Revelation 21:7

He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) He that overcometh shall inherit all things . . .—Rather, He that conquereth shall inherit these things; and I will be to him God, and he shall be to me a son. The general promise of Revelation 21:3 is in part repeated, and this time more individually. Again we catch, as it were, the echo of the promises to the Seven Churches, the blessing is for him that conquereth. The idea of the war and the conquest is a favourite one with St. John. (John 16:33, and 1John 2:13-14; 1John 5:4-5; see also Note on Revelation 2:7.) The source and weapon of victory have been before stated: the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony (Revelation 12:11), and the victory of faith (1John 5:4).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

21:1-8 The new heaven and the new earth will not be separate from each other; the earth of the saints, their glorified, bodies, will be heavenly. The old world, with all its troubles and tumults, will have passed away. There will be no sea; this aptly represents freedom from conflicting passions, temptations, troubles, changes, and alarms; from whatever can divide or interrupt the communion of saints. This new Jerusalem is the church of God in its new and perfect state, the church triumphant. Its blessedness came wholly from God, and depends on him. The presence of God with his people in heaven, will not be interrupt as it is on earth, he will dwell with them continually. All effects of former trouble shall be done away. They have often been in tears, by reason of sin, of affliction, of the calamities of the church; but no signs, no remembrance of former sorrows shall remain. Christ makes all things new. If we are willing and desirous that the gracious Redeemer should make all things new in order hearts and nature, he will make all things new in respect of our situation, till he has brought us to enjoy complete happiness. See the certainty of the promise. God gives his titles, Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, as a pledge for the full performance. Sensual and sinful pleasures are muddy and poisoned waters; and the best earthly comforts are like the scanty supplies of a cistern; when idolized, they become broken cisterns, and yield only vexation. But the joys which Christ imparts are like waters springing from a fountain, pure, refreshing, abundant, and eternal. The sanctifying consolations of the Holy Spirit prepare for heavenly happiness; they are streams which flow for us in the wilderness. The fearful durst not meet the difficulties of religion, their slavish fear came from their unbelief; but those who were so dastardly as not to dare to take up the cross of Christ, were yet so desperate as to run into abominable wickedness. The agonies and terrors of the first death will lead to the far greater terrors and agonies of eternal death.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He that overcometh - See the notes on Revelation 2:7.

Shall inherit all things - Be an heir of God in all things. See the notes on Romans 8:17. Compare Revelation 2:7, Revelation 2:11, Revelation 2:17, Revelation 2:26; Revelation 3:5, Revelation 3:12, Revelation 3:21.

And I will be his God - That is, forever. He would be to them all that is properly implied in the name of God; he would bestow upon them all the blessings which it was appropriate for God to bestow. See the 2 Corinthians 6:18 note; Hebrews 8:10 note.

And he shall be my son - He shall sustain to me the relation of a son, and shall be treated as such. He would ever onward sustain this relation, and be honored as a child of God.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. He that overcometh—another aspect of the believer's life: a conflict with sin, Satan, and the world is needed. Thirsting for salvation is the first beginning of, and continues for ever (in the sense of an appetite and relish for divine joys) a characteristic of the believer. In a different sense, the believer "shall never thirst."

inherit all things—A, B, Vulgate, and Cyprian read, "these things," namely, the blessings described in this whole passage. With "all things," compare 1Co 3:21-23.

I will be his God—Greek, "I will be to him a God," that is, all that is implied of blessing in the name "God."

he shall be my son—"He" is emphatic: He in particular and in a peculiar sense, above others: Greek, "shall be to me a son," in fullest realization of the promise made in type to Solomon, son of David, and antitypically to the divine Son of David.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

He that overcometh, shall inherit all things: God revealed this to John almost sixteen hundred years since; and how long it shall be before this glorious time shall come, God alone knows: the most of this time hath been, and will be, a time of fighting with the world, the flesh, and the devil; but whoever he be that shall fight this good fight, and come out of it a conqueror, shall inherit all the joys and happiness of heaven.

