He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” He said, “Write, for these words of God are faithful and true.”
Parallel Translations
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He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” He said, “Write, for these words of God are faithful and true.”
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And he that sate apon the seate sayde: Behold I make all thynges newe. And he sayde vnto me: wryte for these wordes are faythfull and true.
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And he that sate vpon the throne, sayd, Behold, I make all things newe: and he sayde vnto me, Write: for these wordes are faithfull and true.
Cross-references (11)
Passages linked to Revelation 21:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
- Isaiah 42:9 Behold, the former things have happened and I declare new things. I tell you about them before they come up.”
- Isaiah 43:19 Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
- Revelation 19:9 He said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.’ ” He said to me, “These are true words of God.”
- Revelation 4:2 Immediately I was in the Spirit. Behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and one sitting on the throne
- Revelation 20:11 I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them.
- Revelation 22:6 He said to me, “These words are faithful and true. The Lord God of the spirits of the prophets sent his angel to show to his bondservants the things which must happen soon.”
- Revelation 1:19 Write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will happen hereafter.
- Revelation 4:9 When the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to him who sits on the throne, to him who lives forever and ever,
- Revelation 1:11 saying, “What you see, write in a book and send to the seven assemblies: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”
- Revelation 5:1 I saw, in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a book written inside and outside, sealed shut with seven seals.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain In the speech of God himself describing the Church,…
In the speech of God himself describing the Church, is first a certain exordium, or entrance, verse 5. Then followeth a magnificent description of the Church, by the present and future good things of the same in 3 verses following. In the exordium God challengeth to himself the restoring of all the creatures of which verse 1 and witnesseth the calling of S. John unto the writing of these things, in this verse.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 5 And he that sat upon the throne said,…
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!
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain And he that sat upon the throne, that is,…
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.
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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.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Note here, 1. How these new heavens and new…
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.
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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.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And he that sat upon the throne said,.... By…
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 Rev 4:2 Rev 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, Rev 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 Rev 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 Rev 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 Rev 21:11) the second is, he will bring living water out of Jerusalem; (see Rev 21:6) the third is, he will make trees to bring forth their fruit every month; (see Rev 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 Rev 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 Rev 21:4.
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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 Rev 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 Rev 19:9. The Syriac version adds, they are God's, and so the Arabic version.
(z) Shemot Rabba, sect. 15. fol. 101. 3.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain And he that sat upon the throne said -…
And he that sat upon the throne said - Not to St. John only. From the first mention of "him that sat upon the throne," chap. iv, 2, this is the first speech which is expressly ascribed to him. And he - The angel. Saith to me Write - As follows. These sayings are faithful and true - This includes all that went before. The apostle seems again to have ceased writing, being overcome with ecstasy at the voice of him that spake.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 5. Behold, I make all things new.] As…
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.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And he that sat upon the throne said -…
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.
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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.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain sat--Greek, "sitteth."
sat--Greek, "sitteth."
all things new--not recent, but changed from the old (Greek, "kaina," not "nea"). An earnest of this regeneration and transfiguration of nature is given already in the regenerate soul.
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unto me--so Coptic and ANDREAS. But A, B, Vulgate, and Syriac omit.
true and faithful--so ANDREAS. But A, B, Vulgate, Syriac, and Coptic transpose, "faithful and true" (literally, "genuine").
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Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain b. Divine announcement of its blessedness and conditions, Rev_21:5-8.
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.
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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.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 5. And he that sat upon the throne said]…
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.
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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.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain THE SECOND VOICE.—The voice of Him who sitteth on…
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 earth’s 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.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And he that sat upon the throne said; that…
And he that sat upon the throne said; that sitteth. (cf. Rev_20:11 and Mat_25:31) Behold, I make all things new. As in ver. 1. So in Mat_19:28, "Ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory," etc. And he said unto me, Write; and he saith, Write. Probably the angel. (cf. Rev_19:9 Rev_14:13) The change from epen to legei , and the immediate return to eipen , appear to indicate a change of speaker. For these words are true and faithful; faithful and true. So also in Rev_19:9 Rev_3:14, etc.
"All things new:" a spring sermon.
