Greetings to the churches.
Verse 4 of Revelation chapter 1 is John’s beginning of the Letter to the Churches. Those who forwarded the letter from Ephesus to other Churches may have included the previous three verses as an instruction to the readers and forwarding statement. What kind of Jesus do we find in John’s letter to the Churches? The letter to the Churches reveals Jesus as a full and final unveiling of God the Father to sinful humankind. John 17:6. Jesus is not an addition to the previous revelation of God to humanity. He is not only one of the events in the history of the battle between good and evil. Jesus Christ is the full and final revelation of God to humankind. The birth, life, and death of Jesus Christ is the only relevant and essential message in the entire Bible. The book of Revelation speaks to us about Jesus, who is above and superior to all. He is the reality of everything the Old Covenant people ever heard about God.
The book of Revelation presents Jesus, God’s promised Son, to sinful humankind. The message in the book of Revelation is from Jesus Christ, “the faithful witness, the firstborn from among the dead, the ruler over the kings of the earth. To one who loves us and has set us free from our sins at the cost of his own blood and has appointed us as a kingdom, as priests serving his God and Father – to him be the glory and the power for ever and ever! Amen.” Revelation 1:5 – 6, NET. The translators are not certain to whom the “he who is, and who was, and who is still to come,” refers. Some think it could refer to God the Father because He always existed. However, God the Father was not dead. Jesus Christ IS, he was DEAD, and he WILL COME. God the Father has become one with humankind in Jesus Christ. He also will come to spend eternity with the new humankind on new Earth. Jesus was a faithful presentation of God the Father to sinful humanity. When humankind sinned in the Garden of Eden, it became “dead in sin.” The sin separated humanity from God the Father. The sinful humanity could not come in the presence of Father. Jesus Christ, the representative of the new humankind, is the first among those who died because of sin but now live because of God’s Grace – Jesus Christ.
Accordingly, Jesus, through John in Revelation, encourages the yielded believers not to be apprehensive concerning the future. Jesus will, at the right time, return to the earth and bring an unimaginable reward for their loyalty and faithfulness. “Look! He is returning with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes on the earth will mourn because of him. This will certainly come to pass! Amen. Revelation 1:7, NET. The “and all the tribes on the earth” also means “all the people, or nations, on the earth.” The sin of the whole of humankind was on Jesus on the cross at Golgotha. Accordingly, the sin of the whole of humankind crucified Jesus. Therefore, the whole of sinful humankind died in Jesus. Accordingly, all whose sin crucified Jesus but who rejected him will mourn.
Continued in the next blog.
