Revelation 21:4. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
The end of faith is the salvation of the soul, and this salvation can be completed only in a spiritual and eternal world. “A new heaven and a new earth” are promised as the future habitation of the redeemed; but the blessedness there provided for them is also spoken of as something which is above their present power to comprehend or to conceive. “It doth not yet appear what we shall be”; and the things which are to be seen and heard in the heavenly paradise are declared to be impossible to speak in the words of man – indeed, such as a man would not be allowed to utter.
Its blessedness is therefore represented to us by figures; it is compared to those things which, though not really the most excellent in themselves, men are disposed to consider as the most precious or glorious – such as golden crowns and shining garments, inexhaustible treasures, incorruptible inheritances, thrones of glory, rivers of pleasure. More especially it is described by negative terms, by exemption from things evil, by the assurance that no such evils shall ever, in any measure, be found in that blessed abode. All mankind feel these evils more or less and are able to understand the blessedness of feeling them no more, of being secured from them for ever. To be at rest from toil, to be at peace from trouble, to be at ease from pain, to be exempt from sorrow, to be secure from dying – these are blessed reliefs and exemptions, which our feelings in the body and fears in this life make us able to understand, appreciate and desire, ready often to say with the Psalmist: “O that I had wings like a dove! For then would I fly away and be at rest.”
“There shall be no more death”, even in its mildest shape; no more departing from things that have pleased us, from persons who are dear to us; no more dread of those more appalling forms and accompaniments of death, which make him the king of terrors and the executioner of divine justice; no more sight of ghastly disease, mangled limbs, or garments rolled in blood; nothing to hurt or destroy in all the holy place. There shall be “neither sorrow nor crying”; nothing to cause grief or call forth weeping; no more sympathetic sorrow for the sufferings and oppressions of fellow creatures; no more affectionate sorrow on account of the unkindness or misconduct of friends; no more sorrow of soul at the sight of transgressors, or under the sense of our own sinful nature; “sorrow and sighing shall flee away” for ever.
“Neither shall there be any more pain”; there will be no more feeling of suffering in the glorified bodies of the saints; no wearisome nights on a bed of disease; no tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day; no inhabitant among them saying I am sick; no sense of weariness, of cold and nakedness, of scorching heat or of pining need; “they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat”. “The former things are passed away”; all things causing such evils have come to an end; and there can be no more experience of them where no cause for them exists. “There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth” – no more sin and no more curse; “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes”. They are no longer in a dying world, or in a weeping world, or in a wicked world, where there are daily so many occasions of sorrow to the heart of the believer. In this world, the more he has of the mind of his Lord, the more he is, like Him, “a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs”.
Not only have all such things passed away, so as not to exist and not to be experienced. Indeed, they are not to be remembered as reasons for sorrow – or, at least, they are to be swallowed up amidst the surrounding sources of unceasing blessedness to the soul. “The former things” shall not be remembered or come into mind. Not only shall there be no cause for tears to flow, but God Himself shall dry them all up for ever; there shall be no new cause for weeping, and all past reasons for sorrow shall be changed into grounds of rejoicing. He has trained His children, chastening them in His affection, and suffering their tears to flow for their good; but now that these days of trial are past, He removes all the traces of their grief and turns their very mourning into joy and makes them rejoice from their sorrow. “The Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces.”
But we must not confine our thoughts of heavenly blessedness to mere freedom from all present evils, or to those views of it which are drawn from earthly similitudes, of which even earthly minds may be glad to hear and to which they may look forward with satisfaction as good things to be enjoyed. Let us ever remember the pure and spiritual character of all the happiness that is enjoyed in heaven, and the proper sources from which it flows. It is not merely that there shall be no tears, but that God is present there to wipe them all away; it is because God Himself will dwell with them and be with them and be their God. It is not merely that “they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more”; but because “the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them” as His flock and “lead them unto living fountains of water”. So God, in such ways and by such means, “shall wipe away all tears from their eyes”.
It is not merely being delivered from all evils for evermore, but being for ever with the Lord their deliverer, that shall form our future blessedness. It is to be where He is, to see Him as He is, to love Him as He is, to be like what He is. It is, as He Himself has expressed it, to behold His glory and to enter into His joy as our Lord. In our desires of a heavenly portion, let us never forget that to learn Christ is the way to heaven; and in all our thoughts of its blessedness, let us bring the whole into one bright point as its sum and substance: that it is “to be with Christ”. Let us never imagine that we can have the spirit of that heavenly society formed in any measure in our souls if, in our anticipations of its happiness, we are overlooking His presence who is the Lord of that heaven, the light of that heaven, the life of that heaven, the object of adoration and praise to all who dwell in that heaven above.
To Him let us now learn daily to ascribe all the hope that gladdens the heart – the hope of such a blessedness as our eternal portion. “I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest.” Thus honouring Him in our hearts and before men, as the author of our eternal salvation, we should be daily preparing to join the company of His saints in casting their heavenly crowns before His throne, and singing their eternal song of praise: “Thou art worthy . . . for Thou . . . hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation”.
[1]Reprinted, with editing, from The Christian’s Daily Companion. Brewster (1777-1847) was parish minister of Craig, near Montrose, when he wrote this piece.