Spring 1993

The Revelation of Jesus Christ
George H. Warnock

This, the last book of the Bible, is rightly in its place in the canon of Scripture. As Genesis is the Book of Beginnings, this is the Book of the Consummation. As Genesis is the Book of the Seed, this is the Book of the Harvest. As Genesis speaks to us in type and shadow, Revelation reveals to us the sum and substance of God's Intention which He cherished in His heart from the beginning.

In Genesis, He is shown as the Alpha. In Revelation, He is the Omega. In Genesis, we see the first man, who brings disappointment and decay to the former creation. In Revelation, we see the satisfaction of God's heart in a second Man, the Last Adam, revealed in the Gospels in the weakness and poverty of His lowly incarnation, but now highly exalted as the Man of God's full intention, high and lifted up.

There, He is seen upon a cross. Here, He sits on the highest Throne of the Universe. No longer is He the lowly One, tested, tried, rejected of men -whose likeness He bore and whose sin He carried to the Cross. But now He is openly unveiled in the sight of all mankind, and before all the heavenly hosts as the Conquering One, who through His death on the Cross, defeated Satan who sought to bring ruination to the Last Adam, even as he did to the first one.

In this Book we see Him as "The Lion of the Tribe of Judah." Yet, as the Lion rises up in triumph, we see in the midst of the Throne, a Lamb "as it had been slain," for God would remind us that it is the bleeding Lamb that has conquered. Even now, the Lamb bears in His glorified humanity the tokens of His sufferings. It seems that God should have removed the scars from His obedient Son when He raised Him from the dead. But no! The print of the nails is still there, in His hands and feet. The mark of the spear thrust into His side is still there, eternally imprinted upon His glorified humanity. But these are not the blemishes of a slain Lamb, for this Lamb was "without spot and blemish." Rather, these marks are the emblems of a Conquering King, who triumphed through the Blood of His Cross.

This is what the Book of Revelation is about, more literally translated "The Book of the Unveiling of Jesus Christ." It is the Apocalypse, the taking away of the veil behind which the Father has been working all through the ages, to bring into being the crowning masterpiece of His creation. Now, in the fullness of time, it is the Father's good pleasure to unveil His Work of Art that will fully express every attribute of His Being, full and complete, - the focal point of all creation, resplendent in Light and Glory; the Unveiling of Jesus Christ. And He is pleased to show this Revelation to His servants in order that they also in their day of humiliation and rejection might be assured of His strength and comfort.

As they partake of His sufferings, they are to understand that it is God's appointment for them as it was for His Son Jesus, in order that He might make known the "Wisdom of the Cross" not only to men in the earth but also to principalities and powers in the heavenlies. For it was there on the cross that the "hidden wisdom" was revealed - a bleeding Lamb conquering all the enemies of God.

In showing us this Revelation, God would give us the assurance that as we follow the example of the Lamb, we also shall overcome "even as He overcame." It is a glorious secret, a part of the "hidden wisdom" that He reveals only to those who love Him:

That Truth shall triumph over Deception
That Good shall overcome Evil
That Light shall overcome the Darkness
That Love shall triumph over Hate.

It is the Secret of the Cross, embraced by the Son of God during the days of His humiliation, and again by His "many brethren" in the days of their humiliation, that they might be encouraged to embrace His Cross, with renewed assurance that they too "shall reign with Him, if so be that they suffer with Him."

We may feel this book ought to have been called "The Book of Obscurity," rather than "The Book of the Revelation" ... a Book that was to be kept hidden from His servants, rather than revealed to them. But this only because His servants are slow to come to their Patmos for the testimony of the Lord Jesus. Therefore, they are unable to HEAR the words of the prophecy of this book. It is because we do not understand that "The testimony of Jesus is THE SPIRIT OFPROPHECY. If we do not "bear about in our body the dying of Jesus," we are not that living witness He would have us to be, and do not have listening ears to "Hear what the Spirit would say to the Churches."

Many Christians find it easy to accept the teaching that only the first three chapters of the Book are really for us, while here on the earth. During the fulfillment of the rest of the Book it is hoped that we will be far away from it all, looking down upon a world in chaos, and thanking God that we have missed it all. (Hoping, of course, to come back to reign with Him when the trials and tribulations are all finished!)

