What is the significance of Jesus saying, "Behold I make all things new" (Revelation 21:5)?

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 therein will be new according to verse 5. All those things that we know at present, spoken of as "the former things" will have passed away. He who acts, to produce these new creation things, is "He that sat upon 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 sufficient. Formerly "He spake, and it was done" (Ps. 33:9). Now again He speaks and His words are, "It is done." Both are accomplished with equal ease.

— The Sitter on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” God on the throne of omnipotence, of absolute sovereignty, declares His will — all things new. The old order of things is not improved, nor in anywise imported into the eternal state, for that condition demands a state of things in keeping with it; and God is the measure and source of the whole eternal state, whether of persons or things. Nothing short of what becomes God can appear in the unchanging state; hence, “I make all things new.”

The One who sits on the throne declares that He makes all things new, a very distinct word, not meaning “new” in contradistinction to “old,” but “new” as never having been in existence before, either in kind or in itself, and never getting old, for nothing and nobody can ever get old in new creation.

In this sentence is fixed the character of the eternal state. Grand words surely, and worth recording! God, too, authenticates His own magnificent declaration by adding, “for these words are true and faithful.” He demands our attention, and claims our hearty and unqualified assent. “Behold, I make all things new.” “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” This is not promise, but the divine assertion of that which is fact when the moment comes for its realisation.

In the new heaven and new earth all will be new (see Rev. 21:5). That is, everything will then be on the basis of "new creation," and suitable to the full and unrestrained expression of all God's nature, the fruition of His eternal purpose. We, thank God, are on that basis now as "in Christ" (see 2 Cor. 5:17).

New creation rests, as we know, upon Christ's death as its basis. By and by the Sitter upon the throne, who is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ, will say, "Behold, I make all things new … It is done" (Rev. 21:5-6). He will say that then because there was a day when on the Cross He said, "It is finished."

In the new heaven and new earth of Revelation 21:1-7 new creation will characterize the whole scene. "Behold I make all things new" is the word. The supersession of the first by the second will then be absolute and complete.

This is blessed: "The former things are passed away." Tears are gone; death is gone; sorrow and pain and crying are gone. No trace remains of the former things of sin and death. The millennial earth will not be a witness of so high an order as that.

"The former things are passed away." Not that we lose anything which has been given or communicated in His counsels of grace and glory, in the services of the Son, and in the operations of the Spirit. Nothing will be lost to us, which we have gathered in the progress of the divine dispensations. That could not be. Even the passing refreshments of the Spirit, which the inworking of corruption spoils us of for many and many a season, are not lost to us. They are the witness of that which is eternal in its very essence. And in like manner, all the unfolded wisdom of God must be enjoyed forever in its bright result. It is itself essentially eternal, and cannot be lost to us. These manifestations of God in His wisdom and power, and grace and glory, have come forth and shown themselves in the progress of the ages, and they have found a struggle in an injured, ruined, degraded scene of action, like this world of ours; but in the "new heavens" and the "new earth" all this struggle in every form of it is over, and these manifestations will be known in their full, triumphant, and glorious result.

Before Him that sits on the white horse, the apostate powers of "this present evil world," in the hour of their fullest pride and daring, are smitten; and the Lord and His saints take righteous rule in the earth for the appointed millennial age. Before Him that sits on the white throne, the present heaven and earth pass away, and there is found no place for them; and He that sits on the throne says, "Behold, I make all things new." Surely these are distinctions — distinctions, too, full of meaning, and as significant of advance and development in divine counsels and ways, as any earlier moment.

How blessed it is to contemplate the Lord in these three characters. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. By His blood our consciences have been purged and our hearts' affections won, and we have been freed from the dominion of sin. We see not yet creation freed from the presence of sin, but the Lamb of God will accomplish this also, and a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness will crown all His labours for the glory of God. And we know Him who will do this work; it will be Jesus, who loved us and gave Himself for us. He is the One who created all things in the first instance, and when all things in the heavens and the earth became defiled by sin, He is the One to cleanse away the defilement. The old creation was His handiwork, but the new creation will be the work of His heart. "Behold, I make all things new." Not merely renewed, but new. In that new creation there will be no spot or stain of sin. There will be no curse, no death, no sorrow, no crying. Everything will be according to God. The Father's love will pervade the whole redeemed creation. It is the portion of our hearts now, but then we will be in the home of love. How blessed and encouraging it is, in the turmoil and bustle of this selfish world, to turn the eye of faith to that heavenly land where Jesus is with the Father, and to feel that our home is there, and that we are only waiting for Him to come and bring us there, that we may be with Him for ever in His own dwelling-place.

God is not building on the old creation in any shape or form. Man’s world will be burned up one day; man’s day, in which he has done, as he thinks, the best for himself, will destroy itself. And after the storms and wrecks of time; after the judgments and visitations of God there shall arise a new heaven and a new earth, and He, who sits upon the throne, will say, “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21:5). The recovery of man lies in this new creation. Man of the old order goes for ever from before God, and man after the order of Christ alone has a place before Him.

Then we read "the former things are passed away," and He that sat upon the throne said, "Behold I make all things new." To-day, the men of the world are trying to get rid of "the former things," and 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, nor can they "make all things new," or bring in a new order, as they vainly dream.