Revelation 22:14, commentary and pictures

Blessed are those who keep the commandments, for they are given right to the tree of life and entrance through the gates into the city. These are the words of Jesus Christ himself, the Alpha and Omega, the root and offspring of David and the bright and morning star, testifying to the churches. Keeping the commandments is the plain condition for eternal life, and the Father's law of ten precepts remains binding and is not abolished by Christ's coming. Through obedience in Christ what Adam lost by transgression is restored, with free access again to the life-giving tree beside the river of life, with no flaming sword to bar the way. The city is the holy New Jerusalem where God and the Lamb reign, entered only by those washed in Christ's blood and clothed in His righteousness, while the disobedient and those who receive the mark of the beast remain outside.

Speaker Text and Setting

Blessed are those who do His commandments, for they have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city. Obedience to God's commandments is the condition for that right and entrance, and Adam and Eve lost that right through transgression and disobedience. Christ died to uphold the honor of God's law, and through His blood obedience makes people worthy of the heavenly blessing and restores the right to the tree of life. Keeping all ten of the Father's enduring precepts is not a fall from grace, but gives assurance of Christ's blessing and welcome into the holy city, where God and the Lamb reign and give life. Those so blessed are God's loyal, denominated people, who have kept the commandments and the faith of Jesus and have owned the crucified One as Saviour.

The words are those of Jesus Christ Himself, the world's Redeemer, who makes doing the Father's commandments the condition for eternal life. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, who comes quickly with His reward to give every person according to his work. He is the root and offspring of David and the bright and morning star, who sends His angel to testify these things in the churches, while the Spirit and the bride say Come and call all who thirst to take the water of life freely. His promise stands at the time when living intercession ends and mercy folds its wings and steps from the throne, when It is done is declared and the unjust and filthy are fixed in their state forever just as the righteous and holy are fixed in theirs. Then men are judged not according to profession but according to purity of motives and obedience to God's law, in direct contrast to those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark and therefore drink the wine of the wrath of God poured out without mixture, while dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters and all who love and make a lie remain outside. Amid the perils of the last days this blessing will shortly be met as eternal reality, not supposition.

The verse stands in the last chapter of Revelation, Christ's very last message given by way of Patmos on the Isle of John, left unsealed because the time is at hand. It is joined to His promise to come quickly and calls for keeping the sayings of the prophecy of this book. It is to be read carefully and prayerfully and studied especially by those living in the last days, for it especially concerns them and turns attention from earthly things to heavenly ones. The last four chapters must be read and acted upon without further delay, pressing a deep and thorough individual work of humbling of soul before God, earnest seeking with heart and mind and soul, cleansing and refining and transformation of heart, and diligent cultivation of soul so fruit appears in proportion to light given. It is to make an impression upon heart and life and character, calling for earnest prayer and untiring work and most thorough repentance with no time to dally, purifying the soul by heartfelt repentance, asking forgiveness for unfaithful discharge of duty, tarrying no longer unprepared, and opening the door of the heart that Christ may enter. It shows the last events of earth's history in solemn warning, to be read and understood now while satanic angels work in all deceivableness of unrighteousness and Satan strives to deceive if possible the very elect, where confusion now may be of death unto death, so there must be no confusion but pressing to the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus.

The final chapter warns against teaching doctrines not found in God's Word. Ministers who preach their own suppositions, inventions, and traditions of men as doctrine instead of earnestly searching the Scriptures and preaching the Word come under its condemnation, while life eternal is secured by those who receive and keep the heavenly truth of God's Word. The verse is also connected with Jacob's transformed life after wrestling beside the Jabbok, when he abandoned self-reliance and deceit and his faith was refined through trial until his life was marked by simplicity, truth, and humble reliance on God.

Tree of Life Restored

Blessed obedience gives right to the tree of life because that right was lost when Adam and Eve transgressed and disobeyed, forfeiting access to its life-giving fruit and to Eden itself. The loss answers how humanity may regain the tree, since Adam was barred after transgression so that sin would not become immortalized, and the promise points to restored access through renewed allegiance made possible by accepting Christ as personal Saviour rather than by carelessness or indifference. Men are now on test and trial, and only the loyal and true who keep the commandments shall regain what disobedience cut off, for the disobedient have no place in the city and rebellion can never enter there.

After transgression Adam and Eve were deprived of the tree which perpetuates immortality and were debarred from approach by an angel with a flaming sword turning every way, the Lord guarding it so that man in sin would not approach and eat and immortalize sin and become immortal sinners. The redeemed from every nation are contrasted with that guarding, for they will have free access with no angel guarding with a flaming sword as after Adam and Eve sinned.

What was lost is restored through Christ, who died to uphold the honor of the law and through whose blood obedience makes people worthy of the heavenly blessing and restores right to the tree. Obedience through Jesus Christ gives perfected character and restores forfeited access to its life-giving fruit, and all who believe on Christ as personal Saviour, repent of transgression of the law, come back to loyalty and keep His commandments shall enter the city and have right to all the privileges of Eden, shall eat of the tree with no flaming sword to debar the way, and are saved, eternally saved. Adam lost Eden through disobedience but after the resurrection enters again with the redeemed, having regained the garden through repentance and faithful obedience, with the curse for disobedience replaced by blessing for obedience. Through the merits of His blood people can be pardoned for past transgressions, keep God's law, and again receive the immortal fruit forfeited by Adam and Eve.

