Revelation 19:9, commentary and pictures

The verse pronounces blessing on those invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb and seals the promise as the true words of God. The blessing belongs to the glad proclamation that the Lord God omnipotent reigns, that the marriage of the Lamb has come and His wife has made herself ready in fine linen clean and white, which is the righteousness of the saints. God's people are the guests called to the supper and the bride is the New Jerusalem, the marriage being Christ's reception of His kingdom in heaven before He returns to take His redeemed to share His table, while those who held the other teach that the bride is His redeemed people brought home to the Father's house. Entering requires the wedding garment of Christ's righteousness received by faith, kept by daily watching, obedience to God's commandments, and growth into Christ's character, since no self-provided covering can suffice. The call is the present and final gospel invitation to be carried to all, and those who accept and remain ready enter pure and eternal joy with Christ, served by Him at His table and feasting on life forever.

Wording and Immediate Context

Blessed are those called to the marriage supper of the Lamb, and these are the true sayings of God. The invitation identifies those who share in the joyful celebration of Christ's victory and calls people to be in right relation with God and to help others. It is the blessed hope of uniting with the redeemed when Christ comes. Those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus and proclaim the last message of warning that the last great conflict is right upon them are the blessed called ones, in opposition to false harmony and the world's claim that Christ changed the seventh-day Sabbath to the first day.

The blessing belongs to the joyful announcement that the Lord God omnipotent reigns amid rejoicing, the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. It belongs to the heavenly celebration when the Lamb reigns and His bride is ready, clothed in the righteousness of the saints. It is the blessing of Christ's followers at His second appearing, when while the world is in darkness and the wicked flee, the saints have light and rejoice because redemption is near. Those with Him are called and chosen and faithful as Lord of lords and King of kings, going forth with uplifted heads and heaven in their hearts to meet the Bridegroom in the brightness and glory of the King in His majesty, rejoicing in His undimmed rays and in the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, prepared for the communion of heaven. Though more than eighteen hundred years have passed since the promise, the word is none the less sure and God will fulfill it in His own time, so faith must not weary when so near the eternal world, for a little longer and the redeemed shall see the King in His beauty, have all tears wiped from their eyes, and be presented faultless with exceeding joy.

To the wife it is granted to be arrayed in fine linen clean and white, and the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. The wife is the church who obey Thus saith the Lord. Readiness is granted clothing, kept by watching and keeping the garments of the righteousness of Christ's character and by beholding the glory of the Lord and being changed into the same image from character to character by the Spirit, having one aim to be laborers together with God and thus complete in Christ. Those called are those who love Christ by having and keeping His commandments, who have not defiled their garments and shall walk with Him in white as worthy, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and who do His commandments to have right to the tree of life and enter through the gates into the city.

It stands within heavenly Alleluia over salvation and glory and honor and power and true and righteous judgments, vengeance for the blood of servants, judgment of the great whore who corrupted the earth with fornication, her smoke rising forever, worship by the four and twenty elders and the four beasts, the call to praise God from small and great, the reign of the omnipotent Lord, and gladness and rejoicing that the marriage of the Lamb is come. It stands just before the gathering of the beast and kings of the earth against Him on the horse and the casting alive of the beast and the false prophet who deceived receivers of the mark into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. It belongs to a chapter that pictures the beast and false prophet being cast into the lake of fire, followed by Satan's binding, the resurrection and final destruction of the wicked, and Christ's final triumph and reign. It is in the chapter that warns those who enforce worship of the beast that God will judge them.

The truths of Revelation 18 and 19 are testing truths for this time and the last call of mercy to the world, to be given more fully and sounded to all who have not yet heard, and to be read and understood by all, while God in mercy shows long forbearance and holds back His judgments to give time for the warning. The verse belongs to the closing scenes of earth's history and contains part of the messages every minister should be giving at this time. Watchmen must discern its message and proclaim it with a certain sound, because passing along without it quiets souls to sleep and results in eternal loss. The wedding at Cana was intended to represent the marriage supper of the Lamb as a figure, made as perfect a symbol as possible by leaving out the objectionable features that usually attend a marriage festival. Presence there gives high endorsement to the marriage institution as sacred.

