplices to the persecutions, implying also a warning to any among the overcomers against falling into any of this catalog of things condemned.
1. The fearful were those who shrank from the conflict who were put here in contrast with the overcomers.
2. The unbelievers were not those who were apostates from Christ, but the dwellers of the earth (Palestine) in the heathen world hostile to Christ; and who in their perverse refusal to accept Christianity remained under condemnation.
3. The abominable were the characters who practiced the defilements of the heathen world and the harlot woman (17:4).
4. The murderers were the ones who had killed the prophets and had slain the saints (Mat 23:31-36; Act 7:52); and who were guilty of the blood of the martyrs who were in this vision avenged.
5. The fornicators (whoremongers) were figurative of all who were affiliated with the practices of the harlot woman which had been described.
6. The sorcerers and idolaters were terms figurative of heathen practices and worship.
7. The phrase all liars included all of the deceivers and means of deception which influenced the people of the earth (Palestine) to worship the Caesar-image, or to yield to any form of heathen philosophy that would prevent the acceptance of Christ.
It is said that all of these classes of promoters of evil practices would be cast into the brimstone lake. This lake which burneth with fire and brimstone signified the complete destruction of the heathen powers that had persecuted Christ and his church. (See comments on Rev 19:20; Rev 20:10)
This would be the part, or the portion, of all the unbelievers. The explanations here and in Rev 19:20 and Rev 20:10 do not deny, destroy or modify the resurrection and judgment of the wicked at the second coming of Christ, nor of the eternal punishment of the wicked, which doctrines are clearly taught in numerous portions of the scriptures of both the old and the new testaments. The purpose of the comments here is merely to place these apocalyptic passages in proper contextual perspective and relation to the symbolism of the Book Of Revelation and its message. In this context the second death was a figurative description of the punishment of the persecutors in contrast with the deaths of the martyrs of the first resurrection. All these would have part in this second death in suffering the same destruction. The ones who had part in it came to the same end as the persecuting beast–a figurative description of complete destruction and annihilation of all persecuting powers opposed to the church whose opposition was crushed.
Commentary on Rev 21:5-8 by Walter Scott
GOD ON HIS THRONE SPEAKS.
Rev 21:5-7. – And He that sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He says (to me), Write, for these words are true and faithful. And He said to me, It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to him that thirsts of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcomes shall inherit these things, and I will be to him God, and he shall be to Me son. It is remarkable how often God by name or pronoun is referred to as the source of all blessing and action in the everlasting state. The Lamb is there as the husband and eternal companion of the Church, but as such He does not appear in the verses before us, save in one passing reference (Rev 21:2). The kingdom has been delivered up to God, not that Christ ever ceases to reign, nor that He ever ceases to be man, but the reign of righteousness in putting down all opposing authority and rule having been accomplished we witness new triumphs of another character. God in the energy of His nature produces a scene according to what He is. It is not a question of subduing foes, but of God delighting Himself in forming a people and things according to Himself. God Himself is the actor in this scene of intense and thrilling interest.
Rev 21:5 – The Sitter on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. God on the throne of omnipotence, of absolute sovereignty, declares His will – all things new. The old order of things is not improved, nor in anywise imported into the eternal state, for that condition demands a state of things in keeping with it; and God is the measure and source of the whole eternal state, whether of persons or things. Nothing short of what becomes God can appear in the unchanging state; hence, I make all things new.
Then the Seer is called to write as in Rev 19:9. Only the earlier command is given by an angel; here by God Himself. Special communications of deep import were directed to be written (Luk 10:20; Joh 20:31; Hab 2:2; Rev 3:12; Rev 14:13, etc.). What are the words which the Seer was commanded to write? Those just uttered by God on His throne Behold, I make all things new.
In this sentence is fixed the character of the eternal state. Grand words surely, and worth recording! God, too, authenticates His own magnificent declaration by adding, for these words are true and faithful. He demands our attention, and claims our hearty and unqualified assent. Behold, I make all things new. Write, for these words are true and faithful. This is not promise, but the divine assertion of that which is fact when the moment comes for its realization.
Rev 21:6. – And He said to me, It is done. Note the change of tense. In Rev 21:5 and Rev 21:6 the word said occurs three times, but in the second instance it reads saith or says (R.V.). The two emphatic declarations – all things new, and it is done – are just what one would expect. The first is Gods decree; the second its accomplishment.
It is done is verbally repeated in Rev 16:17. The connection, however, is different. In the earlier reference the wrath of God is completed; in our text it is the permanent settlement of the eternal state that is in question; in the former, too, an angel is the speaker; here it is the voice of God that is heard.
GREATNESS OF THE SPEAKER.
Rev 21:6. – I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. (In Rev 1:8 Jehovah, the Almighty, is The Alpha and the Omega, in Rev 21:6 it is God simply as such, no dispensational reference as in the earlier quotation, while in Rev 22:13 it is Christ Who is The Alpha and the Omega. In each case the divine Being uses the title of Himself. In Rev 1:11 the words should be deleted.) The first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, followed by the explanatory phrase, the beginning and the end, intimates that all testimony on earth had its origin in God, as its end is His glory. Creation, providence, promise, history, prediction, prophecy, testimony, love, and grace have each their source in God and in Him their end. Nothing really on the divine side ends in failure. God is seen to triumph at the end. The administration of these things on earth shows, as was the divine intention, the weakness and imperfection of the creature; but that in no wise hinders or thwarts the ultimate purpose of God. The manifestation of Himself in moral glory is the end.
I GIVE.
Rev 21:6 – We greatly love the sentence which follows: I will give to him that thirsts of the fountain of the water of life freely. This is present; not future. Neither hunger nor thirst shall be felt in the new Heaven and new earth. The splendid array of negatives (Rev 21:4) forbids the thought of thirsty ones in the eternal state, save in the lake of fire. The heart of God overflows in pity and tenderness towards the needy and unsatisfied sons and daughters of men. The fountain, the source of life itself, is promised to the thirsty. It is Gods gift, and freely given, as are all His gifts (Isa 55:1).
OVERCOMERS
Rev 21:7. – Then we have a word of wondrous cheer and strength to the tired and weary disciple, faint yet pursuing. The promises to the overcomer in the early part of the book (Rev 2:1-29; Rev 3:1-22) respect special circumstances, and are in view of special rewards. But here the encouragement to persevere to the end in the general battle of life is more ample, as the rewards are more full than those mentioned in the early portion. He that overcomes shall inherit these things, those just named. But there is even yet a deeper and richer blessing in store for the overcomer, one of a personal kind, I will be to him God. He gives Himself to the conqueror over lifes sorrows. In our judgment this truly remarkable statement even outstrips the triumphant words of Paul, The Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me (Gal 2:20). Every statement of Scripture is perfect in its place, but there are some of profounder depth than others, and that in our text is such. But the tale of grace is not exhausted, for we read, He shall be to Me son. Sonship, therefore, is an eternal relationship. The overcomer has God, and God has the overcomer as son. Press on, wearied disciple, the end is near! The promises are full enough to tide you over every trial and every difficulty.
EIGHT CLASSES OF SINNERS
Rev 21:8. – But the fearful (or cowardly), and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. God here, as in the previous utterances, is the Speaker. As another has said, We ought to notice how much of these eight verses is made up of direct utterances of our God. In the previous declarations God as love speaks, but in the final statement of eternity He speaks as light. God never foregoes His character as Judge of evil. The lake of fire is an actual and eternal place of punishment. In what part of the universe it is situated we know not. The current denial of eternal punishment finds no support, but absolute condemnation in the solemn passage before us. The eighth verse is as distinctly eternal as the first or second. We can introduce no measurements nor limitations within these eight verses. In them is embraced Gods eternity and mans eternity, whether in Heaven, earth, or the lake of fire. There are eight classes specified:
(1) The fearful, or cowardly, refers to those who were afraid to confess Christ or identify themselves with the Gospel.
(2) Unbelievers, the most numerous class of any, and found amongst all classes and ranks of men.
(3) The abominable should be understood here in its widest sense as denoting all that is morally, religiously, and physically filthy (Rev 17:4-5; Rev 21:27; Tit 1:16).