The tree stands on either side of the pure river of water of life proceeding from the throne of God and the Lamb, bears twelve kinds of fruit monthly, and its leaves are for the healing of the nations while its precious life-giving fruit is food to the soul. Those who do the commandments have the inner life hid with Christ in God, pray as Christ prayed, search the Scriptures for themselves and more earnestly as the day approaches, love God supremely and neighbor as self, give themselves and all they have as a freewill offering and dispense means as the Lord's goods, and produce fruit in good works, and their right to the tree that God has planted means gathering its leaves for healing and its fruit as soul food. Its leaves bring healing and welcome to a life without sorrow, pain or death, free from bondage, and having this right is connected with preparing a character fit for the home above. Those ready for Christ's coming by doing God's will and perfecting holiness will enter, eat its immortal fruit and take its healing leaves, since nothing short of perfection fits them to see the King.

Its fruit had supernatural power to sustain life forever and counter death, and after Adam's disobedience God moved the tree to paradise above. Through Christ's blood people may again eat its life-giving fruit, for He gives His life as ransom and takes death's sentence upon Himself, so that through the merits of His blood pardon and favor are available and people can be brought into the garden and eat from the tree as part of the way of escape through obedience to God's law. Those who keep the commandments will receive life beneath the tree with immortal vigor in the restored garden of delight, which will stand free from sin's curse as an enduring example of perfect creation.

In the restoration the faithful enter the city with rightful welcome, having washed robes in Christ's blood and stood firmly for truth, and they see the tree beside the river flowing from God's throne. They eat its immortal fruit and take its healing leaves as the blessed destiny of those who prepare by doing God's will, and right to eat its fruit and drink of the water of the river is given to those who faithfully deliver what God revealed and endure to the end. Jesus brings those washed in His blood and stiff for truth to the gate, opens the pearly gate and bids them enter with perfect right, where they see the tree and the throne with the pure river coming from it.

Its leaves for healing the nations are also present now in God's Word, bringing healing to wounds suffered when hurt or mistreated and connected with preparing character for the home above. Christ's leaves represent the Bible and its promises, which heal people from false habits and open a way for God's peace and glory to be revealed in them as they help one another.

City and Welcomed Entrance

The city promised is the holy city, the New Jerusalem, the heavenly city and kingdom of glory where God and the Lamb reign and give life. Those who faithfully do His commandments as He gave them, keeping all ten enduring precepts, have right to the tree of life and will be admitted through its gates into the city of God. The blessing stands written over the gate and is read on entering, holding out inducement even now to turn thought to heavenly things, to be joyful and to speak of Christ's coming and reward. It belongs to the time when prophecy is left unsealed because the time is at hand, when character is forever fixed with the unjust and filthy still unjust and filthy and the righteous and holy still righteous and holy, and Christ comes quickly with His reward to give every man according as his work shall be.

That city has no need of sun or moon, for the glory of God lightens it and the Lamb is its light. The nations of the saved walk in its light, kings bring their glory and honor into it, its gates are never shut, and there is no night there. There is no more curse, the throne of God and of the Lamb is in it, the pure river of water of life flows from the throne, and the tree of life stands on either side bearing twelve kinds of fruit monthly with leaves for the healing of the nations. His servants serve Him and see His face, His name is in their foreheads, the Lord God gives them light, and they reign forever and ever. The free invitation still sounds to take the water of life, while dogs, sorcerers, murderers, adulterers and all who love and make a lie are excluded.

Nothing that defiles or works abomination or makes a lie can enter there, but only those written in the Lamb's book of life. At the judgment obedience marks the righteous whom God separates from the wicked, their names remain in the book of life, and they join the saints in light. Those who refuse God's law have no right to the kingdom, for character cannot then be changed nor grace transferred from one to another.

Entrance is through its gates, and the nations that have kept the truth pass through to receive crowns and share the kingdom prepared for them. Jesus lays hold of the pearly gate and swings it open and bids them enter in, and they march in feeling they have a perfect right in the city. Those given that right have washed their robes in His blood and stood stiffly for His truth, and keeping the commandments, with the Sabbath central to that obedience, makes heaven their home. Its full importance and glory is now sensed only a little, to be known more with the refreshing and latter rain from the presence of the Lord and fully when the covenant of peace is made at the voice of God, when with a glad voice richer than any music Jesus bids the obedient enter because they kept God's commandments. All who keep them will ever be in the presence of Jesus in His beauty and loveliness, with crowns upon His head, a crown within a crown, and a robe whiter than the whitest white, in glory no language can describe.

Those who enter do not enter as convicts but as sons and daughters of the Most High God. They are welcomed by the Father to His bosom and welcomed by Christ, who with His own hand places a crown upon the brow of each one, the crown of the overcomer, the crown of life. Golden harps are placed in their hands, with harps of gold and palms of victory, while all heaven is filled with rich music and songs of praise to the Lamb. Then they sing the song of Moses and the Lamb in the kingdom of glory. Jesus Himself throws open the gates on their glittering hinges and leads them in.

