He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
John's vision has just shown a new heaven and a new earth, with God Himself living among people. Two questions follow: when does this happen, and why does God Himself bend down to dry human eyes?
When This Belongs
Commentators place this promise after Christ's thousand-year reign on earth, in the eternal state. Writers give two reasons. Sorrow is not wholly gone from the earth even under Christ's rule. And the same words about tears appear earlier in the book, describing a different scene.
Walter ScottOnly in the eternal state does God remove every physical and moral effect of sin. The thousand-year reign, as we have seen, is not a perfect condition. Even under the good rule of the Lord people will still weep on earth. The words, "He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes," are repeated word for word in Revelation 7:17. There, however, it is a millennial scene; here it is the everlasting state. Neither here nor in the earlier scene is the wiping away of tears the work of the Lamb. God does it. If He wipes away every tear, then He removes every cause and occasion of sorrow.
The Hand That Dries the Eyes
The comfort here is not just that grief stops. It is who stops it. One writer dwells on how personal the wording is.
Edward DennettNot a trace of former sorrow shall remain, and God Himself will remove it. What infinite tenderness that God Himself will do this! A mother gently wipes away her child's tears. In the same way God Himself will delight to wipe away all tears from the eyes of His people. And once wiped away they can never return, for "death shall be no more." Think how many tears death has drawn from grieving people in this world!
Why the Tears Can End
Tears end for good only because God dealt with their source. One writer traces the whole story back to Eden and forward to the cross.
J. A. TrenchGod had gone to the source of everything that brought in sorrow, and swept it away in the judgment of the cross. The former things had passed away. God once had to drive the man and the woman out of Eden in tears — the garden He had made for them before they fell. Now He can meet us at the door of a new heaven and a new earth as the One who wipes all tears from our eyes.
The Force of "No More"
The verse says these things will be "no more." That phrase carries its own weight: the evil is gone, and it cannot come back.
J. N. DarbyNot only has He taken away the evil, but it is never to be any more. That is, there is now full and perfect security and blessedness. All the evil is gone. So are all the trials that tested man and brought him to the point where he could truly meet God. The love of God takes the place of everything. He fills all things with Himself, so evil can never enter again. That is the opposite of the old paradise man was given.
Described by What Is Absent
Notice how the verse says almost nothing about what the new scene contains. It describes the blessing by naming what is gone.
Edward DennettDeath, and all the trials, pains, and griefs bound up with human life in this world are gone, abolished for ever. Sin has now been taken away (John 1:29; Hebrews 9:26). That is the final result of the death of Christ on the cross. So death is gone from the scene, and with it all the other bitter fruits of sin. Life has swallowed them up in victory. It is not the positive side of eternal blessedness, but the negative.
What It Is Given For
This is not just information about the future. One writer says why God tells us now.
Edward DennettAnd He reveals all this to us now, so that we may live in its light through faith. In it we find a remedy for present trials. We also find a rich encouragement to set our minds on things above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.
Summary
- Cause removed. At the cross God went to the source of all that brought in sorrow and swept it away in judgment.
- God's own hand. Tears do not just stop. God Himself wipes them away, with the tenderness of a mother drying her child's face.
- Never again. "No more" means more than relief. The evil is gone and cannot return, because the love of God fills the scene.
- Not yet, but certain. Commentators place this in the eternal state. Tears are still shed during the thousand-year reign, and the same promise in Revelation 7:17 belongs to that earlier scene.
- Live by it now. The picture comes in negatives — no death, no mourning, no pain. God gives it now so faith can use it today as a remedy for present trials.