Revelation 21:5

{4} And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. (4) In the speech of God himself describing the Church, is first an introduction, or entrance. Then follows a magnificent description of the Church, by the present and future good things of the same, in three verses following Re 21:6-8. In the introduction God challenges to himself the restoring of all the creatures, Re 21:1 and witnesses the calling of John to the writing of these things, in this verse.

Revelation AN IMPOSSIBILITY MADE POSSIBLEJeremiah 13:23 . - 2 Corinthians 5:17 . - Revelation 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 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 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.

5 . And he that sat upon the throne said ] The first time that He speaks. The reference is rather to the eternal throne of Revelation 4:2 than to the judgement-throne of Revelation 20:11 , so far as the two can be distinguished. Behold, I make all things new ] Some O. T. parallels are alleged, e.g. Isaiah 43:19 ; Jeremiah 31:22 ; but really the only close parallel is 2 Corinthians 5:17 ; and the meaning of this passage is, of course, even fuller than of that. he said unto me ] Read only, he saith . It is doubtful whether the speaker is still “He that sat on the throne;” for a similar command to “write” has been given already,— Revelation 14:13 , Revelation 19:9 ; cf. Revelation 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 Revelation 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 Revelation 3:14 , Revelation 19:11 , and still more exactly Revelation 22:6 .

And he that sat upon the throne, that is, Christ, said, Behold, I make all things new; behold, I will put a new face upon all things; the state of my people shall not for ever be a troubled and afflicted state. And he said unto me, Write: because the vision is to be for an appointed time, and what I now tell thee will not be accomplished of many years, and yet the knowledge and prospect of it, and meditations upon it, are of highest importance to keep up the spirits of my people under all their sufferings, during that time of the dragon (the Romish heathen emperors) not yet run out, and the twelve hundred and sixty years of antichrist, &c., therefore write it, that all my people in all ages may know it, believe it, and suffer patiently in the hopes of it. For these words are true and faithful; for, what I tell time is what comes from the true and faithful Witness, and shall have a certain being in its time.