Entry follows the Second Coming, after the Son of man appears on the great white cloud, the sleeping saints are raised in glorious immortality, the living saints are changed in a moment, and all are caught up together to meet Jesus. The chariot rolls upward to the city amid cries of Holy and Glory, Alleluia, ascending seven days to the sea of glass and on to the gate. There as the 144,000 clothed in glorious white mantles they receive crowns from Jesus' own hand before marching over the sea of glass to the gate. Their sorrows end, for there is no more death, crying or pain, and eating from the tree of life and entering the city are their reward of eternal life.

Inside is everlasting life, a life that measures with the life of God, with eternal joys awaiting the overcomer that make heaven worth striving for, for if heaven is lost everything is lost. There are streets of pure gold like transparent glass, with no sickness, sorrow, pain or death, and the redeemed remain forever in Jesus' glorious presence. They see the King in His beauty and behold Jesus in matchless charms, lovely and glorious, whose face shines brighter than the sun at noonday. To stand at last among the redeemed, life cannot be lived to please self by gratifying desires and inclinations, but in view of the Lord's soon coming there must be earnestness in forming character after the divine similitude, following on day by day to know the Lord, trusting Christ while striving for perfection, imitating His self-denial and ministry, and studying His works and sufferings to understand the terms of salvation, which does not bring unhappiness.

Obedience as Entry Condition

Doing the commandments is the plain condition for eternal life laid down by Jesus himself, leaving no room for mistake, for doing them gives right to the tree of life and entrance through the gates into the city into immortal life at His coming, while standing under rebellion cannot enter. The conditions are made so plain that the sincere seeker who chooses Christ need not mistake a path of error and disobedience for the holy path for the ransomed, and whether salvation is received rests with each person to decide, including how talents are used to glorify God. No excuse of business or family or social relations for transgressing the holy law will avail in the day of reward and punishment for transgression, when every mouth is stopped and all the world becomes guilty before God, and those who excuse negligence or wilful disregard show they have no part in the blessed promise. Those who see God's claims in His Word and do not obey will have no right to the tree of life but stand with wilful transgressors told to depart as workers of iniquity, since sin is transgression of the law and no sinner will enter bliss, yet striving to walk in harmony with God's precepts is possible because Jesus as helper gives grace to resist every temptation when tried and tempted. Obedience is fulfilled through the grace of Christ and presented as the way to eternal life and as a test of loyalty to God, and those who fulfill the conditions will behold the King in His beauty and realize the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory given to the overcomer.

The commandments are the Father's enduring law, all ten precepts, certain and not subject to change, the only moral standard and rule God has given for His subjects, with rules and statutes that man must obey. Adam and Eve lost the paradise of God because they did not obey, and obedience promises the reverse: right to the same tree they were forbidden to eat from after transgression and entrance through the gates into the city, a gain concerning eternal interests and salvation of the soul deserving more study than clothing, houses, food, drink and other passing things. Keeping all ten is not a fall from grace but gives assurance of Christ's blessing and welcome, and keeping them is evidence of love for Jesus, not grievous bondage to the law, for those who keep them are free. His commandments are not grievous and not a yoke of bondage, contrary to Satan's deceptive story begun in Eden that God's law restricts liberty, a lie still repeated by self-deceived transgressors, and obedience remains an individual responsibility. Acceptance of Jesus as personal Saviour, who alone can save the transgressor, does not make keeping the law unnecessary, and the claim of being safe whether keeping it or not is false, for the law cannot cleanse even the smallest sin but condemns, yet God still blesses only commandment-doers with eternal life and entry.

The blessing on keepers shows God's law remains binding after Christ's death, not destroyed or abolished by His coming, with its claims everlasting and its standard of loyalty unchanged. Christ's death paid the penalty for transgression of the law rather than removing obligation, and obedience is consistent with the gospel's freedom. The words are Christ's very last message to His church given by way of Patmos, proving His coming did not destroy the claims of His Father's law and showing there is no discord between the Old Testament gospel of a coming Saviour and the New Testament gospel of a Saviour revealed. His teaching in the Old Testament constantly pointed forward to the true offering, and His teaching in the New Testament reveals the Saviour foretold by prophecy and prefigured by typical sacrifices, where the brighter glory of the Christian age succeeds the dim glory of the Jewish age without abrogating the ten commandments.

Christ's atonement does not lessen obligation to obey the Father's law but gives opportunity and divine power to overcome temptation, opening the way to return to loyalty to God and connecting obedience with receiving the life made available through His death and resurrection. Christ does not save people in their sins, and continuing in transgression places them among those excluded, for His righteousness does not cover continued lawbreaking but is joined with humble obedient victory gained through faith. No one can keep the commandments without the help of Christ, who alone saves by cleansing from all sin, drawing sinners because He has been lifted on Calvary's cross; He does not save by the law, but neither will He save in disobedience, for to be redeemed means to cease from sin and no heart in rebellion has union with Him who died to vindicate and exalt the law before all nations, tongues and peoples. The law does not save or pardon sinners, since salvation is through Christ, while obedience is the fruit of genuine faith and conversion, with enduring principles to be obeyed from the heart and lived out, and the degree of love for God depends on clearness of conviction of sin, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Obedience that qualifies for citizenship, entrance and right to the tree is willing, genuine love from the heart, not following perverse nature but laying aside own will and following God's will implicitly like little children, clothed through grace with Christ's righteousness. The words of the Alpha and Omega on this are positive and weighty, holding for the militant church through needed discipline and through the dragon's wrath against the obedient, ending in victorious triumph at Zion with songs and everlasting joy while angelic hosts rejoice. Mere profession of faith, lip service, outward honor or saying Lord, Lord without doing the Father's will gives no right, for with the heart far from God it is mockery and will not secure entrance. Doing the commandments is evidence of love for Christ and duty at any cost, allowing no man to hinder obedience even when faithfulness brings trouble, hunger, opposition, broken windows or threat of prison, going to Christ for help with assurance that God will be with those on the Lord's side and have care for them. God's stewards must search the Scriptures earnestly and by precept and example teach this obedience and lead others to the path cast up for the ransomed, in preparation for the second advent.

