And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither [whatsoever] worketh abomination, or [maketh] a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
27. that defileth ] Read unclean, lit. common.
whatsoever worketh ] Read, he that worketh, or rather doeth.
the Lamb’s book of life ] So Rev 13:8.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And there shall in no wise – On no account; by no means. This strong language denotes the absolute exclusion of all that is specified in the verse.
Anything that defileth – Literally, anything common. See the notes on Act 10:14. It means here that nothing will be found in that blessed abode which is unholy or sinful. It will be a pure world, 2Pe 3:13.
Neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie – See the notes on Rev 21:8.
But they which are written in the Lambs book of life – Whose names are there recorded. See the notes on Rev 3:5. Compare the notes on Rev 21:8.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rev 21:27
There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth.
The barrier
I. The word of exclusion. This is no arbitrary decree, it is a solemn declaration to which all holy spirits give their willing assent and consent; an ordinance of which even the excluded themselves shall admit the justice.
1. For, first, it is not meet that so royal and divine a corporation as the glorified Church of God should be ruined by defilement. God forbid that her light, which is like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal, should ever be dimmed by the breath of sin.
2. There can be no entrance of evil into the kingdom of God, for it is the very essence of the bliss of the glorified Church that evil should be excluded.
3. Furthermore, consider that there is an impossibility of any sinful, unrenewed person ever entering into the body corporate of the glorified Church of God–an impossibility within the persons themselves. The sea cannot rest because it is the sea, and the sinner cannot be quiet because he is a sinner.
4. Our own hearts forbid that evil should so enter. You know how a few rags from the East have sometimes carried a plague into a city; and if you were standing at the quay when a plague-laden ship arrived you would cry, Burn those rags; do anything with them, but do keep them away from the people. Bring not the pest into a vast city, where it may slay its thousands! So do we cry, Great God, forbid it that anything that defileth should enter into Thy perfected Church! We cannot endure the thought thereof.
II. The word of exclusion working within the soul–within my soul, within yours. No person who defiles, no fallen spirit, or sinful man can enter. And as no person, so no tendency, leaning, inclination, or will to sin can gain admission. No wish, no desire, no hunger towards that which is unclean shall ever be found in the perfect city of God. Nor even a thought of evil can be conceived there, much less a sinful act performed. Nothing shall ever be done within those gates of pearl contrary to the perfect law, nor anything imagined in opposition to spotless holiness. Consider such purity, and wonder at it. It is altogether perfect! And, mark well, that no untruth can enter–neither whatsoever maketh a lie. Nothing can enter heaven which is not real; nothing erroneous, mistaken, conceited, hollow, professional, pretentious, unsubstantial, can be smuggled through the gates. Only truth can dwell with the God of truth. Bethink you that not only does actual sin shut men out of heaven, but this text goes to the heart by reminding us that we have within us inbred sin, which would defile us speedily, even if we were now clean of positive transgression. How can you and I enter heaven while there is unholy anger in us? There shall in no wise enter into heaven a hasty temper, or a quick imperious spirit, or a malicious mind; for these defile. But then look at the other part of the difficulty–that is, the making of your own heart pure and clean. How shall this be done? Have you tried to master your temper? I hope you have. Have you managed it? Your tendencies this way or that, you have striven against them, I hope, but have you mastered them? I cannot overcome myself, nor overcome my sin. I will never cease from the task, God helping me, but apart from the Divine Spirit the task is as impossible as to make a world.
III. The word of salvation, which just meets the difficulty raised by the sentence–There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth. But, first, my past sin, what of that? Washed in the blood of the Lamb! This is our first great comfort, He that believeth in Him is not condemned. But here is the point, there is still no entrance into the holy city so long as there are any evil tendencies within us. This is the work, this is the difficulty, and since these are to be overcome, how is the work to be done? Simple believing upon Christ brings you justification, but you want more than that; you need sanctification, the purgation of your nature. Faith in Christ tells us of something else beside the blood. There is a Divine Person–let us bow our heads and worship Him–the Holy Ghost who proceedeth from the Father, and He it is Who renews us in the spirit of our minds. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Heaven
I. Into heaven shall enter nothing that defileth. Every one, and everything whatsoever that is tainted with any impurity shall be utterly excluded. Not merely that eventually heaven will be cleared of such blemishes, but such shall never enter there. Absolute truthfulness and perfect purity, without any admixture of defilement at all, these are what God requires in all who cross the threshold of His home above. Better to be blind to the glory altogether than to gaze longingly upon it, if we must also gaze with despair on the forbidding regulation that those defiled, as we are, shall in no wise enter.
II. This is true; but, God be thanked! it is not the whole truth. For, note–the lamb was slain to cleanse the defiled. There would never have been found in heaven a Lamb as it had been slain, unless it had been Gods intention that some poor defiled creatures should get rid of their defilement and be found there too. We could not have climbed that frowning wall; we could not have burst through those glorious gates; a flaming sword of cherubims would have kept us, the defiled, from entering. But where Christ our atonement goes, there, clinging to His feet, we may go too. If He mounts to heaven, we may follow Him.
II. He sits upon the throne of God, there, too, our dwelling-place shall be. The transgressor may be sunk in the guiltiest pollution; but if in his distress he casts his sinful soul into the forgiving arms of the Redeemer, he shall surely be forgiven. Out of his great tribulation he shall come, and wash his robes and make them white in the blood of the Lamb, and therefore he, too, once defiled, and banished, and despairing, shall be found before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple.
III. Those recorded in Christs book of life, and washed in His blood, shall enter into life. But we stand here in our pollution, full of abomination, and falsehood, and defilement. The antagonism is frightful, the exclusion complete. But the Lamb is in the midst of the throne, and His blood cleanseth from all sin. In that fountain, whosoever will may wash and be clean. Being justified by faith he has peace with God. The Holy One will regenerate and sanctify his soul. (T. M. Herbert, M. A.)
The impassable gulf
The other day our Australian colonists were urging us on to what might have been a very formidable struggle with France. They pleaded, and that justly, that it was almost fatal to the well-being and security of the communities on the east coast of Australia that France should have its convict station in such close proximity. Men steeped in triple murders and every unnatural abomination made their way across from New Caledonia from time to time to a colony planted with fair and virtuous homes. Of course we all sympathised with the colonists; we should resent the existence of a passable gulf between our homes and culprits of that sort. If by an income tax of sixpence in the pound we could make the strip of sea an impassable gulf, we should all be ready to do it. When man has passed impenitent into eternity, his sin is just as much an abomination to the God of light and the children of light as the crime of the French convict is to us. How is it that we sympathise with the colonist, but question Gods right m fixing this impassable gulf? Had He no right to protect His children in their new home? Heaven would be no heaven if the proud Pharisee could come sweeping by, wounding some poor saint of God at every step, and seeking to press Gods emancipated sufferers into new serfdoms. (T. G. Selby.)
Future punishment retributive
I wonder that men should have such faith in the reformative effect of punishment. When we call to mind that forty-five per cent of the convictions in our police courts are the convictions of people who have been sentenced before, and that ninety-five per cent of sentences to penal servitude are passed upon people who have previously had an acquaintance with the pains and rigours of prison life, it does not seem very reasonable to hope much from the reformative tendency of the punishment that will overtake the wicked beyond the grave. (T. G. Selby.)
The Lambs book of life.—
The Heavenly Church Book
I. The register. The Infinite One must know everything–what it is, where it is; its nature, character, and uses. But it is not said that there is an indiscriminate register for all, but simply for the holy and true. Not for the wicked. Are you enrolled in that book among the saints? If in Christ, you are, you must be–no one can keep you out of it. If not in Christ, you must be out of it, and no one can put you in.
II. The registrar. The Lambs book. The Book of Life must be the most difficult to keep. What wisdom–discrimination and justice are required! The combined intelligence of heaven and earth could not keep it; even archangels would make mistakes, but the Lamb cannot. Think of His high qualifications. His wisdom is perfect, His omniscience unfailing, His justice unsullied, and His love deep and eternal.
III. The registered. To be in that book is to be safe. To be there is to have heaven for an eternal possession. To be there, is to be among the highest and the best. What honour can be comparable with this? (Homilist.)
The heavenly register
I. The book referred to–
1. The book of life.
2. The Lambs book.
(1) As the author of life.
(2) As the Head of the Church.
(3) As the final Judge.
II. The names recorded–
1. Repentant sinners.
2. Living believers.
3. Sanctified disciples. Of all ages–countries–dispensations–conditions.
III. The privileges of the registered.
1. Divine honour.
2. Divine riches.
3. Every good.
4. Heavenly glory.
Conclusion: The subject should produce–
1. Unspeakable joy.
2. Entire confidence.
3. Holy circumspection.
4. Fidelity and obedient perseverance. (Homilist.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 27. There shall in nowise enter into it any thing that defileth] See Isa 35:8; Isa 52:1. Neither an impure person-he who turns the grace of God into lasciviousness, nor a liar-he that holds and propagates false doctrines.
But they which are written] The acknowledged persevering members of the true Church of Christ shall enter into heaven, and only those who are saved from their sins shall have a place in the Church militant.
ALL Christians are bound by their baptism to renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh; to keep God’s holy word and commandments; and to walk in the same all the days of their life. This is the generation of them that seek thy face, O God of Jacob! Reader, art thou of this number? Or art thou expecting an eternal glory while living in sin? If so, thou wilt be fearfully disappointed. Presuming on the mercy of God is as ruinous as despairing of his grace. Where God gives power both to will and to do, the individual should work out his salvation with fear and trembling.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And there shall in no wise enter into it: in the Greek there are two negative particles, which though in the Latin they make an affirmative, yet in the Greek make a stronger negative, which we translate in no wise, or by no means.
