Jesus Simplified: Jesus, through John in Revelation, Clarified the Mystery of God

Golgotha.

Chapter 1

Jesus Introduced

The Greetings from Jesus

The apostle John begins the letter to the churches with greetings from Jesus to the faithful. John follows it by the introduction of Jesus Christ, whom he will present as the main subject of the letter to the churches. He assures the faithful that Jesus is who he said he is. John will present a victorious Jesus who walks among his churches and cares for them. John will also relate to the churches the message from Jesus, assuring them that he will come, but in the fullness of time. In the letter to the churches, Jesus Christ tells the believers what must be fulfilled prior to his return to the earth.

John,

To the seven churches in the province of Asia:

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. (Revelation 1:4–5)

Throughout the book of Revelation, the apostle John presents to readers a Jesus Christ who, while in the body here on earth, accomplished everything that humankind needs for its salvation.

The victorious Jesus is the grace God promised centuries before the birth of the Messiah.

And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. (Zechariah 12:10)

In Jesus Christ and in him alone, fallen and redeemed humankind has peace with God. Because of sin in the garden of Eden, humankind has become God’s enemy. But God, through his grace, Jesus Christ, has restored peace between heaven and the earth. Jesus Christ, while here on earth, assured us that we now have peace with heaven.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:27)

God’s peace in Jesus Christ is his unilateral and unconditional gift to humankind—no strings attached. The world offers peace only if it gets something in return. God’s peace in Jesus Christ, in contrast, is the unconditional peace he has given to rebellious humankind. God’s peace is not a reciprocal peace. The apostle Paul preached the same message. The objective peace between God and humanity becomes our subjective experience when we believe in Jesus Christ.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. (Romans 5:1–2)

The central theme of the book of Revelation is Jesus—who is, and who was, and who is to come. Jesus Christ is the God’s demonstration of grace that He had in place before the creation of the world. He is the Savior who, almost two thousand years ago, laid down his perfect life as atonement for our sin. Jesus Christ is the Savior who is now, and who lives forever and ever.

I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. (Revelation 1:18)

Jesus has conquered death, and now he is alive forever as the assurance that those who believe in him will also live forever with him. Jesus, who is the Savior of the world, is also Jesus who was. The apostle John tells us, in his gospel, who Jesus was, and who he is.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

Jesus was always the ever-existing God.

I tell you the truth, Jesus answered, before Abraham was born, I am! (John 8:58)

Jesus, whom John presents to us in the book of Revelation, is our life. He always was, and he always will be, our life. The same Jesus is the faithful witness. Jesus Christ was faithful to his mission; and by his faithfulness, we were saved. While in the body here on earth, Jesus Christ was a faithful witness to who our God really is and what kind of God he is. Jesus once said in his prayer to the Father:

I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. (John 17:6)

What kind of God did Jesus reveal to humankind? Jesus revealed to us a God who loves us unconditionally. Jesus revealed to humankind a God who went beyond all expectations to save us from the guilt and punishment for sin.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

While we were still sinners and his enemies, God sent his Son to reconcile us to God by suffering on the cross. Because of Jesus Christ, we have eternal peace and friendship with God. Through his Son, God has restored us to himself as his children with full rights of inheritance in his kingdom. This is God whom Jesus, the faithful witness, has revealed to humankind.

Long ago God spoke through his prophet saying: See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of the peoples (Isaiah 55:4).

While praying to the Father, Jesus confirmed that the words of God spoken through the prophet Isaiah have been fulfilled.

For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. (John 17:2)

In the first Adam in the garden of Eden, humankind made a deliberate choice and a willful, intelligent decision. The laws that govern in our universe require that such decisions and choices be irreversible. Had it not been for God’s grace in the promised Savior, humankind would have died forever the moment Adam made a decision. The laws that govern in our universe also require that, in such a case, this planet and universe should have ceased to exist the very moment Adam made the decision. The book of Revelation presents to us a Jesus who, by his faithfulness to his mission, saved humankind from guilt and eternal punishment for sin. By suffering the Cross of Christ, Jesus saved the world and gave eternal life to those who believe. The apostle John testifies to this fact.