(4) Murderers as a class are greatly on the increase. It is a solemn thing to meddle with that which peculiarly belongs to God – human life.
(5) Fornicators point to a sin which is awfully prevalent. The ruin of female virtue is regarded lightly, and fornicators are received into society in the knowledge of the fact, while the poor victims are outcasts from respectability. But God here reverses the judgment of man, and fornicators shall be consigned by the God of righteousness to the lake of fire.
(6) Sorcerers are those who profess involvement with spirits. Death was the appointed penalty under the law for those who practiced spiritualism in those days (Deu 18:10-12). The lake of fire is Gods appointed doom for all who practice witchcraft, spiritualism, devil worship, and other forms of sorcery.
(7) Idolaters. All worshippers of other gods. The countless millions of heathen in the past, in the present, and notably in the future are, where God has been given up and idols turned to, given over to eternal judgment.
(8) All liars of every degree, kind, and character have their avenging answer in that eternal abode of misery to which everything and every one contrary to the character of God is consigned.
The lake burneth. Its fire is never exhausted. Fire and brimstone symbolize torment and agony of a fearful character (Isa 30:33). The expression the lake of fire occurs five times in the Apocalypse. It is remarkable that when the devil and the awful sinners mentioned in our text are in question fire and brimstone are added. Which is the second death. The first death is the separation of soul and body, but not cessation of existence, nor unconsciousness, as many dream. Luk 16:19-31, which is not said to be a parable, and Rev 6:9-11 shows consciousness and activity of spirit in the separate state. The lake of fire in its never-ending agony is the second death. There are three lists of sinners which it would be profitable to compare: 1Co 6:9-10, Rev 21:8; Rev 22:15. In the third list the last five named answer to the last five in the passage we have been considering.
The last notice of eternity is the never-ceasing wail of anguish in the lake of fire.
Commentary on Rev 21:5-8 by E.M. Zerr
Rev 21:5. He that sat upon the throne is the same as was shown in Rev 20:11. He is the one who created all things that exist, but all the items that were made in the first creation pertaining to the material universe will be replaced with a new order of things that will be eternal, and adapted to the needs and enjoyment of the glorified part of humanity. The pronoun he means the angel who has been John’s companion and exhibitor all through the vision of this book. Having taken a view of these wonderful objects the angel tells John to write the description in his book, and assures him that all that he has seen and heard is true and faithful, which means the vision and the words are a faithful report of the truth.
Rev 21:6. It is done Is the same thing that was said as reported at Rev 16:17. The expression signifies that everything planned by the Lord and predicted for the period up to the point at hand has been accomplished. Alpha Psa 119:160 re the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet and the phrase is used symbolically, signifying that Jesus has been connected with all things done by his Father throughout. The same truth is meant by the following phrase, the beginning and the end. I will give, etc. Having completed everthing necessary for the redemption and glorification of man, He is prepared to offer the benefit of the plan to humanity. It will be freely means not only that it is not something that can be purchased with silver and gold, but also that it will be supplied in abundance. Another condition that should be noticed is the offer is made to those who are athirst. The Lord’s favors have always been of a condition (Mat 11:28-30). Jesus said (Mat 5:6), “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.” He also specified in the great invitation to “come unto me” that He meant those who were “heavy laden.” There is nothing selfish or arbitrary about this, for only those who sincerely desire the water of life would relish its taste if they even attempted to drink it.
Rev 21:7. He that overcometh is another of the principles that distinguish the favor of God from what is generally offered by man. It is not to the youngest and successful ones (See Rev 21:8), for then there would be many worthy people who would lose out, for few if any can be successful when that word is used in its ordinary sense. But the reward is to those who overcome, and 1Jn 5:4 states that faith is the means by which we may overcome. That brings the blessings of God within reach of all men since all can have faith whether they are those of one or five talents. Inherit all things logically has to mean the things to which reference has just been made concerning the new creation. Be his God . . . be my son is the same close association that is mentioned and commented upon at Rev 21:3.
Rev 21:8. Fearful is from DEMOS, which Thayer defines, “timid, fearful,” and he then explains it to denote “Christians who through cowardice give way under persecutions and apostatize [deny their Lord]. This definition or explanation is justified by the next word in the text, namely, believing (See Heb 9:27). Abominable is from BDELUSSO, and Thayer’s definition is “to render foul, to cause to be abhorred.” It is a word that would have a general meaning, hence the apostle follows up with a number of specifications. Whoremongers areRev 21:8 do not merely commit adultery on some specific occasion ( which of itself would be wrong), but who are regular patrons of women whose business is to receive men either for lust or money. Sorcerers is from PHARMAKENS, and Thayer’s lexicon defines it, “one who prepares or uses magical remedies; a sorcerer.” It could well be classed with the “dope” trade of our day. Idolaters is defined, “A worshipper of false gods.” That is its literal meaning and makes it apply to any conduct where a man shows a perference for something over the true God. Hence Paul declares in Eph 5:5 that a covetous man is an idolater. All liars is rendered “liars of all kinds” by Moffatt. That rendering is evidently correct for it would be unnecessary to state that every liar is meant in the sense of not allowing some of them to escape; that would be taken for granted. But it means to include not only those who in the direct sense make Rev 17:4 statements that are false, but also everyone who says or does anything for the purpose Mat 23:31-36 faAct 7:52 ession. When Ananias and his wife deposited some money before Peter there is no evidence that they actually said anything about it until Peter forced them to speak. But yet he accused them of lying because they intended to make a false impression upon the apostle. Therefore we should understand that all deliberate attempts to deceive another will be regarded as lies. It can be done even by stating a part of the truth in such a way as to make a false impression. Paul doubtless was thinking of this when he declared he was not “handling the word of God deceitfully” (2Co 4:2). Have their part. They will not receive any part of the good things that have just been promised to the faithful. Their fate will be to be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, which is the place designated by the Greek word GEHENNA. Which is the second death (See Rev 19:20; Rev 20:10) because all mankind are bound to die physically (Heb 9:27) on account of the sin of Adam and the wicked will die (be separated) from God for ever and have to remain in this lake of fire away from God. This is the second death.
Commentary on Rev 21:5-8 by Burton Coffman
Rev 21:5
And he that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he saith: Write: for these words are faithful and true.
He that sitteth on the throne said … God himself is the speaker here, somewhat of a rarity in Revelation.
Behold, I make all things new … Only God can create anew. “This is a hard blow to proud, humanistic, naturalistic man who believes that he is capable of building a better tomorrow through research, applied technology, etc.”[14] Leagues of Nations, United Nations, conferences on human rights, five-year plans, or hundred-year programs are all foredoomed to defeat and frustration. Only God can make new.
And he saith … Apparently, God also said this.
Write, for the words are faithful and true … The making of all things new is such a super-colossal conception that John seems to have been completely astounded by it, and needed to be prompted to keep on writing. “The words are faithful and true” seems to carry the thought that no matter how stupendous and impossible such things may appear to people, God will nevertheless certainly create all things new!
ENDNOTE:
[14] James D. Strauss, The Seer, the Saviour, and the Saved (Jopkin, Missouri: College Press, 1972), p. 276.
Rev 21:6
And he said unto me, They are come to pass I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
And he said unto me … God continues to speak. Dummelow understood this as a reference to Rev 21:5.[15] The creation of all things new is here referred to as a past event, by the prophetic tense, showing that it is as certain to happen as if it had already occurred.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, … “As the book opens, so it closes, with the solemn assurance of the certainty and unchangeableness of God’s eternal promises (Rev 1:8).”[16]
I will give … of the water of life … Roberson compiled a list of the promises in Revelation to those who overcome:[17]
To eat of the tree of life (Rev 2:7).
Not to be hurt of the second death (Rev 2:11).
To eat of the hidden manna (Rev 2:17).
To receive a white stone with a new name (Rev 2:17).
To have authority over the nations (Rev 2:26).
To receive the morning star (Rev 2:26).
To be arrayed in white garments (Rev 3:5).
Not to have his name blotted out of the book of life (Rev 3:5).
To have his name confessed before God and the angels (Rev 3:5).
To be made a pillar in the temple of God (Rev 3:12).
