- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
THE LAMB IN THE CENTRE OF THE THRONE.
By Mrs Jessie Penn-Lewis.
“ Before me was a door standing open in heaven” . . . “ I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the centre of the throne” (Rev. 4 v1 & Rev. 5 v6).
In the book of the Revelation we have an account of the coming or appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ in that day when He will be revealed from heaven with the angels of His power, dealing in solemn judgment with all who have not obeyed the gospel.
In the opening words of the book, we are told that the revelation was given by God to His Son Jesus Christ for the express purpose of showing to His servants “what must soon take place”, and “He made it known . . . to His servant John”.
The glorified Lord interpreted His cross to Paul that he might proclaim it as God’s message of love to a dying world, but now He appears to the Apostle John and charges him to write all that he is shown. In the unveiling given to him we have vividly brought before us the heavenly view of Calvary and the eternal consequences of rejecting the Lamb of God, who died on the cross to bear away the sins of the world.
The Apostle, addressing the seven Churches in the Name of the Triune God, speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ as the “firstborn from the dead”, taking us back to Calvary at the very beginning of his message. Those to whom John is writing are the loved ones of Jesus, loved and freed from their sins by His own blood shed on the cross (Rev. 1 v4-6), but He rose from the dead, the firstborn of many brethren and entered heaven as their forerunner. He is there as the representative of His redeemed ones, who through His death for them and their death with Him, are called out of the race of the first Adam, and are now of the royal race of heaven, kings and priests to God, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.
The Apostle John then describes his meeting with the glorified Man of Calvary, when he was given the messages which he is about to transmit to the Churches at the Lord’s command. As he falls at the feet of Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire, he hears the voice he once knew so well on earth saying, “Do not be afraid. I am . . . the Living One; I was dead, and behold, I am alive for ever and ever” (Rev. 1 v17-18).
This glorious Christ is the very same Jesus whom the Apostle had seen upon His cross of shame, the very hand that was pierced now touches him, the very body he had seen in the upper room at Jerusalem, when the risen Lord showed His disciples His hands and His side, is the same in the glory. His disciples had seen Him go up into heaven, but now heaven is opened and He who became dead is shown to be alive for evermore, with the keys of death and of Hades in His power.
In the messages given to the Apostle for the Churches, the Lord describes Himself again so tenderly to those in tribulation, as He “who died and came to life again” (Rev. 2 v8). As the One who had suffered and triumphed in suffering, He bids them be “faithful to death”, that they also might receive their crown. In the messages given for those He bought with His blood, the veil is again drawn over the glorious Lord, and then a door is opened in heaven (Rev 4 v1). The Apostle is taken up in the Spirit to the very heart of heaven, strengthened by the touch of the pierced hand of the Man of Calvary, to behold Him who is immortal, dwelling in light unapproachable. He sees the throne of the Lord God, the Almighty, hears the lightnings and voices and thunders proceeding out of the throne, and beholds the worship which day and night surrounds the throne of Him as Creator and Lord of all, the heavenly beings saying, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty . . . You created all things and by Your will they were created” (Rev. 4 v8-11).
In the hand of the Lord God, the Creator, is seen a scroll. The cup of iniquity on earth is full to the brim. The Creator has determined that the fulness of time has come when the dispensation of grace must close and the era of judgment upon the rebellious must open. A proclamation is sounded throughout heaven, “Who is worthy to open the scroll?” Who is worthy to execute the eternal purposes of Him before whom angels veil their faces, and cry “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts”? Not one is found worthy in heaven, not even the highest archangel of God.
Then who shall open the scroll? To whom will the Most High God commit the solemn trust of dealing with a rebellious world, since no archangel in heaven is worthy? And suddenly John beholds in the very centre of the throne of God, “a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain” (Rev. 5 v6). The Father “has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father” (John 5 v23). He who laid down His life as a ransom for sinners, He alone is worthy, or fitted, to execute the judgment inevitable for all who “do not obey the gospel” (2 Thess. 1 v8-9). The Lamb in the centre of the throne is said to be standing as if it had been slain. The sacrifice made on Calvary’s cross is ever fresh and new, enshrined in the heart of heaven and vividly kept before the eyes of all the company of heaven.
The Lamb had “seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth” (Rev. 5 v6). In the vision of the Creator’s throne, the “seven Spirits” are seen as “before the throne”. But it has pleased the Father that in His Christ should “all fulness dwell . . . all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”. Consequently in the slain Lamb is centred fulness of power, fulness of light and vision, and out of the slain Lamb the Holy Spirit is sent into all the world. He is ever proceeding from the Father, through the Son, into the world, seeking to enter hearts which turn to Calvary in self-despair and loathing of sin, ready to apply to each the power of the death of the Son of God, and to possess each redeemed one on behalf of Him who purchased them with His own precious blood.
The Lamb in judgment
“He came and took the scroll” (Rev. 5 v7).
The One who had died on behalf of sinful people took the scroll into His own pierced hand, knowing all that it meant to those He had yearned to save. And the redeemed in heaven, gazing upon Him coming forth again as the Lamb to fulfil His Father’s will, sang “You are worthy to take the scroll . . . because you were slain and with your blood you purchased men for God from every . . . nation” (Rev. 5 v9).
And the angels, ten thousand times ten thousand, took up the strain, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain” and every created thing was heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever”. In this opening of the heavens to the Apostle John we see Calvary from the heavenly standpoint. The Lamb slain on earth, is enthroned in heaven!