I will be his God, and he shall be my son: I will be to him all in all; I will be his God to love and glorify him, and he shall be with me as my son, to live with me for ever and ever.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He that overcometh,.... All spiritual enemies, sin, Satan, and the world, the antichristian beast, his image, mark, and number of his name; who is more than a conqueror through Christ; one that perseveres to the end, notwithstanding all temptations, trials, and difficulties; See Gill on Revelation 2:7,

shall inherit all things; the kingdom of Christ in the new Jerusalem state, and all things in it; heaven, eternal glory and happiness, and everlasting salvation; yea, God himself, who is the portion, and exceeding great reward of his people, and will be all in all. The Alexandrian copy, and the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, read, "these things": the new heaven, and new earth, the presence of God with men, freedom from all evils, and divine refreshments from the fountain of living water before mentioned:

and I will be his God, and he shall be my Son; Christ is not only concerned in predestination to the adoption of children, in making way by redemption for the enjoyment of this blessing, and in the actual donation of it; but he himself, who is the mighty God, is the everlasting Father, and his people are his spiritual seed and offspring, and in his kingdom he will see his seed, and prolong his days; he will long enjoy them, and present them to himself, and afterwards to his Father, saying as in Hebrews 2:13 and though they are now, in the present state of things, the sons of God, yet it does not appear so manifest that they are, or at least what they shall be; but in this new and glorious state of things, it will be abundantly manifest that they are the sons of God and seed of Christ; and it will be known how glorious they are, and shall be, when they shall see Christ in his glory, and be like him; who will now be , "the Father of the world to come", as the Septuagint render the phrase in Isaiah 9:6.

Geneva Study Bible

He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

These boons (Revelation 21:3-7), however, are reserved for the loyal; the third (son of God) was a title applied to Augustus and the emperors generally throughout the Greek and Roman world. κληρονομήσει (here only in Apoc.) in general sense = “enter into possession of,” “partake of”. (“This place” of bliss “is prepared for the righteous who endure every kind of attack in their lives from those who afflict their souls … for them this place is prepared as an eternal inheritance,” Slav. En. ix.). This is the sole allusion, and a purely incidental one, to that central conception of the messianic bliss as a κληρονομία, which bulks so prominently in apocalypses like Fourth Esdras and is employed in a cosmic sense by Paul as lordship over the whole creation (see Bacon, Biblical and Semitic Studies, Yale Univ. 1902, pp. 240 f.). The solitary allusion to sonship expresses the close relation to God for which this writer elsewhere prefers to use the metaphor of priesthood. Partly owing to the bent of his mind, partly owing to the stern circumstances of his age, he (like Clem. Rom.) allows the majesty and mystery of God to overshadow that simple and close confidence which Jesus inculcated towards the Father (Titius, 13, 14), as also the direct love of God for his people (only in Revelation 3:9; Revelation 3:19, Revelation 20:9).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. He that overcometh] Carries back our thoughts to the promises at the beginning of the book, Revelation 2:7, &c. There is perhaps some significance in the Father thus taking up and repeating the language of the Son. all things] Read, these things; viz. the new heavens and earth, and the things in them which, like them, have just “come into being.”

I will be … my son] Lit. I will be to him a God, and he shall be to Me a son. The form of the promise therefore resembles 2 Samuel 7:14, at least as closely as Jeremiah 24:7, &c.: and the sense combines that of both. The finally victorious share in the privileges, not only of God’s people, but of the Only-begotten: see Revelation 3:21.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - He that overcometh shall inherit all things. The correct reading makes the sense plain: He that overcometh shall inherit these things, i.e. the promises just enumerated. These words show the reason for the words of ver. 6; and may be called the text on which the Apocalypse is based (cf. Revelation 2.); for, though the words themselves do not often recur, yet the spirit of them is constantly appearing (cf. Revelation 12:11; see also John 16:33). And I will be his God, and he shall be my son (cf. Leviticus 26:12, "And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people"). Some have thought that these words prove the Speaker to be God the Father; but it is impossible to separate the Persons of the Blessed Trinity in these chapters. This promise, first made to David concerning Solomon (2 Samuel 7:14), received its mystical fulfilment in Christ (Hebrews 1:5), and is now fulfilled in the members of Christ (Alford). Revelation 21:7

Vincent's Word Studies

All things (πάντα)

The correct reading is ταῦτα these things. So Rev.

His God (αὐτῷ Θεὸς)

Lit., God unto him.

My Son (μοι ὁ υἱός)

Lit., the Son to me. See on John 1:12. This is the only place in John's writings where υἱός son is used of the relation of man to God.