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What a vivid and glorious illustration of these words we witness in the beautiful spring tide season! For in the natural world God is, indeed, making all things new. The bare brown stretches of land have become verdant with the springing corn; the skeleton like branches of the trees, which a few weeks ago tossed their gaunt arms and moaned sadly beneath the pitiless tempest and cold, are now covered with rich foliage, and many are bright with beautiful blossoms, lovely for the eye to look upon. The glades of the wood and the hedgerows which were mute but a while ago, because their feathered songsters were away in warmer climes, are now once more resonant with song; for "the winter is over and gone, and the time of the singing of birds is come." The aspect of universal nature is completely changed transfigured and transformed from that which it wore in the weary wintry time. God has made "all things new." We never could have believed it possible had we been less familiar with many a previous spring. Were we able to think of ourselves as utterly ignorant of the resurrection and regeneration of spring, did we know nothing of what God is wont to do in this season of the year, we could never have believed such a change possible. As we looked upon all the rich beauty of the earth, we should be ever asking, "Who are these, and whence came they?" We could never have imagined that those bare seeds, which were cast into the ground, would have become the blade and the springing corn as we now see them. We should gaze with admiration, but with wonder, at the glorious garment of forest and of field. Apart from our knowledge, all this new creation which the returning spring presents would have been as incredible to us as the resurrection of the dead was to the Athenians. And that which, but for long experience, we could not have believed of the natural world, we, for want of such experience, are slow to believe in regard to the spiritual world, to which the words of our text do, of course, refer. We read of the new heavens and the new earth, of the freedom from the manifold evils and distresses with which we are so sadly familiar here; but because we know not these things by experience they are not real to us, they do not affect us as they would were we as sure of them as we are of the new creation of spring. For here and now, in this poor present life of ours, we are for the most part in a spiritual winter. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be," any more than it appears in the winter time, to the uninstructed eye, what the earth shall be. Life, looked at in the mass, is so sombre, so drear, so cheerless and cold, notwithstanding a bright gleam here and there, irradiating now this home circle and now that; yet for the most part life is one long winter, and its springtime is not yet. And hence all discourse about the other and better life has, more or less, the semblance of unreality and vagueness about it. We smile sadly as we hear or read what men have thought on the subject, and we say, "How does he know? It is but a perhaps; we cannot really know." The best we can say is, "It may be, and we hope it is so." And none realize so clearly, or grasp so firmly, as they should, the promise of the blessed future spiritual spring which is affirmed in our text. But may we not do something to reanimate and strengthen our faith? May we not listen to the Lord God saying to us in this spring tide, "Behold, I do make all things new; believe, O my children, that even yet, in far fuller and more glorious way, I will, as I have said in my Word, again and perfectly make all things new"? And let us answer back, "Lord, we believe; help thou our unbelief. Lord, increase our faith." Now, help may come to us through letting our thoughts dwell a while on some of the characteristics of the new creation told of here.
I OUR CONCEPTIONS OF GOD WILL, BE NEW. Frequently does our Lord speak in this book of his "new name name which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." And from this we gather that none of us here, not even the saintliest and most devout, knows God as he is to be known.
II AND THERE SHALL BE A NEW BODY. In that great Scripture, 1Co 15, St. Paul enlarges on this theme the spiritual body, the corruptible exchanged for the incorruptible. And if any doubt, he points them to the new body which God is ever fashioning out of the "bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain." In the blade, the ear, the full corn in the ear, he bids us behold the pattern, type, and analogy of our resurrection life.
III AND A NEW CHARACTER. The impartation of new moral dispositions and habits; or, if not new, so intensified and exalted in their force as to be practically new in degree, if not in kind.