Bride Guests and Timing

The blessed are guests invited to the supper, not the bride herself, for the bride is the New Jerusalem. The marriage is one single event in heaven, not the ongoing union of believers with Christ through history, and it belongs with His receiving the throne of David in the New Jerusalem. Those guests are those who accept the truths of Scripture and follow Christ by faith in His work in the heavenly sanctuary, and after He receives His kingdom He redeems them to share His table in His kingdom on His return in glory. The coming of the Bridegroom to the marriage therefore marks a change in His work as High Priest in heaven before He returns.

The distinction presses the question that if the church were the wife, then who are the invited guests and who are the children of promise, and it stands against the idea that the church is the bride and that the marriage happens only after Christ comes and the saints are taken to heaven, without itself naming who the guests are. The marriage means Christ's reception of His kingdom, and it is finished and consummated when the subjects of the kingdom have been decided and gathered. Then the kingdom is given to Jesus and to the heirs of salvation, and He reigns as King of kings and Lord of lords. While He goes to the Father to receive the kingdom, His waiting people are to watch with spotless garments and eyes fixed on Him until He receives them to Himself.

The supper comes after He has received the kingdom and returned in glory, when His redeemed people share His table in His kingdom. It is the joyful welcome into the city for the faithful after they have come through great tribulation, done His will, and suffered for Him. There Jesus welcomes them and declares He will gird Himself and serve them. They will afterward eat from the tree of life and drink from the fountain of life, and the vision places this welcome even after the saints descend with Jesus to the renewed earth and the city comes down from God.

The wedding feast looks to the future joy when Christ brings His bride, His redeemed people, home to the Father's house to share celebration with Him, fulfilling the sacred marriage bond that portrays Christ and His people. God's people are pictured as the Lamb's bride in close union with Him, for whom He gave Himself to redeem and purify a people zealous of good works, with God as King and Jesus as Son providing riches of grace, the Holy Spirit, and treasures of truth. The church's watching for His appearing belongs with being acknowledged as His wife and being called to the supper.

Those called are Christ's redeemed church, endowed with Christ's righteousness and given ample facilities so that He may receive glory from His purchased possession. In untainted purity and spotless perfection He looks upon them as the reward of His suffering, humiliation, and love and the supplement of His glory, with Himself the center from which all glory radiates. They are His depository in which mercy, love, grace, and glory appear in full and final display, and the Holy Spirit surrounds them as a wall of fire that the powers of hell cannot prevail against.

The wedding marks the end of waiting and the beginning of glory and joy, when the robe is put on and the crown received. It is a day of joy with bridal song and many harps joining hearts and voices in praise to the Lamb, a heavenly festival and the saints' everlasting home. It is pictured as a heavenly marriage hall where angels prepare the table and lay sacred bread on a golden table at the King's call, where the Lamb feasts with His bride in the great upper room, where the guests gather with places arranged and the royal throne above the rest.

The marriage of Christ is distinct from earthly courtship and marriage. Young people preparing for service are training not for human marriage but for union with Christ. That calls for closeness to Jesus and personal experienced knowledge of sin and need of Him as Saviour, since theoretical knowledge alone cannot save.

Wedding Garment of Righteousness

The wedding garment, the fine linen, and the white robe of character is Christ's righteousness alone, the gift of God, identified as the Lord our righteousness to be received by faith without delay. No covering of human devising, no works, worldly status, intellect, refinement, self-provided righteousness, or lost robe of innocence can replace it or cover the shame of sin. It is woven in the loom of heaven and freely provided at infinite cost, offered even to the lowliest who believes in Christ as a personal Saviour. Salvation comes through God's grace, and Christ's imputed righteousness alone makes the sons and daughters of Adam members of the heavenly family.

