We find a great difference between this chapter and the chapter preceding it, and all the rest of the book which presents but scenes of judgment throughout. Before is woe, woe, woe, and the white throne set for eternal judgment. But in these closing chapters there is no question of judgment at all, only a sphere of bliss wherein God is dwelling. All is blessing and glory, though not the name of Father. God and the Lamb is the light of the holy city; no temple is wanted there: it would hide His glory. The Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are thereof the temple. Everything is in connection with blessing, save the profane, the idolatrous, and the lie. The figures are drawn from all parts of scripture to describe the full blessings there. There we have the place of the church, the bride, the Lamb's wife, coming down as a city out of heaven from God. How opposite to judgment! The glory of God fills it all: He dwells where the bride the Lamb's wife is. See its entire distinctness of character as the place where all blessings are gathered in, to show the church in contrast with judgment. There no evil shall enter in; there the water of life proceeds out of God's throne; there the tree of life, its leaves healing for the nations on earth, if the fruits are for those on high.
The Lamb is He Whom we have known; and He is for us the lamp of it, lighting up the whole place with His glory. Every month is continual enjoyment of the full ripened fruit of grace. It is not as on earth the judging of man's work, but the perfecting of God's—the rest of God: so satisfying to Himself that He can dwell there. All is there that His heart could wish to bring out and secure a blessing and glory. Now He says, “I have made you as happy as I would have you.” God rests where His rest can never be spoiled. Paradise was a rest on earth, but not a safe one, for it hung on man's responsibility who failed forthwith. God brings us to the knowledge of this, now that our rest is to be on high—our relationship with God. Down here is our pilgrimage, discipline, and warfare; but our hearts should be filled with His love. We may rest with God in Spirit. Resting on God's own work is the beginning of activity in the service of God. Our hopes and expectations are founded on the knowledge of what we are brought into in Christ. We can look to the coming of the Lord Jesus without fear.
Turning to Rev. 1:5, 65And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, 6And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 1:5‑6), we find the condition of individual souls, just as much settled before all the judgments as at the end. In speaking to the Seven Churches, remark the place given to saints in view of all these judgments. Again, in chapter 4. when God's judicial throne is set, the elders or glorified saints are seated on thrones. They are associate with Him in knowing what God will then do. They have nothing to do with being judged. They are at rest personally, whilst providential judgment will proceed solemnly. But they are all activity whet, worship goes on. Even on earth they can sing as saints in their exalted place with the ascription, “Unto Him that loveth us and washed us” &c, This peacefulness in the presence of judgment shows how absolute the peace of the saints is. Now this is our place as to judgment. Do you believe and enjoy it as from God through Christ our Lord?
See the same in the last chapter. The moment He says, “I am the root and offspring of David, the bright [and] morning star,” the bride says, “Come.” Why so? Because she is the bride, and not afraid of the Bridegroom. How could it be so, if she expected to be judged? Instead of joy there would be terror. Here is entirely another thing. The bride has no notion of judgment as to herself; she is on the ground of looking for her Bridegroom, as washed and reconciled. How can a sinner stand on that ground? None can expect a person to wish for Christ's coming, if afraid of being judged.
Conscience and heart must be at peace first. “You hath He reconciled” (Col. 1.): this is what your soul wants before it. In the first part, whenever “Behold, I come” is presented, it is in the way of warning; but this is not the case with the close. The instant Christ is named, there is no hindrance; and the affections say “Come.” Conscience has nothing at all to object; the worshippers are purged. The heart longs then for the presence of the One so well known, Who set us free and loves us. How can an unbeliever be in such a state? Without a hindrance to the Lord's coming? Impossible. It is entirely a new relationship to the faithful. All things are new, old things passed away. Hesitation is out of place. The word of God and the work of the Savior know no such thing as half-judgment and half-grace. God may be at first plowing up the heart; yet it is in grace, not judgment. He is not going to receive us into His arms with a mixture of grace and of judgment. He may employ the law to break a man all to pieces; but the end of the Lord, first or last, is that He is very pitiful and of tender mercy.
