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INTRODUCTION

      The Book of Revelation is the perennial culmination
of the New Testament canon.  It is a work of profound
theology, but overall, it is the Revelation of Jesus
Christ (Revelation 1:1) and any commentary cannot neglect
this fact; it pervades all understanding of the book.
Christ is present in visual representations, in titles
used of Him, and functions ascribed to Him (Guthrie,
1987, p. 39).


THE RISEN CHRIST

      The portrayal of Jesus in the Book of Revelation is
dramatically different to that of the gospels.  No longer
is the second person of the Trinity restricted, having
surrendered temporarily the volitional use of His divine
attributes (Philippians 2:5-8).  Rather than being one
who thirsted (John 19:28), hungered (Matthew 4:2) and
sweat drops like blood (Luke 22:44), the Christ of
Revelation is unparalleled (Guthrie, 1987, p. 41) and
stands in the midst of the seven Churches

    dressed in a robe reaching down to His feet and with
    a golden sash around his chest.  His head and hair
    were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes
    were like blazing fire.  His feet were like bronze
    glowing in a furnace, and His voice was like the
    sound of rushing waters.  In His right hand He held
    seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp
    double-edged sword.  His face was like the sun
    shining in all its brilliance (Revelation 1:13-16).

      Jesus' mission on earth has been accomplished.
Just before finally dieing on the cross He declared, "It
is finished" (Revelation 19:30).  At this time He
canceled the code that was against us (Colossians 2:14)
and disarmed the powers and authorities, making a public
spectacle of them (Colossians 2:15).  Having done this,
in Revelation, He is revealed as having wrested the keys
of death and Hades (Revelation 1:18).  As Jesus explains
to John, He is the First and the Last.  He is the Living
One.  He was dead, but behold, He is alive for ever and
ever (Revelation 1:17-18).  As Wilson (n.d., p. 74)
comments, "Christ's was not the resuscitation of the body
- it was complete victory over death."

      Jesus humbled Himself and took upon Himself the
nature of a servant (Philippians 2:7).  He clothed
Himself in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3),
being found in appearance as a man (Philippians 2:8).
But now, just as Christ prayed that the Father would
glorify Him with the glory He had with the Father before
the world began (John 17:5), God has exalted Him to the
highest place and given Him the name that is above every
name (Philippians 2:9).

      Not only is Jesus the First and the Last, He is the
faithful witness, the first-born from the dead, and the
ruler of the kings of the earth (Revelation 1:5).  He is
the Bright Morning Star (Revelation 22:16).  He is the
Alpha and the Omega, who is, and who was, and who is to
come, the Almighty (Revelation 1:8), the Beginning and
the End (Revelation 22:13).  Since alpha and omega are
the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, it is
not difficult to imagine that these last titles are
equivalent in meaning with "the First and the Last".  Of
particular interest is the fact these are also the sole
designations of God which appear in Revelation (1:8;
21:6).  Christ's possesses the fullness of deity
(Colossians 2:9), but these designations express more
than this mere fact.  Bauckham (1993, p. 27) explains,

    In the form, 'the first and the last', the
    designation derives from Isaiah, where it occurs, as
    in revelation, as a divine self-designation: 'I am
    the first and the last; besides me there is no god'
    (44:6); 'I am he; I am the first, and I am the last'
    (48:12; cf. also 41:4). . . . the designation
    encapsulates the understanding of the God of Israel
    as the sole Creator of all things and sovereign Lord
    of history, which. . . . [Isaiah] so magnificently
    expounds and asserts polemically against the idols of
    Babylon.  Unlike human-made gods, this God is the
    utterly incomparable One, to whom all nations are
    subject, whose purpose none can frustrate (cf. Isa.
    40:12-26).  It is precisely this exclusive
    monotheistic faith that determines the prophetic
    outlook of Revelation.  Hence the unique importance
    of the designation: 'the Alpha and the Omega'.  God
    precedes all things, as their Creator, and he will
    bring all things to eschatological fulfillment.  He
    is the origin and goal of all history.

      This is the risen Christ in the Book of Revelation;
this is the risen Christ for the rest of time.


CHRIST DIRECTS THE CHURCHES

      Jesus directed John to write to the angels of each
of seven prominent Churches in the Asia Minor of the time
(Revelation 2-3).  Possibly the "angels" refer to
supernatural beings, potentially protecting the Churches,
but it is more likely that angelo here means human
messengers (such as the leaders of the Churches), just as
it does in James 2:25 and Luke 9:52.  Nevertheless, both
the angels and the Churches belong to Christ; He holds
the angels in His hand (Revelation 1:16, 20; 2:1) and He
walks amongst the Churches (Revelation 1:13; 2:1).
According to Rienecker and Rogers (1976, p. 815)
peripatos (walks among) implies that the Lord patrols the
ground and is ever on the spot when He is needed; His
presence is not localised but is coextensive within the
Church.  Goswiller (n.d., p. 14) draws a comparison with
the location of the tabernacle in the midst of the camp
in the Old Testament.

