22:21 The book of Revelation, though made up largely of apocalyptic (1:1) and prophetic (1:3) literary forms, begins (1:4) and ends (with its concluding grace) like a letter. In spite of all the works of the devil and the judgment and wrath of God detailed in between, the Apocalypse starts with grace and ends with grace, making a full circle from grace to grace. This is a fitting symmetry for a book that foretells the ultimate victory of “the God of all grace” (1Pt 5:10).[1]
22:21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ begins and concludes the Book of Revelation (1:4), implying that the message of grace and the free gift of eternal life in Christ (Eph. 2:8, 9)—not merely the message of judgment upon unbelievers—can be found in this book.[2]
22:21 And now we come to the final blessing of this wonderful book of Revelation, and of the word of God. It is a peaceful close to a book filled with the thunders of divine judgment.
John wishes for “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to be with God’s people.” There are three interesting variant readings in the manuscripts here.
1. In the critical (NU) text John wishes Christ’s grace to all—which hardly fits Revelation’s theme of impending wrath on the majority.
2. The traditional (TR, KJV, NKJV) reading is better. Christ’s grace is wished to “you all”—many of the hearers and readers of Revelation will be true believers.
3. The best reading in light of the sharp contrasts between saints and sinners in this book is found in the majority text and NKJV margin: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all the saints. Amen.”[3]
22:21. Revelation is both prophecy and epistle. Its prologue (1:1–8) and epilogue (22:9–21) are the most epistle-like parts. Thus, appropriately, John concludes with a benediction typical of the New Testament epistles (for example, Rom. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:14; Gal. 6:18; 1 Thess. 5:28). The blessing was originally for all God’s people who heard the message read aloud in the seven churches of Asia (1:3). The opening greeting of Revelation offered “grace and peace” (1:4) to the seven churches; now, at the very end, we find the only other reference to grace in the book. Grace is unconditional kindness issued to someone who doesn’t deserve it. Here, the Lord Jesus—as elsewhere in the New Testament—is the author of grace. In Revelation only here and in the previous verse is the compound name “Lord Jesus” used. “Lord Jesus” was never used before his Resurrection; it is written more than ninety times in Acts and the epistles, sometimes in the fuller form “Lord Jesus Christ.” In John’s writings “Lord Jesus” occurs only here at the end of Revelation. Down through the centuries, without doubt “Lord Jesus” has been the way in which Christians have most often referred to—or addressed in prayer—their Savior. He is their Lord—the sovereign ruler—but he is also Jesus—the one who entered the world and became human in order to make them his people by his own blood.[4]
22:21 Notice that “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ” being with His people, is the concluding truth presented to an age of persecuted Christians and is the hope of every generation of Christians![5]
21. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.
This benediction is short and is reminiscent of the epistolary literature of Paul. It confirms that the Apocalypse is sent as an epistle to the churches and therefore needs an appropriate parting blessing. The benediction is expressed as a prayer or wish much the same as the greeting in the introduction (1:4).
The variants reflected in translations concern the recipients of this book. In view of the benediction itself, these variations are of little importance. The grace of the Lord Jesus is with all those who love him, serve him, and long for his return.[6]
Ver. 21. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.—
The grace of Jesus Christ:—It is the last text in the Bible and it fits well the last day of the year. It is well we should take a blessing to ourselves, or at least try to fancy that it may be ours, for we need it sorely on this day. Dwell as we will on the brighter side of things, life is very hard, and men and women are hard on one another, and we ourselves are growing hard, and that is the worst of all. We need something to soften, in no enfeebling way, the hardness of life, and of men, and of our own heart. And most of the blessings we seek of our own will, weaken our souls, and in the weakening make us harder in the future. But the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, if we could win it and take it, softens all things by making us stronger towards goodness and truth and righteousness and love. What is it? What is His grace? Whatever it is, it does not come from one who is ignorant of all we need. He has known to the full the weight of human suffering, and the blessing of His grace that is with us is brought home to us by that knowledge. Christ can give inspiration, can bless, and give of His power because He mastered the evil forces of life. None have ever done that so completely, but many can do it in His spirit. And those who do, can help and bless their fellows in proportion to their victory. Remember that this day, you who are in warfare with pain or guilt. You will be able to bring grace and blessing to others in the future, whatever your pain be now, if you conquer it. And, in order to conquer, win His grace who has conquered, and who will give it to you. That grace is, first, kindness, the goodwill of love. It is the showing forth of all those sweet and beautiful qualities which make home and social life so dear, and the showing forth of them in perfection. It is the filial tenderness which laid down the consciousness of genius and all its impulses for thirty years at the feet of His mother in a quiet and silent life and which won her pondering and passionate love. It is the penetrating love which saw into the character of His friends and made them believe in their own capacity for greatness, which led men like Peter and John and James to find out and love one another, which bound His followers together in a love that outlasted death. It is the tender insight which saw into the publican’s heart, which when the sinner drew near in tears, believed in her repentance and exalted her into a saint, which had compassion on the multitude and on the weariness of a few, which wept over Jerusalem, which in all human life and the movement of its passions and hopes and faiths did, said, and thought the loving and just thing at the right moment, without doing or saying the weak thing. Think of it all, you who know the story, and an image of the grace of Christ as loving-kindness will grow before your soul. And it will be strange if you do not, ravished