Revelation 21:25

And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. NOT BE SHUT ... BY DAY - therefore never; for it shall always be day. Gates are usually shut by night; but in it shall be no night. There shall be continual free ingress; so that all which is blessed may be brought into it. So in the millennial type....

22-27 Perfect and direct communion with God, will more than supply the place of gospel institutions. And what words can more full express the union and co-equality of the Son with the Father, in the Godhead? What a dismal world would this be, if it were not for the light of the sun! What is there in heaven that supplies its place? The glory of God lightens that city, and the Lamb is the Light thereof. God in Christ will be an everlasting Fountain of knowledge and joy to the saints in heaven. There is no night, therefore no need of shutting the gates; all is at peace and secure. The whole shows us that we should be more and more led to think of heaven as filled with the glory of God, and enlightened by the presence of the Lord Jesus. Nothing sinful or unclean, idolatrous, or false and deceitful, can enter. All the inhabitants are made perfect in holiness. Now the saints feel a sad mixtur...

Verse 25. _THE GATES OF IT SHALL NOT BE SHUT AT ALL_] The Christian Church shall ever _stand open_ to receive sinners of all sorts, degrees, and nations. _THERE SHALL BE NO NIGHT THERE._] No more idolatry, no intellectual darkness; the Scriptures shall be everywhere read, the pure word everywhere preached, and the Spirit of God shall shine and work in every heart....

AND THE GATES OF IT SHALL NOT BE SHUT AT ALL BY DAY - It shall be constantly open, allowing free ingress and egress to all who reside there. The language is derived from Isaiah 60:11. See the notes on that place. Applied to the future state of the blessed, it would seem to mean, that while this will be their permanent abode, yet that the dwellers there will not be prisoners. The universe will be open to them. They will be permitted to go forth and visit every world, and survey the works of God in all parts of his dominions. FOR THERE SHALL BE NO NIGHT THERE - It shall be all day; all unclouded splendor. When, therefore, it is said that the gates should not be “shut by day,” it means that they would never be shut. When it is said that there would be no night there, it is, undoubtedly, to be taken as meaning that there w

EXPOSITION REVELATION 21:1 AND I SAW. The usual introduction to a new vision (cf. Revelation 20:11, etc.). Having described the origin and progress of evil in the world, the final overthrow of Satan and his adherents, and the judgment when every man is rewarded according to his works, the seer now completes the whole by portraying the eternal bliss of the redeemed in heaven (cf. on Revelation 20:10). The description is based upon Isaiah 60:1. and Ezekiel 40:1., et seq.;...

AND THE GATES OF IT SHALL NOT BE SHUT AT ALL BY DAY,.... Which does not design the free communication between the living saints on the new earth, and the raised ones in the new heaven, as some have thought, for these shall be together, and make up one body; but rather the universal collection, and free admission of all the saints from all parts into this city; though it seems best to interpret it of the safety of the inhabitants, see Jeremiah 49:31 who will have no enemy to fear, and therefore need never shut their gates; the beast and false prophet will have been taken, and cast into the lake of fire long ago; ungodly men will be destroyed in the general conflagration, and Satan will be bound in the bottomless pit during the thousand years: FOR THERE SHALL BE NO NIGHT THERE; this is a reason given why it is before said the gates shall not be shut by day, since it is

Revelation 21:1. _And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea._ Astronomers tell us that, within living memory, several starry worlds have burnt out, and vanished out of sight. The apostle Peter has told us that this world also will be destroyed by fire, but it will afterwards be renewed, and a new sky and a new earth will appear after the first firmament and the first earth shall have become extinct. God means that this planet should continue to exist after it has had a new creation, and renewed its youth. The regeneration of his people, their new birth, is a foretaste of what is yet to happen to this whole world of ours. We have the first-fruits of the Spirit, and we groan within ourselves while we wait for the fullness of that new creation. «The first heaven and the first earth were passed awa

CHAPTER 21 Revelation 21:1 . And now the eternal state comes into view. “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and the sea is no more.” This is the revelation concerning the final and eternal state of the earth. “Thou hast established the earth and it abideth” (Psalms 119:90); “But the earth abideth forever” (Ecclesiastes 1:4). These divine statements are now fulfilled. Many Christians have a very vague conception of the eternal state of the earth and the abode of the redeemed. They think of it as a spiritual state destitute of any locality. But it is not so. The earth and the heaven abide as definite places throughout all eternity. Wha

REVELATION 21:1 TO REVELATION 22:5. THE VISION OF THE NEW JERUSALEM. The doctrine of the new heaven and the new earth goes back to Isaiah 65:17, and is derived from the belief that the present world was so corrupt that it could not possibly be the seat of the Messianic kingdom, at any rate in its present condition. The idea was developed in the apocalyptic literature, especially in Ethiopic Enoch, the Apocalypse of Baruch,, 4 Ezra. Some expositors hold that the New Jerusalem was established with the foundation of the Christian religion, and that the history of the Church is the history of the building of the city. But such an interpretation is mere allegorising. The writer of Rev. indicates in the clearest possib

THE NEW CREATION (Revelation 21:1) _ 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had gone; and the sea was no more._ John has seen the doom of the wicked, and now he sees the bliss of the blessed. The dream of a new heaven and a new earth was deep in Jewish thought. "Behold," said God to Isaiah, "I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, or come into mind" (Isaiah 65:17). Isaiah speaks of the new heaven and the new earth which God will make, in which life will be one continual act of worship (Isaiah 66:22). This idea is equally strong between the Testaments. It is God's promise: "I will transform the heav