When the Son of Man returns, the credulous unbelief of the atheist, which he clutches like Gollum’s Precious, will be shown for the errant nonsense that it is. The agnostic will not seem cautiously wise, but cosmically idiotic. The stupidity of those who procrastinated to repent and believe will gnaw at them for eternity, as “the worm that never dies.” The Christ-less will wail. Then they will call for the mountains and hills to come crashing down upon them. Better that than to face justice for high treason against their own Creator and Sovereign. 

The big faux pas at any classical music concert is to applaud between movements. You must wait until the end of the work, and the person who accidentally claps too soon pretty much draws the frowns of the entire concert hall upon themselves as a musical ignoramus and philistine.

So it was very refreshing to hear a maestro explain, back in the 90s, that when the concertos of Hayden and Mozart were first performed, it was normal for people to clap not only between movements, but even mid-movement after hearing bits that they liked.

The book of Revelation is full of these moments of spontaneous applause, moments where the glory of Jesus Christ is unveiled by some tremendous statement or scene, and where the author or the angels or both burst into acclamations of praise. In Revelation 1:5-8 we see the first of these ebullient eruptions of applause by John. Within it we hear and learn seven brilliant things about Jesus Christ.

1. How Jesus looks at us: “To him who loves us” (Rev. 1:5a).

Everyone yearns for love, for someone to like us, care for us, protect us, and even live for us. Parents more or less fail in their love. Husbands and wives are regularly defeated by their own selfishness. Friends can fade and vanish.

But Jesus loves you perfectly. He is committed to you. He wants the best for you, delights in you, wants to be with you, and rejoices in your well-being and improvement. He is grieved when you make bad decisions. He wants to protect you and is angered by those who harm you. He gladly sacrificed his own good for your benefit.

Jesus loves you personally, perfectly, and permanently. And this leads to the next point.

2. What Jesus has done for us: “[He] has freed us from our sins by his blood” (Rev. 1:5b).

By refusing to do what God commands, and by insisting on doing what he has forbidden, we are chained. When we steal and lie, for example, we self-mutilate the image of God that we bear. We demean our humanity by possessing things, and a reputation, that do not belong to us. We deny others their rightful property and true perspective. Our sin chains us to guilt and God’s eternal wrath in the Lake of Fire.

On the cross at Golgotha Jesus freed us from these heavy black chains of guilt “by his blood.” “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin,so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Our sins were imputed to him and borne by him. He suffered the wrath of God in our place. His blood frees us to look at our death and eternity with perfect peace, and even longing and joy.

3. What Jesus has made us: “A kingdom, priests to his God and Father” (Rev. 1:6a).

By freeing us from our sins, God’s Son brought us into his kingdom. We are the subjects of King Jesus, living under his rule, provision, and protection in a kingdom that transcends this world (John 18:36).

The eighteenth-century Huguenots lived under the absolute rule of Louis XV and cruel laws that outlawed Protestant worship. Huguenot men were punished by rowing the king’s galleys until death. Huguenot women were locked into dungeons and forgotten. Huguenot pastors were hanged, or worse. How vital to know that although they were subjects of a cruel and anti-Christian earthly kingdom, they were first and foremost subjects of King Jesus. They had peace, knowing that King Jesus would in time banish unjust earthly rule and complete his good and perfect Kingdom.

And we are a kingdom of priests, as Peter said,

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (1 Pet. 2:9)

In the Old Testament only the priests could draw near to the presence of God in the Tabernacle. It was death for anyone else. Even then, only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies once a year with blood, with evidence that their sin had been atoned for. Jesus has made us all to be like those priests. We have been cleansed by his blood and live by the Spirit of God 24/7 in the true Holy of Holies, the very presence of God:

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own. (1 Cor. 6:19)

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