Accepting that righteousness means turning from reliance on one's own righteousness, character, customs, and practices, and letting truth shape practical life. Wearing the garment is sanctification through the truth, a living connection with God, doing good, and building character for eternity. By faith it becomes part of the life as holiness, uprightness, purity, love, forbearance, meekness, and other Christian virtues. This is shown in meekness, humility, truth, kindness, courtesy, tenderness, refusing irritating words, helping brethren, speaking nothing discouraging, and singing God's praises, with desire for Christ's righteousness and friendship with Christ revealed in words, spirit, and love for Jesus and for those He died to save. It does not cover cherished or unrepented sin, for those clothed in it do God's works and pursue holiness, being saved from sins and not in them, made whiter than snow.

Accepting the invitation means more than seeking its benefits; it means accepting Christ as personal Saviour and putting on the robe of His righteousness in thorough conversion. It requires repenting of sins and being converted without defiling the soul by transgression, leaving the former life of ignorance with changed speech and conversation. Those who accept become new creatures and lights with praise on the lips, advancing toward Christian perfection in the church below to unite with the church above. The supper itself is a feast prepared by Christ's atoning death, offering redemption to the world as a rich repast of truth. The robe testifies to that death, and all who follow Christ wear it and, rather than living to please themselves, convey God's invitation to others both by the message they bear and by the garment they wear.

Being present requires the garment God has prepared, and earthly wealth and honor cannot qualify anyone to enter without it. Those who come without that robe face the question of how they entered without the wedding garment. Many who profess godliness yet refuse it, or who come in self-clothed boasting and exaltation seeking glory, are seen to wear only unfit civilian dress, condemned and unfit to remain among the guests.

Readiness and Holy Character

Being ready to enter is a daily experience nourished by the Holy Spirit in faith, love, and patience, not something last-minute preparation can supply. It is watching and keeping the garments of Christ's character, beholding the glory of the Lord and being changed into the same image from character to character by the Spirit, with the one aim of laboring together with God and so being complete in Christ. This is the blessed hope of uniting with the redeemed when Christ comes and the Lord God Omnipotent reigns and the marriage of the Lamb has come, when the wife has made herself ready in fine linen clean and white which is the righteousness of the saints.

The blessed called are those who love Christ by having and keeping His commandments, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, who have not defiled their garments but walk in white as worthy, who do His commandments to have right to the tree of life and enter through the gates into the city. They are doers of His words, pure, loyal, and true, following on to know the Lord and shaped by His mind of love and tenderness. By obeying the Word of God they become heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ to sit down with Him at the supper. The wife who has made herself ready is the church obeying Thus saith the Lord, arrayed in fine linen clean and white, proclaiming the last warning message that the final conflict is right upon them in opposition to false harmony and the claim that Christ changed the seventh-day Sabbath to the first day.

Readiness is pictured by the wise virgins' oil of grace, and the urgent question amid rejoicing at the Bridegroom's coming is whether one will be among the wise rather than the foolish. The foolish take lamps without oil and let them go out, and when they seek to enter the door is shut so they cannot partake and lose their chance, because they did not live the truth nor obtain from God the wisdom and grace that completes a person in Christ. Those lacking that grace and discernment cannot join the procession, for they cannot borrow another's character, cannot discern and accept the light when it comes, and character is not transferable. Nominal faith without the oil of grace does not prepare, and preparation includes accepting God's last message of mercy and obeying His commandments so as to enter the city and partake. Ease-loving, world-loving professors who have not kept their lamps burning are distinct from the called and will find entrance denied.

Those appointed to sit with Christ have received the Holy Spirit and grown to full stature in Christ according to the knowledge received, reaching spiritual maturity measured by light given. They wear the wedding garment woven in heaven in the loom of heaven, which represents His character, and have surrendered own will and wisdom to be ordered, molded, taught, and led by Him. They have repented and been converted as a little child so sins go beforehand to judgment to be blotted out. They leave behind suspicion, criticism, distrust, anger, pride, accusation, temper, self-importance, self-dignity, spiritual pride, want of confidence, and educating themselves to pick flaws, for such traits would spoil trust, happiness, and the feast. Within that door nothing can enter that would mar happiness, where all tears are wiped away, and only very few are admitted because those remaining grown-up children with childish dispositions cannot see the King in His beauty without representing His character.

