And he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall not exist any more, nor grief, nor cry, nor distress shall exist any more, for the former things have passed away.
John's vision has just shown a new heaven and a new earth, with God Himself living among people. Two questions follow: when does this happen, and why does God Himself bend down to dry human eyes?
Commentators place this promise after Christ's thousand-year reign on earth, in the eternal state. Writers give two reasons. Sorrow is not wholly gone from the earth even under Christ's rule. And the same words about tears appear earlier in the book, describing a different scene.
Only in the eternal state does God remove every physical and moral effect of sin. The thousand-year reign, as we have seen, is not a perfect condition. Even under the good rule of the Lord people will still weep on earth. The words, "He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes," are repeated word for word in Revelation 7:17. There, however, it is a millennial scene; here it is the everlasting state. Neither here nor in the earlier scene is the wiping away of tears the work of the Lamb. God does it. If He wipes away every tear, then He removes every cause and occasion of sorrow.
The comfort here is not just that grief stops. It is who stops it. One writer dwells on how personal the wording is.
Not a trace of former sorrow shall remain, and God Himself will remove it. What infinite tenderness that God Himself will do this! A mother gently wipes away her child's tears. In the same way God Himself will delight to wipe away all tears from the eyes of His people. And once wiped away they can never return, for "death shall be no more." Think how many tears death has drawn from grieving people in this world!
Tears end for good only because God dealt with their source. One writer traces the whole story back to Eden and forward to the cross.
God had gone to the source of everything that brought in sorrow, and swept it away in the judgment of the cross. The former things had passed away. God once had to drive the man and the woman out of Eden in tears — the garden He had made for them before they fell. Now He can meet us at the door of a new heaven and a new earth as the One who wipes all tears from our eyes.
The verse says these things will be "no more." That phrase carries its own weight: the evil is gone, and it cannot come back.
Not only has He taken away the evil, but it is never to be any more. That is, there is now full and perfect security and blessedness. All the evil is gone. So are all the trials that tested man and brought him to the point where he could truly meet God. The love of God takes the place of everything. He fills all things with Himself, so evil can never enter again. That is the opposite of the old paradise man was given.
Notice how the verse says almost nothing about what the new scene contains. It describes the blessing by naming what is gone.
Death, and all the trials, pains, and griefs bound up with human life in this world are gone, abolished for ever. Sin has now been taken away (John 1:29; Hebrews 9:26). That is the final result of the death of Christ on the cross. So death is gone from the scene, and with it all the other bitter fruits of sin. Life has swallowed them up in victory. It is not the positive side of eternal blessedness, but the negative.
This is not just information about the future. One writer says why God tells us now.
And He reveals all this to us now, so that we may live in its light through faith. In it we find a remedy for present trials. We also find a rich encouragement to set our minds on things above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.
- Cause removed. At the cross God went to the source of all that brought in sorrow and swept it away in judgment.
- God's own hand. Tears do not just stop. God Himself wipes them away, with the tenderness of a mother drying her child's face.
- Never again. "No more" means more than relief. The evil is gone and cannot return, because the love of God fills the scene.
- Not yet, but certain. Commentators place this in the eternal state. Tears are still shed during the thousand-year reign, and the same promise in Revelation 7:17 belongs to that earlier scene.
- Live by it now. The picture comes in negatives — no death, no mourning, no pain. God gives it now so faith can use it today as a remedy for present trials.
And he that sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he says [to me], Write, for these words are true and faithful.
God Himself speaks here, straight from the throne. What He announces is not repair but replacement. Two questions follow: who is the Speaker, and how far does "all things" reach?
One writer points out which figure is missing from the scene:
Notice that it is God who is prominent through this section... The One who sits on the throne speaks. We do not get the Lamb mentioned. It is the glory of God in the fullest possible sense that we have here. And He said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end." No doubt Christ is the Alpha and the Omega too, as we find in Revelation 22:13. But it is not the Lord as such who acts and speaks here. It is God.
Commentators differ here. Others read the same title as belonging to Christ, and draw a parallel between the two creations:
He who acts, to produce these new creation things, is the One "who was seated on the throne" — our Lord Jesus Christ. He acted to bring into existence the old creation, according to Genesis 1. He acts again to bring into existence the new. As before, so here, the word of His power is enough. In the past, "He spoke, and it came to be" (Ps. 33:9). Now again He speaks and His words are, "It is done." Both are accomplished with equal ease.
This is not a tidying up of the present world. God Himself is the measure of what appears in the eternal state:
God on the throne of all power, of absolute sovereignty, declares His will — all things new. The old order of things is not improved. It is not carried over into the eternal state in any way, because that state demands a condition of things that fits it. God is the measure and source of the whole eternal state, whether of persons or things. Nothing short of what suits God can appear in the unchanging state.
The scope takes in the material world:
In the eternal state everything will be new in the fullest sense of the word. The material heavens and earth will be new, and "all things" found in them will be new. All those things that we know at present, spoken of as "the former things," will have passed away.
The word for "new" here makes two claims at once: about origin, and about permanence:
The One who sits on the throne declares that He makes all things new. "New" here is a very distinct word. It does not mean "new" as opposed to "old." It means "new" as never having been in existence before, either in kind or in itself, and never getting old. Nothing and nobody can ever get old in new creation.
Men attempt the same thing in their own strength. One writer sets the two side by side:
Today, the men of the world are trying to get rid of "the former things." They are seeking to "make all things new." They can break hearts and fill the earth with death, sorrow, crying, and distress. But they cannot end the sorrows of the world. They cannot "make all things new," or bring in a new order, as they dream in vain.
God tells John to write the words down, and then guarantees them:
This sentence fixes the character of the eternal state. Grand words indeed, and worth recording! God also confirms His own magnificent declaration by adding, "for these words are trustworthy and true." He demands our attention, and claims our whole-hearted and unqualified agreement... This is not a promise. It is God's own assertion of what will be fact when the moment comes for it to happen.
The verse describes the future, but its principle is not held back until then:
In the new heaven and new earth all will be new. Everything will then be on the basis of "new creation." It will suit the full and unrestrained expression of all God's nature. It will be the fulfilment of His eternal purpose. We, thank God, are on that basis now as "in Christ" (see 2 Cor. 5:17).
- Throne. The announcement comes from the One seated on the throne. Commentators differ on who that is. Some read it as God as such, with the Lamb unmentioned. Others read it as Christ, acting as He acted in the first creation.
- New. The word does not mean an improved version of the old. It means what has never existed before, and what can never grow old.
- Nothing carried over. The old order is not upgraded or imported. God Himself is the measure of the eternal state, so only what suits Him appears in it.
- No rival. Men try to sweep away "the former things" and build a new order. They can fill the earth with sorrow; they cannot make all things new.
- Written. God tells John to write because the words are trustworthy and true. This is not a hope offered, but a fact declared in advance. Those in Christ already stand on that basis.