The Messianic Lamb

The Slain Lamb is the Messiah in Revelation who overcomes and reigns over the Nations and the Kings of the Earth.

In popular preaching, Jesus has become the “Roaring Lion of Judah” who will soon unleash his predatory cry as he slays his enemies. Unlike the man from Nazareth, this warrior-king will destroy everyone who resists him as he imposes his kingdom on the willing and the unwilling. No longer is he the savior who submitted to an unjust death to save the world. Does not the Book of Revelation tell us that he is the Messianic Lion?

However, that is not the image found in John’s vision. In Chapter 5, John begins to weep bitterly because no one can be found who is “worthy” to open the “Sealed Scroll” and implement its contents. If it remains sealed, the redemptive purposes of God will not be fulfilled.

[Photo by Tonia Kraakman on Unsplash]

John then hears one of the twenty-four “elders” command him to cease weeping, for the “Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, overcame to open the Scroll and its Seven Seals.” However, when he looks, John sees a “Slain Lamb” and not a roaring lion who devours his prey. The contrast is stark, and deliberately so.

What John sees interprets what he first hears, an interpretive technique used several times in the Book. In other words, Jesus is the “Lion of Judah,” but he fulfills that messianic role as the sacrificed “Lamb.”

The English term “slain” in the passage translates the Greek verb for the “slaying” of sacrificial animals in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint - (‘sphazo’). This “Lamb” is the sacrificial victim through which atonement was made for sin.

It is by this sacrificial death that Jesus “overcomes” or conquers his enemies and becomes “worthy” to reign on the Divine Throne. Christ does not achieve sovereignty over all things by slaying his enemies, but by redeeming men and women.

From this point forward in Revelation, the term “Lamb” becomes the primary designation for Jesus. He is called “Christ” seven times, “Jesus” fourteen times, but “Lamb” twenty-eight times – (4 x 7). The passage in Chapter 5 is the one and only time he is ever referred to as the “Lion of Judah.” It is the “Lamb” who rules over the entire creation from his Father’s Throne and unveils the contents of the “Sealed Scroll,” as the passage confirms:

• “They sing a new song, declaring, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation, and made them a kingdom and priests unto our God; and they are reigning on earth <…> Worthy is the Lamb that has been slain to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and might and honor, and glory, and blessing!”

From the opening salutation of Revelation, its visions are anchored in the past Death and Resurrection of Jesus. He is the “Faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the Dead, and the Ruler of the Kings of the Earth. Unto him who loves us and loosed us from our sins by his blood, and made us a kingdom, priests for his God and Father.”

His sacrificial death was his “faithful testimony,” and his life poured out in sacrifice constituted his followers as “priests.” They reign with him. He is the “Ruler of the Kings of the Earth” who has all authority, including over “Death and Hades,” and this is because he is the one who was dead but now lives – (Revelation 1:4-6, 1:17-18).

• “Fear not! I am the first and the last, and the Living one. And I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”

PRIESTS, NOT TYRANTS

When the Book of Revelation describes faithful believers as a “kingdom of priests,” it uses the present tense. That is what they are on the earth. Already, they are reigning with Christ as they bear faithful witness to the “Inhabitants of the Earth.” However, they reign as priests, not overlords or dictators.

At the close of the Seven Letters to the Churches of Asia, the “faithful and true witness” summons all his churches to “conquer” and sit with him on his throne, but they must do so “just as I conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches” – (Revelation 3:14-22).

Likewise, the victorious saints “overcome the Dragon” paradoxically, “by the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and because they love not their lives unto death” – (Revelation 12:11).

It is the “Lamb” who is the “Lord of lords and King of kings.” In the Book’s final vision, those whose names are “inscribed in the Lamb’s book of life” are found in the “city of New Jerusalem.” Even though total victory is achieved throughout the Cosmos, it is still the “Lamb” who reigns in the city:

• “And I saw no temple, for the Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb are the temple. And the city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God lightens it, and its lamp is the Lamb <…> And there shall in no wise enter into it anything unclean, or he that makes an abomination and a lie, but only those men who are written in the Book of Life of the Lamb” – Revelation 21:22-27).

The Apostle Paul declared that the proclamation of “Christ crucified” is the “power and wisdom of God” by which the Creator of all things achieved victory over sin, death, and the Devil. The coming “New Heavens and New Earth” and our bodily resurrection are likewise based on the past Death and Resurrection of Jesus. In its own pictorial way, the Book of Revelation tells the same story.

The image of a mighty warlike lion “roaring” while he slays our “enemies” certainly appeals to our carnal nature, but such notions are incompatible with the Messiah who “poured himself out and humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” That is the Messiah God highly exalted and made Lord over all things, and the Jesus who is the “same yesterday, today, and forever.”

[PDF Copy]

SEE ALSO:

• The Slain Lamb - (The Death and Exaltation of Jesus are inextricably linked in the Book of Revelation)

• Worthy is the Lamb - (The central figure in Revelation is the Lamb who is worthy to open the Sealed Scroll and receive sovereignty over the entire Creation– Revelation 5:5-14)

• The Royal Shepherd - (The Lamb’s reign commenced with his death and resurrection, and since then, he has been shepherding the nations toward New Jerusalem)

• L'Agneau Messianique - (L'Agneau immolé est le Messie dans l'Apocalypse qui triomphe et règne sur les Nations et les Rois de la Terre)