The crucified One is the glorified One. He is glorified as the Lamb of Calvary, and as the Lamb all the worship of heaven centres around Him. All that is now unveiled of His work in heaven shows that all is based on His sacrifice upon the cross. He is in heaven as the Conqueror from Calvary, and as the Lamb who prevailed on the cross it is given to Him to open each seal preceding the awful judgments on the world which rejects Him. The Father commits the judgment to the hands of Him who became the sacrifice for the sins of the world. From this we see something of the unspeakable horror of sin in the sight of the Holy God and the greatness of the sin of neglecting or rejecting the sacrifice provided by God for the sins of the people. That the Lamb who loved the sinner and died on his behalf, who suffered unparalleled sorrow and shame in giving His life as a ransom for many, should now have to open the era of judgment upon the sinful world shows the impossibility of sin being passed over by the righteous God. Christ by offering His life for sinners obtained a day of grace for the sin-blighted earth, but now it is over. He must abolish all contrary rule, authority and power, and when all things are subdued He will deliver up the kingdom to God the Father (1 Cor. 15 v24-28). As the judgments fall, the terror stricken souls on earth need none to tell them that their real sin has been their rejection of the crucified Lamb of God, for they cry to the mountains and rocks to hide them, not only from their Creator but from the wrath of the Lamb.
The Lamb as Leader
“The Lamb at the centre of the throne . . .will lead them” (Rev. 7 v17).
The Lamb slain on earth and enthroned in heaven is not only the centre of heaven’s worship and the opener of the seals of judgments upon the earth, but we are given glimpse after glimpse of the Lamb as the Leader in heaven of the various companies of those He has redeemed.
The terror stricken people on earth know that they have wounded the Lamb, but the redeemed in heaven know that they are there because of Him. The “Living Creatures, and the Elders”, do not hesitate to own that they have been purchased for God with the blood of the Lamb, as they watch Him take the scroll and open the first six seals.
Later we come upon another company described as “a great multitude, which no-one could number”, gathered “out of every nation” (Rev. 7 v9-17). They stand before the throne of God and “serve Him day and night”. They are those who have “washed their robes” in the blood of the Lamb, and He who for the joy set before Him endured the cross becomes their Shepherd to lead them on to the fresh fountains of the water of life. Their sufferings are over and God Himself wipes all tears from their eyes.
Once more we see the Lamb standing at the head of another company, this time a definite number. They are also described as those who have been “purchased out of the earth”, “purchased from among men”, and who “follow the Lamb where ever He goes” (Rev.14 v13).
The Lamb as Warrior
“They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them” (Rev. 17 v14).
Judgment after judgment has fallen upon the earth as the seals have been opened and the trumpets of woe sounded. The iniquity has waxed worse and worse, until even in heaven a voice from the four horns of the golden altar has cried to God for vengeance (Rev. 9 v1-4). The horns of the golden altar in the Old Testament received the blood of the sacrifice offered on the brazen altar, and from the golden horns the voice of the blood cried to God for mercy, but now the voice cries for judgment. The implication is that God’s appointed way of forgiveness has been set aside, that the Divine system of gracious atonement and salvation has been rejected. Mankind in their guilt have blasphemously pronounced against God’s plan of reconciliation and the wickedness of earth has risen so high, especially in antagonism to the cross, that the altar itself, which otherwise cries only for mercy, is forced to cry for vengeance.
Picture after picture of the terrible doings of the rebellious, working as instruments of the satanic powers, follow with glimpses of some who come out of the sinful strife, until again we see the Lamb as Leader, and this time of a host of warriors. The abominations of the earth have culminated in the mystery of Babylon the Great, drunken with the blood of the saints. The rebellion of the powers on earth seems to have come to a head and is focussed now against the Lamb. But the Lamb who was slain on the cross is “Lord of lords, and King of kings”. As the Conqueror from Calvary He is sure of victory, and the warriors who are with Him in the last great war are those whom He has specially called and chosen, those who are faithful (Rev. 17 v14). After this final conflict between the Lamb and all that is against God and His Anointed, a voice of a great multitude in heaven, as the voice of many waters, is heard saying, “The Lord God Almighty reigns” and “Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him the glory, for the wedding of the Lamb has come” (Rev. 19 v6 & 7).
The Christ who conquered on the cross and waited whilst His purchased ones were being called out of all nations has now finally triumphed and put down all authority and power under His feet.
The hour is drawing near when the supreme purpose for which He gave His life is to be fulfilled, for He “loved the Church and gave Himself up for her . . . to present her to Himself as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle, or any other blemish” (Eph. 5 v25-27). Once more the heaven opens and there comes forth the Man of Calvary, with eyes as a flame of fire, and the armies following Him were clothed in fine linen, white and pure. He comes forth to take final possession of the conquered earth over which He now must reign. The devil is bound for the thousand years, and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and they who are the the king-priests, the redeemed, “reign with Him for a thousand years” (Rev. 20 v1-6).
After these things the Apostle gazes on into eternity, beyond the judgment of the great white throne and the destruction of the last enemy, death. He is shown in vision the Bride coming down from God, “prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband” (Rev.21 v2). The first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new”.
Shall Calvary be forgotten? No. The Name of Him who was dead and lived again, is still THE LAMB. All other names revealing various aspects of Christ are now not needed in the full vision of His glory. They are merged in this Name which is above every name.
None are in the city save those whose names are written “in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world” (Rev. 13 v8). They who gloried in His cross and accepting life through His death were conformed to the image of the Lamb.
“I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple" - “the glory of God gave it light” - “the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will serve Him. They will see His face” (Rev. 21 v22-23 & Rev.22 v3-4).
From’The Cross of Calvary’.