38. Chapter 6: The Cross in the Revelation
The Cross in the Revelation
Chapter 6
I shall not attempt an exposition of the Revelation; that is not my purpose. What I have wished to do was to try to show the place which the cross has in the Word of God and to suggest lines of study which may be helpful and joyous and profitable. As we have seen something of the cross in the Old Testament, and in the Gospels and the Epistles, I think the Holy Spirit would seek to make us see the place of the cross in this last book of the Bible.
It is the book of the future, as each of us knows. There are two lines running through, of brightness and blackness, of conflict and conquest, of the consummation of grace in glory and the consummation of sin in judgment; but the glory prevails. The book begins with a vision of the ascended Lord, the ascended victor, and ends with the vision of the redeemed state, and in between those two visions you have war and victory. In the first few chapters of the book you hear the ringing call of the ascended, conquering Lord to His Church to overcome. Then there is heard the clash of arms and the story of Satanic assault, and finally the Hallelujah Chorus of the victors around the Lamb in eternal fellowship. The center of the book is the Lamb, the keynote of the book is the Lamb. You will find that description given of our Lord at least twenty-eight times in the book, and in the rest of the New Testament only four times. It is the book of the Lamb. It is a great and necessary thing for us to have our eyes fixed on the Lamb and to see Him where He is. While we cannot but be conscious of the presence of the enemy and the powers of darkness around us, while we cannot but become increasingly conscious of those things as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of spiritual things, we want to learn to look at them all from the throne and see that behind everything that is happening in the world today the Holy Spirit, without any break, without any failure, is leading on the purpose of God the Father to full and final triumph.
I think it is a very necessary and helpful exercise for Christians today to read again and again this book of the Revelation. There is much in it that is difficult to understand and explain, but the general plan and object of it are quite clear. It is the book of the future, and being that, it throws light back upon the pathway of earth and it shows us the extraordinary, close connection between the cross and the lives of redeemed ones. As we read this book and see what the life is to be in the future when sin is done away with and Christ is all in all, the book shows what life here and now can be for each one of us; and the secret and the source of that life, from beginning to end, is the cross, the Lamb in His atoning sacrifice on the tree.
I would give my message a poetic title, calling it, “Gleams of Glory from Calvary.” And as you read through this book you will see the glory gleams flashing out upon you on every side. What life is to be in that wonderful future before us life can be today through the power of the cross. That is the message, in short, of this book of Revelation, so far as you and I are concerned. The life that is eternal begins here, so just let us look repeatedly at this book and see what that life is and what is the glory that shines from the cross upon it.