Any thing that defileth: this strongly denying particle is brought to make the bar excluding all unclean persons from heaven evident. And alas! How often had this need be denied, to make men and women, mad of their lusts, believe it! The word translated, that defileth, signifieth, what is common; nothing, no person that hath not by a holy life separated himself from the world, and all sin and wickedness, and dedicated himself to God.
Neither whatsoever worketh abomination; no profane or lewd person.
Or maketh a lie; nor any false or lying hypocrites, nor any idolaters, for idols are lies.
But they which are written in the Lambs book of life; none but those whose names are written in the book of life, predetermined to salvation, and redeemed with the blood of Christ. Some am not pleased with this sense; but what other thing can be meant? This is, at least, the sixth time we have met with this phrase in this book, Rev 3:5; Rev 13:8; 17:8; 20:12,15. It is also mentioned, Phi 4:3. And what else can be meant in Mosess prayer, Exo 32:32? It is twice {Rev 13:8; 17:8} said, that names were written in it from the foundation of the world. God hath a particular, certain, infallible knowledge who are his, and had it from eternity; and whence he should know it, without willing of it, is very hard to conceive. It is called the Lambs book, to let us know, that the act of redemption by Christ bears proportion to the counsels of election.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
27. anything that defilethGreek,“koinoun.” A and B read [koinon,] “anythingunclean.”
in the Lamb’s book oflife(See on Re 20:12; Re20:15). As all the filth of the old Jerusalem was carried outsidethe walls and burnt there, so nothing defiled shall enter theheavenly city, but be burnt outside (compare Re22:15). It is striking that the apostle of love, who shows us theglories of the heavenly city, is he also who speaks most plainly ofthe terrors of hell. On Rev 21:26;Rev 21:27, ALFORDwrites a Note, rash in speculation, about the heathen nations,above what is written, and not at all required by the sacred text:compare Note, see on Re21:26.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth,…. As evil thoughts, words, and actions do; and therefore he that enters into this city must be free from all these: or “that is defiled”, as the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions read; or “that is unclean”, as the Arabic and Ethiopic versions; alluding to the tabernacle and temple, into which no unclean person might come; see
Isa 52:1. No profane sinner, whose mind and conscience are defiled, and whose conversation is defiling, may enter here; nor any self-righteous person, whose righteousness is as filthy rags, and he himself is as an unclean thing, shall be admitted here; only such who are washed in the blood of Christ, and have on his righteousness, and so are without spot or wrinkle; which shows the pure and perfect state of this church and therefore cannot design any state of the church previous to the coming of Christ and the first resurrection:
neither whatsoever worketh abomination; commits sin, which is abominable in the sight of God, lives and dies in a course of wickedness; or particularly is guilty of idolatry, either makes idols, or serves them, or both, which are an abomination to the Lord; see
1Ki 11:7
or maketh a lie; any lie in general; who is a common liar, loves and invents a lie, and speaks one; delivers that which is false with an intention to deceive; or in particular, who embraces and propagates antichristian lies, doctrinal ones, lies spoken in hypocrisy; such shall be damned; see 1Ti 4:1 but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life; who are predestinated to eternal life; and though they are naturally, and in themselves defiled and sinful creatures, yet they are justified by the righteousness of Christ, and sanctified by his Spirit, and so are made meet and fit to enter this city; [See comments on Re 13:8]. It is by the Jews observed d, that
“the Jerusalem of the world to come is not as the Jerusalem of this world; the Jerusalem of this world, whoever would go up to it (or enter into it) might; but that of the world to come, , “none may go up to it (or enter into it) but those who are prepared”, or appointed for it.”
d T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 75. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
There shall in no wise enter into it ( ). Double negative again with the second aorist active subjunctive of with repeated. Like Isa 52:1; Ezek 44:9.
Anything unclean ( ). Common use of with negative like , and the use of for defiled or profane as in Mark 7:2; Acts 10:14, not just what is common to all (Tit 1:4).
Or he that ( ). “And he that.”
Maketh an abomination and a lie ( ). Like Babylon (17:4 which see for ) and 21:8 for those in the lake of fire and brimstone, and 22:15 for “every one loving and doing a lie.” These recurrent glimpses of pagan life on earth and of hell in contrast to heaven in this picture raise the question already mentioned whether John is just running parallel pictures of heaven and hell after the judgment or whether, as Charles says: “The unclean and the abominable and the liars are still on earth, but, though the gates are open day and night, they cannot enter.” In apocalyptic writing literalism and chronology cannot be insisted on as in ordinary books. The series of panoramas continue to the end.
But only they which are written ( ). “Except those written.” For “the book of life” see Rev 3:5; Rev 13:8; Rev 20:15. Cf. Da 12:1.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
That defileth [] . The participle. But the correct reading is the adjective koinon common, hence unhallowed. Rev., unclean.
Worketh [] . Lit,, maketh or doeth.
“In this present life, I reckon that we make the nearest approach to knowledge when we have the least possible communion or fellowship with the body, and are not infected with the bodily nature, but remain pure until the hour when God himself is pleased to release us. And then the foolishness of the body will be cleared away, and we shall be pure and hold converse with other pure souls, and know of ourselves the clear light everywhere, which is no other than the light of truth. For no impure thing is allowed to approach the pure” (Plato, “Phaedo,” 67).
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And there shall in no wise enter into it,” (kai ou me eiselthe eis auten) “And no one may enter it by any means; The excluded from this Holy city are here identified. They are the impenitent (unrepenting), the unbelieving, the immoral and the unethical who as responsible persons lived and died without Christ, Luk 13:5; Joh 8:24.
2) “Anything that defileth,” (pan koinon) “Any profane thing, or defiling thing (repeatedly doing);” Isa 52:1; Isa 44:9; Those who enter must be regenerated, born again, cleansed by the Blood of the Lamb, new creatures in Christ Jesus, Joh 3:3-7; 2Co 5:17.
3) “Neither whatsoever worketh abomination,” (kai ho poion bdelugma) “And the one making an abomination;” Zec 14:21. In Israel’s worship and in the church’s fellowship of worship moral and ethical renegades sneaked in, but is shall not be so in heaven, in the Holy City, the New Jerusalem; all such are quarantined from its entrance, forever excluded, Joh 8:24; Heb 12:14.
4) “Or maketh a lie,” (kai pseudos) “Or making a lie,” Rev 22:14-15. Here, on earth, even in the church, men may enter and worship by lying, as Judas Iscariot, but it shall not be so in this Holy City, Act 1:16-20; Act 5:11; 1Ti 1:20; 2Ti 2:17.
5) “But they which are written,” (ei me hoi gegrammenoi) “Except those having been inscribed (enrolled), already, at that time, having their names by that time written (recorded) in heaven, Luk 10:20; Php_4:3; Rev 3:5.
6) “In the Lamb’s book of life,” (en to biblio tes zoes tou arniou) “in the Lamb’s scroll (record book of the redeemed) of life;” In the family of God, as children of God, by faith in Christ Jesus, Gal 3:26; Rev 13:8; Rev 17:8. None will have an entrance or reservation unless his name is in the new birth family register, Joh 3:3; Joh 3:6-7.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
DOES PURGATORY PREPARE THE SOUL FOR HEAVEN?
Rev 21:27
OUR theme is Purgatory, a subject which Protestants seldom consider, for the very simple reason that Protestantism is based upon the primacy of the Sacred Scriptures. The Word of God knows nothing whatever of this term purgatory. It is not once employed between Genesis and Revelation. It could hardly be expected, therefore, that it would receive consideration from Protestant sources; and yet since there is a constant attempt on the part of Papists to win Protestants to their view it is necessary sometimes to understand the position of the other fellow, in order to defend ones own views.
It is with that in mind that we enter upon this discussion; first of all that we may know the ground on which we ourselves stand and the reasons, therefore; and second, that we may instruct those who shall become possible targets of proselyting. In other words, that we may at once give a reason for the hope that is within us and at the same time present the grounds of our rejection of other and false hopes.
Father Searle, in Plain Facts for Fair Minds seeks to excite pity for Romanists who are misrepresented by Protestant teachers, in that charges are made against their priests of getting people out of purgatory for a money consideration. He says, Now try to put yourself in our place for a moment. Think how you would feel if we made these sweeping charges against you. And then, after that somewhat pathetic appeal, he immediately proceeds with one of the worst slanders against that noble man, Martin Luther, and says, I am sorry to say that it is a matter of history that Luther and the original Protestants who followed him did hold that we are saved by faith alone, and that the more we sin, the more we glorify this saving faith. There is not a well-informed Protestant living who does not know that the first charge is truewe are saved by faith alone, and on that ground Protestants stand; and that the second statement, the more we sin the more we glorify this saving faith, is a foul falsehood.
On the contrary, Martin Luther, and all who hold the common Protestant view of the Sacred Scripture, agree perfectly with the Apostle Paul that,
The Law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: * * What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? * *
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin (Rom 5:20; Rom 6:1-2; Rom 6:6).
It is not my intent, in speaking of purgatory, to misrepresent, in the least, the papacy, but it is my clear purpose to expose its unscripturalness.
My first question is this:
WHAT IS THE PAPISTS PURGATORY?