The Sabbath of the fourth commandment is the test for this time, with everything connected with this memorial to be kept before the people, and keeping the commandments and especially the Sabbath makes every difference, deciding between the side of Christ and the side of Satan and whether eternal life is gained. Obedience necessary to be saved includes the seventh-day Sabbath as God's perpetual covenant and memorial of creation, and honoring God by keeping it holy marks those welcomed at Christ's coming with lasting blessing and triumph over the Beast and his image. A Sunday institution has no syllable of Scriptural sanctity, so choosing to be a commandment-keeper rather than a lawbreaker means confessing past transgression, living up to every ray of light, rejecting that institution and believing the promise just as it reads by searching the Scriptures and praying for opened understanding and a mind willing to grasp light even when it opposes cherished belief. The promise is Christ's own approval to the loyal subject, the invitation to sit at His right hand and with Him on His throne, since God has made every provision of strength, power and glory to overcome.

One who has clearly seen and fully accepted the Sabbath truth, kept it and received the blessing attending obedience, then gives it up and breaks the holy commandment, shuts the gates against himself, and if that disobedience is persisted in the gates remain closed against him, for keeping the fourth commandment keeps the gates open. Where the Bible leaves the question of being lost for not keeping the Sabbath, the general principle is laid down without pronouncing yes or no on any person: each will be judged according to the light the Lord has permitted to shine on the pathway, while the promised blessing belongs to those who obey. Keeping the law in full means supreme love to God in the first four commandments and love to fellow man in the last six, loving the Lord with all heart, mind, soul and strength and neighbor as self, not holding human forms, traditions and customs that make God's commandments void, for no tradition is made saving by baptism. The first four teach duty to God and the last six forbid selfishness toward others, summing up duty during probationary life where obedience or disobedience decides destiny, and one who continues as a transgressor even by breaking only one precept, keeping the heart closed against selfishness undone, can have no place inside and will fail of welcome.

Christ Grace and Salvation

Christ died to uphold the honor of the law, paying the penalty for its transgression, giving His life as a ransom and taking the sentence of death upon Himself, so that through the merits of His blood pardon and favor are available and obedience makes people worthy of the blessing. What Adam and Eve forfeited by disobedience, losing right to the garden and to the tree of life, is made possible again through that reconciliation, restoring access to its immortal fruit. The law's claims remain everlasting as the standard of loyalty, and keeping His words belongs to this way of escape.

Through the grace of Christ people can be obedient to all the commandments and be clothed with Christ's righteousness. That righteousness is the wedding garment and the white robes, and those washed in His blood and standing firmly for His truth have a rightful place and welcome in the city. Doing His commandments means laying aside own will and perverse nature and following God's will implicitly like little children, with character robes made clean in the blood of the Lamb in a life of continuing growth in grace. A claim to be Christian without that righteousness, true repentance and change of character cannot secure entrance, for faith is made complete through works.

Accepting Jesus as personal Saviour, who alone can save the transgressor by cleansing from all sin, does not make keeping the law unnecessary, and the claim of being safe whether keeping it or not is false. He does not save by the law, for the law cannot cleanse even the smallest sin but condemns, yet neither will He save in disobedience to the law. To be redeemed means to cease from sin, and no heart in rebellion against the law has union with Him who died to vindicate and exalt it. Salvation is through Christ alone, who is the propitiation for sin, not by own merits or self-righteousness, and obedience is the fruit of genuine faith and conversion from the heart. Recognizing this leads the sinner to confess and forsake sin, seek forgiveness and surrender to God, with faith made perfect by works shown in change of character and true repentance. Those who think themselves complete and virtuous enough in themselves, resting on their own merits without faith in Christ and with no change of character, are without the wedding garment and will in the end lose their souls and be cast into outer darkness, while unconsecrated lives that hinder others risk having no one they helped bring in through the gates.

