by Rev. Stanley Collins
Jtoved BY THE
The song here in Revelation be gins, “Unto Him who loved us.” Here we have the heart of the Gospel. This is the essence of the message of heaven. So many people say, “No body loves me. There is no one who cares or who will show any inter est.” Christ loves you so much that He died for you. This is the first and essential truth of the Gospel. It’s not that we loved Christ, but that He loved us. What amazing love! Many a young couple has stood at the altar and sworn their devotion to one an other. They never dreamed that there could be a day when they would literally hate and hold each other in the greatest contempt and scorn. How tragic! We are loved with an everlasting, a never-dying love. We can never be separated from Him. If anybody ever proved His love, it’s our Lord. He washed us from our sins in His own blood. There is noth ing more precious in all of heaven and earth. It is the precious blood of the Lamb without blemish and without spot. There is no other means of taking away the iniquity of man’s soul than by the blood of Christ. “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” We come to the Lord the first time for all our transgressions to be for given. We need to come to Him daily, however, for cleansing. (Consider the 51st Psalm.) Notice next in verse 6 of Revela tion 1 that “He hath made us kings and priest unto God and His Fa ther.” Have you ever considered yourself as royalty? Did you know you can be a priest in the house of our God? Both of these are our privi leges. We worship Him as kings and priests. How it should lift our 15
T here are many blessed devotional truths to be found in Revelation, the last book of the Bible. In the first chapter, verses 1 to 6, we have one of the most wonderful doxologies ap pearing anywhere in the New Testa ment. This portion of the Bible is a prophecy which reveals the unfail ing glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. These events are just prior to His absolute reign in glory over the world and the universe. John, who is now an elderly man, was a very close friend of the Lord. Yet he now sees Christ in all His glory and falls at His feet as one dead (v. 17). While we haven’t seen Him yet, yet believing, we reioice with joy un speakable and full of glory. We can look forward to that day when we’ll see Him face to face. Here we find the song of the re deemed about Christ. It is directed to Him in every aspect. He is the faithful one, the true witness, the absolute express image of all that God is. He alone could say, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” In verse five the fact is stated that He was the first begotten of the dead. This doesn’t mean that He was the first person to be raised from the dead. There were others in the Old Testament, as well as even during the lifetime of our Lord. Yet they all died again; they were not given glorified bodies as was our Lord. As far as Christ is concerned, “Death could not hold its prey.” Corruption never entered Christ’s body. He is alive forevermore! God is still on the throne. Our Lord Jesus is the appointed heir of everything; all shall be subject unto Him. “Jesus shall reign where’er the sun doth his successive journeys run.”
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