The Revelation---II

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 8, 1910

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 37, No. 44.

The Revelation---II

THE Revelation! Praise God, then, it is not a closed book. The Master who gave it has not barred or locked its riches of knowledge. He has not sealed its wonderful mysteries, its living truths, from His children. The Greek word Apokalupsis, from which the title comes, means revelation, disclosure, unfoldment, manifestation. And the book is a revelation. Ages ago God assured us that "the secret things belong unto Jehovah our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever." Deut. 29:29. The book belongs to us.

BUT, reader, we will not gather its most vital meanings by a superficial reading or study. God's wells of living water, like Jacob's well, are deep, and he who quaffs the coolest waters must be willing to sink his pitcher down to its crystal depths. The Comforter of God sings many songs to the despairing children of earth which are never heard by ears which ought in their need to hear them. They are not attuned with the song. Many a miner sinks his shaft to a depth just short of the richest products of earth; it costs time and labor to go on, and he is weary. The soul who gathers the most precious things of God must "dig deep," must search "as for hid treasures," must yield himself to the harmony of the universe. He must follow where the Shepherd leads if he would find the green pastures and the waters of rest.

THE book is not only a revelation, it is "the Revelation of Jesus Christ." And who is this Person? We may learn something from the names. "Jesus" means "saviour." "Thou shalt call His name JESUS," said the angel; "for it is He that shall save His people from their sins." Matt. 1:21. He is the only Saviour; for in none other is there salvation; "for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved." Acts 4:12. The meaning of "Christ" is "anointed." It is the Greek term for the Hebrew word "Messiah." He is called by this term in the Old Testament Scriptures, centuries before He dwelt among men in the flesh. Ps. 2:2. He is therefore the Anointed of God to save all who wish to be saved. "How God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power." Acts 10:38. See also Luke 4:18; Isa. 61:1, 2. He is one with the Father. Before the world was He sat enthroned with God the Eternal. He was the One through whom and by whom all the worlds were created. 1 Cor. 8:6; Col. 1:16, 17. "For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in Him should all the fulness dwell." Col. 1:19. He is the "Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last." And the book is the Revelation of God to Him, in Him, of Him; His personality, His character, His work, His love, His sufferings, His glorious and eternal triumph with His people.

BUT it will not be a revelation of Jesus Christ to us, unless He is revealed in us. That is the desire of the infinite God in giving to us this disclosure. He desires to make known to us "the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Col. 1:27. This is that which He has so longed to reveal to every soul from the time that man through selfishness cut himself loose from the Continent of Heaven and left himself a drifting derelict on the stormy sea of sin. The promise early came to the sin-despairing pair in the morning of earth's sad day that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. The power to triumph over the destroyer did not come from the man or the woman; for both had fallen under the tempter's power. It must come from a new life from above, from the incorruptible seed of the Eternal Word, from the presence of God within the soul. "Ye must be born from above," are the words of Jesus. John 3:7, margin. God must dwell in the flesh. Jesus-Christ is the revelation of this life of God in the flesh. It is said of Him, "They shall call His name IMMANUEL; which is, being interpreted, God with us." Matt. 1:23. "The Word was God, . . . and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, . . . full of grace and truth." John 1:1-14. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. . . . Him who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Cor. 5:19, 21.

The Answer of the Text

1. Of whom is the Revelation, and how did He come by it? "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him." 2. For what purpose was it given? "To show unto His servants, even the things which must shortly come to pass." 3. How and by whom did He send it, and to whom? "And He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John." 4. What did John do with the Revelation? "Who bare witness of the Word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, even of all things that he saw." 5. What encouragement is given to those who read and hear the Revelation? "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy." 6. On what condition is the blessing assured? "And keep the things that are written therein: for the time is at hand."