Jesus Himself obeyed all His Father's commandments implicitly without questioning for convenience or selfish interest, lived the law in human life, and left that perfect obedience as the pattern for those who represent Him. Knowing God's will as revealed in His Word is enough reason to obey, so Scripture must be searched for oneself, and more earnestly as the day approaches, to see what the commandments are and whether these things are so. Beholding the Lord changes people into His image, giving the inner life hid with Christ, prayer as Christ prayed, supreme love to God and love to neighbor, self-offering with all they have, and fruit in good works. No one can keep the commandments without His help, for standing under Christ means striving to walk in harmony with the precepts, and Jesus as helper gives grace to resist every temptation when tried and tempted. Christ took humanity upon Himself so people could share in divine life and escape corruption through obedience and love, and He gives strength and power to overcome to those who continue in faith and humbly seek Him, for fitness comes from Him and not from their own power. Lifted upon Calvary's cross He draws sinners to Himself, and the degree of love for God depends on clearness and fullness of conviction of sin, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Only Christ can prepare people to enter through the gates, receiving all who come confessing and forsaking their sins. He takes away sinful tendencies and puts His own attributes of character in their place, imparting His righteousness and freeing from the enemy so they can know God. In that personal experience He gives transformation of character, eternal life, peace through His sacrifice on Calvary sealed by the blood of His crucifixion, and access to all treasures of wisdom and knowledge as the divine storehouse of light. Those who receive light are to share it with others and are accountable for how they use that light and their time as they prepare for the mansions He is preparing.

Coming Reward and Judgment

The blessing belongs to the time when Christ comes quickly as Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, with His reward to give every person according to his work. At that time the righteous and holy remain so forever, while the unjust and filthy remain so and stay outside with those who practice evil. This obedience is the patience of the saints who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, set in direct contrast to those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark and therefore drink the wine of the wrath of God poured out without mixture and suffer torment with no rest. It stands joined to working and imparting truth and Christian experience now while increased light and heavenly aid are still given, before the time to use light is past. Amid the perils of the last days this blessing will shortly be met as eternal reality, not supposition.

Men are judged not according to profession but according to purity of motives and obedience to God's law. Every deed is passing in review before God and weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, and holy angels record every transgression in heaven's books, so that even departures counted small, dishonesty for gain, and repeated petty sins forming habit, bring condemnation and can shut out of the city. The decision that leaves the unjust and filthy unchanged and the righteous and holy unchanged is passed in heaven before Christ comes, separating the righteous whose names remain in the book of life to join the saints in light from the wicked who refuse God's law and have no right to the kingdom. Those who choose to continue in sin will bear the awful results, while those who choose the righteousness of Christ must diligently maintain integrity under His banner with thorough repentance and examination of heart.

The promise will surely be fulfilled for those who walk in God's way and take all Scripture as guide, bringing everlasting life with right to the tree of life on either side of the pure river of water of life from the throne of God and the Lamb, bearing twelve kinds of fruit monthly with leaves for healing the nations, and entrance into the city where there is no more curse, no night, the throne of God and the Lamb, seeing His face, His name in foreheads, and reigning forever, with the exclusion of dogs, sorcerers, murderers, adulterers, and all who love and make a lie, and the free invitation to take the water of life. Its fulfillment comes a little longer in the future when the work is over and the faithful see the King in His beauty and hear the call to come up higher to enter the city, receive the crown of glory and the white robe of righteousness, eat of the tree of life, and behold Jesus in His matchless charms, a gift no one can afford to lose and all may share, prepared for now by walking in the light as God is in the light.

Obedient children of God share in the first resurrection, over whom the second death has no power. The saints enter the city after the dead are raised, the living are changed, and they are caught up together to meet Jesus. Christ then comes quickly with His reward to give every man according as his work shall be, and the commandment-keepers as overcomers and co-workers with God, who sow deeds of love and compassion rather than exalting self and oppressing fellow men purchased for immortality to live through eternal ages, receive immortality and sit with Christ on His throne. Commandment-keeping marks those who oppose sin and Satan, follow Jesus, and overcome through following on to know the Lord, and the resurrection gives them immortal bodies, opens the gates of the city of God to them, and ends their exile from God's presence.

The verse belongs to the closing scenes of this earth's history and to the proclamation of the third angel's message, which combines the first and second messages and binds them up with the third. It is the last message of mercy given to a fallen world, to be accepted by those living in the last days and declared by those who love God and keep His commandments as the message of truth, setting forth the great and last warfare between those who keep the commandments of God and those who make void the law of God. Doing His commandments is the preparation needed to enter in and partake of the marriage supper of the Lamb at the second appearing of Jesus Christ, in contrast to nominal faith without the oil of grace feeding the lamp, which leaves the unprepared unable to enter.

It applies at the close of probation when eternal destiny is forever fixed and God's forbearance ends, when His living intercession ends and mercy folds its wings and steps from the throne above the ark, when a loud trumpet-like voice declares It is done and the unjust and filthy are fixed in their state forever just as the righteous and holy are fixed in theirs. Then character cannot be changed and grace cannot be transferred from one person to another. The opportunity to become ready is limited to the present life, and those who do not overcome now will receive no second probation or future chance to prepare for heaven.

The last events of this earth's history were given from God in solemn warning and made known by Christ Himself to John on the Isle of Patmos as a lesson reminding of the things which will be. It is to be read and understood in these last days when their perils are upon us, while satanic angels and fallen angels work in all deceivableness of unrighteousness and Satan makes every effort to deceive if possible the very elect. If Satan can keep minds confused about these things now he gains a great victory, and confusion now may be of death unto death, so there must be no confusion but pressing to the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus with straight paths.

