THE CROWNED
CHRIST
CHAPTER XIV
The Throne of God and of the Lamb
The Lamb is the well-known title of Christ in the
Apocalypse, the book of the future. It expresses the patience of His
humiliation, even to the death of the cross; but it characterizes Him still in
glory. Even when the apostle is told of the Lion of the tribe of Judah having
prevailed to open the book, the vision assures him that it is a "Lamb, as it
had been slain."
The connection between the humiliation and glory is
familiar to us. Because of that wondrous humiliation "God has highly exalted
Him, and given Him a Name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, of heavenly, earthly, and infernal beings, and that
every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father" (Phil. ii. 9 - 11).
This is His personal exaltation, and as
Man. He has descended and is now ascended up, far above all heavens, and sits
upon the Fathers throne, waiting there until His foes are made His
footstool. All things are to be put under His feet, though as yet we do not see
this.
The Kingdom of the Son of Man, His millennial reign, is that in
which this is accomplished. He has then a throne which He can share with
others, as the Fathers throne He cannot (Rev. iii. 21); and the saints
reign with Him a thousand years.
But while the Father thus glorifies
His Son, for the Son His personal exaltation is not the object. He takes the
Kingdom to bring all things into eternal order, and thus bring in the rest of
God. Having done this, the Kingdom in this form is given up; its object is
achieved; "and when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son
also Himself be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be
all in all" (1 Cor. xv. 28).
We can in this way understand both why
the Kingdom lasts for comparatively so short a period, and yet why it occupies
so large a place in the field of prophecy. In the Old Testament, save in
Isaiahs promise of a new heavens and earth, we never get beyond it. And
even in the New, while that promise is expanded for us in the sweet picture
with which we are all familiar (Rev. xxi. 1 - 8), yet that which follows of the
New Jerusalem goes back immediately, as to the time of view, to the millennium
again. Only in this way could the leaves of the tree of life be for the healing
of the nations (xxii. 2).
Beyond the thousand years the city itself
abides, for it is eternal; and here is for us the fullest view that the book of
Revelation affords with regard to the eternal state. Yet it is both brief and
enigmatic; and the eyes that have been upon it for many generations have ever
yearned to see more clearly what is portrayed in it.
But upon this we
do not mean to dwell at present. We are following, as we may, the Christ of God
through all that changes into the changeless blessedness. What can we know of
it? Little, perhaps, indeed; but we may at least distinguish some things that
need to be, and where Scripture seems clear enough to save us from any
presumptuous speculation in the matter.
For many - and some even of
those who are theoretically clearer - the millennium has been practically too
much identified with the eternal condition. It has given too much its character
to eternity; while, on the other hand, I think it will be found that sometimes
that which is eternal has been thought of as millennial.
The
millennium, with that which immediately follows and connects with it, is a
period of formation, of labour, not of rest. First, things are set in order
morally and spiritually; then physically also. It applies also to the earth
solely; not (in the higher sense of the word) to heaven. The "new heavens" are
firmamental, the heavens of the second creative day.
Now, as to the
reign, when it is said of the saints that they reign with Christ a thousand
years, we might naturally think that they would cease to reign, then, after
this. Yet we find it said of those in the heavenly city, "they shall reign for
ever and ever" (or "the ages of ages") the strongest expression used for
eternity. And this may remind us that before the thrones are seen set up as to
the earth (chap. xx. 4), and before even the Lamb has taken the book in heaven
(chap. v. 7), we have seen thrones around the throne of God (chap. iv. 4) and
those occupying them who afterwards sing the song of redemption, and are
therefore redeemed men (v. 9). Is there not here implied plainly a reign which,
as it begins before the millennial reign, will not be limited by it?
As to the Lord Jesus, "all authority" is already His "in heaven and on
earth" (Matt. xxviii. 18), and yet He has not taken His throne as Son of Man.
He is on the Fathers throne, which is not divided nor circumscribed by
that "Kingdom of His dear Son," into which already He has "translated" us (Col.
i. 13). Thus we cannot limit Christs reign by the Kingdom of the Son of
Man. And when He shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father,
"that God may be all in all," will that "Kingdom of the Father" more exclude
His sovereignty? If all authority be His now, has it shut out the Father? Will
the Kingdom of the Father any more shut out the Son?
If we need a more
direct answer to such a question we shall find it in what is said of the
heavenly city that "the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it." It is
but one throne: two there could not be; and it is characterized in this way, as
the "throne of God and of the Lamb." That which speaks of the lowest depths of
humiliation gone into is joined with the incommunicable Name of glory: it is
added to that to which no addition would seem possible. God accepts this
addition; yet not as if it were the acceptance of anything extraneous to
Himself: nay, in it He is become manifest in a glory before which the hosts of
heaven prostrate themselves in adoring wonder. In the Lamb God has found the
expression of Himself He has been ever seeking, the means of pouring out
unhindered the fulness which shall make His creatures full: and thus from the
throne of God and of the Lamb issues the stream of the water of life.
That it is the "throne of God," declares at once that here we have before
us what is eternal: not dispensational, not temporary "That God may be all in
all" the lamb has brought him down to the lower parts of the earth, and taken
humanity up to the height of heaven. The Lamb is henceforth the "Lamp" of
divine light; as "the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple" of the
city, the unveiled Presence in which worship shall be alike free and necessary.
The mystery of the Person of Christ is the assurance that in no way whatever
can God and the Lamb be separated ever.
But what an overwhelming
thought it is, humanity united thus to Godhead, the Crucified upon the throne
of God! And we, whom He has taken up from the depths in which He found us, to
declare in us the fulness of divine self-sacrificing love, - we are following
on to see Him where He is, with eyes at last able to behold His glory; changed
ourselves into His likeness!
THE END
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