Christian Treasury Revelation 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying… I. DEATH IS "THE WAGES OF SIN." Men try to keep that fact out of view, and ascribe death to accident, disease, and second causes, without fathoming the depths to which they ought to descend. In Adam's transgression, that was wrapped up like the oak in the acorn. "The wages of sin is death." Man works for and wins that; and the Judge of all the earth uprightly pays it. II. OR, DEATH IS A DIVINE APPOINTMENT — "It is appointed unto man once to die." It did not obtain a place in God's world without His permission or decree. No casualty, no blind chance precipitates man into the grave. It is not nature worn out, or so much animal machinery wasted away, it is the judicial appointment of the Holy One, protesting against all iniquity. III. OR, DEATH IS "THE KING OF TERRORS." It is often called "the debt of nature"; and that is one of the softening epithets by which men try to disguise from themselves the true character of death. But, in truth, nature abhors and recoils from such an allegation. Death comes because nature has been outraged, because the heart of man has revolted against his God; and the rebel must therefore encounter all that is terrific, since he supposed there was a more excellent way than living in amity and walking in love with his Maker. IV. OR, DEATH IS THE EXTINCTION OF SPIRITUAL LIFE — "In the day that thou eatest thou shalt die." Man then became dead to God, to holiness, to happiness, and heaven — he was dead in trespasses and sins. V. But mercy did interpose; and we therefore proceed to view death under another aspect — IT IS AN ABOLISHED THING; Christ has "abolished death." Strange message that, amid our crowded churchyards, where the dead far outnumber the living in the less crowded city! Yet not more strange than true — wherever the way appointed by the Lord of Life is followed, death is abolished, and the body and soul will both live for ever. VI. OR, DEATH IS A SLEEP. "Sleep in Jesus." VII. OR, DEATH MAY BE REGARDED AS THE SERVANT, AND THE VERY PROPERTY OF BELIEVERS: "All things are yours... whether life or death." In such a case, death is the messenger sent to call the believer home, or to summon him into the presence of his Father. The grotto of Posilippo is a long dark passage through a mountain near Naples. While in that vault-like place, extending over some hundreds of yards, the wayfarer feels the dreariness and discomfort of the scene. But when he emerges to the west, the bay of Bairn stretches at his feet, one of the richest and most balmy even of Italian scenes; or to the east — then he is greeted by the bay of Naples, with its unutterable outspread of beauty, of city, of mountains, ocean, and volcano, till the eye revels and luxuriates amid the profusion of loveliness. It is a type of the believer emerging from death. The new heavens and the new earth are spread out before him; and though there be "no more sea," the fulness of joy becomes his beatitude for ever. The curse is quenched — the sting is extracted; and misery, sorrow, fear — for all these things are portions of death — are over for ever. (Christian Treasury.) Parallel Verses KJV: And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. |
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