with the sight, say, “Let that blessed power be mine in life. May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with me.” But there is more in it than this. Human love, left alone, spends itself only on those near to us, or on those that love us in return, and, in its form of kindness and pity, on those whom we compassionate. Kept within a narrow circle, it tends to have family or a social selfishness. Given only to those who suffer, it tends to become self-satisfied. To be perfect, it ought to reach, through frank forgiveness, those who injure us; through interest in the interests, ideas, and movements of human progress, those who are beyond our own circle, in our nation, nay, even in the world; and finally all men, those even who are our bitterest foes, through desire that they should have good and be good. It was the very glory of the grace of Christ, as love, that it rose into this wonderful height and universality. All men were infinitely precious and divine in Christ’s sight, for He saw them all consciously and unconsciously going into the outstretched arms of God. Therefore He could not help loving them all. That is the grace of Christ—the loving-kindness of Jesus—the human love raised into the Divine without losing one touch of its humanity, save only as light is lost in greater light. I pray that this grace of Christ be with you all; the grace of natural love lifted into Divine and universal love through faith in the Fatherhood of God. It is Christ’s to give because He had it, and when we have it we can give it also. Gain it and give it, and you will be blessed and a blessing. Secondly, grace has another meaning other than loving-kindness. It means the kind of beauty we express by the word charm; and in this sense we may translate the text, “The beautiful charm of Christ be with you all.” Do you remember how, when the world-worn Pharisee expressed his scorn of the sinful woman, Christ felt her boundless love, and said, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much”; how, when Mary sat at His feet and was blamed by Martha, He alone saw love and rightness of choice in her silence; how, when the rude utilitarian saw waste in the extravagant love which lavished on Him the precious spikenard, He accepted it, not for its extravagance, but for its passion; how when Peter had sinned by a threefold treachery, He believed in the repentance, and only gave one look of sore and loving reproach; how, when He was dying, He provided for His friend a mother, and for His mother a son? What charm, what grace in them all! And their beauty could not stand alone. That kind of exquisite sensitiveness flowered through the whole of His life with men. It was His grace, and all felt its charm. Nor is it less seen in His speech than in His act. In directness, in temperance, in a certain sweet wisdom and ordered humanity, and in the beauty that results from these, there is nothing in the loveliest Greek work which matches the parables of Christ, or such sayings as “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these”; or “Come unto me, all ye that labour,” &c. In thinking of Him as the Man of Sorrows, in having imposed on us by the ascetic that He had no form or comeliness, we forget what must have been His irresistible charm. In the reaction which Christendom felt from that heathen worship of beauty which ended in moral deformity, nay, linked beauty to sensualism, the loveliness of Christ was too long hidden from us; we lost the sense of His grace in the meaning which the nobler Greek would have given to the term. Do not you forget it. Seek the blessing of the charm that comes of sensitiveness to the feelings of others, of sensitiveness to all that is beautiful, of an inward harmony of nature, and of the expression of that harmony in beautiful act and speech. Say to yourselves in this sense also, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with me and all.” And if we are worthy of it and see it, He will give it to us. It is given, indeed, through our seeing it. The moment we see loveliness we cannot help desiring it, and the moment we desire it we begin our effort after it. It is by being beautiful that Christ gives us of His beauty, and makes us into His image. It is in quite a natural, and not a supernatural manner that we are “changed into the same image from glory to glory.” Once more, His grace and His love of doing and being the Beautiful was not apart from, or greater than, His love of, and doing of moral things, but coincident with them. Nothing which was false or impure or unjust was, in itself, beautiful to Christ, and the first glory of His grace and charm was its harmony with righteousness. We look at it, then, not only with tenderness, such as we feel for loving-kindness, not only with delight, such as we feel for beauty, but also with all that earnest approval and grave enthusiasm which we give to things and persons who are good. Christ’s charm has its root in love, and is identical with truth and justice and purity and courage. It grasps the hand of the Platonist and the Stoic alike, without the vagueness of the one and the rigour of the other. And while it holds to the Epicurean so far as the early Epicureans said that pleasure was the highest good because goodness was identical with pleasure, it turns aside from the later Epicureans and from those of our day who put pleasure in beauty first, to the loss or lessening of moral goodness. Guarded thus on all sides, yet taking in all that is noble in all efforts to find the highest good, it was in truth grace in its sense of beauty that Christ possessed. That grace, so guarded, so complete, pray that it may be with you all in the year. It will bless your lives and it will make of you a blessing. It will make you at one with all that is tender, pitiful, dear, and sweet in human loving-kindness. It will make you at one with all that is sensitive and delicate and graceful in manner and speech, and create in you an harmonious soul. Men will think your life beautiful, and inspiration and effort will flow from it. It will make you at one with moral good, just and true and pure. And it will take all that is loving in humanity, and all that is fair, and all that is moral, and link them to and complete them by uniting them to the love of God, and to God’s love for all men; so that to human love and moral love and imaginative love will be added the spiritual love which gathers them all into perfection. (S. A. Brooke, M.A.) The last words of the Old and New Testaments (see Matt. 4:6):—Just as Christ, in His ascension, was taken from them whilst His hands were lifted up in the act of blessing, so it is fitting that the revelation of which He is the centre and the theme should part from us as He did, shedding with its final words the dew of benediction on our upturned heads.