IV AND A NEW SOCIAL CONDITION. Probably nothing will be more marked in the kingdom of God than the total reversals of the judgments of the world. That which the world highly esteems will be as naught, that which it despises honoured. (cf. Luk_16:15)
V AND THERE WILL BE A NEW DWELLING PLACE. Not literally do we understand the words about the new heavens and new earth; for there is no need that we should, and much reason why we should not. But we take them as telling of the great moral changes that shall take place, and the physical changes that will result therefrom. For during all the past man"s material habitation has been largely dependent upon, and the result of, his moral character. Ps 107, "The fruitful field becomes a wilderness because of the wickedness," etc. And then again, "He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and the dry grounds into water springs." So is it for the righteous. So many are the aids to the faith, that, given a new moral character, there will be a new dwelling place. Look at Palestine, the Holy Land. Once her fields flowed with milk and honey; but now, and for long centuries, through, the cursed misrule of Mohammedanism, vast regions of that land are but desert. Again, go over the Campagna of Rome, once thronged with human life and wealth, but now for the most part a deadly plain in which men cannot live. And, on the other hand, where men have obeyed the laws of God, there the reverse has been everywhere seen. In the great missionary ages of the Church companies of God fearing men would go to some desolate district, often wild, bare, and miserable in the extreme. In the heart of forests, in the midst of fens, on rugged cliffs, or in lonely islands; and there they would alternate their prayers and psalms, their sacraments and other sacred services, with hard labour and diligent toil, until they had made the wilderness to rejoice and blossom as the rose. And now, rabid Protestantism sneers at those old monks because, it is said, they always knew how to choose the best and fairest of earth"s dwelling places. But it was their fear of God that led to the regeneration of the earth on which they dwelt. And when Ps 67, is fulfilled, and "all the people praise thee, O God; then shall the earth yield her increase; God shall bless us, and all the ends of the world shall fear him." Now, of all this, and much more this blessed spring tide tells to those who have ears to hear its prophecies. But, remember, spring tide can do nothing for things that are dead. Have we, then, the seed of the life of God within us? "I am come," said the Lord, "that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. S. C.
The new creation.
"And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new." Two facts suggested in these words are worthy of notice.
1. Christ is invested with the government of our world. "He that sat sitteth upon the throne." "He is exalted far above all principalities," etc. Glorious fact this. It explains the continuation of sinners in such a world as this, and encourages us to take a deep interest in all the operations of Providence.
2. The other fact suggested is, Christ in the exercise of his authority is engaged in the work of moral creation. "He that sitteth upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new." The spiritual renovation of our world is here represented as a creation. Notice two things: the resemblance and the dissimilarity between the spiritual reformation of man and the natural creation.
I THE RESEMBLANCE. There must be a resemblance, or else the figure would not be employed as it is here and elsewhere. (see Isa_65:17-19 2Co_5:17) What are the points of 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. in creation God had only to speak, and it was done. Not so with conversion. There is the principle of free agency and depravity to contend with.
3. The one was produced by mere fiat; the other requires the intervention of moral means. N othing 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. Adam was placed in a material paradise, and from his original position he fell. Conversion places men in a spiritual paradise, from which they will fall no more. They are "kept by the power of God.
5. The one develops and displays God as the absolute Spirit; the other as the Divine Man. In spiritual manifestation he is "God manifest in the flesh," full of condescension, tenderness, love.
CONCLUSION. The subject presents:
1. A solemn question for us all. Are we "new creatures in Christ Jesus"? Have we been brought out of the moral chaos?
2. A bright prospect for the world. Christ is on his throne, and the work of moral creation is carried on, and will one day be completed. D.T.
Vers. 5-8. The new moral creation.
"And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful," etc. Some remarks on the new moral creation were offered in our last homily, and were suggested by the last clause of the fifth verse. The subject now is the one 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? The representation here gives us to understand that he is One who is all-truthful, everlasting, infinitely beneficent, surpassingly condescending, and essentially sin resisting.
I HE IS IMMUTABLY TRUTHFUL. "For these words are true and faithful" (ver. 5). What words? The words that had reference to the things that had already come to pass. What he had promised and what he had threatened had come to pass. What he has spoken not only has been done, but is being done, and must be done. He is the Truth, the unalterable Reality, the one Rock that stands immovable amidst all the fluctuations of creature thought and speculation. Whatever in creature opinion is conformable to him is relatively true and beneficent, and whatever disagrees is false and pernicious.
II HE IS EVERLASTING. "I am Alpha and Omega the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End" (ver. 6). He is without a beginning, without a succession, without an end; the Cause, the Means, the End of all things but sin. All that exist throughout immensity are but evolutions of him; ever multiplying and growing branches from him, the eternal Root. The capability of forming such a thought is the glory of our nature; the power of properly entertaining it is the only means of possessing true mental life and progress.
III HE IS INFINITELY BENEFICENT. "I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely" (ver. 6). Souls are ever thirsting. Of all animal sensations, none is more agonizing than a burning, unquenched thirst. But soul thirst unquenched is far more agonizing and destructive. And soul thirst seems to be almost the mainspring of all human actions. "Who will show us any good?" This seems to be the cry of all. This thirst there is One and only One who can quench, and for this he is ever working. 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. From the heavens above, and the earth beneath, and the waters under the earth, there goes forth from hint, as from an ever-acting, fathomless, and inexhaustible fountain, that which can quench the thirst of all human souls.
