In the foregoing messages, we have considered the experience and enjoyment of Christ in the twenty-one Epistles of the New Testament. In these messages we have seen one hundred eighteen aspects of the riches of Christ, who we may experience and enjoy for His expression. We need to realize that to experience and enjoy Christ is to experience and enjoy the Triune God, for Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God. In fact, to enjoy Christ is to enjoy the processed Triune God—the processed Father, the processed Son, and the processed Spirit. The Son of God passed through the process of incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. Even God the Father was processed, for the Father was with the Son in whatever He passed through (John 8:29; 16:32). The Spirit of God was processed through Christ’s death and resurrection to consummate in the life-giving Spirit. Such a processed Triune God is everything to us. The New Testament is a book of enjoying the processed Triune God to express Him in the universe for eternity.
In this message we will begin to consider the aspects of the experience and enjoyment of Christ revealed in Revelation, the last book and the conclusion of the Bible. As we consider these aspects, we will see that Christ as our eternal enjoyment is the embodiment of the processed Triune God. Revelation 1:1 speaks of “the revelation of Jesus Christ.” The book of Revelation, as the conclusion, completion, and consummation of the Bible, is “the revelation of Jesus Christ.” This means that Revelation is the unveiling of Christ Himself. It is a picture, a depiction, of Christ, not merely a revelation given by Christ. We must see that Christ is the center, the focus, and the predominant figure of the entire book of Revelation. Thus, we must take the term the revelation of Jesus Christ in a subjective way. It is not merely a revelation given by Christ but a revelation which unveils Christ to us.
In this universe Christ was mysterious, secret, and hidden from human eyes and human understanding. However, after Christ’s ascension the veil was opened, and Christ is now revealed to us. This is the meaning of “the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Christ is revealed in the prophecies, types, and clear words of the Old Testament. If we read the Old Testament, paying close attention to the prophecies, types, and clear words regarding Christ, we will have a revelation of Christ. Through these revelations, we can see a view of various aspects of Christ. Nevertheless, no matter how perfect the revelations of Christ are in the Old Testament, they are not complete. Hence, we must come to the New Testament, which is a full revelation of Christ. If we read only the Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistles, we will see many aspects of Christ, but we will not see the aspects covered in the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is the unique and ultimate revelation of Jesus Christ. The unique and ultimate revelation of Jesus Christ is a revelation of the all-inclusiveness of Christ—the excellent, marvelous, and wonderful One who is the focus of God’s New Testament economy. He is marvelous in that He surprises us to the uttermost; He is also mysterious in that we cannot fully understand or comprehend Him.
Revelation is a long book of twenty-two chapters, but it may be divided into three sections. The first three chapters comprise one section, revealing Christ in the church. The second section, from chapter 4 through 20, reveals to us Christ in God’s judgment and kingdom. These seventeen chapters show us that in God’s judgment and kingdom Christ is the center. Thus, even this section is the revelation of Christ. Throughout all these chapters there is the line of the wonderful, glorious Christ who is the essence, reality, and center of God’s judgment and kingdom. The third section, Revelation 21 and 22, reveals Christ in eternity as the center, centrality, and universality of all things. In eternity Christ will be the centrality and universality of God and man. Christ is everything. The first section reveals Christ in the church, the second section reveals Christ in God’s judgment and in His kingdom, and the last section reveals Christ in eternity.
In Revelation 1:4-7 Christ is revealed as the last of the Divine Trinity. The whole Bible is the revelation of God. In the book of Revelation we have the ultimate and complete revelation of who God is. God is triune. We all are familiar with the term the Triune God. This is a great matter in God’s revelation. Throughout the centuries, however, most Christians have not fully realized the meaning of the term the Triune God. In the book of Revelation, the book that reveals things in an ultimate way, we see something deeper, higher, richer, and sweeter concerning the Triune God. In Revelation, not only is the revelation of Christ ultimate; the revelation of the Triune God also is ultimate.
Revelation 1:4-7 reveals the Triune God. As God the eternal Father, He was in the past, He is in the present, and He is coming in the future (v. 4). As God the Spirit, He is the sevenfold intensified Spirit for God’s operation (v. 4). As God the Son, He is the “Witness,” the testimony, the expression of God; “the Firstborn of the dead” for the church, the new creation; and “the Ruler of the kings of the earth” for the world (v. 5). From such a Triune God, grace and peace are imparted into the churches (v. 4).
In Revelation the sequence of the Triune God is different from that found in Matthew. In Matthew 28:19 the sequence of the Triune God is: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In this verse Christ as the Son is presented as the second of the Divine Trinity. But in Revelation 1:4 and 5 the sequence is changed. The seven Spirits of God are listed in the second place instead of the third. This reveals the importance of the intensified function of the sevenfold Spirit of God. This point is confirmed by the repeated emphasis on the Spirit’s speaking in 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22; 14:13; 22:17. At the opening of the other Epistles, only the Father and the Son are mentioned; from Them grace and peace are given to the receivers. Here, however, the Spirit is included; from Him grace and peace are imparted to the churches. This too indicates the crucial need of the Spirit to counteract the degradation of the church for God’s move.