I. The apparent contrast and the real harmony and unity of these two texts. “Lest I come and smite the land with a curse.” If instead of the word “curse” we were to substitute the word “destruction,” we should get the true idea of the passage. And the thought that I want to insist upon is this, that here we have distinctly gathered up the whole spirit of milleniums of Divine revelation, all of which declare this one thing, that as certainly as there is a God, every transgression and disobedience receives, and must receive, its just recompense of reward. That is the spirit of law, for law has nothing to say, except, “Do this, and thou shalt live; do not this, and thou shalt die.” And then turn to the other. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” What has become of the thunder? All melted into dewy rain of love and pity and compassion. Grace is love that stoops; grace is love that foregoes its claims, and forgives sins against itself. Grace is love that imparts, and this grace, thus stooping, thus pardoning, thus bestowing, is a universal gift. So there is a very real and significant contrast. “I come and smite the earth with a curse” sounds strangely unlike “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” So I want you to notice that beneath this apparent contrast there is a real harmony, and that these two utterances, though they seem to be so diverse, are quite consistent at bottom, and must both be taken into account if we would grasp the whole truth. For, as a matter of fact, nowhere are there more tender utterances and sweeter revelations of a Divine mercy than in that ancient law with its attendant prophets. And, as a matter of fact, nowhere, through all the thunderings and lightnings of Sinai, are there such solemn words of retribution as dropped from the lips of the Incarnate Love. There is nothing anywhere so dreadful as Christ’s own words about what comes, and must come, to sinful men.
II. The relation of the grace to the punishment. Is it not love which proclaims judgment? Are not the words of my first text, if you take them all, merciful, however they wear a surface of threatening? “Lest I come.” Then He speaks that He may not come, and declares the issue of sin in order that that issue may never need to be experienced by us that listen to Him. It is love that threatens; it is mercy to tell us that the wrath will come. And just as one relation between the grace and the retribution is that the proclamation of the retribution is the work of the grace, so there is another relation—the grace is manifested in bearing the punishment, and in bearing it away by bearing it. He has come between every one of us, if we will, and that certain incidence of retribution for our evil, taking upon Himself the whole burden of our sin and of our guilt, and bearing that awful death which consists not in the mere dissolution of the tie between soul and body, but in the separation of the conscious spirit from God, in order that we may stand peaceful, serene, untouched, when the hail and the fire of the Divine judgment are falling from the heavens and running along the earth. The grace depends for all our conceptions of its glory, its tenderness, and its depth on our estimate of the wrath from which it delivers.
III. The alternative which these texts open for us. You must have either the destruction or the grace. And, more wonderful still, the same coming of the same Lord will be to one man the destruction, and to another the manifestation and reception of His perfect grace. As it was in the Lord’s first coming, “He is set for the rise and the fall of many in Israel.” The same heat softens some substances and bakes others into hardness. The same gospel is “a savour of life unto life, or of death unto death,” by the giving forth of the same influences killing the one and reviving the other; the same Christ is a Stone to build upon or a Stone of stumbling; and when He cometh at the last, Prince, King, Judge, to you and me, His coming shall be prepared as the morning; and ye “shall have a song as in the night as when one cometh with a pipe to the mountain of the Lord”; or else it shall be a day of darkness and not of light. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ:—These are the last words of the second volume of God to man. The last word that God has to give to man in His holy book is a blessing upon man. Could any one wish you more or better than that the “grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be yours, be mine”? Now, look first at what the grace of the Lord Jesus is. The word “grace” is used in the New Testament in two distinct senses:—First, it is the grace that belongs to Christ Himself; the grace or graces of Christ. Second, it is the grace, or great grace, or great gift that Christ gives to men. Now, look, first, at the grace of Christ—the personal grace. Christ seemingly was the most attractive of men in His personality. He exercised over the men and women of His time a strong personal fascination. It is rather strange that there is no real portrait or picture of Christ in His human form. But I think it is a great advantage rather than otherwise that we have no picture of His person. For myself, I always picture the Lord Jesus as a man of great attractiveness personally, of winning demeanour, and His whole personality one such as to attract and win to Himself. I will give you three simple reasons for this. Notice, first, that Christ was come of a kingly race—of the house of David. Now, David himself was a man famed for his physical beauty; so were his sons—two, at least—men of great physical beauty and attractiveness; and, if there is one great lesson that modern science has taught us, it is the lesson of heredity; and I do not press it too far if I say that Christ had the grace and beauty of His predecessors. In the second place, if you will study Christ’s life, you will find there are particular occasions when the majesty of His person impressed all around Him, and especially His disciples. Third, He seems to have had a great attraction for children. Now, no one who is not attractive in his personality, and has not sweetness of countenance, has that subtle attraction for children which will draw them to him. It is well to strive