Revelation Chapter One, Glory & Dominion

Revelation 1:6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Jesus said, when He had just been resurrected, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God,” John 20:17. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, writes that the Father is, “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,” Ephesians 1:17.

The verses portray Jesus in His filial role, serving the Father as a Son, glorifying the Father in all of His works, while the Father glorifies the Son by elevating Him to preeminence. Christ is, as the Father commanded, firstborn from the dead, ruler over all of the earth’s kings, and (presently) seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven, waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool. Jesus has all things placed under His feet and was made head of the church, see Ephesians 1:20-23.

Though our Lord is God, he condescended to become a Man. In that capacity He served the Father tirelessly. He healed the ill, cured the blind and lame, raised the dead, gathered disciples, and preached the gospel. He contested the liberal religious leadership of His day, and gave forgiveness of sin to anyone who sought it from Him, much to the hateful chagrin of His contemporaries. We see this mentality in His statement to the disciples. He calls them His brethren; He is the firstborn and inheritor of all things, but they are still His siblings through faith in God. It is by the power of the Father that Jesus was raised from the dead. In fact our Lord explains that both His willing death and triumphant resurrection are commanded by His Father, John 10:18. Christ informed His audience that He had power–or authority–to both lay down and take His life back up. His life was truly His own, being free of sin He did not owe death a debt. But He chose, freely chose to serve the Father and demonstrate His love for the Father by loving mankind. He worked tirelessly to relieve suffering wherever He found it, drove out demons, made disciples, and glorified God’s name.

It is Jesus, we are informed, that makes us kings and priests to God the Father. As a priest, we are to minister before the altar. As a king, we wll reign with the power vested in us by an authority of infinite greatness. Peter wrote, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light,” 1 Peter 2:9. The phrase, “royal priesthood,” summarizes John’s point in Revelation. The priests ministered in God’s name, keeping His word obediently, and freely sharing His word so others would be edified, Malachi 2:6, 7. They sacrificed to Him; and while the OT animal sacrifice is no more, we are told to submit our very selves as living sacrifices, offered up to God as our reasonable service, Romans 12:1. The priesthood in the Old Testament was consecrated to God; their lives were a monument to perpetual service in His name, keeping His word and disseminating truth by giving it to those who did not have it. Every inch of the priest was holy. They wore robes that were for temple service alone. They were anointed in oils that were for service at the altar alone. The house of God was holy; therefore everything (and everyone) within it needed to be likewise.

Today the temple is the body, where God the Holy Spirit dwells by faith. God has sealed us with the Holy Spirit as the downpayment or earnest in our salvation. We may grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30) by our actions, words, or thoughts. Our bodies are a temple of the living God, 1 Corinthians 3:16. Everything within the OT temple had to be consecrated and made holy; its singular and continual purpose to serve the God that consecrated it. If our body is the temple, then our thoughts, words, and actions are the instruments of worship. Do we profane our sacrifices by offering them perpetually to lesser gods? Mind you, I am not advocating monasticism. I am simply trying to bring New Testament truth to light so we may collectively consider what it means to be priests to God. We have been given the promise of rulership alongside our Lord. We are kings whose authority is derived from God; and our rule will itself be a form of worship as we serve the Redeemer and Creator for eternity. It should behoove us to recall our anointing and today, still on this earth and in this body, worship God in Spirit and truth, offerings sacrifices that are pleasing to Him. We ought to exercise self-control upon our hearts because our love for God compels us to stop being self-seeking and look beyond the confines of self to the hurting, lost race of Adam, desperately needing the gospel they unwittingly despise.

Finally, John attributes to the Lord glory and dominion forever. Synonyms for dominion include, “sovereignty, supremacy, preeminence, lordship, primacy.” Christ’s rule will be absolute and eternal. Even when time gives way to eternity completely and the thousand years end, His rule will endure. When the Lord Jesus has finished putting an end to all opposing forces with the rod of iron during His Messianic rule, eternity will swallow up the present creation, Christ will, as Paul put it, be subject to God (see 1 Corinthians 15:28), and God’s unchallenged, harmonious rule will reign over a peace-filled, sinless universe. God will be all in all, meaning His presence, His rule, His love, will permeate every facet of the new Heaven and earth, and of His reign there will be no end. This is why, among other reasons, that Christ is ruler over the kings of the earth; no matter their power or influence, they reign but a moment on borrowed power. Christ reigns forever as the eternal God Man.