To have a new name written upon him (Rev 3:12).
To sit down with God in his throne (Rev 3:21).
To drink the water of life freely (Rev 21:7).
To be God’s son and to have God for his God (Rev 21:7).
[15] J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 1090.
[16] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 510.
[17] Charles H. Roberson. Studies in Revelation (Tyler, Texas: P. D. Wilmeth, P.O. Box 3305,1957), p. 200.
Rev 21:7
He that overcometh shall inherit these things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
He that overcometh shall inherit these things … See under verse 6, above, for a list of the fourteen promises in Revelation to those who overcome, of which this is the last one. Collectively, they show how rich indeed are the wonderful promises of God for his children. “This amazing paragraph, through Rev 21:8, is distinctive in that here alone in Revelation, God is represented as the speaker.”[18] This is most appropriate, as it deals with a “new creation,” something that only God can do.
ENDNOTE:
[18] G. R. Beasley-Murray, op. cit., p. 312.
Rev 21:8
But for the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death.
The fearful … Who are the fearful, if not all men? “But it is not of natural fear and timidity that John speaks; it is that cowardice which in the last resort chooses self and safety before Christ.”[19] “It is not fear which is condemned. The highest courage is to be desperately afraid and in spite of that to do the right thing and to hold fast to loyalty.”[20]
And unbelieving … Unbelief is a gross, unpardonable sin, unless repented of. Unbelief is never a consequence of knowledge, education, intelligence, or “honesty.” It is always a child of wickedness. See Joh 3:19, also article on “The Marvel of Unbelief,” my Commentary on John, pp. 176-177, also in my Commentary on Matthew, pp. 207-209.
And abominable … This is probably a reference, primarily, to participants in the rites of paganism and the unmentionable perversions and debaucheries that attended them. By extension, it also includes all sensualists of all ages.
Murderers … fornicators … sorcerers … These sins have often been commented upon in this series; the principal significance of their appearance here lies in the fact that “God is the speaker!” These are not merely the preacher-prejudices of current religion, but the eternal laws of God against such things.
Idolaters … and liars … Idolatry, whether the worship of pagan gods, as in the days of John, or the worship and adoration of self above the God of heaven, can never be pleasing to God. No lie, however small, is a light thing in the eyes of God; and those whose lives are founded upon deceit and falsehood are indeed proscribed.
Fire and brimstone … the second death … This refers to the place of consignment for all those things for which God cannot allow any place in heaven.
[19] Leon Morris, Tyndale Bible Commentaries. New Testament, Vol. 20, Revelation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1969), p. 246.
[20] William Barclay, The Revelation of John (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1976), p. 206.
Commentary on Rev 21:5-8 by Manly Luscombe
5Then He who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. 6And He said to me, It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. 7He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. Some believe this is the Father. I believe the speaker here is the Jesus. Jesus is described in similar language in chapter 1. He is true and faithful. He is the alpha and omega. He is the giver of the water of life. He is God. We will be joint-heirs with Christ. (Rom 8:17) Christians will overcome. We have overcome the world, sin, temptation and persecution. The things that are made new will replace the former things. Instead of pain, sorrow, and crying, there will be joy. Instead of death, there will be eternal life. Instead of tears of grief there will be tears of great joy.
8 But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Those who have not overcome are listed here. Like other lists of sins (Gal 5:1-26 and Rom 1:1-32) this list is not an exhaustive one. The list is suggestive of the sins for which eternal punishment will be meted out.
This list is a Whos Who in Hell.
1. Cowardly – Those afraid to act
2. Unbelieving – Atheists and others who rejected the gospel
3. Abominable – Sins which are abhorrent to God
4. Murderers – This group includes killers, haters, abortionists and all who take human life on purpose
5. Sexually immoral – All kinds of immoral sexual behavior
6. Sorcerers – Those who had their faith in potions, spells, drugs, psychic readers, taro cards, and superstitions invented by men
7. Idolaters – All who worship and serve things, people, positions, and powers more than they seek to serve Jehovah
8. All liars – All who love or make a lie (Rev 22:15)
All of these will suffer the same fate as Satan. They will be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. For these unbelievers, this will be the second death. They died physically. Now they will die spiritually.
Sermon on Rev 21:1-8
New Heaven and New Earth
Brent Kercheville
Introducing the New Heaven, New Earth, and New Jerusalem (Rev 21:1-2)
The previous chapter has concluded with the image of final judgment. Satan has been thrown into the lake of fire. All the dead are standing before the throne and the books were opened. Those whose names were not written in the book of life were also thrown into the lake of fire, where they along with Satan are tormented day and night forever and ever (Rev 20:10; Rev 20:15). Our context is the end of time when Christ returns and final judgment has occurred. There is nothing in the context to suggest that we are changing the time frame as we read chapter 21.
John now sees a new heaven and new earth because the first heaven and first earth had passed away. We saw the first heaven and earth pass away in Rev 20:11. The time of this physical earth is completed. It has been burned up (2Pe 3:10). Now the new heaven and the new earth have been ushered in. John is going to be told what this new heaven and new earth looks like in Rev 21:3-8. Before we look at the details of this new heaven and earth, it is important to know that this is not the first time this image is used in the scriptures. Isaiah prophesied of this same time of restoration in Isa 65:17 and Isa 66:22. His description of the new heavens and new earth mirrors what John is going to see in these upcoming verses. Peter also spoke of this coming age.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and theearth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. (2Pe 3:10-13 ESV)
Notice Peter puts the same timeline together that we see in the book of Revelation. The physical heavens and earth are burned up and dissolved. All the works done on the earth are exposed which is the same as the books being opened as all stand before the throne in Rev 20:12. Once these things are accomplished, Peter says there is a new heaven and earth where righteousness dwells. Now the paradise of God has arrived. Now the kingdom of God has been fully consummated as all the enemies have now been put in subjection. The apostle Paul taught that the last enemy to be destroyed in Christs kingdom rule is death (1Co 15:25-26). Revelation 20 concluded with death and Hades being thrown into the lake of fire. Paul said in 1Co 15:24 that the end will come after Christ destroys every rule, every authority, and every power. Martin Pickup, in his lecture at the 2011 Florida College Lectureship, taught that imagery of the new heavens and new earth is a return to the Edenic union of God and His people.
Rev 21:1 also reveals that the sea was no more. The sea has a reference to the realm of evil in the book of Revelation (see also Isa 57:20). We saw the dragon bring the beast up from the sea (Rev 13:1), depicting its great evil. Included in this evil is a representation of the mass of humanity (cf. Rev 20:13). The evil nations and the wickedness of the world have passed away along with the physical heaven and earth.
Notice that Rev 21:2-8 confirms this understanding that the new heaven and new earth are about the full restoration of God to his people and Christs kingdom completing its subjugation of all authorities and powers. Rev 21:2 shows the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. We saw this imagery of the bride back in Rev 19:7-8 where we learned that the bride represented the holy people of God and the bright clothing representing the pure and righteous deeds of the saints (cf. Eph 5:25-27). More will be described about the bride of Christ in Rev 21:9 through the rest of chapter 21.
The New Heaven and New Earth (Rev 21:3-8)
The apostle Peter said that we are looking forward to the new heaven and new earth. The meaning of this new world shows why we are full of anticipation. Rev 21:3 tells us that the dwelling place of God is now with humans. God is living with his people. This is what we are looking forward to obtaining. God is dwelling with his people again. Sin ripped man out of the paradise and presence of God for God cannot live with darkness, evil, and sin. Through the victory of Christ on the cross and rule of his kingdom we now can live with the Lord. The scriptures reveal that when we come to Christ we become the people of God and God blesses us. Eph 5:25-27 speaks of a current joining of Christ to the church, the people of God. However, we cannot reverse the timeframe of the book at this point. John is seeing what will happen at the conclusion of the final judgment. While the kingdom of Christ was established in Acts 2 and all who accept the invitation of the Lamb participate in that kingdom as John described himself as a fellow partaker in the kingdom (Rev 1:9), Revelation 21 is picturing the ideal union between Christ and his people. Revelation 21 is picturing the church in its perfected state at the end of the reign of Christ. John is seeing the eternal reward being given to Gods people.