Let Father Searle answer, We believe that Catholics who are saved, and are sure therefore of Heaven in the end, do not necessarily enter on it immediately. For there are sins which are not grievous or mortal. Such sins we call venial. I hardly think you would seriously believe that a boy who stole an apple from an orchard or from a grocery store would be condemned to hell for it; on the other hand, you do believe that a murderer or an adulterer dying impenitent would, no matter if he did have faith in Christ. For dying impenitent would mean that he did not care about the offence to God in his murder or adultery, and was ready to commit more if it suited his convenience. This distinction between mortal and venial sins is then simply common sense. Of course we cannot always decide whether a sin is mortal or venial, but that there is a difference between the two is plain. Now, it is on account of these venial sins that we believe most of those who are saved do not enter Heaven immediately. For though they are venial or comparatively easy to be forgiven (for that is what the word venial means), still they are sins, and they defile the soul; and as we have seen, nothing defiled can enter Heaven. The soul with the taint of sin on it, however slight, cannot see the face of God. It must be purified first, and there is nothing like suffering, patiently borne, to purify a soul. Now, purgatory means a state of purification or purging from sin by suffering; it is, then, entirely reasonable that the soul not as yet thoroughly purified in this world should be in purgatory for a time, till this purification is accomplished.
The definition given of purgatory by Cardinal Gibbons in The Faith of Our Fathers is in such perfect accord with this of Father Searle that I need not quote it. It is the boast of Roman priests that they are all in agreement on matters of doctrine, and so, when you have quoted from one, you ought, on their own assertion, to have the opinion of the church.
Our text calls attention to the
PASS-KEY OF PURITY
John is here describing the Holy CityNew Jerusalemand of that city he says,
There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lambs Book of Life.
Protestant and Papist are in agreement, therefore, that purity of character is the sine que non of seeing the inside of that city which God has as His residence, and where saints are to find their eventual abode. It is written, Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Soul-purity is prescribed by the Scriptures. Our text is a sweeping assertion. There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie. The Apostle is in perfect accord with the Prophet. Go back in your study to the Book of Isaiah, that far-seeing spokesman, and when he depicts Gods eventual Zionthe very city of this textwhere joy shall obtain, and crying and sorrow and sighing shall flee away he says, An highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it.
The man who expects to see the inside of the Eternal City, and to walk its streets a joyous citizen, must never forget that purity will be required as the pass-key. Every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure. The Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
Beloved, Christianity ought to mean outward and inward cleansing. Dr. Gordon relates a circumstance connected with the opening of the Chinese mission at Clarendon Street Church, Boston. One of the first students to enter the school was a raw, uncouth, unresponsive Chinaman by the name of Chin Tong. Unlike most of his fellows he was in person very unclean and very unsavory. The teacher to whom he was assigned worked with him months without making the least impression. One Sunday the text, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, was given to him for the next lesson. A week later when he came to the school he had almost worn the verse from the page, so often had he run his finger over it in study. One word in that text had arrested his attention cleanse. His vocation was washing and ironing and he understood its meaning, and when he appeared on the Sabbath it was in oriental dress, with his cue off, his hair shingled, his long finger-nails pared, his face clean as a new coin, his clothes without spot. The text had done its work, as was evidenced in his words to the teacher, Jesus Christ make a me clean inside, outside. It must be so for those who are going to see the inside of the gates of God.
Such purity is in the promise.
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Do you not remember how in the Book of Acts, Peter said, in justification of the regeneration of the Gentiles, God, which knoweth the hearts, beareth them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did unto us; and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
Purifying their hearts by faith.
God promised it; and God performs it! Truly, as John McNeal says, Sanctification is the work of Gods free grace. And he uses a forceful illustrationthat of a mother who puts a clean dress on her child in the morning, and tells her to get no dirt on it during the day. The child was willing to keep it clean and really desired to, but was not successful in the attempt. Now, remarks McNeil, if that mother would put her own spirit into that child her success would be ensured. And he adds, That is exactly what God wants to do for us. Ah, beloved, that is just what God has promised to do for us if we will let Him! (Eze 36:27). He will purge us from all our iniquities. By mercy and truth iniquity is purged.
But if we will be purged from iniquity we must practice purity. Is that not the meaning of Pauls message to Timothy? Keep thyself pure.
Is that not the significance of his language to the Philippians?
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are PURE, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things (Php 4:8).
I am more and more impressed with the fact that men stunt their souls by little sins, the lust of the eyes, etc. David Rittenhouse, the astronomer, found that a silken thread drawn across the glass of his telescope would completely hide a star from view. That meant that so small a thing blotted out the vision of a mighty world. And so the little sin sometimes obscures all heaven for men, and hides from their eyes the Almighty God.
Those who enter evil associations ought to remember that the very breath of the wicked is polluting, and that good manners must go when evil associates are kept.
We are told by travelers that near Geneva the two rivers the Arve and the Rhone come together. The Rhone rises from the lake Geneva and is a beautiful, clear stream. When it first meets the Arve it refuses to mix with it, and for a while they move side by side, the one filthy and the other clear. But, ere long, the putrid Arve prevails over the pure Rhone, and when they go out into the Mediterranean, they have been so much associated that you cannot distinguish their waters.
Young men and women, if you want to close the gates of Heaven against yourselves and put yourselves from the streets of the city whose joys are unspeakable, and whose glories are past even the pen of inspiration, you can do it by sin, and sinful association. But, if you want to enter it, and walk its streets with the glad sons and daughters of God, with angels and archangels, and Christ Himself, you can accomplish that; but you must practice purity, heeding Pauls injunction, Keep thyself pure.
THE PLACE OF PROBATION
is brought under discussion by the papal doctrine of purgatory. When and where are we to be prepared for Heaven? What is the sphere, or what are the spheres of probation?
I make bold to assert that the Scripture limits that sphere to this life. After carefully pursuing the papist argument for purgatory I have not found a single sentence of Scripture in favor of it. To be sure the book of Maccabees has a reference to the time when Judas Maccabees ordered prayers and sacrifices to be offered up for his slain comrades, and sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem to be offered for the sins of the dead.. But one is hard pressed when he must appeal to the apocryphal writings to prove his point. And even if one admitted these writings, who maintains that Judas Maccabees had the authority of other Scriptures for his acts, or was inspired in this piece of conduct?
No one questions that Ecclesiastes was written by inspiration, and in its assertion there is no uncertain sound, If the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be. No one doubts, does he?that Christ spoke the history of Dives and Lazarus? But what does that poor soul in torment request that alms should be offered up for his deliverance? Ah, no, only a drop of water to cool his tongue! And what does Abraham answer, Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.
If it be answered to this that the man was lost and in hell, rather than in purgatory, we reply, Surely, since the Bible knows no such intermediate state, described as purgatory.
Father Searle quotes this passage from the Apostle Paul to prove that there are sufferingsI Paul * * who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His bodys sake.
And Searles comments, Now what we Catholics hold is simply this, that a man may, by natural means, by subjecting himself to a painful bodily discipline or treatment, remove or avoid the natural consequences which his sins have naturally caused, so he may, by supernatural means, that is, by the merits of Christ still lying in store for him, avoid a remaining temporal penalty in the supernatural order which is still due even after eternal salvation has been given him. * * We hold then, in accordance with his teaching, that we may also do something either unavoidable or voluntary, for our suffering brethren.
But whatever Paul meant by what is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His bodys sake he certainly had no reference to the fact of purgatory, or fishing people out of the same by a self-infliction. He did endure suffering for Christs sake, as every good soldier of the Cross must; but he did it for Christs sake and for the sake of the Church, not for the sake of souls in purgatory.
The time to help people is here and now. I never think of this payment to priests in the interest of souls supposed to be in purgatory, but I am reminded of Francis Murphys statement when, on one occasion, at the close of an eloquent temperance appeal, a darling little girl approached him and gave him a beautiful rose. As Murphy inhaled its fragrant breath he turned to Dr. William Lawrence and said, Lawrence, I had rather have a bit of a girl like that bring me one rose while I am living than to have an undertaker back up a cartload and dump on my grave, saying, There, now, Murphy, smell those, for the truth is that the dead know not anything. The body in the grave is insensible; the soul with God is past need, and so probation is limited to this life.
Aye, it may be more limited still! There is a circle of consciousness with which men have to do. We are not wholly responsible until we are conscious of sin; we cannot be pardoned after the day when we lose consciousness of self and the world about us. Paul, therefore, absolutely puts it, Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation!
Tomorrow you may be living and yet be beyond the pale of mercy because you have passed beyond the possibility of conscious repentance.
Henry Van Dyke, in his volume Sermons to Young Men has a splendid passage on this line. He says, Nature teaches us that this world is not a place of judgment, but of probation, in which the good and the evil are working side by side. * * The parable of the wheat and tares applies not only to the world at large, but also just as truly to the individual soul. It is only in novels that the villains are absolutely bad, while the heroes and heroines are immaculately good. In real life, men and women are all somewhat mixed, and every soul is more or less an enigma to itself. We look into our own hearts and we are puzzled. We cannot interpret all that is within them. And God, Himself is saying Not yet! Not yet!
How clearly the patient refusal to judge now reveals the certainty that God will judge hereafter? If this world is the only place of probation, then beyond it there must be a place of judgment. The wicked shall not be unpunished; the righteous shall not fail of their reward.
How precious, then, how costly and invaluable is every day and hour of this mortal life in which the warm sunlight and the gentle rain assure us that the upward way is still open to us! We may still sow the good seed which shall bear fruit unto eternal life. But how long shall this time of hope endure? The night cometh! Who can tell!