Those Left Outside

The blessing belongs to the righteous and holy, while the unjust and filthy remain outside with those who practice evil, for entrance and inheritance are conditional on resisting and overcoming sin. Doing the commandments gives right to the tree of life and entrance through the gates into immortal life at Christ's coming, while those standing under rebellion cannot enter. Standing under Christ means striving to walk in harmony with God's precepts, with grace to resist every temptation when tried so that obedience is possible. Adam lost beautiful Eden through disobedience and was cut off from the tree of life, which angels guarded with flaming swords turning every way lest disobedient men eat and become immortal sinners, and now men on test and trial regain that right only as the loyal and true who keep God's commandments, for the disobedient have no place in the city and rebellion can never enter there. Those who accept Christ's grace and let it shape character will be welcomed as God's children to eternal life, while those who persist in transgression will be excluded and finally destroyed.

Outside remain dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters and adulterers and all who love and make a lie, including the impure and sexually immoral, while the righteous enter. The promise of right to the tree of life standing on either side of the pure river of water of life from the throne of God and the Lamb, bearing twelve kinds of fruit monthly with leaves for the healing of the nations, and of entrance where there is no more curse and no night belongs to those who walk in God's way and take all Scripture as guide, and it will surely be fulfilled with Christ coming quickly with His reward to give every person according to works. The promise is spoken by Christ as Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last, at the time when intercession ends and mercy folds its wings and steps from the throne, when the voice declares It is done and the unjust and filthy are fixed forever as the righteous and holy are fixed, and Jesus as root and offspring of David and bright and morning star sends His angel to testify these things in the churches while the Spirit and the bride say Come to all who thirst to take the water of life freely. The blessed who enter are those who do His commandments and do the will of the Father, not merely those who say Lord, Lord, and obedience and holiness mark those who inherit life while the unrepentant do not inherit the kingdom.

This obedience is the patience of the saints who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, set in direct contrast to those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark and therefore drink the wine of God's wrath poured out without mixture and suffer torment with no rest. At His appearing there are two parties, and the commandment-keepers blessed with right to the tree of life and entrance through the gates are distinct from those who worship the beast and his image by keeping the first day of the week. God's law is perfect, steadfast, eternal and unchangeable, and the claim that it is abolished or altered is Satan's lie. All who teach men to transgress by precept or action, who say obedience does not matter, and who sell loyalty to God for gain will be found outside with all commandment-breakers and will receive according to works, for God's holy law written in the heart and revealed in steadfast obedience decides every character for life or death. Every person ranges under either the Prince of Life or the prince of darkness with national, denominational, sectarian, rank and caste distinctions lost, and those who receive Christ receive power to become loyal sons of God who keep His commandments and enter, while commandment-breakers are left outside with the false shepherds they believed and with all who love and make lies.

Right to the tree of life and entrance through the gates belongs only to those who do God's commandments and serve God in this life. Those who live for themselves and not for God, even when outwardly moral and not gluttons or drunkards or infidels, are classed with unbelievers, and when the binding claims of the commandments are laid before them and they say No they have no right to the tree of life and cannot enter. Though they may appear self-righteous and not openly irreligious, refusing God's invitation and choosing to live for self without seeking to know or obey Him leaves them unfit to enter heaven. Even if entrance were possible they could not live in God's presence nor be happy in the heavenly family, because they took no delight in God and did not serve Him here and therefore would not serve Him hereafter, and would feel any place preferable to heaven. Those who follow human example instead of God's Word will likewise be left outside with others who made the same choice, for each is responsible for following given light rather than using others' sins as excuse, and such neglect leaves them unfit and brings judgment.

Those who persist in faultfinding and neglect the work needed for their own souls will be left outside the gates of God's city. Those who remain unrepentant and cherish selfishness and envy will be unready to meet Christ and will not enter through its gates, for the promise of entry is tied to accepting Christ's instruction, humbling the heart, repenting, and cleansing the soul from defilement. The righteous will be saved in God's kingdom and enter the city, while those who reject God's mercy and choose Satan's service will remain outside. Their recognition of their choice and its consequences will come too late for repentance.

Prepared Life and Practice

Obedience is loyalty proved under test and trial, and doing the commandments gives right to eternal life and entrance into the city of God. Doing them means trying the character daily by the moral standard of God's holy law and measuring attainments to see if one will be of that number. This requires earnest, thorough self-examination of spirit, habits, temper, appetites and practice, discarding defects as a carpenter discards weak or rotten timber, until character becomes more and more like Christ Jesus — pure, peaceable, kind, full of goodness, love and truth. Keeping God's commandments and honoring Him is the test for entering the city, shown by Daniel's refusal to compromise even when obedience put his life at risk in strict integrity. God's commandments must not be set aside for convenience or altered to suit circumstances, for a faith that can be manipulated for convenience places people on the enemy's side.

Those who do His commandments are blessed with right to the tree of life and entrance through the gates into the holy city as God's denominated, loyal people who witnessed to loyalty on earth, kept the commandments of God and the testimony and faith of Jesus, and owned the crucified Saviour as their Saviour. Love for Christ is shown by having and keeping His commandments, keeping garments undefiled and being counted worthy to walk with Him in white, clothed in fine linen clean and white which is the righteousness of the saints and made ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb. They have honored God by keeping the Sabbath holy, with victory over the beast and his image. Christ died to redeem them from all iniquity and purify them unto Himself as a peculiar people, zealous of good works, counted peculiar by the world as Daniel was, and living with an eye single to God's glory gives victory over the world. Separation from the world makes them sons of God and heirs of heaven, and then they receive the blessing and see the King in His beauty.

