Who He Is, What He Does

 June 15, 2022

“John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” —Revelation 1:4-6 NKJV

If the Revelation is, as I believe, about Jesus Christ, John wastes no time in telling us who Jesus is, what he has done, and what this means for us. He begins with an unusual trio of phrases: “Him who is and who was and who is to come.” Normally, when we speak like this we would say, “Him who is, who was, and who will be,” but John doesn’t do that because to say Jesus “will be” implies a changeability that he does not have. As Hebrews 13:6 says, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.” We can speak of Jesus Christ as the One who is in the present, as the One who was in eternity past and when he walked this earth, but we cannot speak of him as one who “will be,” because that implies that he will be something he is not at the present. 

Jesus is coming, but he isn’t changing, and that’s good news!

I notice also how John describes Jesus in three phrases: “faithful witness,” firstborn from the dead,” and “ruler over the kings of the earth.” These three phrases describing who he is correspond with the next three describing what he does: he loved us, washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father. As faithful witness, he loved us, giving witness to the love of his Father. As firstborn from the dead, he washed (better translation: “loosed”) us from our sins through his blood. As ruler over kings of the earth, he made us kings and priests to his God and Father. I like to say it this way: “He loved us, loosed us, and lifted us.” For those trapped in the slavery of sin, that’s a pretty good deal!