to have the graces of Christ. Let us strive, each according to our endowments from the Most High, to exercise this sweet attractiveness of personality—to become not only good and strong men as Christians, but to become attractive and winning; I would venture to say, have the winsomeness of Christ. This seems to me to be the first great personal grace of Christ, winsomeness; but there are deeper and richer graces than this that Christ had, and which we may all have. I would ask you to notice three great graces in addition to His personality—the graces of character, the great root graces. He had that most beautiful of graces—the grace of humility. I have noticed in life that the greater a man’s position is, the greater is his power; the higher his position, mentally or worldly, the more he is admired, if he be a humble man; that seemingly the admiration for his humility increases in the ratio of his worldly greatness. Now this is just the wonderful quality about Christ. We speak of the good ones and the great ones of the earth, but there is no one who can compare in the least with Christ, the Son of God, for greatness, power, might, intellect: for every quality that man recognises as great. Christ is the great revelation of God—not merely man but God Himself of very God. And the great and wonderful thing about His humility is that He emptied Himself, as Paul says, of this Divine majesty and power, and came down to this world, became of no repute, humble as the humblest, born in a manger, living and working at the carpenter’s bench. That is somewhat of the humility of Christ. It is a great virtue. It is a temptation for us all at times, not to feel humble, but to become self-confident. Having put before you the infinite grace and humility of our Lord Jesus Christ, I pray for you and for myself that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ—the grace of Divine humility—may be yours, may be mine. His humility was His second great grace; and His third was His unselfishness. Christ, I think, is most wonderful of all for His unselfishness. Christ, the Son of God, endowed with every quality that would make a man a success in the world—endowed with the richest intellectual and spiritual gifts—laid them all aside, or only used them for the sake of others. Pray that the grace of the unselfishness of our Lord Jesus Christ may be ours. And then just a few words upon another grace. I have spoken of His personal attractiveness, His humility, His unselfishness; greater than these gifts and graces is the last—love, love. The measure of a man’s greatness, whether he be great in the world or little, the true measure of a man’s greatness is his power for love. That is the greatest power for men and women—their capacity for love, Divine love, human love. In Christ you have the most perfect example of it, His Divine love for God His Father, was absolutely perfect. What shall I say of His love to man? We cannot grasp it; a finite mind like yours and mine cannot adequately realise the greatness of the love of God: we can only adore it. Love that led Him to live, to die, to sacrifice everything for men and women like you and me. Above all the graces you can have, get love—love that brightens, love that deepens, love that purifies men’s natures. These were simply some of Christ’s own graces or gifts. What is the great grace or gift that He has to give to men? It is simply the forgiveness of our sins. Is that a little thing? Men seem to think that it is. If you would take a deeper view of yourself and human nature, you would see what a great thing it really is. Sin that caused the death of God’s Son is a dreadful thing; it ruins, and mars, and corrupts your nature and mine. The greatest gift that could be made to men, is the forgiveness of their sins. I have tried to show you the graces of Christ’s person, His attractiveness, His unselfishness, His humility, and His love; all these gifts are in vain unless you get the great gift of forgiveness of sins from Christ, the foundation of every grace and virtue possible to man. This gift may be had by all here, young and old. It is a gift that is not limited to the young, to little children, to men in the prime of their days, or to old men. It is a great gift for all. If you and I could get first the grace of forgiveness, then those of personal attractiveness, humility, unselfishness, and greatest of all graces and gifts, the love of Christ—love like Christ’s—earth were heaven now. Men speak of a golden age that shall come; saints and sages have spoken of it; there is an instinctive craving of the human heart after a golden age that shall dawn; could the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ really be with you and me, now were the golden age, not in the time to come, but now, in this daily life of ours. One day we shall not have to say “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all”; but we shall say the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is with us all. (Wm. Souper, M.A.)
The free love of Christ:—Thus the Bible closes with blessing. In this prayer we have the summing-up of all the blessings which the Word of God has uttered. Man is simply the receiver and the enjoyer of a love as boundless as it is unbought.
I. What is this grace of the Lord Jesus Christ? Free love! Divine favour, unbought, unsolicited, and undeserved! Return to your Father’s house, and be blest! Come, and be forgiven! Look, and be saved! Touch, and be healed! Ask, and it shall be given!
II. How it has been shown. In many ways, but chiefly in the Cross. The words of Christ were grace; the doings of Christ were grace; but at the Cross it came forth most fully. The “it is finished” of Golgotha was the throwing down of the barriers that stood between the sinner and the grace. The grace itself was uncreated and eternal; it did not originate in the purpose, but in the nature of God. Still its outflow to sinners was hemmed in by righteousness; and until this was satisfied at the Cross the grace was like forbidden fruit to man. Divine displeasure against sin and Divine love of holiness found their complete satisfaction at the altar, where the “consuming fire” devoured the great burnt-offering, and gave full vent to the pent-up stores of grace.
