Before The Crucifix received approval in 692 A.D. at The Trullan Council to depict Christ as a man corpus (corpse) on the cross, most depictions of Jesus were allegorical. The most common was the Lamb carrying a cross or crosier with s flag that has a cross upon it. The symbol of the lamb came from both John the Baptist who said of Jesus, “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29), and the symbolism in the Abrahamic faith that is A lamb is slain for the sins of Israel annually. Jesus takes the place of this lamb sacrifice once and for all as the Lamb of God (Hebrews 7:27, 9:25, 10:10, and 1 Peter 3:18).
The Lamb symbolism does not stop in the Gospels. We see a resurgence of the title and description of Jesus in the final book of the Bible:
“And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
saying with a loud voice,
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:9, 12)
“and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb” (Revelation 6:16)
“They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” (Revelation 12:11)
“These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful." (Revelation 17:14)
“I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” (Revelation 21:22)
“and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.” (Revelation 21:27)
“There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him” (Revelation 22:3)
Why does the last book use the Lamb description of Jesus predominately? Is that deliberate? Why would the Lord Trinity allow this designation to dominate and feature more than The Word of God (Revelation 19:11-16), The Alpha and Omega (Revelation 1:8, Revelation 22:13), and His first name Jesus (Revelation 1:1, Revelation 14:12)?The reason I believe is to keep us fixated on the nature of Jesus as Saviour, as Slain for our sins! Hence why when Jesus intoduces himself he says, “I am the First and the Last, I was dead but behold I an alive.” (Revelation 1:18). The reason for the Lamb name and imagery is that we only get into His Book of Life by believing in Christ and Him Crucified for us (1 Corinthians 2:2, 1 Corinthians 1:23-30, John 3:16, Romans 10:9). The Apostle Paul went as far ad to explain this is the primary purpose of communion, “For every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again.” (1 Corinthians 11:26).
Jesus is The Lamb and The Lion of Judah (Revelation 5:5). However, only faith in Jesus and confessing His work as all sufficient Savior as The Lamb at Calvary admits us into His Book. The Apostle John did not choose the imagery, God The Trinity keeps going back to The Lamb in the Revelation to stir our eyes to Christ and Him Sacrificed for us; that He alone saves us not good works (Philippians 3:9). The Book of Revelation had major catastrophes with fires, famines, and asteroids (Revelation Chapters 16-18) and in all of this we are reminded to fix our eyes on The Lamb, on Jesus who was slain for our sins on the cross and rose from the dead.
In the middle of the chaos of the end times, The Lord is trying to shift our focus from the horrors to the Holy One, Jesus Christ. It is easy to miss, we can get caught up in pre-millennial, a-millennial, and postmillennial or what trib view (pre, mid, post or partial) we are; when all along the focus of the Revelation is The Lamb, Jesus, hence why the Book opens with “The Revelation of Jesus Christ,” (Revelation 1:1) and begins with and ends with Jesus speaking directly to John and the Churches (Revelation Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 22). All along people were suppose to see Jesus in the Revelation, The Lamb of God and instead people get distracted by the details and use the book as some Ig Ching text to predict and make sense of events. When the point of the Book of Revelation is Jesus, and to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2), The Lamb of God. The purpose of the Last Book of the Bible was never apocalyptic timelines, but The Lamb Jesus Christ Himself. Hence Apocalypse literally means “unveiling” of the Bride of Christ at a wedding with Jesus (Revelation 19:6-9) and so that’s the point of The Apocalypse of John, to see Jesus.
The Revelation is to remind us that to survive the last days is to stay fixated on Jesus the Lamb of God. The only way we get through every event in the apocalypse is not being prepared with shelves of food or bunkers, but to count all lost but knowing Jesus (Philippians 3:8). This is the message of Revelation, and I am being redundant so its not lost, the Revelation is about Jesus, Jesus is what matters, Jesus is how we will overcome, Jesus is what we need, Jesus is what will get us through it all, Jesus the Lamb is enough. Amen.
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