Rev 21:4 validates our understanding that this is showing the people of God in their future, perfected state receiving the eternal reward at the end of time. God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Do not foul up the beautiful imagery given here. Some read this and say that if God is wiping tears that means Gods people are still crying. This is not what this imagery means. The image is that while on the earth these Christians have been suffering. They are full of tears. They are full of pain. They have been persecuted. They have been killed. God wiping tears means that he is giving perfect comfort to his people. Isaiah shows this very point when he speaks of weeping for the destruction of the nation, but then prophesies a time of comfort as God wiping the tears.
Therefore I said: Look away from me; let me weep bitter tears; do not labor to comfort me concerning the destruction of the daughter of my people. (Isa 22:4 ESV)
He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken. (Isa 25:8 ESV)
Rev 21:4 continues to show that comfort from lifes sorrows and pains is in view. Death will no longer exist. There will not be mourning or crying. Notice that there will not be crying any longer. The tears that God is wiping are those tears shed during this present heaven and earth. In the new heaven and earth God will comfort his people. There will be no more death, no more mourning, and no more crying. Grief and pain will exist no longer because all of these things have passed away. Christ has been victorious. He has conquered all powers and authorities. Now the people of God are able to rest.
Rev 21:5 is the language of prophetic certainty. To tell these first century Christians, Behold, I am making all things new is a message of encouragement Christs kingdom has been established and the process of restoration has begun. The fall of the Jewish nation and the Roman Empire have been necessary steps as the kingdoms of the world are placed in subjection to Christs kingdom. The rest of Rev 21:5 continues this encouraging message. Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. Gods word is true and can be trusted. Christ is reigning on the throne. We are looking forward to this promise, guaranteed by God, that we will receive the eternal blessings and rewards for being faithful to him through grief, crying, pain, suffering, and death.
Christ then declares, It is done! The destruction of the enemies and salvation of the saints has been accomplished. This work of destroying the enemies and bringing salvation to the world began at the cross, where Jesus cried out, It is finished! Christ again identifies himself as the Alpha and Omega, which are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. He also describes himself as the beginning and end. Jesus began the book of Revelation calling himself the Alpha and Omega in Rev 1:8. Jesus is the first and the last of all things. This title provides assurance that he will give the promised blessings to his redeemed people. The promise is to give to the thirsty from the spring of living water as a gift. Jesus said these words while on the earth.
On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. (Joh 7:37-39 ESV)
The imagery comes from Isa 55:1-2. Now salvation and grace are fully received from Christ as the books are opened and the righteous are rewarded for their trust and faithfulness. The victorious will inherit these blessings and inheritance (Rev 21:7). The inheritance is theirs. By contrast, the second death awaits those who renounce their faith, who are unbelievers, or who engage in the sins of the world. Those who are cowards likely refers to Christians who refused to serve Jesus even to the death. They loved their lives more than they loved the Lord. They feared the persecution and did not maintain their faith. These along with the sinful of the world will all be thrown into the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. They will experience eternal separation from God. The faithful are longing for a home with the Lord. The faithful hold on to these promises and will not give them up for anything. The reward to come is worth the sacrifices and the suffering of today.
Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death. (Rev 2:10-11 ESV) (HCSB)
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Chapter 53
Christ makes all things new
‘And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful’
Rev 21:5-8
We rejoice to know that soon the Lord Jesus Christ shall come again and that when he comes, he will make all things new. He will create ‘a new heaven and a new earth!’ As we saw in our previous study, this is what John saw and described in Rev 21:1-4. The believer anticipates, with anxious heart, that great day when our God makes his creation new. We look forward to that new heaven and new earth ‘wherein dwelleth righteousness.’ However, it must never be forgotten that the Son of God exercises his renewing, creative power in this day. The basis of our confidence regarding the new creation of heavenly glory is our experience of the new creation of grace.
First, in Rev 21:1-4 John saw the new heaven and new earth that Christ will make. Then he heard the Son of God declare, ‘Behold, I am making all things new!’ It is as though our Lord were saying, John, the promise of a new heaven and a new earth should not take you by surprise. These things should not astonish you. Behold, I am making all things new right now by my saving, renewing, regenerating grace. Every time he saves a sinner by his almighty grace, he makes all things new for that sinner; and when he comes at the last day he will make all things new in Gods creation.
The announcement of grace
‘He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.’ With those words the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, announces his great work of grace. Meditate upon each word carefully. ‘He that sat upon the throne’ is Christ himself, the great God-man, the exalted Mediator, the Redeemer, and King of his people. He sat upon the throne of universal dominion forever as God (Heb 1:8). He sits upon the throne now as the Lamb of God, upon the basis of his Mediatoral accomplishments as the sinners Substitute (Joh 17:2). He sits upon the throne because his work of redemption is finished (Rom 8:34). He sits upon the throne with the ease of an absolute Monarch, possessing total sovereignty, without the slightest possibility of his throne being toppled or his decrees being nullified (Isa 46:10).
‘He that sat upon the throne said, Behold!’ Give me your attention, Hear what I say. Give thoughtful consideration to my words. I am doing wondrous things for the sons of men. ‘I make all things new!’ Christ, the Creator and Sustainer of all things in the physical creation, is the One who makes all things in the new creation. Nothing is attributed to the will of man. The Son of God says, ‘I make all things new!’ Whatever this new creation is, he assures us that it is his work alone, accomplished by his power, according to his purpose, arising from his grace, and performed for his praise. The apostle Paul uses similar language in 2Co 5:17 – ‘If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.’ The new creation is accomplished by the merits of Christs obedience and the power of his Spirit through the preaching of the gospel of his grace and glory. Everything in the new creation comes from him, is centered on him, and directs our hearts to him. He says, ‘I make all things new!’ In the new creation, we are the beneficiaries of a new covenant (Jer 31:31-34; Jer 32:38-40), the recipients of a new nature (2Pe 1:4; 1Jn 3:9-10), given a new relationship (1Jn 3:1-2), brought into a new family (Eph 3:15; Mar 3:31-35), made to worship in a new way (Heb 10:19-24), and granted a new record in heaven (Isa 43:25; Isa 44:22; Jer 50:20).
The new covenant is the everlasting covenant of grace made between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit before the world began. In that covenant the salvation of Gods elect was secured by the covenant promises of the three Persons of the Godhead to one another. The new nature created in the believer is the nature of Christ himself, a holy nature. Christ does not repair the old nature. He gives his people a new nature. The old nature remains with us, so that we cannot do the things we would. Sinless perfection is impossible, even for a moment! But there is in every believer a new nature that brings forth fruit unto God (Gal 5:22-23). Our new relationship with God is one of sonship. God no longer deals with us as with slaves under the yoke of the law, and we no longer serve God as slaves by the constraint of the law. We are the sons of God! Can you imagine anything more ennobling? Being the sons and daughters of God we are now members of a new family, the family of God. Our family is a large one. It includes the whole church of Gods elect. And it is well supplied, for God himself is our Provider. Every member of this family, whose names are written in heaven, worship God in a new way. We come to God by faith in Christ, trusting the merits of his blood. We are all priests unto God. We do business in the holy place personally and are accepted there in Christ. In this new creation ‘old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.’ That means that our old record of sin is gone. Christ has purged away our sins by the blood of his cross. It also means that we have a new record in heaven. In the books of God we are declared to be perfectly righteous, because we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ by divine imputation (2Co 5:21).
The assurance of grace
Having made this marvelous declaration of grace, anticipating our hesitancy to believe such great things, our Savior gives us this perpetual word of assurance – ‘And he said unto me, write: for these words are true and faithful.’ If you are a young believer, one who has just come to Christ; or if you are one who has been in Christ for many, many years, before God all things are new, perpetually new, immutably new, eternally new! Your feelings will fluctuate, your failings will be many, and your experiences will often appear to contradict Gods work of grace and word of promise, but the new creation does not depend upon you. It depends only upon the truth and faithfulness of our great God and Savior (2Ti 2:12-13; 2Ti 2:19). The Lord God will never disown his child, disinherit him, cease to be gracious to him, or change his record in heaven. He will not impute sin to the one he has forgiven (Rom 4:8). Because the new creation is Gods work, it is forever. Nothing can be taken from it. Nothing can be added to it (Ecc 3:14).
