“... The patient endurance that (is) in Christ Jesus” (Revelation 1:9)
It is interesting to me that when the Apostle John begins perhaps his most famous Biblical book, he starts by describing the Christian life as being marked by “tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Christ Jesus” (Rev. 1:9). He doesn’t describe it in terms of self-confidence, political identity, or even head knowledge of theological terms. He describes this life as one marked by struggle (tribulation) and a need for patience (patient endurance) as the real Jesus rules over our lives (the kingdom).
This provides the context for the whole book of Revelation. I recently started reading a book by my favorite writer and theologian Graeme Goldsworthy called “Gospel and Revelation,” where he seeks to apply a Gospel-centered hermeneutic (your hermeneutic is the lense through which you approach the Bible and interpret what you read) to the book of Revelation. He makes the case that chapter 5 – where the once-slain Lamb is depicted as the hero of the story who completes God’s purposes by virtue of his crucifixion – provides the Big Picture as it were to Revelation, and chapter 1 – where we find this talk about suffering and patience – provides the audience to whom the book is written. In short, the Word of Jesus’ sovereign Lordship over history is meant to encourage believers who are struggling to endure through this life where they know they aren’t home.
A Christian in America today is not suffering persecution the likes of which John’s subjects had suffered. But every Christian lives with a sense that they are not home, and they are thus waiting for the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness dwells (2 Peter 3:13). As they struggle through the constant refining process of looking more and more like Jesus, their refrain is the same as all the saints throughout time:
-“Though you have not seen (Jesus), you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Peter 1:8-9)
-“Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (Psalm 73:25)
Considering the Peter passage, though the Christian lives life not seeing Jesus with their eyes, they love him and are filled with a joy that can’t be put into words because it is from heaven. It is God’s song that he alone can give (Psalm 42:8). And as they rejoice with this inexpressible joy, they presently obtainthe outcome of their faith, which is the salvation of their souls. That is to say, as they glory in Jesus Christ who is Himself ultimate reality and truth embodied, they are truly living and they’ll never stop. This is why Jesus said that whoever believes in Him haseternal life and has passed from death to life (see Jn. 5:24); these are present realities with a past starting point.
I mentioned that this glorying in Jesus Christ is something that must be given. It can’t be put into words because the kind of words we would use would be, to borrow from Luther, too human. This glorying refers to a paradigm of joy that one only gets when Jesus is, by faith, seen and treasured as the eternal life from which all of life flows (John 1:4). Therefore Paul said that the true circumcision (that is, the true people of God) are those who aren’t confident in themselves (that is, they doubt themselves and their own objectivity, they don’t trust their own or the world’s solutions to the rampant problems, and they see with clarity that the world is living in a fallen existence that turns reality upside down) but glory in Christ alone, worshiping God by His Spirit (Philippians 3:3). And Paul elsewhere described the Christian as one who has been “circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands … the circumcision of Christ” (Colossians 2:11), going on to describe their death to the world and sin, and subsequent resurrection with Jesus.
So John writes Revelation as an encouragement to those who are struggling to keep their faith grounded, and he encourages them two ways: First, by reminding them of what Jesus had said (Luke 8:15), that walking with Him in new life is done with patience; and second, by reminding them of what Jesus accomplished: life from the dead, giving the serpent a death blow, as He himself now reigns as king (cf. Matt. 28:18).
This reality with Jesus who is Life himself is only available to those who are broke in the world’s currency and too low to trust themselves enough to get up and continue the fight. To have Jesus is to have won already in Him. The present fight is against the sinful flesh within yourself and any other ideology that either muddies the way or shuts the door on the reality of Jesus’ ruling and reigning. This is because every other competing truth claim is the very thing it claims not to be: a lie, and one that will destroy us in the end. And we were made for truth.
So let’s press on to know Him.