Ah, beloved, ones probation period may pass even before he lose his consciousness. Christ, on one occasion, spoke the most solemn truth to which the world ever listened. It was when He remarked,
All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.
And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him.
Years ago in Laporte, Texas, I delivered a series of addresses to the camp meeting and learned that at the previous session of this same assembly Dr. A. C. Dixon was preaching on The Holy Spirit. A young man present had come to the pavilion expecting to dance, and finding this religious assembly in session had been angered in his disappointment, and sitting in the audience, was heard to swear at Dr. Dixon, and to blaspheme the Name of the Holy Ghost. A few moments afterward he went out on the pier, robed for bathing, and jumped into the water. The leap that he made was a daring one, and the water was more shallow than he had supposed, the tide being out. Ten minutes afterward they brought him back, his neck broken by a blow against the sandy bottom of the bay.
If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it (1Jn 5:16).
Young men and women; you are in the midst of life: tonight is your probation period. You are conscious of your need, it is your Divinely given opportunity! You have not, let us trust, sinned against the Holy Ghost, and blasphemed His Name. It is possible, therefore, by repentance, for you to prepare yourselves for the city of the text which will descend from God out of Heaven; in which God will tabernacle with His own, where every wet eye shall be wiped with His own hand; and where death shall be no more, neither sorrow nor crying; where the glory of God shall illuminate us, and where the twelve gates will be twelve pearls; where the streets will be of pure gold; where the foundations of the walls shall be garnished with all manner of precious stones, and where the nations of them that are saved shall walk!
Oh, to dwell there! To be with Christ and with God! All of that is possible! All of that is promised! All of that may be appropriated by faith! And all of that can be reached, not by the way of purgatory, a term unknown to Scripturebut by hearing the words of the great Apostle and employing the presentwhich is the great probation periodBehold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
But ere I finish this discourse I must remark upon
THE PEOPLE OF THIS PROMISE
They whose names are written in the Lambs Book of Life.
Ah, what a company that will be! It will be a mighty company. Beloved! I like to think on the multitude of it. I never go into a company where a great many good people are gathered but it rejoices me to feel that God has His thousands in the earth. I believe one of the most inspiring scenes is that of an assembly of saints, where, as in our great conventions, thousands are gathered, every face radiant, hope big within their hearts, their hands consecrated to the service of the Holy God; their feet delighting to go on His errands; their very characters the product of His indwelling Spirit!
But one day I shall behold a more blessed assembly, A great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues. And I shall see them stand before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands, and I shall hear their shouts, aye, blessed be God, I shall join in it with my whole voiceas that chorus rings through the Eternal CitySalvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb!
Who shall make up that company?
They which are written in the Lambs Book of Life.
Is your name there? That is my final question tonight.
Oh, beloved, God has His set of books also. Go back into this preceding chapter and listen to what the great Apostle saw when the books were opened Another Book was opened, which is the Book of Life. There has always been a painful suggestion in that description to meit took books to record the dead who were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
But only the Book of Life to record the living. Oh, to settle the question as to whether ones name shall be written in some of the books, or whether it shall be found in the Book of Life.
You say, How can I settle that? Easily! He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
Is Christ yours tonight, then you have life! If He is not yours, then death! But, if, tonight, you will have Christ He will bring life with Him, and you will be begotten from the dead unto the living. How often I think of that hymn:
Lord, I care not for riches, Neither silver nor gold;I would make sure of Heaven, I would enter the fold;In the Book of Thy Kingdom, With its pages so fair, Tell me, Jesus, my Saviour, Is my name written there!
Lord, my sins they are many, Like the sands of the sea, But Thy Blood, O, my Saviour, Is sufficient for me;For Thy promise is written In bright letters that glow, Tho your sins be as scarlet, I will make them like snow.
Oh! that beautiful city, With its mansions of light, With its glorified beings, In pure garments of white; Where no evil thing comethTo despoil what is fair;Where the angels are watching, Is my name written there?
Is my name written there, On the page white and fair?In the Book of Thy Kingdom, Is my name written there?
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
(27) And there shall in no wise enter into . . .Better, And there shall never enter into her anything unclean, and he that worketh abomination and falsehood, but only (or, except) they that have been written in the book of life of the Lamb. The gates stand open always, but no evil thing may find a home there. The emphatic repetition here (see Rev. 21:8) of the idea that all sin is excluded, is in harmony with all other Scripture: no unholiness can dwell in the presence of God. The allusion is to the care of the Jews to exclude all things unclean from the precincts of the sanctuary. The legal and ceremonial defilement had its spiritual significance, which the Apostles utilised elsewhere. (Comp. 2Co. 6:17-18; 2Co. 7:1; Rev. 18:4. On the book of life, see Rev. 20:12.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
27. But open as are these gates, there is a terrible yet salutary exclusion. As this city is glorious in structure, and most gloriously lighted, so its society is pure.
Any thing that defileth No filthy object shall disgust the sense, or spread miasms through the pure atmosphere.
Whatsoever Rather, no person, as the change to the masculine implies, that worked abomination or flagitious vice. The elegant debauchee is not admitted into good society. No author of any baseness of any offense against chastity, decency, honour, or uprightness shall enter. They have no citizenship in the heavenly earth, but are assigned their abode in a darker region.
Maketh a lie Manufacturers of a damnable dogma, deceiving men’s souls; utterers of slanders, destroying men’s characters; writers of fictions, depraving men’s imaginations. The authors of the theory of wickedness, great “philosophers” though esteemed, take share with the practisers of the license they have preached.
Written It is not necessary to record your name as at a modern hotel. It was written at the day of judgment analysis.
Book of life Ephesus had its “town-clerk,” and this city has its registry of citizens; nay, a record, a census-book, of all the names of the individuals of all the nations of the heavenly earth. Augustus sent forth the decree that all the world should be enrolled for taxation. The august monarch of heaven has an enrollment of all the inhabitants of heaven.
It may be asked, Are these chapters a true description of heaven? We may ask in reply, What higher heaven can corporeal and spiritual man conceive than is here described? On a transfigured earth, immortal man walks in the atmosphere of the divine Essence, in the midst of a society of holy beings, in sight of the glorious palace of the present God. What can the sublimest human conception imagine more celestial?
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And under no circumstances will anything unclean enter it, or he who makes an abomination and a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.’
This final sentence confirms all we have said. The city only consists of those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. It is only for the true people of God. No ‘living nations’ can enter it if they are not of the people of God, for it is for the people of God and for them alone. Totally excluded (because they have been dealt with elsewhere) are idolaters, those who are unclean, which probably especially refers to sexual uncleanness in accordance with what we have seen earlier in the book, but also includes uncleanness of any sort, and any who have preferred falsehood to truth. The city of God is for ‘virgins’, for those who are without blemish, for those in whose mouth there is no lie (Rev 14:4-5). Only the perfected can make up the city of God.
The idea, of course, is that those who do such things are excluded in principle. They are not outside trying to sneak in. They no longer exist. Their exclusion was settled long before.
It is clear that no such city would exist in its physical proportions and make up. But it is not intended that it should exist physically (even if anything could be seen as physical in the new world). What is intended is to bring out the splendour, the glory, the privilege, the perfection and the fullness of the people of God.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
REFLECTIONS
READER! behold with an eye of steady faith, the new heaven, and the new earth, wherein righteousness dwelleth! Yea, look again and again, with rapture, at the Church coming down from God Out of heaven, as a bride adorned for her husband! Bless God the Father, in the contemplation, for his electing love, in choosing; for his giving love, in giving the Church to his dear Son; and for all the ten thousand manifestations of his love, in predestinating each, and every individual of the mystical body, to the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ to himself, and accepting the whole Church in the Beloved, to the praise of the glory of his grace!
Bless God the Son, for his betrothing his Church before all worlds, watching over her, in all the time-state of her sad adulterous departure from him redeeming her with his blood, washing her from her sins, clothing her with his righteousness, bringing her home, and presenting her to himself, in the marriage supper, prepared for her in his kingdom of glory.
Bless God the Spirit for his anointings in the early formation of Christ and his Church as one, before the foundation of the world, for his quickening and regenerating grace in time, and for all his leadings, teachings, comfortings, and renewings, when glorifying the Lord Jesus to the Church’s view, and directing the heart into the love of God. Oh! for grace, while contemplating the Church, the Lamb’s wife, to behold with yet greater rapture and joy, the Lamb himself, and bless the whole persons of the Godhead, for all their love and mercy to the Church in Him.
And what a state of unspeakable felicity is the Church here brought to, after all the temptations of Satan, the deceivings of the heart, and the opposition from the world. Precious Jesus! thou art the Alpha and Omega of all blessedness. Blessed are all thy gifts and all thy manifestations in wiping away all tears from off all faces, and putting an everlasting end to all sorrow and sin. But blessed yet more art thou for thy love. Do thou, Lord, who art the everlasting light, and the glory of heaven, be the light and glory of thy Church on earth. Lord! shine daily on my soul, until thou shalt bring me home to this blessed city, where neither sun nor moon shall anymore be needful, for thou, Lord, wilt be the light of all the poor Gentiles thou hast brought into thy kingdom, and the glory of thy people Israel.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.