III. How we get it. Simply by taking it as it is, and as we are; by letting it flow into us; by believing God’s testimony concerning it. Grace supposes no preparation whatsoever in him who receives it, save that of worthlessness and guilt, whether these be felt or unfelt. The dryness of the ground is that which fits it for the rain; the poverty of the beggar is that which fits him for the alms; so the sin of the sinner is that which fits him for the grace of Christ. If anything else were needed, grace would be no more grace, but would become work or merit. Where sin abounds there it is that grace much more abounds.
IV. What it does for us. 1. It pardons. 2. It pacifies. 3. It liberates. 4. It enlightens. 5. It strengthens. 6. It purifies.
V. How long it lasts: For ever. (H. Bonar, D.D.)
Till we meet again:—This is an expression suitable to the most gracious heart, a prayer wherewith the believer may vent his best wishes and express his most devout desires.
I. Consider this benediction. 1. What is this which John desires? The word is “charis.” It has for its root “joy.” There is joy at the bottom of charis, or grace. It also signifieth favour, kindliness, and especially love. Jesus Christ Himself is generally mentioned in our benedictions as having grace, and the Father as having love; and our usual benediction begins with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God. Is that the proper order? The order is correct to our experience, and in an instructive benediction the Holy Spirit intendeth this for our learning. The Father’s love is, as it were, the secret, mysterious germ of everything. That same love in Jesus Christ is grace; His is love in its active form, love descending to earth, love wearing human nature, love paying the great ransom price, love ascending, love sitting and waiting, love pleading, love soon to come with power and glory. This grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is therefore the grace of a Divine person. We wish you, as we wish for ourselves, the grace of God Himself, rich, boundless, unfathomable, immutable, Divine; no temporary grace such as some speak of, which keepeth not its own, but suffereth even the sheep of its own pasture to go astray and perish; but the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it is written, “Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end”; that grace most potent which said, “None shall pluck them out of My hand.” This is no small treasure—this grace of a Divine Person. Yet is our Lord Jesus also human, as truly human as He is Divine, and, believing in Him, you have the grace of Jesus Christ the Man to be with you all. May you feel His tenderness, His brotherliness, His grace. He is your Kinsman, and He graciously favours His own kinsfolk. Read the text again, and pause a while in the middle to enjoy “The grace of our Lord.” The grace that cometh from His Majesty, the grace that cometh from His Headship, the grace that cometh from His Divinely human supremacy over His Church, which is His body—this is the grace which we desire for you all. Read the next word: “The grace of our Lord Jesus.” May that be with you; that is to say, the grace of our Saviour, for that is the meaning of the word “Jesus.” All His saving grace, all that which redeems from guilt, from sin, from trouble, all that which saves us with an everlasting salvation—may that be yours to the full. Then comes the other word, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you”; may He, as the Anointed One, visit you. May you have that anointing from the Holy One which shall make you know all things. 2. Our next division is, How? “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” What meaneth this? Our first answer is the wish that the grace of our Lord may rest upon you as a matter of fact—that He may love you truly and intensely; love you, not only as He loves the world, but as He loved His own which were in the world. Next, may you believe that grace, may you trust that grace, may it be with you because your faith has closed in with it, and you are relying upon it. Still further, may His grace be with you as the object of faith, so that your belief comes to be full assurance, till you know the love which Christ hath towards you, and no more doubt it than you doubt the love of the dearest friend you have on earth. And may His grace be with you, next, as to the favours which flow out of it. May you enjoy all the blessings which the grace of Christ can yield, the grace of a peaceful conscience, the grace of a cleansed walk, the grace of access to God, the grace of fervent love, the grace of holy expectancy, the grace of self-denial, the grace of perfect consecration, and the grace of final perseverance. And may grace be with us, next, so as to produce constant communion between us and Christ, His favour flowing into our heart, and our hearts returning their gratitude. Oh, to come to this pass, that our Well-beloved is with us, and we enjoy sweet mutual intercourse: this is to have the love, or grace, of Jesus with us. May our Lord Jesus Christ thus in His grace be with us, and may He work for us all that He can work. What better benediction could John Himself utter? 3. But, now, the third part of our discourse comes under the head of “to whom.” “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” Every now and then you come across a book written by one who is a long way off from understanding all the truth, yet he knows Jesus Christ, and as you read the sweet words that come from His pen concerning the Master you feel your heart knit to Him. If a man knows Christ he knows the most important of matters, and is possessed of a secret quite as precious as any in our own keeping, for what know we more than Christ, and what hope have we but in Christ? There is a life which is the same in all that have it, however diverse they may happen to be upon opinion or outward ceremony. There is a life eternal, and that life is Christ Jesus, and to all that have that life we do with intensity of heart say, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.”