In Revelation we see that the first of the Divine Trinity, the Father, is modified by the phrases who is, who was, and who is coming (1:4). The second of the Divine Trinity in Revelation, the seven Spirits, is modified by before His throne (v. 4). The third of the Divine Trinity, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is modified by the faithful Witness; the Firstborn of the dead; the Ruler of the kings of the earth; Him who loves us and has released us from our sins; made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father; and He comes (vv. 5-7). All these modifiers are used to modify the three of the Godhead and indicate that the Divine Trinity in Revelation is not the essential Trinity but the economical Trinity. The essential Trinity refers to God’s existence. In God’s existence the Father, the Son, and the Spirit coexist and coinhere from eternity to eternity. There is no modifier needed for the essential Trinity. The book of Revelation, however, does not touch the existence of the Trinity but the economy of the Trinity. According to God’s economy the Father is the One who is now, who was in the past, and who will be in the future. These modifiers indicate economy. Also, in God’s existence the Spirit of God is one, but in God’s economy the Spirit of God is seven in function. Essentially God’s Spirit in existence is one, but economically God’s Spirit needs to be intensified to fulfill His function to carry out God’s economy. In essence God the Son is simply the Son, but in God’s economy He is Jesus, Christ, the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, the Ruler of the kings of the earth, the One who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood, the One who has made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, and the One who comes to execute God’s final government. The sequence of every modifier of the Son in Revelation 1:5-7 is related to God’s move, God’s economy. Revelation does not touch the divine essence of the Trinity but the divine economy of the Trinity.
The Trinity in Matthew 28 is the Trinity of God’s existence, the essential Trinity. At the end of Matthew we see the Trinity described in a simple way as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are one in essence for their existence. We need to be baptized into the divine essence of the Divine Trinity; we do not need to be baptized into God’s economy, His administration, His move, or His acts. We have been baptized “into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (v. 19). A name does not refer to a person’s activity but to the being of that person. When we call a person’s name, this indicates that we desire that person. To be baptized into “the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” is to be baptized into the person of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. This is a matter of the being, the essence, of the Triune Godhead.
In contrast, the Trinity in Revelation is the Trinity in God’s economy, the economical Trinity. Revelation is a book on God’s administration because the center of this book is God’s throne. God’s throne is seen in Revelation to administrate God’s eternal purpose. The throne of God is not related to His person but to His administration, which is altogether a matter of God’s economy. In Revelation we see the administration, the activity, the motion, the move, the act, and the work of the Trinity.
In God’s essence the Trinity is simply the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, whereas in God’s economy the Trinity is complicated. Also, in God’s essence the Father is first, the Son is second, and the Spirit is third. In God’s economy, however, the Spirit comes before God the Son. The Spirit carries out God’s administration and infuses and searches the churches. In the four Gospels the Son was more present than the Spirit, but in Revelation the Spirit is more present than the Son; hence, the Spirit comes before the Son in the sequence of the economical Trinity in Revelation 1.
In Revelation 1:4 and 5 the Father is listed in the first place. He “who is and who was and who is coming” is God the eternal Father. The “seven Spirits” are mentioned second. The seven Spirits who are before God’s throne are the operating Spirit of God, the unique Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, who was ranked third in the Divine Trinity in Matthew 28:19. The unique Spirit of God has been intensified sevenfold to become the seven Spirits of God, who is unveiled as the second of the Divine Trinity in the last book of the Bible. Christ, the Son of God, is then listed in the third place. Although Revelation 1:5-7 does not mention the expression the Son of God, it gives us a description of His person and work. As to His person, Christ was the faithful Witness in the flesh on earth, the Firstborn of the dead from the time of His resurrection, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth from the time of His ascension until His second coming. In the past Christ was the faithful Witness while He lived on earth for thirty-three and a half years. Then from the time of His resurrection Christ became the Firstborn of the dead to be the Head and the beginning of God’s new creation. Finally, from the time of His ascension until His return, Christ is the Ruler of the kings of the earth, the Head of the government of this earth. Jesus Christ, who is to God “the faithful Witness,” to the church “the Firstborn of the dead,” and to the world “the Ruler of the kings of the earth,” is God the Son (v. 5). As to the work of Christ, verses 5 through 7 reveal what He has done, is doing, and will do. He loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood. He accomplished redemption in order to make us a priestly kingdom, a composition of priests to His God and Father. He also will come with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, put Him, to death, and all the tribes of Israel will mourn over Him (Zech. 12). Based upon the description of Christ’s person and work in Revelation 1, we may say that in the execution of God’s final government, Christ as the last of the Divine Trinity is the consummation of the Divine Trinity.