Entrance requires hungering and thirsting after righteousness and making room for heavenly grace and the Word by receiving and practicing Christ's teachings. Human wisdom, knowledge, self-sufficiency, and self-supplied understanding leave no room for that grace and neglect the one thing needed. Those full in themselves who pity earnest seekers and trust their own knowledge rather than learn from Christ will awake from slumber too late to find their lamps going out.

Preparation must be made now in this life before probation closes, because the Lord is near and there is little time. Those who postpone the work God wants done now, expecting the latter rain to fit them later, may grow cold, die unready, and be unfit for the last change. The shortness of time makes urgent seeking Christ's peace, resisting the devil whose agents seek to destroy the soul, accepting Christ's robe and not being found without the wedding garment, doing God's will rather than personal pleasure, waiting for His salvation, and warning the world. That warning is giving the gospel message everywhere to high and low, rich and poor, in highways and hedges through house-to-house soul-saving work instead of absorption in commercial interests, proclaiming Christ's return near and sharing Scripture with those in error. The hope of the celebration calls for purity and holiness here with diligent work for final reward.

Many who expect to sit down at the supper and meet the Bridegroom as King are unprepared, blind and not discerning their danger and lacking the garment. Being called is not enough, for sitting there requires being clothed with beautiful garments through personal consecration and sanctification of the whole being and a life in harmony with truth. Some accept outwardly while professing godliness and serving actively, yet lack the inward work of the Holy Spirit, refuse the garment, and are unfit to remain among the guests. Such need to examine hearts and draw near to God in humility, discerning spiritual danger and becoming spiritually prepared to go forth to meet Him.

Responding to God's drawing as invitation means yielding to God, doing His will, accepting truth, receiving Jesus, and taking His yoke. Those who do so know the gospel's power by experimental knowledge, and as they humbly follow on to know the Lord their capacity to receive and understand truth as in Jesus and their power to obey increase step by step with ever better understanding of Christ. The call tests loyalty, whether they will obey God or refuse His message, with loyalty to Christ placed before pressure from even closest family.

The supper is the joyful outcome for those prepared for Christ's coming, entered only clothed in the wedding garment, calling for earnest preparation for the Lord's return.

Final Invitation to Proclaim

The call to the supper is the present gospel invitation for the recovery of sinners under the plan of redemption, and in the last days of this earth's history God's people are invested with all power to give it, with divinity and humanity combined and God and Christ and angels united with human workers in the great closing work of proclaiming present truth. Everyone who comes to the water of life is laid under obligation to invite others, and those who hear Christ must pass the invitation on, with His grace above every other attraction and His teaching alone heeded. Responding to God's drawing as that invitation means yielding to God, doing His will, accepting truth, receiving Jesus and taking His yoke, by which those who respond know the gospel's power experimentally and, as they humbly follow on, grow step by step in capacity to receive, understand truth as in Jesus, obey it, and understand Christ. It is to be given with compelling power in thorough work for all sections of a city, where faithfully worked it creates an open door with constant invitations and many more listening and responding, and it tests whether hearers will obey God or refuse, requiring loyalty to Christ before even closest family pressure.

The invitation is the final call, the last gospel invitation given in connection with Christ's soon coming, and many places still have yet to hear it. It is the remnant's last warning message and solemn threefold gospel message representing truth for this time, to be worked and prayed for earnestly and urged upon souls for their salvation. It is the blessed hope and final call to everyone through God's warning message, to be carried throughout the world including difficult fields and sinful cities where the third angel's message has not yet been proclaimed, in the power of the Spirit and simplicity of the gospel and with power and reverence to souls perishing in sin and darkness. It is the light of present truth, the Lord's solemn sacred message and the light of the third angel's message for the last days, to be proclaimed not merely in churches but in still unworked fields, in the most difficult fields and most sinful cities, in every place where light has not yet dawned, until everyone has heard.

