As
we have said, Revelation was a circulatory letter sent and was read in the
seven churches. Here John made it clear in his salutation by acknowledging
them. Like the other epistles in the New Testament, grace and peace are the two
common elements in the greetings. Sanctifying grace and experiential peace are
two things priced in Christian living. They are both essential to a wholesome Christian
life. No wonder all the New Testament’s writers wished their readers with grace
and peace. John also made it clear here that he was talking about the grace and
peace that issued from the eternal Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The
Trinity is the Divine Source of the grace and peace he had pronounced. He then
gave us a brief citation of each Godhead.
He
began by talking about the eternalness of the Father, Whom he described as “Him
Who is, Who was and Who is to come.” This phrase expresses the eternity and identity of God with Himself
in past, present, and future. John meant to express the fact that God is unchangeable.
He has been and is and always will be the One who orders times and controls
history. In the coming of Jesus our Lord, God’s power and control over history
is evidently accomplished. The Holy Spirit is described here as “the Seven
Spirits that are before His throne.” This phrase is better translated as “the sevenfold
spirit.” It is used to refer to the Holy Spirit with His seven-fold or absolute
perfection. The Holy Spirit is ever before the throne of God waiting to execute
God’s wise command.
In
referring to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity,
John described both His life and His redemptive works in three stages. Regarding
His life, John described Him as the faithful witness,
the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. As God’s faithful witness, He had shown the
truth concerning God, man and sin, and God’s redemption when He was on earth. As
the first born from the dead by His resurrection, that He is alive and the One in
whom the power of death has no control. Now He has both priority and pre-eminence.
And as King of all the earth, He is now installed as the ultimate ruler. This will
be more visible at His coming, when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess
that He is Lord. Regarding His work, we also see three stages. In dealing with
our past, He had cleansed and freed us from our sins by His blood. Not only
that, He had also made us kings and priests to serve God our Father. In
mentioning God, John was overwhelmed by a sense of awe and reverence that he
let out a great doxology praising God and ascribing to Him glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen! Concerning His work in the present, the Lord Jesus still
loves us with the same love that He had expressed through Calvary. John tells
us here that He keeps loving us. What a marvelous thought to know that He had loved
us and is still loving us with an everlasting love. John quickly turns to look
at the future, telling us that He (Jesus) is coming in the clouds. It’s the
clouds of glory. This is a reference to His physical appearing. The coming is
certain and unmistakable because every eye shall behold Him. He will be seen by
those who had opposed Him. At His coming there will be a climatic mourning because
wickedness shall be destroyed and many will have to mourn and pay for their
wickedness.
In
Revelation 1:8, God spoke concerning Himself through the mouth of His prophet for
the first time in this book. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,’ says the Lord God,
‘who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Alpha and Omega are respectively,
the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. In saying this about Himself,
God is indicating that He is in total control of the whole duration of history
and its activities. The period, franked by the beginning and the end, is all in
His hand. He was there at the beginning and will be there at the summation to
bring everything to its glorious conclusion.
Nobody
knows when Christ would return, the early Christians didn’t, and neither do we.
But the hope of Christian life is made exciting by our anticipation of His return.
We anticipate because we believe He is coming again and He certainly will. Though
we do not know when He will return, we live the best we know how, guided by His
Word. Meanwhile, we must do everything to live in readiness for that climatic moment.
We must redeem the time in these evil days. We must seek to understand what the
will of God is and live by them. Let us
be found diligent and faithful to the very end!
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