Ver. 27. And there shall in no wise ] Though the serpent could wind himself into paradise, yet no unclean person can come into this holy city. Tertullian called Pompey’s theatre (which was the greatest ornament of old Rome) arcem omnium turpitudinum, the sty of all uncleanness. Heaven is none such.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
R. Jochanan (Baba-Bathra f. 76, 2,) said the coming Jerusalem would not be like the present one: in hanc ingreditur quicunque uult, in illam uero non nisi qui ad eam ordinati sunt. Citizenship similarly in John’s new city is a matter of moral character and of divine election, not of nationality. The Lord’s city is like the Lord’s table, as the Ep. to Diognetus finely puts it (5) , communis but not profanus , “common and open to all, yet in another sense no common thing.” The trait is adapted from Slav. En. ix., where the garden-paradise of the third heaven is only for those loyal to their faith, humble, just, charitable and benevolent, blameless and whole hearted, while the hell of torture (Rev 10:4-6 ) is reserved for all addicted to sodomy, witchcraft, theft, lying, murder, and fornication, besides oppression and callousness to human suffering. But . and . may be simply “idolatry” (as in LXX); the keynote of the book being struck once more (as in En. xcix. 9). In the Egyptian litany of the nine gods ( E. B. D. 35) every petition ends with the words, “I have not spoken lies wittingly, nor have I done aught with deceit,” and in Apoc. Bar. xxxix. 6 the seer accuses the Roman Empire thus: “by it the truth will be hidden, and all those who are polluted with iniquity will flee to it, as evil beasts flee and creep into the forest”.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
in no wise. App-105.
that defileth = unclean. Greek. koinoo, as the texts.
neither whatsoever. Read “or he that”.
worketh . . . lie = worketh (or maketh) a lying abomination, i.e. an idol (Greek. baelugma. See Rev 17:5).
or = and.
but = only. Greek. ei me.
Lamb’s book of life. See Rev 13:8. Note the Figure of speech. Polysyndeton (App-6) in verses: Rev 21:22-27.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Rev 21:27. [236]) Others read, .[237] But the article is absent also, ch. Rev 22:15, : and here also may be understood from , which immediately precedes.- ) , Sir 51:2.
[236] , and there shall not enter) From this any one may collect, whether he shall enter or not.-V. g.
[237] A omits the article. The best MS. of Vulg. aliquid coinquinatum faciens ahominationem; so B and Rec. Text, .-E.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Chapter 66
Heaven – who shall enter in
‘And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life
Rev 21:27
The church of God in this world is like the tabernacle in the wilderness. Within, it is lit up with the glory of Gods presence. We are the temple of the living God. God dwells in our midst. God the Holy Spirit resides in the hearts of his people. And the One Person who always attends the assembly of the saints is the Son of God, our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Wherever two or three gather in his name, he is present with them (Mat 18:20). Without, Gods church is guided and protected by the fiery and cloudy pillar of Gods eternal providence. As God led Israel in the wilderness, fed them, protected them, and defended them under the symbol of the fiery and cloudy pillar, so he leads, feeds, protects, and defends his church today. But outwardly, to all outward appearance, the church of God in this world is a common, unattractive, despised thing. Insofar as the nations were concerned the tabernacle was nothing but a crude tent. God was there, but they knew it not. The altar was there, but they had no use for it. The sacrifice of atonement was there, but they despised it. The mercy-seat was there, but they could not see it.
All they could see was a poor, homeless people who had no place to worship but a crude tent, and a people who claimed to be the only true worshippers of God in the world. The faithful Jews would not worship at any other altar. They refused to acknowledge as brethren any who would not worship their God. They acknowledged only one way of salvation – Blood Atonement! For these things they were always despised, persecuted, and mocked by the world around them. The tabernacle in the wilderness was, in these ways, a symbol and picture of Gods church in this world. God dwells in his church. Christ Jesus guides and protects his church. But the world, and all the religions of the world, mock and despise the church of God. It will not always be so. There is a day coming when the tables will be turned. In the last day the Lord God will reveal his glory in his church and glorify his church before all the universe (Joh 17:22-23; Eph 2:7). In Rev 21:10-27 John shows us the glorified church of God in the last day. (Read Eph 5:25-27). Christ loved his church, died to redeem it, sanctifies it, and will perfect and glorify it.
In the last day, the Lord Jesus will present his church, in all the resurrection glory he puts upon her, to the Fathers throne. And all the world shall marvel at his glory and grace revealed in his church. Look at Johns description of her glory. We shall be presented before the throne of God, before the adoring angels, before satan, and before the eyes of the damned as a virgin bride (Rev 21:9), the city of God (Rev 21:10-11), a walled fortress (Rev 21:12), a great, massive city (Rev 21:12-17), a perfect, complete city (Rev 21:16), an indescribably wealthy people (Rev 21:18-21), a perfectly happy, satisfied people (Rev 21:22-23), and a universally honored, glorious church (Rev 21:24-26).
The church of God shall be the crowning glory of the new creation in eternity. ‘As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him’ (1Co 2:9). No tongue can tell because no mind can conceive the glory that awaits the church of God in heavens eternal bliss. But some will never enter into the glory and bliss of heaven. ‘And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lambs book of life.’ Heaven is an eternal state of perfect holiness into which nothing but perfect holiness can enter.
Here is a very solemn fact
‘There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie.’ Heaven will never be polluted by sin. God almighty is holy, righteous, just, and perfect. That which dwells with him forever must be holy, righteous, just, and perfect. In order for anything, or anyone, to enter heaven it must be perfect. Any lack of absolute, total perfection must forever exclude us from the presence of God. Perfect holiness cannot tolerate anything less than perfect holiness. When sin defiled Eden, Eden was forever destroyed because God will not tolerate sin. His law requires a perfect obedience from man and threatens any lack of perfection with death. And the law requires a perfect sacrifice for atonement. Even Gods own dear Son, when he was defiled with sin, was forsaken by God and slain! God requires perfection. Heaven is a world of perfection. Defilement, abomination, and deceit shall never enter into it. Sin shall never darken the kingdom of light or defile the City Beautiful.
It is not at all a matter of bigotry or harshness to declare that heaven shall never be defiled by sin. It is only a matter of righteousness and justice, to which every rational person must give assent. Everything in heaven, everyone in heaven, and everyone going to heaven is in full agreement with this decree – ‘There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth.’ We have seen what sin has done to the world of the angels, the physical world, and our fallen race. We would not see heaven ruined by it. The essence of heavens bliss is the total absence of sin in that blessed state. Gods saints are citizens of a land where there is no sin. We are going to an eternal world, where sin shall never be found. One of heavens greatest attractions and most cherished glories is total freedom from sin. There we shall enjoy perfect communion with, perfect conformity to and consecration to the Lord Jesus Christ. Should sin be permitted to enter, all would be ruined! Sin would forever disrupt the peace of heaven, destroy the joy of heaven, and defile the beauty of heaven.
This exclusion of sin from heaven is the exclusion of all who are sinners. ‘There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth.’ No person who defiles, no fallen spirit, no sinful man can enter the gates of the New Jerusalem. No tendency to sin, no thought of sin, no will to sin, no desire for sin can go to heaven. Were it possible for a sinner to go to heaven, he could never enter into the heavenly state. The essence of heaven is a condition, not a place. It is a condition of worship, holiness, and delight in God. If a sinner could get to the place of heaven, he still could not be in the condition of heaven. He would be out of his element. Heaven would be misery for a sinful man if he should enter it in such a condition.
Our own hearts give full agreement with this exclusion. ‘There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth.’ If I might enter into heaven as I am at this moment, as I write these lines, with my sinful heart and nature, it would be a horrible crime for me to do so, for my presence there would defile the city of God. Just as a leper would not and could enter the temple of God, lest he defiled that holy place and all who were there, no sinner shall be allowed to enter heaven. Just as we demand that those with a deadly disease be isolated from healthy society for the sake of the living, God demands that sinners be banished from himself and from his saints in heaven.
This exclusion of sin from heaven is the absolute exclusion of all who defile, make abomination, or make a lie. John is telling us that sinners of every kind must be forever excluded from the Paradise of God. ‘There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth.’ No evil thought, words, or deeds shall enter heaven. Those who enter the city of God must be free of these things. If we are defiled, in anyway, by sin, we cannot enter heaven. No unclean thing shall enter the Temple of God (Isa 52:1). ‘There shall in no wise enter into it anything that worketh abomination.’ Abomination in Scripture usually refers to idolatry, the making of idols, the worship of idols, and the service of idols (1Ki 11:4-8). The most abominable thing in this world in the sight of God is false religion, idolatry. If a persons religion is false, if he worship strange gods, he cannot go to heaven. Should anyone ask, ‘What is a strange god?’ It must be answered, any god who wants to save, but lacks the power to save, any god who sends people he loves to hell, any god whose will is frustrated, whose purpose is defeated, whose power is limited is a strange god. ‘There shall in no wise enter into it anything that maketh a lie.’ All false prophets and false teachers, inventors and perpetrators of religious lies shall be damned (1Ti 4:1-2; 2Th 2:11-12). That is to say, those who invent and promote the religious lies of free will, works salvation shall be excluded from the paradise of God. ‘There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie.’
In the light of these things, it must be concluded that no human being can, in his natural condition, enter into heaven
All who are without Christ are without hope (Eph 2:11-13).’Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God’ (1Co 15:50). Without Christ there is no hope of mercy, no blood atonement, no righteousness, no eternal life, and no hope before God. Rev 21:27 slays forever all hope of self-salvation (Jer 13:9). Can a sinful man wash away his own sins? Can a dead man give himself life? Can a guilty man make righteousness for himself? If any of us are saved, we must be saved by grace (Eph 2:8).