II. The position of this benediction. First, I draw what I have to say from the fact that it is the last word of Scripture. I regard it, therefore, as being the apostle’s last and highest wish. We cannot do with less than this, and we do not want more than this. If we get grace from Jesus we shall have glory with Jesus, but without it we are without hope. Standing at the end of the Book of Revelation as this does, I next regard its position as indicating what we shall want till the end comes; that is, from now till the descent of our Lord in His second advent. This is the one thing we require, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” May it be with us daily, hourly! May it be with us, instructing us as to our behaviour in each generation! Placed as this blessing is at the end of the book there is but this one more thought—this is what we shall wish for when the end cometh. We shall come to the end of life, as we come to the end of our Bibles. And oh, aged friend, may thy failing eyes be cheered with the sight of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, on the last page of life, as thou wilt find it on the last page of thy well-thumbed Bible. Peradventure some of you may come to the last page of life before you get grace: I pray that there you may find it. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Or, suppose we should not die; suppose the Lord should suddenly come in His temple. Oh, then may we have grace to meet Him. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A faithful minister’s parting blessing:—First, His restraining grace. Why, if it were not for this, God’s people would be just as weak and wicked as other folks are. Secondly, there is convicting grace, which from the Lord Jesus Christ acts every day and hour. A man may speak to the ear, but it is the Spirit of God alone can speak to the heart. What does Jesus Christ do in temptations, trials, and afflictions? He fetches His people home, and convinces them that they have done amiss. Thirdly, there is the converting grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is a most excellent prayer in our commination office, “Turn us, O good Lord, and we shall be turned.” We can no more turn our hearts than we can turn the world upside down; it is the Redeemer, by His Spirit, must take away the heart of stone, and by the influence of the Holy Spirit give us a heart of flesh. Then there is establishing grace. David prays, “Create in me a new heart, and renew a right spirit within me.” In the margin it is “constant spirit”; and you hear of some that are rooted and grounded in the love of God, and the apostle prays that they may always abound in the work of the Lord. Again, it is good to have the heart established with grace. There is a good many people have some religion in them, but they are not established. Hence they are mere weather-cocks, turned about by every wind of doctrine. What think you of the Redeemer’s comforting grace? Oh, what can you do without it? “In the multitude of my thoughts within me,” says the psalmist, “Thy comforts have refreshed my soul.” And there are so many afflictions and trials, that if it were not for the Lord Jesus Christ’s comfortings, no flesh could bear them. In a word, what think you of the quickening grace of our Lord Jesus Christ? Remember David says, “Quicken me according to Thy word, quicken me in Thy way, quicken me in Thy righteousness.” God’s people want quickening every day; this is trimming our lamps, girding up the loins of our minds, stirring up the gift of God that is in us. It is just with a soul as it is with the plants and trees; how would it be with them if the Lord did not command quickening life to them after the winter? The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is with His people in prayer. Who can pray without grace? The grace of God is with His people in His providence. “Oh,” says Bishop Hall, “a little aid is not enough for me.” My going on the waters puts me in mind of what I have seen many times. If the sailors perceive a storm coming, they do not choose to speak to the passengers for fear of frightening them; they will go quietly on deck, and give orders for proper care to be taken; and if a sailor can tell of storms approaching by the clouds, why cannot God’s people tell why God does so and so with them? The people of God eye Him in His providence; the very hairs of their heads are all numbered, and the grace of God is with them in the common business of life. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with His people when sick and when dying. Oh, what shall we do when death comes? What a mercy it is that we have got a good Master to carry us through that time! (G. Whitefield, M.A.) Amen.—
The Church’s Amen:—
I. The last testimony. The whole Bible is the testimony; for in it Christ is both the Teacher and the Lesson, the Witness and the Testimony. But the Revelation is His last testimony; and the marvellous words of the latter part of this chapter are more especially so. Let the Church listen; let the world give heed.
II. The last prophecy. “Surely I come quickly.” Brief but distinct is this announcement; and it comes from His own lips. He heralds Himself and His kingdom. He puts the trumpet to His own mouth to sound abroad this last message, “I come!” I who came, and departed, am coming again. “I come quickly.” Here is something more. He will lose no time; nor delay a moment longer than is absolutely necessary. He will not be slack concerning His promise (2 Pet. 3:9); He will come and not tarry (Heb. 10:37). “Surely I come quickly.” Appearances may indicate no such thing; the world’s sky may be cloudless, and its sea smooth; men may have assured themselves of prosperous days, and be saying, “Peace and safety”; yet surely He cometh! As a snare, as a thief, as lightning, He cometh. He, the very Christ, the risen Saviour, Jesus of Nazareth—He cometh! In His own glory, in His Father’s glory, with His mighty angels, in the clouds of heaven, King and Judge, Conqueror and Avenger, Redresser of wrongs, Opener of prison-doors, Binder of Satan, Renewer of creation, Bridegroom of His Church, Star of Jacob, Sun of Righteousness, Owner of the golden sceptre, Wielder of the iron rod, Wearer of the crowns of earth—He cometh!