      Jesus loves His Church; indeed, it was for its
members that He died (John 3:16; Romans 5:8-9).  For each
of the seven Churches, apart from Laodicea, Jesus had a
word of encouragement.  He is attentive - He knows their
deeds (Revelation 2:2; 2:19; 3:1; 3:7; 3;15), their
afflictions and their poverty (Revelation 2:9), where
they live (Revelation 2:12), and their love, faith,
service and perseverance (Revelation 2:19).  For these
things, Christ commends the Churches.

      Yet, He who commends also searches hearts and
minds, and will repay each according to their deeds
(Revelation 2:23).  For each Church, apart from Smyrna
and Philadelphia, comes a rebuke.  Yet, Christ quickly
follows each of these with an exhortation and then a
promise.  The smallest and most insignificant Church is
assured of Christ's presence (Wilson, n.d., p. 77).

      Elsewhere in Revelation, an angel declares, "The
testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy" (Revelation
19:10).  Just as is evident from the letters to the
Churches, the Spirit speaks in the accents of the
crucified and risen Lord, summoning people to become
conquerors in the name of Him who has conquered (Caird,
1966, p. 238).

      Nothing stands outside of the bounds of Christ's
knowledge.  He makes careful, precise diagnoses of
attainments and failures of each congregation.  Many may
be deceived by the outward wealth and success of the
Laodicean Church, but Christ knew all the truth:
wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked (Revelation
3:17).  Such infallible discernment is devastating to the
insincere and challenging to the sincere (Wilson, n.d.,
p. 78).


CHRIST THE LAMB

      John wept because he believed there were none found
worthy to open or look inside the scroll with writing on
both sides and sealed with seven seals (Revelation 5:1-
4).  Straightaway he was told not to weep, the reason
being, "The Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of
David, has triumphed.  He is able to open the scroll and
its seven seals" (Revelation 5:5).  At this, Christ
appears, as a Lamb which had been slain (Revelation 5:6)
and who was worthy of great praise and worship
(Revelation 5:9-14).

      This worship is particularly significant
Christologically, given that twice John prostrates
himself before the angel who mediates the revelation to
him.  The angel protests that he is no more than a fellow
servant of God, and directs John to worship God
(Revelation 19:10; 22:8-9).  The angel who shows the
visions to John is not the source of revelation, but only
the instrument for its communication.  Jesus is the
source of revelation (Revelation 22:16).  The implication
exists that he, unlike the angel, is not excluded from
monotheistic worship but is rather included in it,
confirmed by the explicit worship of Jesus elsewhere in
Revelation (Bauckham, 1993, p. 59).

      In chapter five, Christ is the Lamb.  He has
triumphed through His death and resurrection and is seen
standing on the divine throne (the probable meaning of
5:6; cf. 7:17; Bauckham, 1993, p. 60).  In turn He
becomes the center of the circle of worship, moving
outward from the living creatures and the elders (5:8) to
the myriads of angels (5:12, paralleling that offered to
God in 4:11), and finally to the whole of creation in a
doxology addressed to God and the Lamb together (5:13).
The worship of the Lamb (5:8-12) leads to the worship of
God and the Lamb together (5:13).  Bauckham (1993, p. 60)
states,

    John does not wish to represent Jesus as an
    alternative object of worship alongside God, but as
    one who shares in the glory due to God.  He is worthy
    of divine worship because his worship can be included
    in the worship of the one God.

      Nevertheless, God is related to the world not only
as the transcendent holy One, but also as the slaughtered
Lamb.  Revelation 5:9-10 clearly identifies Jesus with
the Old Testament Passover lamb (Cho, 1991, p. 67-68;
Guthrie, 1987, p. 47), where the worship song given to
Him states that He has ransomed a people and made them a
kingdom and priests serving their God, echoing the Sinai
covenant (Exodus 19:5-6) whereby God made the people He
brought out of Egypt His own people.  This liberation was
often referred to as His ransoming His people from
slavery (Deuteronomy 7:8; 13:5).

      Furthermore, Revelation 5 portrays the conviction
that in his death and resurrection Christ has already won
His decisive victory over evil (Glasson, 1965, p. 45) -
which Bauckham (1993, p. 73) sees as being fundamental to
Revelation's whole understanding of the way in which
Christ establishes God's kingdom on earth.  The key to
this, Bauckham explains, and to Christ's qualifications
as the only one able to open the scroll, is the contrast
between what John hears (Revelation 5:5) and what he sees
(Revelation 5:6).  Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of
Judah and the root of David who has conquered.  These two
messianic titles evoke a strongly militaristic and
nationalistic image of the Messiah as a conqueror of the
nations, destroying God's enemies (Bauckham, 1993, p.
74).  Nevertheless, this image is reinterpreted by that
which John actually sees: the Lamb whose sacrificial
death (5:6) has redeemed people from all nations (5:9-
10).  Bauckham (1993, p. 74) continues,

