In Revelation 1:16 we are told that “His face shone as the sun shines in its power.” In Song of Songs 5:10 and 13 His face appears lovely for His seeker’s appreciation of Him, and in the Epistles His face reflects God’s glory (2 Cor. 4:6) for the imparting of life into His believers. In Revelation 1:16, however, His face is “as the sun shines in its power,” as in Daniel 10:6. This shining is the judging enlightenment for bringing in the kingdom. This indicates that Christ Himself is the universal sun; with Him, there is no night. When He was transfigured and His face shone like the sun, that was His coming in the kingdom (Matt. 16:28—17:2). When He comes to take over the earth for the kingdom, His face will be like the sun (Rev. 10:1).
Before the Lord comes back to enlighten the whole world, He is now walking among the local churches, shining over us. The church life is full of life and light. In the genuine church life we cannot lie to the brothers and sisters. Before a lie can come out of our lips, the shining of Christ causes it to vanish. Then we turn to the Lord and thank Him for His shining. We may pray, “O Lord Jesus, forgive me. I was going to lie to the brothers, but Your shining saved me.” This is the church life, where we experience the shining light of Christ. Christ is the real light in the church life. His face is like the shining of the sun, and He has seven eyes like flaming fire. When He looks at us, we are under His shining and exposing.
In Revelation 1:17 the Lord Jesus says, “I am the First and the Last.” Christ is not only the First and the Last but also the Beginning and the End. He is the First, the One at the beginning, and the Last, the One at the end. This assures us that, having started the church life, He will surely accomplish it. He will never leave His work unfinished. All the local churches must believe that the Lord Jesus is the beginning and the ending. He will accomplish what He has begun in His recovery.
In Revelation 1:18 we see that the Lord is “the living One,” the One who “became dead” and who is “living forever and ever.” The Lord suffered death and lived again. He entered into death, but death could not hold Him (Acts 2:24), because He is the resurrection (John 11:25). Christ died, but in resurrection He will live forever. Resurrection is the lengthening of the Lord’s days. He will exist forever and ever in His resurrection. Jesus Christ today is the living One, the One who is in resurrection. For Christ to dispense life, He must be the living One since a dead person can never dispense life to others.
The importance of His being the living One is that He is living in us. He is living forever and is living in us. Therefore, He wants us to leave every kind of death and rise up to be the living church. The living One within us can never be dead. His church should be neither dead nor deadened; instead, His church must be living all the time. We must learn to enjoy Christ as the living One. His living forever is His testimony, for the testimony of Jesus is always related to the matter of being living. If a local church is not living, it will not have the testimony of Jesus. The more living we are, the more we are the testimony of the living Jesus.
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. Hence, the churches as His Body should also be living, fresh, and strong. We have a living Christ who has overcome death. Our Christ, who is the resurrected One, is living in us and among us. He is living forever and ever. What a living Christ we have in the recovery! In the recovery all the churches should be as living as Christ, full of life and overcoming death.
The Lord Jesus is the living One. For us to be living, we must have not only life but also the life supply. If we do not eat any food, we will not be so living, but if we eat nutritious meals, we will be living and even energetic. Our energy comes from our eating. The living Christ cares for the churches by giving to the believers Himself as their food and life supply. Therefore, in His seven epistles to the seven churches, the Lord as the living One presents three promises of eating: the tree of life (Rev. 2:7), the hidden manna (v. 17), and a feast full of His riches (3:20). If we would be living, we need to eat Christ as the tree of life and the hidden manna and to feast with Him.
It was to the church in Smyrna, the suffering church, that the Lord revealed Himself as the One who became dead and lived again. The suffering church needs to know Him as such a One so that she may endure all kinds of suffering. However severe the persecution may be, the church will still be alive, for the resurrection life of Christ within her can endure death. The most that suffering or persecution can do is to kill us. Following the death from persecution, there is resurrection. The Lord was persecuted to death. But that death was not the end—it was the gateway into resurrection. When He entered into death, He came to the threshold of resurrection. This indicates that the suffering church should not frightened by persecution or terrified at the prospect of being killed; rather, she must welcome death and be happy, for once she has passed into death, she also will be on the threshold of resurrection. Whenever we are undergoing persecution, we must rise up and declare, “Hallelujah, I am about to enter into the gateway of resurrection.”
To the church, tribulation is a test of life. The extent to which the church experiences and enjoys the resurrection life of Christ can be tested only by tribulation. Moreover, tribulation also brings in the riches of the resurrection life of Christ. The Lord’s purpose in allowing the church to suffer tribulation is not only to testify that His resurrection life overcomes death but also to enable the church to enter into the riches of His life. The Lord’s resurrection life is in the church. Christ, the One who is the resurrection, is living in us. Because we have resurrection life in us, there is no reason or excuse for us to fail. We need not be defeated by persecution. Rather, we must suffer this persecution victoriously by His resurrection life.