Christ Revealed

One of my favourite parts of the Bible has to be the first chapter of Revelation. It is amazing!!

Take a glance at verse 5:

'from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth'

What is 'from Jesus Christ'? It's Grace and peace. All grace actually comes from Him. He is our channel of blessings so that we can receive everything spiritual that blesses us. Jesus my King and Lord showers blessings on me when I trample on them in a lack of thankfulness.
When should we stop asking for grace and peace? When Christ stops offering it to us. We can taste and see that the Lord is good. He NEVER holds back anything from those who seek after him. We are rich in Jesus. Rich because of grace, and the grace itself is rich. His blessings are new every morning, great is His faithfulness!

Jesus is our faithful witness. He came to serve not to be served. He lives to make intercession for us. He is faithful: if we have repented of sin and trusted his blood as our only hope he will not deny us before the Father. Then he promises to never ever EVER leave us! Jesus stood in our place-our priest to God so that he can present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Yup God gets exceeding joy from his service to us....why? Because it glorifies him. Don't get some idolatrous man-centered theology from this He works for our good because it is His glory. (No I'm not going to quote Piper!!)

Jesus is also the faithful witness of the Father. He is the exact representation of God in human form, the image of the invisible God. And so is a perfect witness to who God is in nature by the way he lived. His will was to do the will of the Father to proclaim and preach repentance, faith and forgiveness of sins and then purchase that salvation. Faithful to his Fathers decrees and commands, faithful in submitting to death, even death on the cross out of obedience to the Fathers will. Jesus was an exact replication of the will of the Father acted out. The Godhead is united they all work together and never have disagreements. Hence Jesus is the faithful witness to the Father.

He is the firstborn from the dead. This talks about his power over death. Death could not hold Him. He subjected himself to it and no death has no consequence. It is our door to Heaven!! Nothing to be afraid of because to be absent form the body is to be present with the Lord! Catholic doctrine wants to still our joy with heresy that we need to be refined and made perfect in a spiritual waiting room called purgatory. If this is true then Christ lied to the thief on the cross when he said 'Today you will be with me in paradise'.

Christ is revealed as the ruler over the kings of the earth. Christ is sovereign and all powerful. He rules over any earthly kingdom. Every one will give an account to Christ of every action good or evil. The media who pollute minds with lust. The politicians who allow laws that God hates. Pastors who are compromised, compromised because they have slipped from a biblical standard of preaching. They preach for fame, fortune and respect. The disciples motives were the exact opposite.
Christ reigns over all of this and he orders all of this in infinite wisdom. If anyone else were reigning supremely I'd be in despair. Knowing that Christ is in control is one of the most comforting things my heart will ever receive.

Just think about what we would be doing if Christ hadn't revealed his light to us. We would be walking around ignorant in the pattern of the world following the desires of our depraved heart under the delusion that life is meaningful without Christ.

Praise God that He has opened our eyes to see the truth and then allowed us to experience the truth through Jesus!