III. The last prayer—“Amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus”; or more literally, “Yes, surely, come, Lord Jesus”; for the words the apostle here uses, in his response, are the same as those used by Christ in His announcement; as if he caught up the Master’s words and echoed them. Thus gladly and fervently does the Church respond to the promise; as one who felt the blank created by the Lord’s absence, and welcomed with her whole heart the intimation of His return. This is the summing-up of her petitions, as was the seventy-second Psalm the filling up of all David’s prayers (Psa. 72:20). Are our hearts, like hers, thus beating toward the Beloved One? Is this the burden of our prayers?
IV. The last blessing. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” Earthly, human love, is of all things here the most fitted to gladden; how much more, then, that which is heavenly and Divine!
V. The last amen. This is not an amen to this chapter only, or this book only; but to the whole Bible, of which the burden, from Genesis to Revelation, is Jesus Christ, the seed of the woman. It is an amen to the prayer for the grace of Christ; it is an amen to the sigh for the Lord’s appearing. It is an amen to the prophetic announcement of all the glorious and all the terrible things written in this book. It is the concentrated utterance of the Church’s longings; her glad response to all that God has spoken; the subscription of her name to her belief in all that the Holy Spirit has written; the summing-up of her unutterable groan. How much does this amen comprise! Faith, hope, and love are in it; and, with these, such a boundless satisfaction of spirit as can only get vent to itself in that one brief word, which sums up all the aspirations of its joy, “Amen and amen!” (H. Bonar, D.D.)
The last amen:—Amen is a Hebrew word, signifying truth and certainty in the first place; and then our affirmation of something as a certainty, or our desire that it should be so. It comes also to signify faithfulness and stedfastness in a person, so that that person is himself regarded as truth personified—the truth, the Amen. Hence it is that Christ takes to Himself the designation of the Truth, and the Amen—the faithful and true Witness. Further, it has come to signify faith and confidence—specially faith and confidence in God. It is the word used in reference to Abraham, “He believed God,” and to Israel, “They believed the Lord.” But it is with the common use of it that we have now to do—that use of it which we make daily when we conclude even our shortest prayer. Amen; that is, so let it be; let it be according to our request, and according to Thy promise. Used in this way it means much. There are, however, different ways of using it; different feelings with which it is uttered: and it is to these that we would now attend.
I. There is the amen of ignorance. Simple and common as the word is, thousands use it without knowing what it means, or what they themselves intend. It is to them a word, no more; a concluding word or sound, where the voice ceases, and after which the eyes are opened, and the hands unclasped! Are your Amens of this kind? or are they uttered with the understanding—the full realisation of the large and solemn meaning which they contain?
II. The amen of habit. All are not ignorant of its significance. Ask many what they intend by affixing it to their prayers, and at once they will tell you. Yet mark them, and you will find the word slipping from their tongue without any corresponding thought as to its sense. Are your Amens those of habit—pieces of ornament, the useless appendages of useless devotion—or is your soul thrown into them? Are they the essence of your previous petitions—the concentration and summing-up of all your desires?
III. The amen of unbelief. It seems strange that a word like this should ever be uttered in unbelief; yet such is the case. Nay, sometimes it would seem as if the most unbelieving part of our prayer is that which should be the most believing—the Amen. We may well wonder how it should be so. It seems almost incredible that a word like this, meant to be associated with faithfulness, and truth, and certainty, should be connected with unbelief, nay, should be the utterance of unbelief—the frequent, the daily utterance of unbelief; yet so it is. Our unbelieving Amens are about the most melancholy parts of our prayers—the worst indications of distrust in God.
IV. The Amen of faith. This is the true Amen; the Amen of souls who have heard the gracious words of Him who cannot lie, and who act upon these. But why should Amen be thus linked with faith? Because that which calls it forth is not simply a desirable thing, but a truth and a certainty. It has to do with such things as the following: 1. The free love of God. In every prayer we keep our eye on this; for without the recognition of this grace, this abundant grace, what would prayer be? 2. The truthfulness of God. God is true—truthful, faithful; we will not make Him a liar in any one thing, in any of our communications with Him—least of all in our prayers. 3. The power of God. What He has promised He is able also to perform. He is able to do for us exceeding abundantly, above all we ask. In addition to these things, to which the faith of our Amens attaches itself, we would only further say that it specially leans upon the Cross of Christ in connection with these three. It is round that Cross that this faith flings its arms; it is here that it sits down in quiet satisfaction.
V. The amen of hope. We say, “Hallowed be Thy name,” and we add the Amen of hope; “Thy kingdom come,” and we add the Amen of hope; “Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven,” and we add the Amen of hope. We hear the Lord’s own voice from heaven saying, “Surely I come quickly,” and we add with the apostle: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Amen!” Each time we utter the Amen in connection with these blessed futurities, does our hope kindle up anew—the hope calling up the Amen, and the Amen making the hope to shine out with fresh brightness? In anticipating such a future, how can we utter a cold, heartless, passive, or despairing Amen?