The invitation must therefore be carried into the highways and byways through gospel work, through thorough city work, camp meetings in towns, house-to-house soul-saving, and restaurant work only when managed to save souls, instead of absorption in commercial interests. The call goes first to a highly favored people who reject it, then to the poorer class of poor, halt, maimed and blind who may come if they will, and since room remains finally to the most degraded and helpless in the byways compelled to come in so that God's house may be filled. It is offered to all classes, and people of wealth, influence, high standing and worldly reputation will come in large numbers, giving means, influence, character to the work and access to souls ministers could not reach, though some refuse. New converts must not wait through long years of education but take their Bibles, study diligently and explain truth as explained to them, while ministers carry the gospel in humility, sanctifying power and the simplicity of Christ's righteousness to break barriers and open ways for the message.

Many places have yet to hear and many workers are still needed to carry the last gospel invitation of Christ's soon coming to the world, and God's people are to prepare for the coming supper by sharing the message widely to save souls. The invitation is to be given to aged men in the Yountville soldiers' home and similar institutions, since many can still be won when led by prayer and tender sympathy to refuge in Jesus and His converting power, as precious souls deeply loved by the Redeemer with a deep far-reaching love, requiring laborers together with God to show deep interest and lift up a crucified and risen Saviour at every opportunity. It gathers scattered shepherdless sheep hungering for truth through hunters and fishers working with the Lord's help unto victory, leads perishing sinners to the supper through humble earnest workers of childlike trust whose hearts are melted by God's love and who seek the Lord with humble contrite hearts, in urgent work for the short time left, and guides sinners toward the blessed invitation through men and women of prayer who lead them to Christ.

Those persistently refusing after hearing for years will not taste the supper, their excuses illustrated as foolish, including valuing business and temporal concerns above eternal glory. The urgent call is that all things are now ready, yet many who made light of the message refuse to heed it. Every church, every institution and every member must say Come, conveying the invitation by the message borne and by wearing the garment of Christ's righteousness rather than living to please self. Christ's followers shine in darkness by letting the Holy Spirit use God's word to transform life and develop God's character and attributes in them, so their light glorifies God and points the way to the Bridegroom's home, feast and city of God.

Blessedness and Eternal Celebration

Those who are with Christ are called and chosen and faithful, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings. At His second appearing as Bridegroom in the brightness and glory of the King in His majesty, while the world lies in darkness and the wicked flee from His presence, the saints have light in every dwelling and rejoice because their redemption is near. They are admired as those who served Him, lived in close communion with Him, and reflected the light of the knowledge of God's glory, and with uplifted heads and heaven in their hearts they go forth to meet the Bridegroom with joy, rejoicing in His undimmed rays and in the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness upon them. The gates stand open and the invitation belongs to the joyful announcement that the marriage of the Lamb has come and His wife has made herself ready for the communion of heaven.

Those called are pure and undefiled and made fit to enter the city God has prepared for them. All, no matter what their habits have been, can become those whom the Lord is not ashamed to call brethren by accepting the yoke of restraint and receiving Christ's lessons. They are ready for His coming, clothed in His righteousness, reflecting His character and sharing the life God gives, as Christ leads them beside living waters and God wipes away their tears. This readiness is kept by watching and keeping the garments of Christ's character and by beholding the Lord's glory and being changed into the same image from character to character by the Spirit, with one aim to labor together with God and thus be complete in Christ.

Their joy is pure, satisfying and eternal, filled with God's righteousness and joy, ever fresh and growing more precious through the ceaseless ages of eternity, unlike the polluted, unsatisfying, short-lived joys of earth. The rich banquet Christ has prepared is far greater than worldly entertainments, which are cheap chaff beside its wheat. Partaking means receiving the Saviour's mercy and love, being saved from sins and not in sins, with no unrepented sin covered by the robe of His righteousness that makes the believing soul whiter than snow, and entering His service of life and peace and joy and satisfaction. Those who have washed their robes of character and made them white in the blood of the Lamb will be heard in joyous shouts of gladness giving honor to God because the Lord God omnipotent reigns and the marriage of the Lamb has come, in contrast with those who would not come for life and who in the great day of review will see their unlikeness to Christ when it is too late for anything to be changed.

