Thinking Thursday

[Rev 1:4-7 ESV] 4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come,

 and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 

As stated last week, John received this message from Christ and wrote it down for the recipients who are the 7 churches in Asia and Christians everywhere and we are reading these words almost 2,000 years later.  What a miracle that is!

Christ extends to us His grace and His peace.  As a reminder John mentions that He is, He was and He is to come.  His existence has always been and always will be.  Now who are these 7 spirits?  I think gotquestions.org has done an excellent write up on the possibilities.  You may read it here.

5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 

Then John further defines Christ as the faithful witness to the Father, the firstborn of those to die belonging to God and resurrected and the ultimate ruler of the earth.  Christ is our redeemer, who bought us back from slavery to sin and granted us liberty to live freely because of His sacrifice.

6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 

Along with this freedom comes the privilege to serve Him for His glory because His reign will be an everlasting reign.

7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

Christ's return will be awe inspiring.  No one will question it because all will see.  The people of earth will wail because it will dawn on them that they were wrong.  He does exist and this time He comes to judge.