In Revelation 1:18 the Lord Jesus says, “I have the keys of death and of Hades.” Due to the fall and sin of man, death has come in and is now operating on earth to collect all sinful people and to bring them to Hades, the place where the dead are kept. In the church life, however, we are no longer subject to death and Hades. Christ abolished death on the cross, and He overcame Hades in His resurrection. Although death tried its best to hold Him, it was powerless to do so (Acts 2:24). Christ is both God and resurrection (John 1:1; 11:25), possessing the indestructible life (Heb. 7:16). Because He is such an ever-living One, death is not able to hold Him. He delivered Himself to death, but death had no way to detain Him; instead, death was defeated by Him, and He rose up from it. With Christ, therefore, death has no sting and Hades has no power.
Because Christ is the One in the church who is the Holder of the keys of death and Hades, death and Hades should not have any power over us. In the church life the keys of death and Hades are in the Lord’s hand. It is impossible for us to deal with death; we simply do not have the ability to handle it. Whenever death enters, many will be overcome by it. But if we give the Lord Jesus the ground, the opportunity, and the free way to move and act among us, both death and Hades will be under His control. However, whenever the Lord Jesus does not have the ground in the church, death immediately becomes prevailing and Hades becomes powerful to hold the dead ones. It is crucial for us to see that Christ has the keys, the authority, of death and Hades. Death is subject to Him, and Hades is under His control.
In the church Christ is also the living One. In Revelation 1:18 the Lord says that He is the living One, that He became dead, and that He is now living forever and ever. The Christ who walks in the midst of the churches, who is the Head of the churches and to whom the churches belong, is the living One full of life. In the church we have a living Christ who has overcome death. Our Christ, who is the resurrected Christ, is living in us and among us. Therefore, all the churches should be as living as Christ, full of life and overcoming death.
In Revelation 3:7 the Lord Jesus refers to Himself as “the holy One, the true One.” He is the One by whom and with whom the church can be holy, separated from the world, and true, faithful, to God. Actually, Christ is the holiness and reality of the church. Without Him, we have worldliness, not holiness, and vanity, not reality. Therefore, we need to experience Christ as the holy One and as the true One. If we experience Him in this way, then the church will have genuine content.
In Revelation 3:14 the Lord says, “These things says the Amen.” This indicates that in the church Christ is the Amen. In Greek “amen” means firm, steadfast, trustworthy. In the church Christ is the firm, steadfast, and trustworthy One. Apart from Him, nothing is real or faithful. Apart from Him, nothing is “yes”; instead, everything and everyone is “no.” As the Amen, Christ is the real yes. Those who do not have Christ are a “no.” But if we have Christ, we are a “yes” in Him, for we have Him as the Amen.
Let us now go on to consider what Christ is in His person in God’s building. To fulfill His eternal purpose God must accomplish two categories of work: the work of creation and the work of building. Scripture opens with God’s creation and finishes with His building. God’s creation is for His building, and God’s building is the ultimate consummation which fulfills His purpose in creation. Today God is not doing the work of creation but the work of building. After He finished the work of creation, there was a garden in Eden. A garden indicates something created by God. At the end of the Bible we see a building, the New Jerusalem. Just as a garden signifies creation, so a city signifies building. Therefore, at the beginning of the Bible we have a garden indicating God’s creation and at the end of the Bible a city indicating God’s building. Although many neglect the matter of God’s building, it is strongly emphasized in the New Testament (Matt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 3:9; Eph. 2:20-22; 4:16). In God’s building Christ is the rock, a living stone, the foundation, and the cornerstone.
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