The accomplishment of grace
Read these next words and rejoice – ‘And he said unto me, It is done!’ The gospel of Christ is good news to sinners who can do nothing for themselves, because it declares that the whole work of grace is done. The whole business of making all things new is finished. It was done before the world began. All the blessings of grace and salvation were fully given to Gods elect in Christ before the world began (Eph 1:3; 2Ti 1:9). In him, according to Gods everlasting purpose of grace, we were predestinated, called, justified, and glorified from eternity (Rom 8:28-30). The work was done when Christ died. When our Savior cried, ‘It is finished’ (Joh 19:30), he declared that the whole work of righteousness and redemption, the whole accomplishment of Gods will by which we are sanctified and made perfect (Heb 10:5-14) was done.The work is done when the chosen, redeemed sinner believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Our faith adds nothing to what Christ has done. Faith receives Christ and all that he has done. Yet, no one has any right to claim Christ and grace until he believes. ‘He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son of God shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him’ (Joh 3:36). If you believe on Christ, you are a new creature in Christ. Your faith in him is the fruit of his creation, the gift of his grace, and the evidence of your election, redemption and calling.
The accomplisher of grace
Once more the Lord Jesus declares, ‘I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.’ Staying with the context, he is telling us that the whole work of making all things new is his alone. He is the Beginning of the new creation and the End of it. To put it another way, ‘Salvation is of the Lord!’ He planned it. He purchased it. He performs it. He preserves it. And he perfects it. Therefore, he alone shall have the praise of it, ‘That according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord’ (1Co 1:31).
The abundance of grace
In the new creation, grace is both abundant and free. The Son of God declares, ‘I will give to him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.’ John Gill accurately describes this spiritual thirst as the thirst of a needy soul for Christ himself, for pardon and righteousness, for communion with and conformity to Christ, a thirst for a greater knowledge of Christ, and a thirst for the glories of his kingdom. This thirst the Lord Jesus promises to quench abundantly, with ‘the fountain of the water of life,’ and ‘freely,’ without money, without price, without qualification of any kind to be met by the sinner. In Christ, grace is free and abundant!
‘He that overcometh shall inherit all things’
All believers shall overcome sin, Satan, and the world, because all believers are more than conquerors in Christ (Rom 8:35-39). Overcoming by the blood of the Lamb, every child of God ‘shall inherit all things.’ We are ‘heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ’ (Rom 8:17). That means that all that Christ possesses as our Mediator we shall possess in him forever. This one statement from the lips of our Lord should be sufficient to put to silence all questions about degrees of reward in heaven. The Son of God declares that every saved sinner ‘shall inherit all things!’
‘And I will be his God, and he shall be my son’
Christ himself, in whom we were adopted and by whom we have been purchased, is the mighty God and our everlasting Father (Isa 9:6).We are his seed and his offspring. Here he promises us his perpetual presence, protection, and provision forever. In heavenly glory, he will see his seed with satisfaction, prolong his days, and enjoy the fruit of his toil in us forever. He will present us to himself in the perfection of holiness (Eph 5:27) and present us to the Father (Heb 2:13). Though now we are the sons of God, ‘it doth not yet appear what we shall be’ (1Jn 3:2). But this we are assured of: Christ will forever be ours and we shall forever be his in the fullness and perfection of heavenly glory!
The admonition of grace
In Rev 21:8, there is a strong word of warning and admonition. It is possible that one may have read the pages of this book and yet not be a new creature in Christ. Be warned. Salvation is more than a profession of faith, a religious experience, doctrinal soundness, or a moral reformation. Salvation is a new creation (Gal 6:15). You must be made a new creature, or you must forever die. Are you a part of this new creation? Are you a new creature in Christ? If you are, do not ever forget where and what you were when God saved you (1Co 6:9-11). Consecrate yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, your gracious God and Creator. ‘Ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are Gods’ (1Co 6:19-20).
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
Gods New World
And he that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.Rev 21:5.
In this chapter of Revelation, we are at length in still waters. We have read of trials and judgments; we have read of foes and battles; we have read of sorrows of the righteous and triumphs of the ungodly. Shall there be no end of these things? no end of this state of imperfection, of warfare, of unrest? no end of these vicissitudes and alternations, of these inversions of right and wrong, of these perpetual renewals of a strife once decided? Yes, out of the ruin of the old world there rise a fresh heaven and a fresh earth. The Holy City is now seen descending from the hands of its Builder and Maker, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. The voice of one of the angels is then heard, proclaiming, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with man, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with themthe full realization of the prophetic name, Immanuel, God with us, bestowed upon our Lord (Mat 1:23)their God. And he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more; the first things [that belonged to the old order, the fashion of this world] are passed away.
Then for the first time St. John hears God the Father speak: Behold, I make all things new (fresh). It is the voice of the Throned One, the One who rules over all things from the beginning, and who has presided over all the changing scenes of earths history; it is He who makes even the wrath of man to praise Him, and who causes all things to work together for good to them that love Him, who gives this heart-helping assurance. I am making all things new. In spite of all the moral disorder, the pain and grief, the dark shadows of life and history, the new creation is being prepared, and will rise, like the early creation, out of chaos.
i. The Speaker
1. The Speaker is God the Father. Throughout the whole Book of Revelation, says Swete, he that sitteth on the throne is the Almighty Father, as distinguished from the Incarnate Son. And so it is probable that here for the first time in the book we listen to the words of God Himself, for it is the first time that he that sitteth on the throne is represented as speaking. His words go to the centre of things and reach to their circumference, and they are gracious in their purpose: Behold, I make all things new.
2. Is there a difficulty in the representation of the Father as Judge supreme? The doctrine seems to join issue with Joh 5:22, For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son; and indeed with the whole current of early Christian tradition. Swete finds a possible reconciliation of the two views in the oneness of the Father and the Son (Joh 10:30)when the Son acts, the Father acts with and through Him (Joh 5:19). St. Paul speaks of the judgment-seat of Christ (2Co 5:10), and also of the judgment-seat of God (Rom 14:10).
It would seem as if the threefold Personality had become united in one name. No more we hear of Let us make; we are now confronted by an intenser term, Behold, I make all things new. It would seem as if each Person in the Divine Trinity had times of special expression and times of special relation to nature and to man and to providence and to destiny; now it is the Father, and the other Persons of the Trinity are concealed, as it were, behind His glory: now it is the Son, the only-begotten Son, the Saviour of the world; and, finally, it is the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, who rules the whole mystery of human development. And what if now the Three should in a peculiar and definite sense be Oneas if the Three-One should all be speaking in, Behold, I make all things new?1 [Note: Joseph Parker.]
ii. The Place of the Promise
There are three texts which should be taken together:
And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good (Gen 1:31).
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together (R. V. marg. with us) until now (Rom 8:22).
And he that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new (Rev 21:5).
Gods world is the subject of these three verses. The first describes Gods world as it was; the second, Gods world as it is; the third, Gods world as it shall be.
1. Gods world as it was when He made it.The report of it isand it is Gods own reportthat it was very good. It could not be improved. It was perfect. Gods eye saw no flaw in it, God was satisfied and delighted with it. It was all glory and beauty, music and song, happiness and peace. The Greek word for world contains the idea of order. Nothing was out of place in Gods world. But the word very good has more than a material and more than an artistic meaning. It is a moral word. It means that there was a contrast between the world as God made it and the world as it afterwards became. It means that there was no sin in Gods world as He made it.
2. Gods world as it is.It is no longer very good. Ichabod is written across the face of it. Its glory has departed. Not that the primal order has become pure chaos. God in His heaven has been working in the world from the beginning until now. Wherever His hand is not interfered with by the will of man there is order still. Nature is even continually restoring the beauty that man has defaced. It is the moral world and all that depends upon it, the sphere in which the will of man works, that has suffered an eclipse. For sin has entered, and with sin death: the first a murder, the last a suicide. Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people (Jer 9:1). Gods in His heaven; but it is prophecy, not history, to say Alls right with the world.