But when we begin to understand that the whole Book is the Unveiling of Jesus Christ in the midst of all earth's sorrows and tribulations, we desire to draw near with boldness. Not with the boldness of king Uzziah, who because of the pride and presumption of his heart, was smitten with leprosy; but to come before Him, trembling because of our frailty, only to wax strong in the sight of a bleeding Lamb sitting on the Throne - weak, bleeding, dying, - but now high and lifted up, ruling and reigning in all the Universe with a rod of iron and a scepter of power and authority, not only in this earth, but over all realms of the spiritual world.

Why is it, then, when we think of The Book of Revelation our minds are caught up with scenes of famine, pestilence, locusts out of the pit, and multi-headed beasts out of the sea? Of tribulation, wars, and turmoils? Of Armageddon with blood flowing like rivers, and that awesome number, 666?

It is because without a hearing ear, without a seeing eye, and without an understanding heart, we are conditioned to the darkness rather than to the light, and our ears are tuned to sounds of woe, rather than to sounds of triumph and victory.

Yes, the lightnings and the thunders are there, bringing devastation and judgment upon the inhabitants of the earth, but like the holy nation in Goshen, we know it is God's judgments on a world that is determined to keep His people in bondage; and that it is our God arising in the earth to avenge His Temple, His very own habitation.

Yes, the heavens are darkened with locusts out of the pit, but in the midst of it we see God's army going forth to war against His enemies that are causing the darkness to abound in a world that hates God. We see the harlot "Mystery Babylon" and all her names of blasphemy, riding triumphantly throughout the earth, and all the great ones of the earth made drunk with "the wine of her fornication,"

But in and through all of this darkness and devastation, God desires us to behold the revelation of Jesus Christ, and not the revelation of the Antichrist.

We see Jesus, the Conquering One, who overcame death by the blood of His Cross. We see the one for whom He has been waiting, His Holy Bride; pure, spotless, and without blemish, who will yet be known in the earth and throughout the heavens as the Bride of the exalted Lamb. Not His mistress, and not His concubine, for she is in no way tainted with the sins of her youth. She is His counterpart, totally compatible with Him. Yet never his equal, for her one and only desire is to be under His Lordship. Delighting only in Him, she is "The wife of the Lamb."

She is one with Him, His true friend and companion. And because she is one with Him, and came out from His side, she bears His Name ... just as Eve bore Adam's name. She is untainted by sin, and her former life is no longer a stain on her conscience, nor known by her Lord. No longer does she testify, "I am still sinning, but my Redeemer loves me anyway." The witness of the Spirit has become so intense in her life that just as clearly as the Spirit witnessed to the Blood and the Water that flowed from the side of Jesus, so He speaks just as clear a witness to her heart, causing her to say, "I am clean by the washing of His Blood, I am clean by the washing of Water by the Word, I am righteous, as He is righteous, pure as He is pure." Not boastful, but from a heart made new by the Holy Spirit who takes all that Jesus accomplished on the Cross and causes it to shine forth in the hearts of the redeemed. For "it is the Spirit that beareth witness, for the Spirit is Truth." It is by the witness of the Spirit, and by the water of the living Word that the virtues of the Blood are applied to our hearts.

And so the Revelation of Jesus Christ concerns not only God's bachelor Son, who always pleased the Father in all things. It concerns also the Bride that the Father procured for Him. As surely as Abraham loved his obedient son, who yielded himself to his father as a willing sacrifice ... and Abraham's response was to find a compatible bride in a far away land ... so, our Heavenly Father has determined that His Son is worthy of the very best that heaven or earth could provide ... and He found her! Not in heaven, but in earth ... once defiled and unclean in His sight, but now washed in precious Blood! And now so clean and pure, so filled with grace and beauty, that Jesus can testify before the Father, before all celestial hosts, and before all the earth:

"There is nothing more clean and beautiful in Heaven, nothing more clean and beautiful in Earth, than you, My Holy Bride whom the Father hath given Me to walk eternally by my side. For you were born out from My wounded side, to be joined unto Me, to walk eternally with Me. You are bone of My bone, You are flesh of My flesh, You are spirit of My Spirit."

Come away, My love, My fair one, COME AWAY!"