Keeping the commandments is expressed through wholehearted, supreme love for God and love for neighbor as self, and the only safe course is to follow God's direction in this. This love includes mercy toward one's neighbor as shown by the Samaritan who cared for the wounded man, disinterested care for the unfortunate, and showing others the way of salvation through Christ and warning the perishing in light of the judgment. Those who use the abilities God gives in willing service not only seek their own salvation but influence others to choose truth and reach heaven, with a burden for those outside Christ and missionary effort to help them stand on the platform of eternal truth. Acts of benevolence and thoughtful help are regarded as done to Christ, recorded in heaven and rewarded, and each is finally rewarded according to works. Those who can help people in need but withhold aid fail this duty, and neglect of orphans, widows and the poor is charged as robbery toward God and oppression of the poor, recorded against the offender.

Those who enter are changed and sanctified in character during this life, for obedience to Christ's will changes people into His likeness and prepares them to enter where they join the redeemed in praising God and His Son. Obedience means living in conformity to Christ's will, including loving God with the whole person and loving neighbor, which changes people into Christ's likeness and leads to entrance through the gates. Mercy opens the gates to the obedient while justice is not set aside, requiring holiness and purity in those who enter, with character formed on earth after Christ's image so the redeemed are already saints before they enter heaven. Entry and access to eternal life belong to those whose characters are formed by Christ and who follow Him in humble obedience, while disobedience leaves people without right to enter. Obedience respects Christ's sacrifice who magnified the law, and knowingly breaking God's law and teaching others to break it bars entry, for heaven has no sin and those who disregard God's light or carry a spirit of rebellion could not live there without bringing about another rebellion.

Preparation requires a deep and thorough individual work without further delay, with thorough humbling of the soul before God especially by those in positions of responsibility, earnest seeking of the Lord with heart and mind and soul, cleansing and refining and transformation of the heart, and diligent cultivation of the soul so fruit appears in proportion to light given. Entering through the gates comes at last to those who build themselves day by day as a beautiful temple to God, laying a brick every day by adding grace to grace in good deeds of faith, patience, temperance, benevolence, courage, self-denial, brotherly love, courtesy and humility until character is well-developed, harmonious and free from opposites and inconsistencies. Entering through the gates into the city comes at the end of progressive sanctification by diligently adding to faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity, which makes calling and election sure so they shall never fall. God works on a plan of multiplication, multiplying grace and peace through the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ and granting gifts of His Spirit, so by divine grace all may climb the shining steps from earth to heaven and at last with songs and everlasting joy enter through the gates into the everlasting kingdom of Christ.

Readiness is for those alone who strive lawfully and come in life and spirit and character into conformity with the will of God, and multitudes will fail to enter because they do not. It requires genuine faith that works by love and purifies the soul and cleanses the soul-temple, not mere belief in all the truth of Scripture such as demons have about Christ's life, death, resurrection, ascension and soon return in glory. It requires putting away everything that defiles and removing all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and keeping God's commandments from love. Those who remain faithful in obedience have right to the tree of life, and perfect overcomers will have right to the tree and entry through the gates, with overcoming as part of the path to that reward and the promise of eating its fruit and drinking the water of life linked to enduring faithfully to the end. Entrance requires a moral fitness gained before judgment, for those who remain in sin and impurity cannot endure the city's holy light or enjoy its sinless company, pictured as washing robes white in the blood of the Lamb, and preparation cannot be postponed until probation closes with no second trial.

The promise is a solemn warning to heed and make ready to enter the wedding so God's house may be filled, and being found faithful and diligent in calling secures the promised reward of the faithful. It belongs to Christ's final testimony calling people to missionary work and presenting His coming and reward for each according to work, and it is a message God's workers are to proclaim as they point people to eternal life and heaven's peace and pardon and an invitation to immortal treasures. Those who taste the water of life have the privilege of telling others to Come, and the true child of God sounds this call because his whole soul is filled with the love of Christ, becoming by that love a link drawing others toward heaven and a channel through which Christ reaches the world. Seeing the great reward in store should move hearts to reach out after others that they may receive the light, opening the Bible to thirsting hearts, living by active faith, praying as never before, and wrestling with God as Jacob wrestled until His blessing rests, so having received it they are anxious for others to receive it.

Daily life must reveal Christ, for those who enter are pure and God can cleanse sin when people place wills on God's side and seek His help to resist evil. Tobacco has no place in the city, and its narcotic effects impair the mind and unfit people for the kingdom. Victory over appetite is required, for those who claim they cannot break its force will not enter, but victory is possible through strength from Christ who resisted temptation after fasting forty days, with the living Saviour ready to help when people choose to resist and cooperate with Him. Keeping the commandments includes overcoming appetite for narcotics and stimulants through Christ's power, with divine power joined to human effort bringing victory. Sins considered too small still shut out in the judgment, for every departure from truth and right is transgression of God's law regardless of size of offense or wealth of the offender, and dishonesty for financial gain brings condemnation while repeated petty sins form habit of wrongdoing recorded by holy angels in heaven's books. Selfish, covetous and unjust dealing is a transcript of character revealing the true state of the heart, and those who continue in it will never eat of the tree of life, for a transaction that may appear a little matter, like plucking and eating the forbidden fruit, is sin drawing tremendous results, robbing others of their due and bringing far greater loss than any penny of supposed gain.