3. Gods world as it shall be.The first thing is that God is to come down and dwell in it. His tabernacle is with men, and He will dwell with them. The next thing is that He will recognize, and be recognized by, His people. They shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them and be their God. And the third thing is that death and sorrow and pain shall be no more. And how is it that these three things are brought to pass? They are brought to pass through the blood of the Lamb. There has been a sacrifice made for sin and uncleanness, and the sacrifice has taken away sin. When Christ said, It is finished, He made an end of sin, and opened the way for God to dwell among men, opened the way for their reconciliation and fellowship, for the removal of all the things that follow in the path of sin.
I have seen a stream sink down into the tiniest volume, and I have seen it trailing through the mud in disgrace; and then, far away on the mountain range, clouds gathered and burst, and it was not many hours before the stream came down with the first wave six feet high, and the banks were full of sweet, clean, rejoicing water before the evening. So did Christ come in to this poor human race, and behold the veins have swollen again, not with unclean blood. We can stand and say to the tempted man, Christ died on the cross to conquer sin, and He sits on Gods right hand to administer the effects of His victory. And we can tell the chief of sinners through Christ he can be made a new creation.1 [Note: John Watson.]
Thou sayest: Behold, I make all things new: Good Lord, renew us to fresh powers of loving Thee in the joy of Thine unveiled Presence. Yet to each of us be Thou the Same, and be each soul to Thee the same: say Thou, It is I, and give each of us grace to answer, It is I. Amen.
New creatures; the Creator still the Same
For ever and for ever: therefore we
Win hope from Gods unsearchable decree
And glorify His still unchanging Name.
We too are still the same: and still our claim,
Our trust, our stay, is Jesus, none but He:
He still the Same regards us, and still we
Mount toward Him in old loves accustomed flame.
We know Thy wounded Hands: and Thou dost know
Our praying hands, our hands that clasp and cling
To hold Thee fast and not to let Thee go.
All else be new then, Lord, as Thou hast said:
Since it is Thou, we dare not be afraid,
Our King of old and still our Self-same King.2 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti, The Face of the Deep, 487.]
iii. Newness not Novelty
It is not a new world; it is the old world made new. It is not creation; it is redemption. God has not destroyed the world, to begin again; He has renewed the inhabitants of the old world in the spirit of their minds.
There are two words in the original which are necessarily translated alikenewin our versions. Of these two adjectives, one signifies new in relation to time (), the other new in relation to quality ()the first temporal novelty, the second newness intellectual or spiritual. The first indicates that which is young, recent in time; the other not only that which succeeds something else in time, but that which in idea springs out of it, and not only succeeds but supersedes it.
So this word, I make all things new, is not the announcement of a perfectly new thing; it does not proclaim an act at that moment done; it is not an exercise, as it were, of instantaneous Omnipotence. This is the completing and the perfecting, rather, of the work of the long ages, the seal of a mighty progression, the top-stone of the great temple, the finishing of the work of the Sabbath of God from the periods of the First Creation.
To make things new is not the same as to make new things. To make new things is the work of the hand; to make things new is the work of the heart. Whenever one sits upon the throne of the heart, all things are made new. They are made so without changing a line, without altering a feature. Enthrone in your heart an object of love, and you have renewed the universe. You have given an added note to every bird, a fresh joy to every brook, a fairer tint to every flower.1 [Note: G. Matheson, Times of Retirement, 92.]
We now come to the year which was, to her, the epoch, the turning-point of her career. On the night of March 7th, 1838, came the moment of moments. I got up, that morning, one creature, she herself often said; I went to bed another creature. I had found my power! And, all through her life, she kept the 7th of March, with a religious solemnity; she would ask to have herself remembered on it with prayers; she treated it as a second birthday. And rightly; for, on that day, she woke to herself; she became artistically alive; she felt the inspiration, and won the sway, which she now knew it was given her, to have and to hold.2 [Note: H. S. Holland and W. S. Rockstro, Jenny Lind the Artist, i. 55.]
iv. The Evidence of the Newness
1. The first evidence will be the death-blow of evil.What are the present evils under which the creation groans and travails? Suffering is one. It is Stoicism, not Christianity, that says suffering is no evil. Sickness and weakness are evils; feebleness of hand and step; toil and want; old age, solitary and begrudged and despised; sorrow and crying, not to be comforted because the loved one is not. All these things will depart on that day, because that will be the execution-day of sin.
If the end of Providence were to secure this race in a garden of Eden, lapped round with comfort where no one should ever taste hunger or pain or loss, then let it be freely granted that this world is a conspicuous failure. It is so badly arranged and so loosely governed that it would bring scandal on a human monarch. Things are so much out of joint that we are obliged to seek for another working theory of life than the garden one, and we find it in the New Testament. Jesus and His Apostles teach that the supreme success of life is not to escape pain but to lay hold on righteousness, not to possess but to be holy, not to get things from God but to be like God. They were ever bidding Christians beware of ease, ever rousing them to surrender and sacrifice. They never complained of their own hard lot, but rather considered that it was gain. Winds blowing off the snow breed hardy men, and fierce seas breaking on rocky coasts make skilful seamen; and if the mind of God was to compel this race up the arduous road that leads to perfection, our dark experience is an open secret.1 [Note: John Watson, The Potters Wheel, 134.]
2. The second evidence of the renovation will be the reinstalment of God.The Seer saw no temple therein. Why? Because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. He saw no sun. Why? Because the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. What is the occasion of sickness? It is because the Healer is absent from the earth. Of Death? Because the Life-giver is not at hand. Of loneliness? Because sin has taken away our Lord. But thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Do we not believe in the mission of the Christ on earth? Do we not believe that the Kingdom of God can come, and His will be done, on earth? It was just this that our Lord taught to be saving faith. His offer of salvation was conditioned; it depended on a corporate repentance from all acquiescence in evil, a joyous corporate expectation of the perfect good. It is this joyous expectation that ought to be embodied in all our creeds. It is this faith that the Kingdom of Love is at hand that we should be reciting at all our formal worship. It is by this faith, and by this faith alone, that we can accept the full salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ which has been so often rejected.
The revelation of the Gospel, if we judge of it by its main drift and most salient characteristics, was certainly to declare Gods intention of bringing about a renovated earthto proclaim that it was to come, not by coercion, but by the power of love; not by God without man, but by God within man, who is able
To accomplish allmore than all things,
Far transcending all our prayers, all our imaginings,
To an extent whose measure is that mighty impulse which thrills us through (Eph 3:20, Ways translation).
Loving-kindness springs naturally from this realization of Gods love and power; and the strength of mans corporate impulse of faith and loving-kindness is the measure of Gods power on earth.1 [Note: The Practice of Christianity, 111.]
v. The Results of the Newness
1. The far-off is brought nigh.He who was a stranger to God becomes a child in his Fathers house, an heir of God, a jointheir with Jesus Christ. When John Wesley was dying, in a brief moment of returning consciousness, he asked, What was the text that I preached upon last Sunday? And when one standing beside him repeated, For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich, he exclaimed, Yes, that is it. There is no other.
In the supreme and central fact of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, the great utterance, Behold, I make all things new, finds its typical fulfilment. It is the verity and the hope of the Resurrection that strikes the keynote of the New Testament: the idea of renewal, of a new beginning, of a new spiritual impulse. The latest book of the Old Testament, Ecclesiastes, sums up the experience of humanity before the Saviours coming: The thing that hath been it is that which shall be, and there is no new thing under the sun. But with the Resurrection on the third day old things passed for ever away. Jesus risen is the one essentially new thing in the world. He is our hope for the future: our well-spring of life and energy and gladness. Fast bound in misery and iron, humanity has an eye unto him and is lightened. To Him as the risen Saviour and Revealer of God, it can lift the Psalmists cry, All my fresh springs shall be in thee. So the last book of the New Testament closes with the vision of the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven. Here then is the keynote of our faith; a new doctrine, a new covenant, a new commandment, new wine in new bottles, a new name, a new creation, a new man, a new song, a new heaven and earth wherein dwelleth righteousness: all things new.1 [Note: R. L. Ottley, The Rule of Faith and Hope, 71.]