Notes of Explanation

1. "SHORTLY COME TO PASS."—It is true that

The Revelation of Jesus Christ

(Continued from page 5) the unfoldment of, or fulfilment of, this great book of prophecy began in the days of the apostle; but the Revelation, as are the prophecies of Daniel, is for the last days. While it teaches blessed truth by precept and promise, always practical, its great warning messages (Rev. 14:6-14) against threatening dangers, against persecuting powers, against awful latter-day apostasies, calling God's children back to primitive faith, purity, and obedience, are especially for the time immediately preceding Christ's second coming. In the nature of the case the book could not be understood in its comprehensiveness till the last days. Now God's Spirit is impelling to its study. Now "the time is at hand." Isaiah's prophecies (40:3; 61:1, 2) waited almost seven centuries for fulfilment in John the Baptist and Jesus. Then John could say, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness." Then Jesus could say, "Now is this prophecy fulfilled in your ears." And we may say, Now is the time of the Revelation.

2. "BY HIS ANGEL."—The first two verses seem to indicate God's general method of giving His truth to the world. First, through Christ; "the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." See John 1:18; Matt. 11:27. Secondly, by the angel Gabriel, God's messenger to Daniel, Zacharias, John, and all the prophets. (See Dan. 8:15, 16; 9:21; 10:10-21; Luke 1:19; Rev. 22:9.) Thirdly, the angel passes on the revelation to God's human prophets and messengers. Fourthly, the human messengers bear the message to God's people, and they join with the messenger in giving it to the world. But does God come into life-connection with every one of His children?—He certainly does. Could He not then communicate with each one?—He certainly could. Why then this roundabout way of imparting truth and blessing?—Simply this: it is the divine, better way. God desires that all His servants—His heavenly messengers and earthly messengers—shall share with Him in the glorious result of a redeemed and sinless universe. He wants all to join in the song of eternal triumph. But no one can do this unless he have part in the labor, the struggle, the pain, the travail, the conflict. Too, idleness is an awful curse, next to active wickedness against God. To all His servants God gives the joy of doing something. All will be associated with Christ Jesus in the work. No work is wrought for God by one alone. No soul will be saved by one alone. In the salvation of no sinner will one rejoice alone. Both sower and reaper will "rejoice together," and all will ascribe all honor and power to the Giver of all, while He will reward His servants for the work which He has wrought through them.

3. "WHO BARE WITNESS."—That is the work of the children of God, to be witnesses. The chief qualification of a witness is knowledge. He must know in order to testify. This knowledge can not come from rumor or hearsay, or second hand. There are many who know OF God, but they do not know God. There are many who know OF the Gospel, but not the Gospel. John "bare witness of the Word of God;" for he knew God's Word and its power in the fellowship of an indwelling Christ. 1 John 1:1-3. He knew the testimony, the witness of Jesus Christ in himself. John 3:33; 21:24. God's character is on trial in this world. Satan, the accuser, has maligned Him in every way. God has left with His Son and all His children, the precious, holy work of witnessing for Him, of His goodness, His love, His power to save from sin. "Ye are My witnesses, saith Jehovah, and I am God." Isa. 43:12. Would God that every one of His children so knew Him as to rightly witness in word and deed to His glorious character.

4. "BLESSED."—Blessed are the READERS, because of the God-given opportunity; blessed are the HEARERS, because of God-given privilege; but all the blessing will be turned to cursing if readers and hearers are not all KEEPERS. The word "keep" comes from tereo, "to keep watch upon, guard, to watch over protectively, to mark attentively, to observe practically, keep strictly, to store up." The only way to KEEP God's Word is to treasure it up in the heart. "Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee." Ps. 119:11. "I delight to do Thy will, O My God," says Christ through the psalmist; "yea, Thy law is within My heart." Ps. 40:8. There is blessing to the doer. "He that looketh unto the perfect law, the law of liberty, and so continueth, being not a hearer that forgetteth but a DOER that WORKETH, this man shall be BLESSED IN HIS DOING." He who yields himself to do for God places himself in the current of God's great, beneficent, outflowing life. READ, then, and HEAR and KEEP the things which God reveals to you in the Revelation of Christ Jesus.