    John has forged a new symbol of conquest by
    sacrificial death.  The messianic hopes evoked in 5:5
    are not repudiated: Jesus really is the expected
    Messiah of David (22:16).  But insofar as the latter
    was associated with military violence and narrow
    nationalism, it is reinterpreted by the image of the
    Lamb.  The Messiah has certainly won a victory, but
    he has done so by sacrifice and for the benefit of
    people from all nations (5:9).  Thus the means by
    which the Davidic Messiah has won his victory is
    explained by the image of the Lamb, while the
    significance of the image of the Lamb is now seen to
    lie in the fact that his sacrificial death was a
    victory over evil.


THE WRATH OF CHRIST

      John sees in heaven the absolute holiness,
righteousness and sovereignty of God (Revelation 4).
From "this vision of God's name hallowed and God's will
done on heaven, it follows that his kingdom must come on
earth" (Bauckham, 1993, p. 40).  It is this which makes
chapter 4, and its Christological continuation in chapter
5, foundational for all that which follows (c.f. Glasson,
1965, p. 45), namely the catastrophic multitude of
plagues and judgments which strike the earth until
Christ's return.

      In all of these things, terrible as they are,
Christ is revealed as a divine judge (Revelation 19:11).
It is His wrath which is being outpoured.  During the
time of the Tribulation people shall cry to the mountains
and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of
him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the
Lamb!  For the great day of their wrath has come, and who
can stand?" (Revelation 6:16-17).  Surely the day of the
Lord will be terrible (Malachi 4:5) as Christ treads the
winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty
(Revelation 19:15).

      Nevertheless, it is important to realise that the
Lamb can be as little held responsible for the activities
of, for example, the four horseman, as for those of
Judas, Caiaphas and Pilate.  Caird (1966, p. 91) explains
that the

    wrath of God in the Revelation, as elsewhere in the
    Old and New Testaments, represents not the personal
    attitude of God towards sinners, but an impersonal
    process of retribution working itself out in the
    course of history; that the Lamb is at all times a
    symbol to be understood with reference to the Cross,
    so that the Cross itself is both the victory of God
    and the judgment of the world; and that therefore the
    wrath of the Lamb must be interpreted as 'the working
    out in history of the consequences of the rejection
    and crucifixion of the Messiah'.


THE RETURN AND REIGN OF CHRIST

      The Tribulation period draws to a remarkable close
with the return of Christ to the earth.  Just as in
chapter one His image bears little resemblance to that of
the carpenter's son.  His eyes are like blazing fire and
on His head are many crowns (Revelation 19:12) - for He
is King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Revelation 19:16).
Against Him no one may stand; with swift and decisive
action His enemies are subdued, and His Kingdom
established, judgment finally enacted (Revelation 19:17-
20:15).

      At last, all things are made new (Revelation 21:5).
The end of this age has passed and the act of creation
has been reenacted.  There will be no more death or
mourning or crying or pain, for the old has passed away
(Revelation 21:4).  Yet, in all this, Christ is still the
Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End
(Revelation 21:6).  From the beginning of the book to the
finish, He is unchanging.  From the beginning of time to
the end of time, He is.  Jesus Christ is the same today,
yesterday and forever (Hebrews 13:8) and has full rights
to the sacred designation expressing His complete
eternality and independence, "I AM" (John 8:58).


CONCLUSION

      Just as Origen focused his attention on the
Christology of the Book of Revelation (Daley, 1991, p.
49), so too must any honest interpreter.  It is the
Revelation of Jesus Christ (Revelation 1:1) and it is
Christ that the book reveals.  He is the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world, as well as the coming King
(Nichols, 1994, p. 291).


WORKS CITED

Bauckham, R. 1993. The Theology of the Book of
     Revelation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Caird, G. B. 1966. A Commentary on the Revelation of St.
     John the Divine, Adam and Charles Black, London.

Cho, P. Y. 1991. Revelation, Word Books, Milton Keynes.

Daley, B. 1991. The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook
     of Patristic Eschatology, Cambridge University
     Press, Cambridge.

Glasson, T. F. 1965. The Revelation of John, Cambridge
     University Press, Cambridge.

Goswiller, R. n.d. Revelation, Pacific Study Series,
     Melbourne.

Guthrie, D. 1987. The Relevance of John's Apocalypse, The
     Paternoster Press, Exeter.

Nichols, D. R. 1994. 'The Lord Jesus Christ', in
     Systematic Theology: A Pentecostal Perspective, ed.
     S. M. Horton, Logion Press, Springfield.

Rienecker, F. and Rogers, C. 1976. Linguistic Key to the
     Greek New Testament, The Zondervan Corporation,
     Michigan.

Wilson, C. n.d. The Book of Revelation, Pacific College
     Study Series, Melbourne.

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