Even those who are saved by the grace of God must undergo a great change before we can enter into heaven. Many are of the opinion that Gods saints in this world get riper and riper for heaven in progressive holiness and sanctification until at last they are ready for heaven. But it is not so. Though we are made perfectly righteous before God by righteousness imputed and imparted to us before we can enter into heaven we must drop this robe of flesh in death. And our bodies must be transformed in the resurrection.
Yet, the Holy Spirit gives us a blessed word of hope
I know that nothing evil shall enter heaven, nothing and no one who defiles, works abomination, or makes a lie shall enter heaven. No one has the right to enter by nature. And no one can ever earn the right to enter. But there is hope. God has written a book of election, and all whose names are written in that book shall enter in. No one shall enter into heaven ‘but they which are written in the Lambs book of life.’ I want to know one thing: Is my name written in that book? If it is, all is well. If it is not, I must be forever damned. Is my name written there? I know this, if my name is written there it was written there in eternity (Rev 13:8) because of a covenant (2Sa 23:5); and it was written there permanently. The Lambs Book of Life is a book of election, a record of redemption, and a promise of life. I take the liberty of writing in the first person because I want all who read these lines to apply what is here written to themselves personally. I am confident that my name is written in that blessed book. Are you? I have this confidence for only one reason. I trust the Lord Jesus Christ. Trusting Christ I have life (Joh 3:36); and by his grace, I have all that God requires for entrance into heaven (Col 1:12 to Col 2:10). In Christ I have complete atonement for all my sins (Rom 5:10). In Christ I have perfect righteousness. He is the Lord my righteousness. His righteousness is as truly mine as my sin was once his (Jer 23:6; Jer 33:16; 1Co 1:30; 2Co 5:21). In Christ I am assured of a glorious change. When I die, as I soon shall, I shall depart this world of sin to be with Christ in heavens world of holiness (2Co 5:1-9). And when my Redeemer comes again I shall be in the resurrection of the just because in him I am totally justified before God (Joh 5:28-29; 1Co 15:51-58). If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you too shall enter into that glorious state called HEAVEN because, from eternity your name was ‘written in the Lambs book of life’ by the very finger of God. God help you to believe!
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
The Citizens of the City
And there shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie: but only they which are written in the Lambs book of life.Rev 21:27.
1. The New Jerusalem, as seen in the vision of the Book of Revelation, is a city differing in many respects from cities in the modern world. There is no night there, no curse, no temple. It is to be, not, as are many modern cities, for the troubling of the nation, but for its healing. It is to be the source of light and health and glory to all mankind. There is no relapse into heathenism or barbarism, no dark ages yet to come. The new city has an eternal day. The light of Gods Presence never wavers. The translucent buildings and walls transmit all the light of life that is concentrated in her to the nations and peoples without. Her gates are ever openeverything that is of value, every talent, every power, every gift in the sum of human perfections is concentrated here to the Divine service. All the nations offer their glory and honour, not as captives robbed of their freedom, and despoiled of their treasures in a Roman triumph, but as free and loving subjects, as those who hate falsehood and immorality, and order their conduct in obedience to the laws that bind the citizens of the kingdom of the Lamb.
2. This ideal city which St. John depicts is not heaven, except in so far as heaven is already latent in the earth and shall finally be realized in it. The indications of the path of interpretation are clear. The ideal city is the Holy Jerusalem, and stands in contrast to the great city Babylon. Whether we take them separately, or oppose them to one another, their meaning is obvious. It is certainly not heaven and hell that they represent, but rather the forces and dominions upon earth of good and evil. Jerusalem represents here, as it does in ancient prophecyupon which the pictures of this book are almost entirely basedthe people of God upon earth, in their holy character and their organized force. If there were any doubt of this, the added picture of the bride, the Lambs wife, would remove all uncertainty. For, whether we turn to the Old Testament or to the New, the metaphor is consistently applied to the covenant people of God. The ideal city, therefore, represents the Church of Christ in its ideal meaning and its ideal attainment. It is not a jewellers shop, as some have called it in supercilious and ignorant scorn. It is a symbolic picture of the spiritual power and grandeur which God has destined for the earth.
3. The text speaks of its citizens. And it tells us that there is nothing but moral disability that excludes from citizenship, as there is nothing but moral power that can entitle to its privileges. It is not the wise and the prudent, the opulent and the mighty, that have a right to the seats of the blessed in the City of Life. No key of gold can open the gates of the New Jerusalem, or secure an entrance therein. For the strong angel at the gate esteems the riches and the honours of men as nothing and less than nothing. But the gates are ever open to the pure in heart, and the angel knows no title to the glory of the city except the title of the pure. Only they which are written in the Lambs book of life can find that holiness of spirit which shall admit men through the gates of the city of God.
I
Those who may not Enter
There shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie.
1. The first description of those who may not enter the city of God involves simply the assertion of moral unsoundness. Herein lies the germ of all the possible developments of sin. In the words, anything unclean, the reference is to the blemish that detracts from perfect soundness, to the defiling characteristics that distinguish the unclean from the clean, the common from the holy. This moral unsoundness is the elementary fact in the history and progress of sin, and a universal fact in human experience. Whatever controversies may be raised concerning total and partial depravity in the beginning of human life, the universal sweep of moral unsoundness in our race is patent enough to every unprejudiced observer. Behold I was shapen in iniquity may be boldly taken as a generalization, and applied to every member of the human family. Such defilement cannot enter into the gates of the eternal city. The unclean are for ever the denizens of darkness, and the gates of the city of light give no pathway for their feet.
(1) The margin of the Revised Version tells us that the word translated unclean literally means common. Common, i.e., shared by other nations, was often used by the Jews in a depreciatory sense. Thus they found fault with the disciples of Jesus for eating food with common, i.e., unwashed, hands. Our word vulgar has much the same sort of depreciatory meaning, and it would have been such an exact rendering in this passage from the Revelation that one feels at first inclined to regret that our translators did not adopt it. But they were clearly right. To have said that nothing vulgar could enter the heavenly city would have given an opening to serious misconstruction. A strange vision of a heaven restricted to the world of rank and fashion might have presented itself to people who identify vulgarity with the working classesto the kind of people who think that it is vulgar to be poor, and vulgar not to dress for dinner. Yet there the word stands, common, vulgar (). In the Authorized Version the rendering is anything that defileth (). But this is an alteration by later copyists. Originally, there is no doubt, the writer wrote, There shall in no wise enter anything that is common, anything that is vulgar. The text, then, may be taken as suggesting that there is sometimes to be found in human nature a certain kind of commonness of character, a certain type of vulgarity, which is insufferable in the sight of God, so insufferable that it cannot be admitted into His presence. Whenever it predominates in any human soul, that soul cannot enter into the heavenly city.
(2) It is the egotistic element in our human nature that we cannot even imagine ourselves as bringing into the presence of God. The vulgar person in any rank, from the nobleman to the labourer, is one whose whole interests centre in himself, who is unconscious of the feelings of others, lacking all the delicate sympathies and sensibilities of the gentler nature. One who pushes and tramples, and not only that, but one who is simply obtuse and callous, has in him the root of vulgarity. And this dulness of perception is met with equally in all ranks. Now this egotism, which we recognize as the root of vulgarity, is precisely what we must lay aside on entering Gods presence. He giveth grace to the humble; to follow Christ it is needful to deny or suppress oneself; it is the meek and the modest that alone can realize Gods presence. All purse-proud, or intellect-proud, or success-proud charactersin fact, all egotisms are alike condemned by our instinct as vulgar, and by our conscience as incapable of entering into the Kingdom of God.
(3) There is often an inherent vulgarity in sin, which we must shut utterly out of our lives, if our heart is to be in communion with Him who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Vulgarity, it is true, is not exactly the same thing as sin. It is sin seen in a certain light, in a very hateful and ugly light; sin viewed as egotistical, unenlightened, callous, self-complacent. Egotism, callousness, self-complacencythese are just the qualities which we must lay aside if we wish to come before the presence of God. We cannot even begin to lead a religious life unless we are striving to deny self, to love our brother, and to be humble-minded. More terrible, perhaps, than any other kind of vulgarity is the vulgarity of moral uncleanness. What more hopelessly vulgarizes a life than this? What more completely blinds it to the light of the Divine Presence? Only to the pure heart is vouchsafed the blessing of seeing God. Let us turn the searchlight of conscience upon our hearts, and ask ourselves whether we have that inner refinement of character and purity of soul which alone can enable us to live the life of the Spirit, or whether we are among the vulgar, the truly vulgar, who can in no wise enter into the heavenly city.