Families are to enter together, for the promise applies to children taught in the present life to fear God and keep His commandments so they may enter as conquerors, familiar with God's revealed will in His Word. Obedience to parents in the Lord is a vital lesson, and when parents allow disobedience they train children to disobey God. Parents and children must be prepared to stand loyal in the coming conflict, and parents help prepare children by living in a way that honors God's law. Receiving the Saviour by living faith brings cleansing from sin and restored relation to God, but children must also be cleansed to have place in God's kingdom, so parents are urged to labor and pray for their children's salvation that they may enter with them. The goal of bringing children into right relation with God is that they may enter the city and have right to all advantages heaven offers. The gates will be opened freely to entrants with their children to receive a crown of glory and a life that measures with the life of God, but this requires entire surrender, withdrawing from association that would lead away, refusing oneness with the world, working out salvation with fear and trembling, covenant by sacrifice, consecration, bearing the suffering part of religion as well as its joys, sacrifice in this life, faith laying hold on the living God and Christ's divinity, righteousness overcoming sin, and self-denial as Christ denied self when He laid aside what He had with the Father and clothed divinity with humanity to teach how to overcome, with decided stand on Christ's side in time of test.

Higher education aims at entrance through the gates, which is a life of obedience to the requirements of the Word in humble, devoted, consecrated lives revealing the sacred principles Christ came to lay down as the basis of Christian character. This fits youth for eternal life and for entrance where Christ and the angels who kept their integrity abide, and qualifies students to succeed in God's work. Those trained in Christ's school must follow His meek and lowly example, deal justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God, and sharing Christ's sufferings leads to sharing His glory in His kingdom, with entry joined to receiving the seal of the living God and being crowned with glory, honor and immortality.

The verse is a benediction giving reason to be happy and to cling to the Source of light and comfort now, with joy in the heart, purity represented by white robes, and heavenly praise that can be learned on earth even though the world does not know this hope. It is inducement to think upon heavenly things and to be joyful and talk of Christ's coming and the heavenly reward now, for the blessing stands written over the gate and is read on entering when entrants are welcomed by the Father to His bosom and by Christ who with His own hand places a crown on each brow, entering not as convicts but as sons and daughters of the Most High to sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. Doing the commandments is the condition stated by Jesus Himself, with no excuse of business or family or social relations availing in the day of reward and punishment, since Christ left the royal throne and became poor to make men rich and made provision in Himself for every emergency of salvation. Though commandment-keepers seem in the minority now they will not seem so when the gates open, for God and Christ and angels and all the good are on their side so doers of the law are in the majority, with access to power the world cannot give or take away. The way may be rough but God is leading His people and can make them fully able to go up and possess the promised land, so they have no time for difficulties and must stay on the path of faith by obedience, keeping on working faithfully and earnestly and humbly trusting not in human power but in the Lord God of Israel, holding fast through test and trial unto the sweet and sure blessing, for the crown lost by one who turns away will be won by another who endures.

Only those who receive the seal of the living God will have the passport through the gates of the holy city. Those who are not wholehearted believers cannot receive it, including those who take responsibilities in God's work while trusting in own righteousness, which is foolishness and presumption. Entering requires consecration, for unconsecrated influence leads to deviation from righteousness, mingling the common with the sacred and losing discernment of spiritual things. It requires deep, earnest heart purification through the power and grace of the Holy Spirit and cleansing from everything like self-importance, or confusion will come over the work that must go forth in all truth and righteousness. The self-exalted are in danger of taking up misleading spiritualistic views valueless in the great day of God, and publications advocating present truth will not save unless motives are right, proved by loving God supremely and neighbor as self, with transforming work, giving to others the great light Christ gave, and going before those who never heard the last message without joining with unbelievers.

Entrance requires conversion with new birth, the whole mind and soul renewed and made righteous. Right to enter depends on paying regard to God's requirements and coming to God in obedience, for no one can enter while trampling God's law which must be vindicated not trampled because others trample it. There are only two classes, those who serve God and those who stand under the prince of darkness, and those who enter must in this world live in union with Christ in close connection with God, forming a character like Christ's, discerning Satan's deceptions and following the principles of God's government that endure from everlasting to everlasting. The line of demarcation between those who serve God and those who serve Him not must be kept clear and distinct, and taking stand on obedience does not lower a person but is the only way to be elevated, refined and made a member of the royal heavenly family.

Eternal salvation becomes secure only at entrance through the gates, and only then can anyone rejoice as eternally saved. Until then no one should claim final safety but must fear lest he come short of the promise. Mere hearing and believing the truth, outward worship and forms, and admiring truth from outside are imaginary religion and will not qualify for entrance. What is required is holiness as entire surrender of the will to God, living by every word from His mouth, doing the Father's will, trusting God in trial and in darkness as well as in light, and walking by faith and not by sight.

The hope of eternal life including entering the city and access to the tree is reason to live as Christians and use life to glorify God, connected with overcoming temptation and developing beautiful character. The promised life is free from death, sin, temptation, the devil and Lucifer. The promise is held out for children as well as adults while earth's close is near, with the faithful soon to enter the golden city where Christ dwells and lasting joy is in heaven rather than this world's passing pleasures.