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. (1 John 4:14)

Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, is also the firstborn from the dead. Jesus, by being the firstborn, assures us that because of him, God now has many children who are no longer subject to death. Because he loves us, God has made us his children and restored to us full inheritance rights in his kingdom. Jesus Christ, whom the book of Revelation presents to us, assures us that because of his victory on the cross, death no longer has dominion over us. The eternal death, which in the Bible is called the second death, has been destroyed forever by the power of the Cross of Christ.

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:56–57)

Jesus concludes his greeting to the churches by reminding the believers concerning who he really is.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God,who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.(Revelation 1:8)

Truly, Jesus is God with us.

The Adoration of Jesus

The greetings from Jesus reassured the apostle John and confirmed his knowledge and understanding of Jesus. In response to such a greeting, John presents the adoration of him who is the very reason for our existence. The apostle John summarizes the accomplishments of Jesus while he was in the body here on earth. We will see later that all of this was accomplished at the time of the sounding of the seventh trumpet.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power forever and ever! Amen. (Revelation 1:5–6)

Even though we have become God’s enemies because of our sin in the garden of Eden, God still loves us. Because of his selfless love for us, God left our sin unpunished until his grace was revealed to humankind in Jesus Christ. In his grace on the cross at Golgotha, God removed our sin from us and destroyed it forever. Now, because of God’s grace demonstrated in Jesus Christ, we stand free from condemnation by the law.

God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:25–26)

Now there is no cause for condemnation.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1–2)

How did God free us from our sin? He freed us by the wonderful exchange on the cross. Later in this treatise on the book of Revelation, we will find more details and an illustration of the wonderful exchange on the cross. Jesus Christ, on the cross, set aside his perfect life and took on himself our life of sin, and by separation from the Father suffered the second death as the wages for sin. The wages for sin is the second or eternal death. Through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, the penalty for sin was paid for all of humankind. Before he was crucified, Jesus told us that he would draw all men to himself when he was lifted up from the earth (John 12:32).

By making Jesus to be sin, God removed from us our sin and, thus, he has reconciled us to himself. God made Jesus to be sin, but not the sinner. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). By making Jesus to be sin for us, God has forever condemned our sin and thus justified us, the sinners. The apostle Paul maintains that only God can remove our sin from us. In Jesus Christ, we are not only free from sin, but we are also free from condemnation by the law for sin.

By suffering the Cross of Christ, Jesus Christ took our sins into the eternal Abyss. It is now impossible for our sins to come back and be counted against us. Jesus took our sins to the cross of Golgotha; he did not take them to heaven. The apostle Peter proclaimed this truth.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24)

The old self, who was hopelessly enslaved to sin, has died forever in the body of Jesus Christ. Our sin and our life of sin have been destroyed forever in Jesus Christ on the cross. By the power of the Cross of Christ, the old self is dead; the new self lives forever. When we, by faith, accept the righteous and eternal life of Jesus Christ as our own, we become a new creation, and it shows. The apostle Paul has often emphasized the results of the Cross of Christ.

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. (Romans 6:6–7)

The removal of our sin from us was the fulfillment of God’s promise he gave humankind through the prophet Isaiah.

I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. (Isaiah 43:25)

And what God forgets cannot exist ever again. This is in conformity to the law of intelligence, which God established before the creation of our universe, as science understands it. The law of intelligence governs the matters of spirit, the nonmaterial part of humankind.

On the day of his resurrection, Jesus Christ took up into himself his perfect and indestructible life, which now he shares with us. Jesus thus has become our second, or our last Adam. Jesus’ death was our death; his resurrection was our resurrection, and his perfect life is, here and now, our perfect life. The apostle Paul assures us of that.

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:6–7)

Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God whom the book of Revelation reveals to us, has made us to be a kingdom and priests. The function of the Old Testament priest was to represent the people to God. But through Jesus Christ, our permanent High Priest, this function has been done away with. Through the blood of Jesus Christ, the redeemed are qualified and empowered to approach the throne of God without fear and give him their praises and their petitions in the name of Jesus and in prayer. Because of what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us on the cross at Golgotha, we do not need anyone to stand between God, our Father, and us. While still on earth, Jesus assured us of