In Revelation 1:5 Christ, the Son of God, is unveiled as “the faithful Witness.” The Son is God’s Witness. Although He is God, He is also the Witness of God. Without Him, we cannot know, see, or gain God. God is testified by Him. He is the Witness of the entire Godhead.
Christ’s being the faithful Witness refers to His earthly life of thirty-three and a half years. He was the Witness, the testimony, the expression of God, testifying in His human living what God is (3:14). His expressing God was His witnessing. Many people wondered who He was. This man was God, and He witnessed God. As the living and faithful Witness of God, Christ is the One who testifies God. All men know that there is God, but no one has ever seen Him. However, there is a man in this universe, who lived on the earth by the name of Jesus and who was and still is the testimony of God. In Christ, we can see whatever God is (John 1:18). Jesus testifies God not only by His word and deeds but also by what He is. His being is the testimony of God.
First, Christ, our Head, is the Witness of God, bearing the testimony of God. The believers are then the witnesses of Christ for the spreading of His gospel (Acts 1:8). As witnesses of Christ, we are His continuation to be witnesses, witnessing the all-inclusive Christ for the spreading of the gospel to produce His Body. We testify Christ’s human living (10:37-39a), death, resurrection, and ascension (2:30-36; 3:15; 10:39b-41). In Acts, this was the apostles’ testimony. This testimony is to save sinners to be the members of Christ for the building up of His Body (2:37-42; 4:10-12; 10:42-43).
Revelation 1:2 speaks of the testimony of Jesus Christ. Witness refers to the person, but testimony refers to what the person bears, to his work and doing. For example, a witness is a person in a court of law who gives his testimony; the testimony refers to his doing. The Lord Jesus was God’s faithful Witness, who testified God to produce the church. The producing of the church is His testimony. In other words, the Witness refers to Christ Himself, and His testimony refers to the church. Jesus was the Witness, and what came out of Him was the church as the testimony. The book of Revelation presents the testimony of Jesus, which is the church as the corporate expression of Christ.
God’s goal in His creation of man was to have a corporate expression, a testimony, of Himself, and according to this goal, man was made in the image of God in order to be His testimony (Gen. 1:26). The living person of Jesus is the image, expression, and testimony of God, and the church today is the testimony of Jesus, His corporate expression (2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15, 18; 3:10-11, 15). Revelation is an unveiling of Christ, and Christ is expressed through the church; therefore, the church is the testimony of the Jesus revealed in Revelation. In the human living of Jesus, He fully expressed God; He was the real “photograph” of God. Now this one photograph has been reproduced in the believers. As believers in Christ, we are reproductions, “photographs,” of Jesus; therefore, today God has a corporate expression—the church—which is the testimony of Jesus, who is the expression of God (John 1:14, 18; 12:24; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 1:22-23; 4:16). The first God-man, the wonderful all-inclusive Christ, now lives in us as the life-giving Spirit; He is our life, we experience and enjoy Him, we are constituted with Him, and we live Him for His expression (1 Cor. 15:45b; 6:17; Gal. 2:20; Col. 3:4, 10-11; Phil. 1:20-21a). The corporate God-man living, the living of the many God-men as reproductions of the first God-man, is the genuine church life—the testimony of Jesus (1 Cor. 1:2; 12:27; Rev. 1:2, 11, 20).
In the book of Revelation the church as the testimony of Jesus is revealed in nine aspects: the lampstands (1:11-12, 20), the great multitude of the redeemed (7:9-17), the bright woman with her man-child (12:1-17), the harvest with its firstfruits (14:4, 14-16), the overcomers on the sea of glass (15:2-4), the bride ready for marriage (19:7-9), the army of the Lamb (17:14; 19:14, 19), the co-kings of Christ in the millennium (20:4, 6), and the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth (21:1-3).
The book of Revelation is not only a revelation of Christ Himself but also a revelation concerning Christ in His church and in oneness with His church (1:1-2, 11; 22:16a; Eph. 5:25, 32). In Revelation we see Christ with His church and in the church (1:11-13). Jesus is the testimony of God, expressing God; God needs an enlargement of His testimony, which is the church (1 Cor. 12:12). Christ is the testimony of God, and the church is the testimony of Jesus, the enlarged Christ (John 1:18; 5:31-37; 8:14; Rev. 1:2, 5, 9). What God is, is fully expressed in Jesus, and what Christ is must be fully expressed in the church (Eph. 3:21). Today God has a corporate expression—the church—which is the testimony of Jesus, who is the expression of God (Col. 1:15, 18; 2:2; Eph. 3:4, 6). Our destiny as believers is that we would express the Triune God in a corporate way as the testimony of Jesus.
According to the book of Revelation, we need to realize that whatever we experience, enjoy, and realize of our Lord Jesus Christ is also our experience, enjoyment, and realization of the Triune God. In the book of Revelation Christ is revealed to a great extent, and we must experience and enjoy Him to such an extent. Our enjoyment then becomes His testimony, and this living testimony is the present revelation of Jesus Christ. Christ is revealed, we experience and enjoy Him and become His testimony, and our testimony becomes His present revelation. In our experience of Christ as a testimony to Him, He is revealed as the all-inclusive, excellent, marvelous, mysterious, and wonderful One. We need to experience the all-inclusive Christ in a detailed way so that our experience of Him becomes not only His testimony but also His present revelation (Eph. 3:16-17a, 19b, 21; Rev. 1:9, 11; 22:16a).
In Revelation 1:5 the Son is also revealed as “the Firstborn of the dead.” In the universe God has two creations: the creation by His first work and the creation by His second work. We all know God’s first creation, but not many of us are familiar with His second creation, resurrection. First, God created all existing things; second, He resurrected some of these existing things and brought them into another sphere, another realm, which is the realm of resurrection. While our body remains in God’s first creation, our spirit is in His second creation. Our spirit has been regenerated. This means that it has been recreated; hence, it belongs to God’s second creation. In both of God’s creations, Christ is the first. Colossians 1:15 says that Christ is the Firstborn of all creation, and in Revelation 1:5 we are told that He is the Firstborn of the dead. He was the first to be resurrected from the dead, and we will follow Him. Here the phrase the Firstborn of the dead indicates the creation of God in resurrection. This signifies a new beginning. In God’s first creation there was a beginning, and in God’s second creation in resurrection there was another beginning. When we were regenerated, we experienced a new beginning in God’s second creation.
Christ’s being the Firstborn of the dead refers to His resurrection. He is the Firstborn of the dead, the Firstborn of resurrection. Lazarus was resurrected from the dead (John 11:43-44), but his resurrection was only temporary. Later on he died. With the Lord’s resurrection, however, death is over. He will live forever (Rev. 1:18). Thus, He is truly the Firstborn of the dead.