IV HE IS SURPASSINGLY CONDESCENDING. "He that overcometh shall inherit all these things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son" (ver. 7). Two things are here stated which suggest this amazing condescension.
1. This recognition of every individual man who does his duty. "He that overcometh shall inherit all things." That he should notice 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. What is it overcomes self? A man may overcome others by violence, overcome difficulties in his secular pursuits, overcome the forces of nature so as to make them subserve his will, and yet not overcome himself. Self conquest includes at least two things the subordination of the body to the soul, and the subordination of the soul to sympathy with God. The soul may rule the body, but it may rule it for selfish, or sceptical, or ambitious ends, Such a rule would not be self conquest. 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." The millions of men who live in the universe do not inherit it; it inherits, possesses them, uses them, plays with them, absorbs them, But the man who has conquered himself comes under the control of sympathy with the great God inherits all things gets the universe. He gets the whole of it; he penetrates its meaning, appropriates its truths, 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 forever.
2. The affiliation of every individual man that does his duty. "And he shall be my son" (ver. 7). The conquering of sin and the rendering of the external universe into subservience of the higher interests of his nature is the grand duty of every man, and every man that does this God will make his son. Are not all men his children? By no means. They are all his creatures, his offspring, but not his sons. A man may have a dozen or more offspring, but not one 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." This is the true adoption, He, then, who conquers evil becomes a son of God. He does not receive "the spirit of bondage again to fear, but... the Spirit of adoption," etc.
V HE IS ESSENTIALLY SIN RESISTING. But the for the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part their part shall be in the lake which that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death" (ver. 8). All these hideous characters are but the creatures of sin. 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, and it is destined to have its part in "the lake which burneth with fire.
CONCLUSION. Such, then, is that ever blessed One who is engaged in the new moral creation of our world. The creative work has begun; its progress seems to us slow, but its consummation is inevitable. D.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I…
Rev_21:5-8
He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.
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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.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 5–8. Behold, I make all things new. See note…
5–8. Behold, I make all things new. See note on verse 1. Write. This is the third time in this book, in addition to the epistles to the churches in chapters 2 and 3, where John receives the special command to “write.” The other examples are in 14:13 and 19:9. See also 1:11.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain Jer 13:23. - 2Co 5:17. - Rev 21:5.
Revelation
AN IMPOSSIBILITY MADE POSSIBLE
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Jer 13:23. - 2Co 5:17. - Rev 21:5.
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.
We note the picturesque rhetorical question here. They were occasionally accustomed to see the dark-skinned, Ethiopian, whether we suppose that these were true negroes from Southern Egypt or dark Arabs, and now and then leopards came up from the thickets on the Jordan, or from the hills of the southern wilderness about the Dead Sea. The black hue of the man, the dark spots that starred the skin of the fierce beast, are fitting emblems of the evil that dyes and speckles the soul. Whether it wraps the whole character in black, or whether it only spots it here and there with tawny yellow, it is ineradicable; and a man can no more change his character once formed than a negro can cast his skin, or a leopard whiten out the spots on his hide.
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.
The second text sets forth a possibility of entire individual renewal, and does so by a strong metaphor.
‘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.
The renovation here is only partial. Its very incompleteness is prophetic. If there be this new life in us, it obviously has not reached its fulness here, and it is obviously not manifested here for all that even here it is.
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.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 these words are trustworthy and true
these words are trustworthy and true
Here "words" refers to the message that they formed. AT: "this message is trustworthy and true" (See: Metonymy)
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the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end
These two phrases mean basically the same thing and emphasize God's eternal nature. (See: Parallelism and Merism)
the alpha and the omega
These are first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Possible meanings are 1) "the one who began all things and who ends all things" or 2) "the one who has always lived and who always will live." If these are unclear to readers, you may consider using the first and last letters of your alphabet. See how you translated this in Revelation 1:8. AT: "the A and the Z" or "the first and the last" (See: Metaphor and Merism)
the beginning and the end
Possible meanings are 1) "the one who began all things and the one who will cause all things to end" or 2) "the one who existed before all things and who will exist after all things."
To the one who thirsts ... water of life
God speaks of a person's desire for eternal life as if it were thirst and of that person receiving eternal life as if he were drinking life-giving water. (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
word
trust
true
life
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.