2. Bitterness is turned into blessing.A wonderful sentence comes to us from the Middle Ages. Out of the turmoil, the vice and the bloodshed of the Florence of that day, we hear the voice of the great poet as he says in his immortal words: In sua voluntade nostra pace (In the doing of His will lies our peace). How did Dante know that? Has any thought risen higher than that through all the centuries? In the doing of Gods will, the surrendering of ourselves to His appointment, the accepting of the cup because He sent it, is not only the discipline we need, not only the promise of strength and attainment, but, far more than this, the deep abiding Divine peace of the soul.
I know no more intellectually of the Truth than when I first believed; but what a result comes from its abiding! A deeper, deeper happiness absorbs the heart and pervades the soul. A deepening calm rules and assimilates the faculties, and compels them into action; not excitement, but definite and proper action. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, which baffles analysis, which has an infinitude of depth about it. As you cannot understand remote stars, nor the everchanging vault which you cannot at all explore, but can only feel as you feel your life, so you cannot touch this Peace of God with your understanding. It lies round you like an atmosphere. It dwells in you like a fragrance. It goes from you like a subtle elixir vit. My peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth give I unto you. May God double to you His peace.1 [Note: Letters of James Smetham, 81.]
It is a rest that deeper grows
In midst of pain and strife;
A mighty, conscious, willed repose,
The death of deepest life.
To have and hold the precious prize
No need of jealous bars;
But windows open to the skies,
And skill to read the stars!
Who dwelleth in that secret place,
Where tumult enters not,
Is never cold with terror base,
Never with anger hot.
For if an evil host should dare
His very heart invest,
God is his deeper heart, and there
He enters into rest.
When mighty sea-winds madly blow,
And tear the scattered waves,
Peaceful as summer woods, below
Lie darkling ocean caves:
The winds of words may toss my heart,
But what is that to me!
Tis but a surface stormthou art
My deep, still, resting sea.2 [Note: George MacDonald, Poetical Works, i. 294.]
3. The unproductive has become fruitful.The promise is, Ye shall bear much fruit. This is to be the measure and the reward of true discipleship. This is Christs reward. This is how He is to see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied. There is that in every heart which responds to this thought. We can all understand something of the feeling of the farmer leaning on his gate and looking at the waving fields of grain about him. He has planted and cultivated, and waited for the harvest, and here it is. He has made the waste land fruitful, and his soul is filled with a supreme satisfaction. Look at the light in the face of the young father over his new-born child, or the joy of the mother as for the first time she presses her infant to her heart. Life has produced life. Fruitfulness has come, the blessed gift of God. We all know its significance; even the dullest and weariest long for its privileges.
Sir Wilfrid Lawson the elder (father of the late baronet), on reaching middle life, had a dangerous illness; and when brought (as he thought) to deaths door, and when the unseen realities of the eternal world seemed breaking upon him, he longed for religious instruction, guidance, and consolation. This he did not expect to find among the worldly or sporting parsons of the neighbouring parishes, and so he sent for a humble Presbyterian minister from the neighbouring hamlet of Blennerhasseta Mr. Waltonwho, by his instructions and prayers, by Gods blessing, brought peace of mind to Sir Wilfrid, so that when he rose from his sick-bed it was with a new view of life and a new purpose in living. In a word, he had become a true earnest Christian upon personal inquiry and conviction, and his tastes and inclinations and aims were completely changed, and he determined henceforth to spread those views of truth that had changed and blessed him, by devoting time and thought and means to their diffusion among his neighbours and friends. Having obtained a peace of mind never known before, he was anxious that those around should share the same priceless treasure. The Scriptures were a new revelation to him, and with strong faith in Jesus Christ as a loving, ever-present Saviour, he felt constrained by example and word and walk to lead others to trust in and serve Him.1 [Note: G. W. E. Russell, Life of Sir Wilfrid Lawson, 3.]
vi. The Extent of it
The words of the Seer are suggested by Isa 43:18-19 : Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. But, says Swete, the scope of the old prophecy is enlarged indefinitely by the words all things. All the fruits of the New Covenant are included.
1. Man is included.The new world begins in the human heart, and it occupies every part of the personality and every aspect of the life. By his words a man is now justified. His thoughts are brought into captivity to the mind of Christ. Moreover, the newness covers the relation between man and man. There will be the fulfilment of both commandmentsthe first and greater, and also the second which is like unto it.
2. The whole creation is included.For the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. Change the man, and you change his world. The new self will make all around it as good as new, though no actual change should pass on it; for, to a very wonderful extent, a man creates his own world. We project the hue of our own spirit on things outside. A bright and cheerful temper sees all things on their sunny side. A weary, uneasy mind drapes the very earth in gloom. Lift from a man his load of inward anxiety, and you change the aspect of the universe to that man; for, if to the pure all things are pure, it is no less true that to the happy all things are happy.
For to those in Christ all things are not only new, but they are growing continually newer. In the old world, and with the old man, it is just the other way. Things are always getting older, until life gets to be an insufferable burden, a dreary round, a wretched repetition, and we see backs bent with nothing but pure sorrow, and heads white with none other sickness than vexation of spirit, and men brought to the grave because life was too wearisome, and time too intolerable, and existence too aimless and stale, to be supported any longer. But in the new world, and with the new man, the whole is reversed; and the new cry ever waxes more frequent and more loud, Look, and look again, how the old is passing, how the new is coming, how things are getting new. Every day more of the old is weeded out, more of the new is coming in. Life is fresher and freer and fuller of promise. There are new discoveries of the Fathers love, new revelations of Christs grace, new experiences of the Spirits comfort. Life becomes interesting, and entertaining, and significant, and splendid, and grand beyond belief. What views of life Christs world contains; what heavens of expansion overarch it; what hills of attainment are reared upon it; what distances of outlook are discernible from it! Yourself, Christ, Godwhat thoughts about them all you could never have conceived before! History, Time, Eternitywhat feelings they stir in you, you never could have felt before! Purpose, Progress, Achievementwhat mighty motions of the will they produce!1 [Note: R. W. Barbour, Thoughts, 130.]
Dr. S. Reynolds Turner, who superintends a Chinese colporteur in Amoy, writes: He is one of the most earnest Christians I have met in China, and a real red-hot evangelist. In visiting our stations I have seen a good deal of him on his native heath, and one remark he made sticks to me, since it was so strange from a Chinaman. We were standing on a hillside over-looking the sea, which at that part of the coast is dotted over with islands, and I was revelling in the beauty of the scene under a bright sun and clear skies. Suddenly he turned to me, and said, Isnt it beautiful? I agreed heartily, but added that I thought Chinamen did not, as a rule, pay attention to such things. Ah! he said, I never saw anything about me, or thought anything beautiful or worth looking at, until I became a Christian; but since then the world gets daily more beautiful, and the more I see of it the more I comprehend our dear Father in heaven. 1 [Note: Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 1906.]
I remember, as though it were yesterday, something that happened in my own life at least thirty-seven years ago. I was a boy, and there came to my fathers house a young man who had been brought to Christ in some services my father had been conducting away up among the Welsh hills. This young man one day was out in our garden, and talking to me about all sorts of things. He interested me as a child, and I loved him. Suddenly he stooped down and took a leaf from a nasturtium plant, put it on his hand, and said to me, Did you ever see anything so beautiful? And I looked, and saw all the veins, and the exquisite beauty of it all. Then he said, Do you know, I never saw how beautiful that leaf was until six months ago, when I gave myself to Christ? I have never forgotten that. How true I know that to be in my own experience!2 [Note: G. Campbell Morgan, in The British Weekly.]
Gods New World
Literature
Alexander (W.), The Great Question, 284.
Bonar (H.), Light and Truth: The Revelation, 348.
Dewhurst (E. M.), The King and His Servants, 59.
Dykes (J. O.), Sermons, 249.
Ellicott (C. J.), The Destiny of the Creature, 77.
English (E.), Sermons and Homilies, 33.
Farrar (F. W.), Social and Present-Day Questions, 368.
Green (A. V.), Australian Sermons, 29.
Grimley (H. N.), The Temple of Humanity, 243.
Hunsworth (G.), Light in the Gloom, 37.
