THE BIBLE
Can we trust a book written 2000 years ago?

EYEWITNESS
Did the writers of the New Testament get their picture of Jesus right?

GOD - MAN
Is Jesus really God?

RESURRECTION
Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

RELIGIONS
With so many religions, why Christianity?

SUFFERING
If there is a God, why is there so much suffering?

TRINITY
Understanding the Trinity.

SCIENCE
The complementary nature of Science & Christianity.

FORGIVENESS
What it is and why it matters?

GUIDANCE
How does God guide?

REPENTANCE
What it is and why you can't get to heaven without it.

BORN AGAIN
What does it mean to be converted and born again?

SAVING FAITH
The kind of faith that will get you to heaven

ASSURANCE
Can I know for sure that I am going to heaven?

TRUTH
What is truth and does it matter?

MORALITY
Does it matter how we live? A Christian view of morality.

THE CHURCH
God's vision for his family, the Church. A call to the churches of the new millennium.

PURPOSE
How can I find a great purpose for living?

IDENTITY
Who am I; Finding my true identity as a human being and as a child of God.

SELF-ESTEEM
How can I feel good about my self? The Christian basis for proper sel-esteem.

LIFE AFTER DEATHChristianity's Hope & Challenge.

THE CROSS
Why did Jesus Die? What the Bible says about the Cross.

Grace
The importance of grace in the New Testament.

The cross in Revelation

John, in Revelation, speaks of us as being “freed…from our sins”(1:5) and “purchased for God” (5:9) by the blood of Jesus, as do other New Testament writers. In the latter verse he adds that those so purchased are “members of every tribe and language and people and nation.” This is the scope of his saving work.

We noted that Peter spoke of Jesus being chosen “before the creation of the world” (1:20). John has a somewhat similar statement when he speaks of “the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world” (13:8). It seems that human rebellion was foreseen and God’s solution was purposed from the very beginning. Maybe this implies that there is something in the very eternal being of God, in his total self-giving nature, that made the cross inevitable. P. T. Forsyth commented:

It was not the failure, but the fulfilment of God’s plan, for there was a cross in the heart of God long before there was a cross on Calvary’s hill…There was a Calvary above, the mother of it all.

However, by far the most significant allusions to the cross in Revelation are in the use of the term “the Lamb”, which is applied to Jesus 29 times through the book. As “the Lamb” he fulfils all the sacrificial images of the Old Testament—the lambs that were offered daily in the temple for the sins of the people, the lamb whose blood was sprinkled on the doorposts, providing protection for the fugitives from Egypt (Exodus 12:3-7), and Isaiah’s Suffering Servant who “was led like a lamb for the slaughter” (53:7). Lest we should miss the sacrificial significance of the term, John describes him as “a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain” (5:6—see also v. 12) and speaks of the “blood of the Lamb” (7:14; 12:11). The Greek word for “slain”, esphagmenon, is literally “with its throat cut” and yet it is “standing in the centre before the throne”(5:6). It has the character which sacrifice confers, but it is alive. Although Jesus lives as Lord, everything that is expressed by his death is part and parcel of his nature.

British writer, Steve Chalke, has a significant comment to make on this last reference in Chapter 5 in an article in Christianity:

Years ago, I heard John Stott talking about the words of Revelation 5. In it, the ancient, roaring, "Lion of Judah" is finally revealed to be none other than the "Lamb who was slaughtered". Stott pointed out that it's just as if it is saying, "Whenever the Old Testament says 'Lion' read 'Lamb' instead." It's the crucified lamb, not a roaring lion, who turns out to be the Saviour of the world. It's the slain lamb—the symbol of weakness—who stands at the centre of the throne—the symbol of power. As I remember Stott putting it: "Power through weakness lies at the heart of the mystery of almighty God himself." This is the universe's greatest paradox; creation's deepest and most profound truth: You win looking like you are losing.

Revelation is the final book of the Bible. Rightly understood, it gives, in a series of pictorial visions, the principles by which God governs history from Christ’s first coming until his final appearance to judge the world and inaugurate his kingdom in which all his people will share. Numbers have symbolic significance in the book. For instance, the number seven, which occurs 54 times, symbolises fulfilment or completeness. It is very significant that in this book, which emphasises the completeness of God’s purposes and his total victory over evil at the end of this age, there should be so much focus on Christ in his sacrificial role. Consider the following passages:

· It is “because [he] was slain” that he is considered worthy to reveal the hidden secrets of God’s purposes in history (5:9—also 6:1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 12; 8:1).

· It is the “Lamb who was slain” who is “Worthy…to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and praise” (5:12).

· It is “the Lamb” who shares his Father’s throne and who is jointly worshipped with his Father by the redeemed multitudes from every nation (7:9, 10).

· It is “the Lamb” to whom salvation belongs (7:10).

· It is “the blood of the Lamb” that washes clean our stained garments and fits us to live in the presence of a holy God (7:14).

· It is “the Lamb” who paradoxically “will be [our] shepherd”, our sustainer, protector and encourager in glory (7:15-17).

· It is the “blood of the Lamb” that enables God’s people to overcome the accusations of Satan and “they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” (12:10, 11). This is similar to Paul’s statement that, in view of the cross, those compelled by the love of Christ live for him rather than themselves (2 Corinthians 5:14, 15). It is the cross above everything else that provides the motivation for continuing in our devotion to Christ against all odds and difficult outcomes. Denney comments, “It is because it is an incomparable demonstration of love that it is an irresistible motive”.

· It is “the Lamb” who is “Lord of Lords and King of Kings” and who triumphs over the forces of evil (17:14).

· It is in his role as “the Lamb” that he will be united with all his people at “the wedding of the Lamb” (19:7, 9).

· It is “the Lamb” and his Father who illuminate their renewed creation and their presence there will do away with any need for centres of worship (21:22, 23).

· Those who will be there to enjoy this creation are “those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (21:27—cf. 13:8). In recognising their need for forgiveness, they are those who have put their trust in him for his saving work. Denney significantly comments here:

In this book the names are written of those who are to inherit life everlasting: those whose names are not found there die the second death [20:14, 15]. Nothing could express more strongly the writer’s conviction that there is no salvation in any other than the Lamb, that in Jesus Christ and him crucified is the whole hope of a sinful world.

· The “river of the water of life”, which I assume to be the life-giving Spirit, flows from “the throne of God and of the Lamb” (22:1). It is the cross that unlocks the reservoir and enables the glorified and risen Saviour to impart his blessings to us through the Spirit (John 7:38, 39).

· “The throne of God and of the Lamb”, the centre from which all God’s power and love and goodness radiate, will be present “in the city” where his people dwell (22:1, 2).

“Blessed” indeed “are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” (19:9)

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