In the unconverted heart there is deadly indifference to God, which in His presence turns to hatred, an indifference to grace, awful to think of in man worshipping God! How like Cain of old! Yet how many are laboring to get through the world without God, and worshipping God once a week Driven out of Paradise, man yet pretends to worship God. Cain just proved his heart to be as hard as the nether millstone: a driven-out sinner bringing the fruits of his own hands before God! Abel was very different. He sacrificed a lamb in faith. Death came in between his sins and God; blood was sprinkled. When Cain was not accepted, his countenance falls; hatred breaks out. It is what we see continually in the world. Then Cain goes out of God's presence to make himself happy without God, establishes his family, and builds a city. Harp and pipe, artificers in brass and iron, come in due time.
An awakened soul has a consciousness that there is a person Who loves and is to be loved. The thought of the father's home was in the prodigal's heart: if he could get there, what happiness! If he cannot take his rags into that house, he can and does get into the father's arms, and what follows? The best robe, the ring, the shoes, the fatted calf. Christ comes as “The Faithful Witness “; does He come to impute sin to me? No! but as the faithful witness of what God is for the sinner. He comes because He is the expression of God's salvation in grace. The grace in God's heart brought Him down.
In the case of the poor woman taken in adultery, does He say, sin is no matter? His enemies then as now were charging on grace the allowance of sin. But no! Christ applies God's light to all; and they cannot stand it. This is what God does.
He is not mingling grace and law. What did the accusers do? They took care of their own character; and everyone went out. If the eye of God rests on any set of sinners, they would all flee from it. And where did her accusers go? They retired, and lost grace and truth in Christ. But Jesus was not going to condemn them either. Grace can meet any and every sin. He, Jesus Christ the Righteous, is the faithful witness that grace is greater than sin.
Take again the case of the poor woman, who washed His feet with her tears. How He takes her part! She understands Who had come into the house. Simon gave Him no water, no kiss, and no oil. Man may murmur as he will and judge: in a sense God does not mind. Christ turns and says, Thy sins are forgiven. This poor sinner learned through the Faithful Witness what God was for her. Cleansing depends on the value of the blood that is shed.
The Christian was dead with Christ to sin: it is all gone before God. And where is my life? In Christ. He is my life, this blessed One, the Son of God Who came down and now sits at His right hand. He has given me an entirely new place and life. Further, He has made me a king and a priest. Why? Because He is both Himself, He has associated me with Himself and comes to take us to be with Himself. He became a man to die for my sins; that, returning a man into glory, He might take us there in spirit even now with Himself. We know Him in heaven as a Savior; and so He will come to change our bodies (Phil. 3.). In the midst of the throne is the Lamb slain for us. Why did He give “Himself” for us? This is a large word. He gave His blood, His life, but, more still, “Himself". What has He kept back? Nothing. I am precious to Him, and this not measured by myself, but precious because of the love of His heart to me. His love is measured by what He is in Himself. I can trust His love because it is divine. Its spring, power, and extent are in the heart of Christ Himself. Everywhere else to speak of self is to blast all thoughts of anything fit for God. But Christ changes all—He so precious, so dear to His heart, as those He gave Himself for. He shall see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. If my heart was always and entirely filled with Christ, it would be entirely filled with perfection. His love makes His happiness to be in having us with Himself, as ours is in being with Him. This being so, how can I fear His coming?
The character of “the Morning Star” is for the church. When He comes in judgment, it will be “the sun of righteousness” (Mal. 4.). Everybody sees the sun; but only those watching for it discern the morning star. But He thinks, and would have us think, of others that are perishing. “Let him that is athirst come.” Before He comes, there are poor sinners not reconciled to God, and we know that He gives the water of life. We have got living water, not glory yet, but living water. And we can welcome not only the thirsty soul, but any, “whosoever will,” to our Savior. If you are thirsty, if you are willing, come and drink. I have got the blessing itself, because I have Christ. How He wants to bless poor sinners! As a believer, I am His; but I can turn round from my own joy to the careless world, saying, If you are thirsty, if you are willing, come. It is the personal enjoyment of him who is in Christ, that one can say to a thirsty soul, “Come” (not to me, or the church, but) to Christ. I have got life's water in Him, and can tell where the love is to be found, how the sinner is accepted, living waters from Him flowing freely. The blood of Christ gives the title to every poor sinner to come to God. Alas! rather would the poor world worship like Cain, than know the blessedness of that grace, which bids “whosoever will” to come.
O beloved, what more awful thing in Christendom or the world than an un-reconciled person contented to go on as he is in the presence of the cross of Christ?
J. N. D.