Though more than eighteen hundred years have passed since the promise of His coming, the word is none the less sure and God will fulfill it in His own time, so faith must not weary when so near the eternal world. A little longer and the redeemed shall see the King in His beauty, have all tears wiped from their eyes, and be presented faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. The faithful who have endured great tribulation, done His will and suffered for Him are welcomed to the supper, where Jesus says He will gird Himself and serve them, and they will later eat from the tree of life and drink from the fountain of life. The supper is a promised banquet whose blessings continue to be learned through eternity, and sitting with Christ there is by appointment for those who open their hearts to receive the Holy Spirit and grow to the full stature of a person in Christ according to the knowledge and light they have received.

Only very, very few are admitted, and entrance requires entire unreserved surrender, giving up own will and wisdom to be ordered, molded, taught and led by Christ, with repentance and conversion as a little child so that sins go beforehand to judgment to be blotted out. Those admitted wear the heaven-woven wedding garment representing His character and must leave behind suspicion, criticism, distrust, temper, anger, pride, accusation, self-importance and flaw-picking, which would spoil the feast and mar the perfect trust and happiness of the dwellers, for within that door nothing can enter that would mar happiness. Those who obey the Word of God will become heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ and will sit down with Him at the supper in the kingdom of God, where Jesus Himself will serve them. Remembering this future meal, families should have food prepared in an enjoyable way and eat together with gladness and gratitude, with no rebellion cultivated at the table.

Refusal Distraction and Loss

Worldly amusements, entertainments, social gatherings and pleasure gatherings function as a rival banquet set against the divine call to the marriage supper of the Lamb, and those who accept that blessed invitation enter salvation itself. They distract souls from accepting the call and keep them from receiving the white robe of character, which is the righteousness of Christ.

Self-righteous hearers refuse that invitation now, and in refusing it they refuse to drink the water of life. They live for self instead of God and leave God out of their thoughts, which classes them with unbelievers. Their refusal appears when God's commandments with all their binding claims are laid before them and they answer No. Because they do not seek to know God here they could not serve God in heaven and could not live in His presence, but would feel any place preferable to heaven, and even if they could enter through the pearly gates they could have no right to the tree of life.

Those who persist in doubt and criticism and feed on the faults of others will be unprepared for the supper when Jesus ends His mediatorial work in the heavenly sanctuary. Their judgment becomes so corrupted that they may even criticize the Lord's table in His kingdom. Those who wear coverings of their own devising shut themselves on the wrong side when the door shuts, while those made ready through sanctification by the truth, living connection with God, doing good, and building character for eternity enter the marriage when the Bridegroom comes and are found inside rather than shut out. Ease-loving, world-loving professors who have not kept their spiritual lamps burning are distinct from the called, and when they seek entrance the door is shut because readiness cannot be borrowed from another since character is not transferable. The foolish virgins who took lamps without oil let them go out and lost their chance to partake, because they did not live the truth and failed to obtain from God the wisdom and grace that make a person complete in Jesus Christ.

The declaration that these are the true sayings of God stands opposed to false harmony and to the world's claim that Christ changed the seventh-day Sabbath to the first day of the week. The marriage of the Lamb is come and His wife has made herself ready, and the wife is the church who obey Thus saith the Lord. To her it is granted to be arrayed in fine linen clean and white, and the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. The blessed called are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus and proclaim the last message of warning that the last great conflict is right upon them.

The invitation calls people to be in right relation with God and to help others, and those who share in the marriage belong to that celebration as those made ready. Accepting the wedding garment of Christ's righteousness means turning from reliance on one's own righteousness and letting truth shape practical life. Desire for His righteousness and friendship with Christ are shown through words, spirit, and love for Jesus and for the people He died to save.