The essence of all vulgarity lies in want of sensation. Simple and innocent vulgarity is merely an untrained and undeveloped bluntness of body and mind; but in true inbred vulgarity, there is a dreadful callousness, which in extremity becomes capable of every sort of bestial habit and crime, without fear, without pleasure, without horror, and without pity. It is in the blunt hand and the dead heart, in the diseased habit, in the hardened conscience, that men become vulgar; they are for ever vulgar, precisely in proportion as they are incapable of sympathyof quick understandingof all that, in deep insistence on the common but most accurate term, may be called the tact or touch-faculty of body and soul: that tact which the Mimosa has in trees, which the pure woman has above all creaturesfirmness and fullness of sensation, beyond reason;the guide and sanctifier of reason itself. Reason can but determine what is true: it is the God-given passion of humanity which alone can recognise what God has made good. This is the chief vulgarity, that of character, the dull unconscious egotism; but there is also a vulgarity of intellect. There are minds which are so absorbed in personalities and trifles as never to rise to human interests in literature or politics, or the life of the home circle; and that without possessing the unlettered and often courteous dignity of the peasant. Ignorance is not vulgarity; the vulgarity lies in a prostitution of education to trivialities, or worse, which pastures on the criminal, or sporting, or society, or other gossip of the day. We feel the incompatibility of such a mind with all the higher life. This sort of vulgarity also excludes itself from the heavenly city. It is whatsoever things are true honourable, just, pure, lovely, and of good report; it is these and thoughts of these that fit our minds for that city of the heavens. And the vulgarity of character and of intellect leads on by a dreadful law to the worst of all its manifestations, which is spoken of as uncleanness. The utter egotism, the want of respect and sympathy for others, the absorption in self-gratification, kept in check by no thought of what is pure and lovely and divine in others or ourselves, find here their crowning manifestation, and assuredly this blots out, like some dense fumes, the light of the presence of God, and debases the whole nature.
2. The next stage in the development of evil is that of moral offensiveness. Moral uncleanness rapidly becomes moral abomination. In spite of the sinfulness of human nature, sin at a certain stage becomes offensive to the moral sense of the bulk of the people. There is an early point in the career of sin where the personal consciousness of moral obliquity far outweighs its moral offensiveness to others. The external relations of sin have not developed to the point of its becoming an abomination to men, though it is already an abomination to the all-holly God. But the road from uncleanness to abomination is an open way. The sphere is one, and the path is continuous. The beginnings of moral evil must be cleansed, otherwise the godless man that has not yet forfeited the respect of society by offensiveness of life is destined, some day, to walk side by side with the miscreant, the savour of whose evil deeds reeks through the land.
You will observe the seer is speaking not of persons, but of things. One might wonder at first sight why he does not from the outset use the masculine form. Why does he not say, There shall in no wise enter into it any man that worketh abomination? In the case of the second clause, the Revised Version has inserted the personal element, he that worketh a lie. Yet I have no hesitation in saying that in so doing it has weakened, and not strengthened, the original sense. The writer is speaking primarily and mainly, not of actors, but of the influence of their acts. Indeed, it is a great blessing for the human race that it should be so. Personal salvation would be impossible except on the supposition that a man shall be enrolled in the membership of the Kingdom while yet he is in a state of uncleanness. This has always been regarded as the pith and marrow of the evangelical doctrine. It is as philosophical as it is orthodox, and it is as comforting as it is philosophical. The man who would enter the Kingdom of Christ must, according to St. Paul, enter by faith alone. He must not wait until he is pure. He must be content to come with the intention of purity, with the desire to be what he is not. He must be allowed to put his foot on the sacred threshold just as he is, without one plea. He must be accepted for an aspiration. If he would have his name written in the book of life, it must be written there in advance of his life. He must be justified before he is sanctifiedpronounced fit for the Kingdom in the light of days to come. The only hope for him is his permission to survive, his permission to enter within the gates of gold, while yet his own life has not transcended the brass.1 [Note: G. Matheson, Sidelights from Patmos, 327.]
3. The final stage of evil is the complete perversion of the moral judgment as well as of the moral lifemaketh (or worketh) a lie. In the 22nd chapter we find the fuller phraseloveth, and maketh a lie. Sin, having grown into an abomination, acts upon the inner life of the sinner no less powerfully than it does on the moral sense of the beholders. Its external offensiveness goes hand in hand with internal destructiveness, until the life becomes perverted into fossilized evil and its every activity becomes a living lie. At last evil is loved as good, and good as evil. The true meaning of things becomes entirely distorted, and the soul lives and moves in an environment of absolute falsehood. Herein lies the consummation of the city of darkness, the barren and foul realm of untruth, which stands out in sharply defined contrast to the city that shines with the glory of God, with the blaze of the infinite Truth.
The words to make (or do) a lie are like our Lords words, He that doeth truth. To make a lie is to act contrary to the truth of mans being in his relation to God. Those who thus make a lie will always love darkness, and hate the light that shines from the City of God. But those who do the truth will love the light and come to the light which shines from her.
Why does the seer of Patmos say maketh a lie and not telleth a lie? It is because he is not thinking of a spoken lie. He is thinking of what we call the principle of make-believe. He is contemplating the efforts of men to make the appearance pass for the reality, to give a gloss to circumstances, to cause things to seem what they are not, and not to seem what they are. And he declares that the result of these attempts is ever the sameevanescence. He maintains that nothing which is unreal can be permanent, that no sham can live, that everything false is, by its very nature, doomed to perish. And here again he has prophesied truly. Is there any sphere where the principle of Divine survival is so clearly manifest as in the region of illusions? Even the destruction of impurity is not so rapid. It is often left for a future generation to behold the dissolution of what was base and defiled. But every man, within his own lifetime, within a corner of his own lifetime, has been privileged to witness the death of make-believe. All this is no accident; it is a law, Gods law, that law of Divine survival by which nothing lives on the stream of history which has won its pre-eminence by making a lie.1 [Note: G. Matheson, Sidelights from Patmos, 331.]
In Platos ideal state, while lying on part of the private citizens is condemned, it is allowed to magistrates. As Rendel Harris says,2 [Note: Sidelights on New Testament Research, 231.] it is a reserved art, practised by the guardians of the community upon the rank and file, presumably for their good. The rulers have reserved rights in untruthfulness. The lying, he continues, which Plato inculcated was not of the pitiful degraded kind which Liguori patronizes and which Cardinal Newman was so hard put to it to defend. But whatever was covered by the Platonic doctrine, the Christian Church generally repudiated it, and it is expressly repudiated in the Apocalyptic sketch of the New City.
II
Those who may Enter
Only they which are written in the Lambs book of life.
1. Their names are written in a book.To live in a book is one of the deepest desires of men. There are few who have not wished to have an influence on earth extending beyond the range of their earthly life. To have something that will survive us, something that will speak of us when we are gone, something that will make us a power in the world after we have passed away, is an ambition which, in some form or other, has been felt by all. Various have been the forms it has taken. Some have sought it by winning love, some by leaving a mass of money, some by rearing a monument of art, some by bequeathing the creations of music. But even those who would live by art, by sculpture, by music, expect to have their name preserved through the medium of a book. It is in no case by our own book that we mainly hope to live. Our ambition is to have our names written in some other book, to be quoted as an authority, to be referred to as an illustration. Even to write ones name in a visitors book has a kind of symbolic pleasure; it suggests the transmission of fame. Even to appear in the fleeting columns of the newspaper gives a glow of satisfaction; it conveys the impression of publicity. But to have the name written in a real book, a living book, a book that will live, to appear in pages that are destined to last for centuries, to obtain honourable mention in a record that will endure as long as the language of your countrythis is a goal of aspiration which any man might be proud to win.
Our ambition is to get our names in a living book, a book that will live. But where is such a book to be found? How many books are there of living writers which one would venture to pronounce immortal? I have often asked myself, if all the authors of the present day were to stop writing from this moment, how many would be remembered, even by name, twenty-five years after this. It would be invidious to say. Meantime, we cannot but observe that there is nothing in which the calculations of men have been so falsified as the fate of books. Works which were confidently promised an immortality by their contemporaries have, in a few years, been buried in oblivion; and works which, by their contemporaries, were unnoticed and unknown have filled the world with their fame. Sydney Dobell was pronounced a great dramatist; Alexander Smith was called one of the greatest of poets; yet Sydney Dobell is altogether, and Alexander Smith almost, forgotten. Thomas Kempis issued his book in the darkness, and its coming woke no echoes in its time; but the world found it after many days, and posterity gave it a place next to the Bible. Every book that lasts through a series of centuries is in a sense a Lambs book. It has achieved success by sacrifice. It has postponed a temporal to an eternal interest. It has refused to follow the fashions of the hour. It has declined to purchase popularity by pandering to the spirit of a special age. It selects universal types of men, and is content to wait till that which is special has passed away. If Shakespeare had written for his age, he would have been famous in his age. But he preferred to disregard the accidents of humanity, to ignore that which was peculiar to the sixteenth century; and therefore he has found his atmosphere only in a later day.1 [Note: G. Matheson, Sidelights from Patmos, 321.]
2. It is the book of life.The book of life is that great volume in which the eternal and inexorable conditions of life are written. It is not, as some have supposed, an arbitrary catalogue of names, selected without a moral basis from the multitudes of men, to which eternal life is attached by an omnipotent fiat. Its fundamental character is not more elective than it is moral and spiritual. It is the awful and eternal focus of power out of which the currents of life perennially flow. It is the great Gods charter of life based upon Gods own nature, upon eternal truth and righteousness. The book of life is the record and forecast of victorious moral grandeur, of the vast achievement of God-given power in the hearts of men. It is the roll of heroes, the volume of the mighty, the record of the pure, the list of the strong sons of God.
