"COME!"
Revelation 22:17

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I. What is it to "come"? To "come" is to "believe" in Jesus Christ unto salvation. He taught this truth in John 6:35: "He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." He treated coming to Him and believing in Him as synonymous acts, and promised complete and eternal satisfaction to all who do so. To come to Christ is to receive Him by faith as Lord and Savior (John 1:11f) and to commit to Him all hopes for salvation (2 Timothy 1:12). And he who begins to come to Christ arrives at His destination in his first step!

1. Coming to Christ is a purely spiritual act. This is true because coming to Christ is believing in Him. It is therefore an act performed by the heart, and is not attributed to the body. Indeed, many who came into Christ's presence physically never came to Him spiritually and savingly. Judas Iscariot physically came close enough to Christ to kiss him; but his heart had deserted Christ and was as far from Him as it could be (Matthew 26:47-49). But on the other hand, a certain thief nailed to a cross was physically prevented from bodily coming to Christ, but he savingly came to Christ in faith (Luke 23:43f). One may come to Christ even if he is physically incapacitated from coming to anything else.

2. Coming to Christ is coming to Him alone. The anti-Christ religionist, such as a Muslim, is honest enough to say, "Do not go to Christ; rather, come to my god[s]." But nominal Christians deceive people into thinking they come to Christ by coming to something else instead. Some tell men they come to Christ by coming to their altar, mourner's bench, baptistery, or some other piece of furniture they have constructed for receiving sinners. The sacramentalist tells men they come to Christ by coming to his baptism, eucharist, mass, or some other sacrament he says is inherently efficacious and capable of conferring saving grace to the soul. The legalist tells men they come to Christ by coming to Moses – to his law, or perhaps more specifically to its sabbath day, in order to obtain a legal righteousness. The ecclesiastic tells men they come to Christ by coming into his church or sect or denomination, claiming salvation is to be found in it. Jesus says of them, "This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men" (Mark 7:6f). Coming to Christ is coming to Christ – not to a proxy!

3. Coming to Christ is not coming to religion. Coming to Christ is not "getting religion"; rather, it is obtaining Christ. Nor is coming to Christ "reforming one's ways"; rather, it is forsaking all one's ways and returning to the One who is The Way (Isaiah 55:7-9; John 14:6). Many who thought they had come to Christ through their religious works and reforms will hear Him say at the final day, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!" (Matthew 7:23).

II. Who issues this call to "come"? This call is issued by "the Spirit and the bride" and "him who hears" – and of course Christ. Some say the call of the Spirit and the bride and the hearer to "Come!" is directed to Christ, as in verse 20: "He who testifies to these things says, 'Surely I am coming quickly.' Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!" This is true. But while these parties look to Christ and say "Come, O Christ!" they also look to men and say "Come to Christ!"

1. Christ says "Come!" Jesus Christ is identified as the speaker in the immediate context (vv.12, 13, 16, v.20a), and it is generally agreed that He is the speaker of the present text. And His call here to "Come!" echoes His call elsewhere. "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink" (John 7:37). "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; ... Incline your ear, and come to Me" (Isaiah 55:1-3). And every time He tells men to "believe in the gospel" (as in Mark 1:15), He is telling them to "Come to Me."

2. "And the Spirit ... says, 'Come!'" This is the Holy Spirit, the "Spirit of Christ" (Romans 8:9; 1 Peter 1:11). After Christ returned to heaven from this earth, He sent the Holy Spirit from heaven to this earth to reinforce to men what He had taught them. This fulfilled Christ's prophecy regarding the Holy Spirit that "He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you" (John 16:14, 15).

3. "And the ... bride says, 'Come!'" This is the bride of Christ (Revelation 21:9), the church of Christ (Ephesians 5:22-32). The church of Christ calls men to come to Christ through her ministers, who sound this call to all their hearers. She also does so through her ordinances, Christian Baptism and the Lord's Supper, which illustrate the gospel to the eyes of beholders. She does so also in her hymns and in every other aspect of her worship that presents Christ in all His saving glory.

4. "And let him who hears say, 'Come!'" He who savingly hears the gospel calls upon his friends to come to Christ. Levi, having savingly heard Christ, then invited his friends to come to hear Christ, and many of them also came to Him in faith (Mark 2:14f). The Samaritan woman who savingly heard Christ then invited her friends to come to hear Him (John 4:28) – "And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified" (v.39). Let true hearers today imitate such worthy examples by inviting others, "Come to Christ!"

III. Who is called to "come"? He is identified as "him who thirsts" and "whoever desires" / "whosoever will" (KJV).

The text does not read, as some would have us believe, "Whoever, of his own freewill, can come." Such a reading flagrantly contradicts the teaching of Jesus Christ elsewhere (John 5:40; 6:44, 65): "But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. ... No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him. ... no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father." This is true because man's will is not free: he cannot will to "escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will" (2 Timothy 2:26); "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do" (John 8:44). No man will either desire to come or have the ability to come until the Father does a work of grace in his heart.

1. "Him who thirsts" is anyone who has drunk at the waters of man's religion – at its idols, altars, sacraments, ordinances, moral codes, and/or whatever else it offers to satisfy the longing heart - but now finds that he is among "those who hunger and thirst for righteousness" (Matthew 5:6). Religion will never slake that thirst. None but Christ will! The truly thirsty soul says, "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God" (Psalm 42:1f).

2. "Whoever desires" / "whosoever will" is anyone who desires Christ more than anything else in all the world, and is willing to forsake all the world in order to obtain Christ (Matthew 16:24-26).

3. "Him who thirsts" and "whoever desires" is one class of persons, not two. This is not one who thirsts for salvation but does not desire Christ. Neither is this one who desires to be identified with Christ but does not thirst for Him. Rather, this is the person who thirsts for Christ alone, and desires Him above all others, and is willing to forsake everything else in all the world in order to come to Christ. Let him come to Christ! Christ gladly receives such a person – but will receive none other.

IV. To what are men called to "come"? "The Water of Life!"

1. This "water of life" is found in Christ alone. He Himself declares so. "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water" (John 6:37). "Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:14). "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; ... Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live" (Isaiah 55:1-3).

2. This "water of life" is not found in man's religion. Rather, Christ says of those who look for it there, "They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns – broken cisterns that can hold no water" (Jeremiah 2:13).

V. How are men to "come"? "Freely!" The Greek word means literally "as a gift, gratis, gratuitously". One drinks of Christ by God's free and sovereign grace, and through faith alone apart from personal merit. Will you drink of Christ freely?

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