Hutton (R. E.), The Crown of Christ, ii. 75.
Killip (R.), Citizens of the Universe, 230.
Matheson (G.), Times of Retirement, 92.
Miller (G. A.), The Life Efficient, 65.
Parker (J.), City Temple Pulpit, i. 2.
Parker (J.), Studies in Texts, iii. 151.
Price (A. C.), Fifty Sermons, vi. 17.
Sadler (M. F.), Sermon Outlines, 84.
Stimson (H. A.), The New Things of God, 9.
Temple (W.), Studies in the Spirit and Truth of Christianity, 95.
Vaughan (C. J.), The Family Prayer and Sermon Book, i. 121.
Welldon (J. E. C.), The Gospel in a Great City, 18.
Wilmot-Buxton (H. J.), Bread in the Wilderness, 48.
Wright (D.), The Power of an Endless Life, 255.
Christian World Pulpit, x. 168 (G. W. MCree); lxvi. 17 (J. Strong); lxvii. 86 (K. Lake); lxxxii. 276 (R. Evans).
Church of England Pulpit, lix. 142 (K. Lake).
Church Pulpit Year Book, 1906, p. 33; 1910, p. 5.
Churchmans Pulpit; The Old and New Year, ii. 439 (J. R. Darbyshire), 509 (C. J. Vaughan); Septuagesima Sunday, iv. 292 (H. A. Stimson); Easter Day and Season, vii. 356 (A. Grannis).
Congregationalist, 1873, p. 7 (J. O. Dykes).
Literary Churchman, xxxiii. (1887) 551 (S. Baring-Gould).
Preachers Magazine, viii. 27 (W. Wakinshaw).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
that sat: Rev 4:2, Rev 4:9, Rev 5:1, Rev 20:11
Behold: Isa 42:9, Isa 43:19, 2Co 5:17
Write: Rev 1:11, Rev 1:19
these: Rev 19:9
Reciprocal: Psa 104:30 – renewest Ecc 1:9 – and there Eze 36:26 – new heart Dan 11:2 – will I Hab 2:2 – Write Mat 19:28 – in the regeneration Luk 5:38 – General Gal 6:15 – but Col 3:10 – the new 1Ti 1:15 – a faithful Rev 3:7 – he that is true Rev 7:10 – sitteth Rev 14:13 – Write Rev 21:1 – a new Rev 21:22 – I saw Rev 22:6 – These
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Rev 21:5. He that sat upon the throne is the same as was shown in chapter 20:11. He is the one who created all things that exist, but all the items that were made in the first creation pertaining to the material universe will be replaced with a new order of things that will be eternal, and adapted to the needs and enjoyment of the glorified part of humanity. The pronoun he means the angel who has been John’s companion and exhibitor all through the vision of this book. Having taken a view of these wonderful objects the angel tells John to write the description in his book, and assures him that all that he has seen and heard is true and faithful, which means the vision and the words are a faithful report of the truth.
Comments by Foy E. Wallace
Verse 5.
5. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all thingMat 5:6 And he said unto me, Write: for these words are faithful and true.–Rev 21:5.
He who sat on the throne gave this command which the angel communicated to John, and in a parenthetical phrase John referred to the original command given to him by Christ in chapter 1:19. The Seer was ready to do what he had been commanded to do at the beginning; and they were here attested to be faithful and true words; it was in the character of swearing to the truthfulness of what John was about to write, a form of an oath in affirmation of veracity. It was before the visions wereRev 21:6 d that the voice of chapter 1 had prompted John to record the things which would be heard and seen.
It was the same voice which had first commanded him to write which now was heard to say: Behold, I make all things new. This same expression has been used to distinguish spiritual Israel from fleshly Israel (2Co 5:17); and that phrase was employed here in distinction of the new heaven and new earth from the old system of Judaism.
With the fall of the old Jerusalem, the destruction of its theocracy, the termination of the Jewish state, and the removal of the last vestige of Judaism, a new order would prevail under new surroundings.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rev 21:5. What the Seer had before heard regarding the new creation had proceeded from a voice out of the throne (Rev 21:3). Now God Himself, he that sitteth on the throne, speaks. For the first time in this book the direct voice of God is heard. Hitherto He has been veiled in His own unspeakable majesty and glory, watching indeed with the deepest interest the fortunes of His Church, overruling all things for her good, but Himself unseen, unheard. Now He breaks His silence; and, as One who dwells with men (Rev 21:4), directs their thoughts to the accomplishment of His own holy and gracious will. His words are, I make all things new, where the emphasis rests upon the word new: Old things are passed away; behold, they are become new (2Co 5:17).It is possible that the next words spoken in this verse, Write; for these words are faithful and true, may be the voice not of God, but of an angel. As no angel, however, has been spoken of in the preceding verses, and as the words now uttered are properly a parenthesis indicating the deep interest of the Almighty in His people, there is no sufficient cause to bring in the interposition of any third party. God Himself says to His servant Write, and Himself assures him not only that His words are faithful but that they are true. The new heavens and the new earth are the end towards which God has been always working. The whole history of the world, with its opposition to the truth and: with the judgments that have overtaken it; the whole history of the Church, with her struggles and victories, has not been accidental. It has been the carrying out of Gods bright designs from the moment when He expressed Himself in the works and in the creatures of His hands.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Note here, 1. How these new heavens and new earth come to be effected and made, namely, by the omnipotent power of Christ, Behold I make all things new; a good argument to encourage us to go unto Christ by prayer for renewing grace. Surely he that makes new heavens can make new hearts, he that renews an old world, can renew us in the spirit of our minds, and make old things pass away, and cause all things to become new.
Next he commands St. John to write, that these words set down here, and throughout this prophecy, are true and faithful. We see then that the holy scriptures were written at the Lord’s command, and therefore from him they do derive their authority.
Observe, 2. The word of assurance here uttered by Christ, for the confirmation of what he had before declared and promised, He said unto me, It is done; signifying thereby, that it is as certain as if it was already done; namely, whatever he had promised relating to his church’s happiness, and all that he had threatened relating to her enemies’ destruction; let not the Church then at any time stagger in her faith.
Observe, 3. The title which Christ is pleased here to resume, which before was given by himself, chap. 1.8. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end; to show, that, as he first made the world, so he was now about to put a period to it, and would give to every thirsty or believing soul an everlasting life in the new Jerusalem, which shall no more decay than water, which is an ever-springing fountain, can be dried up.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Either God the Father or Christ now speaks from the throne. ( Rev 3:21 ) In the previous verse, some things were identified as having passed away. Now, in their place, we see all things made new. Perhaps John was so touched he stopped writing, for he is now told to write these words that cannot be contradicted. The plan of salvation is now complete, having been begun and finished by God. The promise here reminds us of Jesus’ words in the sermon on the mount. ( Mat 5:6 ) The faithful will have their needs filled. Everyone that overcomes will inherit the beautiful place just described and will be received finally into God’s family as a son. Allof us long for acceptance and can receive it in this greatest form if we overcome. ( Eph 1:5-6 ; Rom 8:14-15 )
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Verse 5
And he that sat upon the throne; Jehovah. This seems to be in allusion to the vision described Revelation 4:2,3.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
21:5 {4} And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
(4) In the speech of God himself describing the Church, is first an introduction, or entrance. Then follows a magnificent description of the Church, by the present and future good things of the same, in three verses following Rev 21:6-8 . In the introduction God challenges to himself the restoring of all the creatures, Rev 21:1 and witnesses the calling of John to the writing of these things, in this verse.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
John turned from describing the New Jerusalem briefly to describe some of God’s utterances (cf. Rev 1:8; Rev 20:11). "Behold" introduces a special pronouncement, namely, that God will bring a new creation into existence. The description of the new creation in the preceding verses was proleptic. Evidently an angel then instructed John to write down what God had said because His words were faithful and true, not incredible (cf. Rev 22:6). [Note: Alford, 4:737; Lee, 4:818.] Possibly it was God Himself who uttered this second statement. [Note: Swete, p. 279.] If so, this is probably the first time in the book that God the Father spoke. Perhaps the vision so enthralled John that he stopped recording it.