Those who returned from the Babylonian captivity were enrolled by families in a great book kept for that purpose. The names in this roll were supposed to constitute the new Israel; the nation which was henceforth a religious communitya church and a kingdom in one. To this nation was committed the task of rebuilding the sacred city of Jerusalem, and re-instituting the ancient worship of God on Mount Zion. But, when the exiles got home from Babylon, these people were disgusted by the paganism and poor moral quality of their kinsmen whom they found already there. This was the reason why they were so particular about the book of names. They refused to worship with or include in their fellowship those who had intermixed with foreign nations, and degraded the service of God by heathen rites. They therefore became very strict about the qualifications for citizenship in the new Jerusalem which they had now to build. Only those whose names were on the roll as being qualified by character, training, and descent for membership in the new kingdom were admitted to the altar, or allowed to dwell within the walls. But this ideal of a City of God and a Book of Life was never forgotten. Henceforth Babylon became a synonym for the Roman Empire, and the Book of Life a metaphor to signify those who were included in the Church of Jesus. It is no longer the roll of those who came back from Babylon and were found worthy of citizenship in the reconstituted kingdom of Judah; it is the number of those who belong to Jesus in earth and heaven.1 [Note: R. J. Campbell, Thursday Mornings at the City Temple, 284.]
3. It is the Lambs book of life.The phrase further teaches that the focus of life for fallen humanity is the Lamb. There is only one book of life for men, and that is the Lambs book. Men, having lost the central fount of power through the Fall, must rediscover it in the sacrificial Lamb of the cross. In the Lamb is now stored all Gods power for the salvation of men. Strange that men are so slow to believe and accept this momentous truth. To-day, as in the days of His flesh, the Son of Man must often say, Ye will not come to me, that ye may have life.
It is the Leper Asylum at Bankurawhere the stage between the painful pilgrimage and the painless City is passed. In the little church a pathetic sight is seensquatting on the cool concrete floor, groups of men on one side, and women on the other side, are ranged. In front of the entrance the untainted children of the lepers from the Childrens House are seated. The dread disease may at any time appear. A hymn is given out. How they sang! A strange weird tune, sweet music to the angels bending down to hear the lepers song of praise. Some lips were swollen and features disfigured. Others hid, under the one white garment, hands and feet from which fingers and toes were rapidly disappearing, or had already vanished. After the hymn every head was bent in prayer, an address was delivered, and then, after another hymn, came the Sacrament of the Lords Supper. The missionary took the bread from one to another and slowly and with difficulty in many cases it was eaten, until he came to one bright-faced woman whose hands were mere shapeless pads; she tried to raise the bread but dropped it, and after a fruitless effort to recover it held out the end of her sari and lifted that to her lips. The cup was of course impossible. The minister with a spoon poured the wine into each upturned mouth; then all joined in repeating the beautiful words of the service.
They which are written in the Lambs book of life enter in, leaving the uncleanness this side of that beautiful painless City.1 [Note: The Foreign Field, April 1908.]
An illustration may be given of the use which Stanley made of the opportunities of talking with working men, when showing them over Westminster Abbey. In 1882, at Bletchley Station, a gentleman travelling from Norwich to Liverpool entered a third-class smoking-compartment, which had as its other occupants two soldiers.
We were, he said, a very quiet party; one of the soldiers was reading a tract, the other was smoking. I was trying to decipher the title of the tract, or, if possible, to get into conversation with the reader of it, who sat opposite to me. At Rugby my opportunity came, when I proffered a light, at the same time asking what was the tract that seemed to interest them so much, for the second man was now reading it. I learnt that the tract was Wycliffe and the Bible. They had each read it twice, and begged me to accept it, as it was so good everybody should read it. Where is your home? I asked. Chester, sir. I said, I, too, am from a cathedral citythe city of Norwich. Norwich! both of them exclaimed, why, thats where Dean Stanley lived! Yes, I said, but what do you know about Dean Stanley? I shall never forget the expression of the face turned towards me, as the speaker said, Me and my mate here have cause to bless the Lord that we ever saw good Dean Stanley, sir, I can tell you. Then they recounted to me how some years before, when they had been at Shoeburyness for gunnery practice, they were released from duty a day earlier than they expected, and instead of starting for home they decided to spend the day in London. In carrying out this decision they found themselves at the Abbey just as the doors were locked, and they turned to retrace their steps with deep disappointment, which found expression. Our words and disappointed looks, continued my friend, attracted the notice of a gentleman, who approached us and said, You very much wish to see the inside of the Abbey, do you? Well, cant you come to-morrow? No, sir, we must be at Chester to-morrow, and if we dont see inside the Abbey to-day, its not likely we ever shall. With this the gentleman invited us to go with him, and, taking the keys from the beadle, he entered with us into the Abbey, walking by our side, and pointing out to us the things most worth seeing. Presently he came to a marble monument erected to one of our soldiers, and, as we stood looking at it in admiration, the gentleman said, You wear the uniform of Her Majesty, and I daresay would like to do some heroic deed worthy of a monument like this. We both said, yes, we shouldwhen, laying his hand on each of us, he said: My friends, you may both have a more enduring monument than this, for this will moulder into dust, and be forgotten; but you, if your names are written in the Lambs Book of Life, you will abide for ever. We neither of us understood what he meantbut we looked into his grave, earnest, loving face with queer feelings in our hearts, and moved on. Just as we were leaving the Abbey, our guide told us he was the Dean, and invited us to the Deanery to breakfast next morning. We did not forget to go, and after breakfast the Dean came to say good-bye. He gave us money enough to pay our fares to Chester, and once again, in earnest, loving tones, he told us to be sure and get our names written in the Lambs Book of Life, and then, if we never met again on earth, we should meet in Heaven. And so we parted with the Dean; and as we travelled home we talked about our visit to the Abbey, and puzzled much as to the meaning of the Lambs Book of Life.
It will be enough to say that those words proved the turning-point in the lives of those two men and their wives, and that as one of them said, We trust that our names are written in the Book of Life, and that we may some day, in Gods good time, meet Dean Stanley in heaven.1 [Note: R. E. Prothero, The Life and Correspondence of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, ii. 312.]
The Citizens of the City
Literature
Aitchison (J.), The Childrens Own, 214.
Campbell (R. J.), Thursday Mornings at the City Temple, 284.
Johnston (J. B.), A Commentary on the Revelation, 258.
Lushington (F. de W.), Sermons to Young Boys, 15.
Matheson (G.), Sidelights from Patmos, 319.
Milligan (G.), Lamps and Pitchers, 183.
Oosterzee (J. J. van), The Year of Salvation, ii. 315.
Peabody (F. G.), Mornings in the College Chapel, ii. 30.
Price (A. C.), Fifty Sermons, xi. 161.
Scott (C. A.), Revelation (Century Bible), 151.
Scott (J. J.), The Apocalypse, 140.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxvii. (1881), No. 1590.
Swete (H. B.), The Apocalypse of St. John, 52, 297.
Thomas (J.), The Ideal City, 199.
Vaughan (C. J.), Lectures on The Revelation, 505.
Waddell (R.), Behold the Lamb of God! 287.
Wilson (J. M.), Sermons Preached in Clifton College Chapel, ii. 28.
Woods (H. G.), At the Temple Church, 148.
Christian World Pulpit, xxiv. 257 (J. Aldis).
Church Pulpit Year Book, 1911, p. 233.
Expository Times, xxi. 347.
Good Words, 1861, p. 126 (A. P. Stanley).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
there: Lev 13:46, Num 5:3, Num 12:15, Psa 101:8, Isa 35:8, Isa 52:1, Isa 60:21, Joe 3:17, Mat 13:41, 1Co 6:9, 1Co 6:10, Gal 5:19-21, Eph 5:5, Heb 12:14
worketh: Rev 17:4, Rev 17:5
or maketh: Rev 21:8, Rev 22:14, Rev 22:15
they: Rev 3:5, Rev 13:8, Rev 20:12, Rev 20:15, Phi 4:3
Reciprocal: Exo 28:36 – HOLINESS Exo 32:32 – blot me Lev 13:57 – shalt burn Num 26:53 – General Num 35:34 – I dwell Deu 25:16 – all that do Deu 33:28 – Israel Psa 5:4 – evil Psa 24:4 – pure Psa 45:7 – hatest Psa 69:36 – they Psa 93:5 – holiness Pro 6:16 – an Son 4:12 – garden Isa 1:26 – thou shalt Isa 4:3 – written Isa 11:9 – not hurt Eze 33:26 – work Eze 41:12 – separate Eze 43:12 – Upon Oba 1:17 – there shall be holiness Zep 3:13 – nor Zec 8:3 – the holy Zec 14:21 – no more Mat 5:20 – ye Mat 15:20 – which Mat 18:9 – to enter Mat 22:13 – Bind Luk 10:20 – your Joh 1:29 – Behold Joh 3:7 – Ye Act 26:18 – sanctified Gal 5:21 – that they Eph 5:27 – but Col 3:9 – Lie 1Ti 1:10 – for liars Tit 1:16 – being 1Pe 1:4 – undefiled 2Pe 3:13 – according
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Rev 21:27. For these purposes alone shall the open gates be used. There shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that maketh an abomination and a lie. There is indeed now nothing unclean; there is no wilful sinner of any kind to enter. All the enemies of God have been overcome: all sin has been banished for ever.
But they only which are written in the Lambs book of life. Such alone are found upon the earth; and, as we lift our eyes to the city, we behold them flocking in from the East and from the West, from the North and from the South, their toilsome pilgrimage closed, their hard struggle ended, their glory come.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
No one who lives an immoral life on earth will be allowed to enter heaven. It will be the home of God’s righteous ones exclusively.
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Only believers will enter the city. The unsaved will in no way be able to do so (Gr. ou me eiselthe; cf. Rev 22:15). Evidently any believer will be able to enter the city since the contrast is with those whose names are not in the Lamb’s book of life (i.e., the lost). This verse warns the reader that the only way to gain entrance into this city is to have one’s name recorded in the Lamb’s book of life (cf. Rev 20:15).