VI. The Amen of joy. It is the joy of conscious pardon; the joy of friendship with God; the joy of adoption and heirship; the joy of our whole new created being; the joy because of the blessedness in prospect. Past, present, and future—all furnish us with materials for joy. And in our thanksgivings for the past, we breathe out an Amen of joy; in our consciousness of present peace and heavenly favour, we repeat our Amen of joy; in our pleadings for larger blessing to ourselves and to our world, we say Amen with gladness; and in our pressing forward to the mark for the prize of our high calling, looking for and hastening to the coming of the day of God, we say Amen and Amen with ever-deepening joy of heart. (Ibid.)[7]
Ver. 21.—The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen; the grace of the Lord Jesus be with the saints. Amen. So the delivery of the message was commenced (cf. ch. 4; cf. the form in 1 Thess. 5:28). Bearing in mind that the theme of the book is the conflict between good and evil, we may well conclude our study of it by joining in the prayer of the author, that the help of the Lord Jesus may be on the side of his saints to enable them to overcome, and then receive their reward.[8]
21. John closeth all with the sweet apostolical benediction. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all Amen. Reader! this is among the greatest of all blessings, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, including, as it doth, the Father’s love, and the Spirit’s fellowship. All grace can only be in Christ. And all grace only from Christ. And all the actings of our faith upon grace, from the grace given us by Christ. Oh! then, for the Lord, to give out largely, fully, daily, and momently to his people grace, that of his fullness we may all receive, and grace for grace. Once more, may the Lord both say it and confirm it, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, Amen.[9]
21 For an apocalypse to end with a benediction is unusual. Its presence may be accounted for by the fact that since it began as an epistle (1:4ff.), it would be appropriate to close with a benediction (cf. 1 Cor 16:23; Eph 6:24; etc.). The benediction is pronounced upon all who have listened to the book as it was read aloud in the churches of Asia. The final “Amen” is probably a scribal addition (in view of the weakness of manuscript evidence supporting its inclusion).
With this the book of Revelation is complete. It has served to inform the readers of that day (and all subsequent time) that God is sovereign and that his eternal plan for the human race will in fact be carried through. During the interim there will be hostility and opposition, but what he has decreed must of necessity come to pass. People will be faced with the crucial decision of pledging their allegiance to the beast (and hence to Satan himself) or to the Lamb. Those who choose to wear the mark of the beast will ultimately share his fate. The great city Babylon will fall. Those who choose to follow the Lamb, who bears the marks of redemptive sacrifice, will ultimately be brought into eternal fellowship with God in the New Jerusalem. The end of all things has been laid bare before the readers of Revelation. All uncertainty regarding the eschaton has been removed. Believers are encouraged to remain faithful to their trust and wait expectantly for the return of Christ, who will forever put away all evil and usher in the eternal state of blessedness. “Amen. Come Lord Jesus.”[10]
21 A conclusion such as this, while quite unsuitable for a Jewish apocalypse, is wholly appropriate for this Christian prophetic message addressed to the ancient church and indeed to the whole church of all times. The benediction is reminiscent of Paul’s usual practice (cf. the final verses of Romans, 1 Thessalonians, Colossians, et al.). Whether in this benediction we should accept the textual reading “with all” (so Metzger [1971 ed.], 768–69) or “with all the saints” (so Swete, various MSS) cannot be completely settled. We may, however, agree that nothing less than God’s grace is required for us to be overcomers and to triumphantly enter the Holy City of God, where we shall reign with him for ever and ever.[11]
[1] Luter, A. B. (2017). Revelation. In E. A. Blum & T. Wax (Eds.), CSB Study Bible: Notes (p. 2047). Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1999). Nelson’s new illustrated Bible commentary (p. 1768). T. Nelson Publishers.
[3] MacDonald, W. (1995). Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments (A. Farstad, Ed.; pp. 2381–2382). Thomas Nelson.
[4] Easley, K. H. (1998). Revelation (Vol. 12, pp. 424–425). Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[5] Utley, R. J. (2001). Hope in Hard Times – The Final Curtain: Revelation: Vol. Volume 12 (p. 153). Bible Lessons International.
[6] Kistemaker, S. J., & Hendriksen, W. (1953–2001). Exposition of the Book of Revelation (Vol. 20, p. 595). Baker Book House.
[7] Exell, J. S. (n.d.). The Biblical Illustrator: Revelation (pp. 779–787). James Nisbet & Co.
[8] Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. (1909). Revelation (p. 548). Funk & Wagnalls Company.
[9] Hawker, R. (2013). Poor Man’s New Testament Commentary: Philippians–Revelation (Vol. 3, p. 679). Logos Bible Software.
[10] Mounce, R. H. (1997). The Book of Revelation (pp. 410–411). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
[11] Johnson, A. F. (2006). Revelation. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Hebrews–Revelation (Revised Edition) (Vol. 13, p. 789). Zondervan.
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