In this message we will continue to consider Christ as the Priest who trims the lampstands, the churches.
In Revelation 3:14 Christ is revealed as “the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God.”
Christ has a name, and His name is called Amen. The title Amen has various meanings: “reality,” “yes,” “let it be.” Amen is a kind of eternal yes. Because Amen is the Lord’s name, our saying Amen is equal to calling on the name of the Lord. When we say Amen, we mean “O Lord Jesus.” May we all learn to say Amen.
As the Amen, Christ is also the ending. In His address to the church in Laodicea the Lord declares Himself to be the “Amen” first, “the faithful and true Witness” second, and “the Beginning” last. These expressions in such an order show us that He is One that we cannot explain. The order of these titles is not according to our human logic. He is the Beginning of the entire universe, the Witness to maintain it, and the Amen, the ending. Whatever God intended to do—including His intention to establish many local churches and to consummate the New Jerusalem—will be done. For instance, God wants us to be overcomers and co-kings of Christ. Instead of stating that we cannot be such, we need to simply say Amen. To all of God’s promises and to all that God desires to do, Christ is the Amen. It is significant that He declares Himself to be the Amen not in the first epistle to the churches in Asia but in the last epistle. He is the Amen, He is everything, and He is Amen to everything. We all need to see and know Him to such an extent. He is the One who is all-inclusive, excellent, marvelous, mysterious, and wonderful.
The word Amen, from Hebrew, means “firm,” “steadfast,” or “trustworthy.” The Lord is the firm, steadfast, and trustworthy One. Hence, He is the faithful and true Witness. This indicates that the church in Laodicea, the degraded recovered church, is not firm, steadfast, trustworthy, or faithful and true as the Lord’s witness.
Christ is the true Witness, and He is faithful and true in testifying. He never tells a lie in His testimony. His being the faithful and true Witness is for dispensing. A liar, a false witness, can never give life to others. If we would give life to others, we must be faithful and true. We must have no falsehood. Then we will be qualified to give life. Because He is living and holy and faithful and true, He is qualified to impart life into us.
In Christ we see that God is love and light and that He is holy and righteous. Thus, the New Testament reveals that Christ is the embodiment of God (Col. 2:9). For Christ to be the embodiment of God means that He is the portrait of God, and as such, He is the testimony of what God is. Because Christ is the testimony of what God is, He is called “the faithful and true Witness” (Rev. 3:14; 1:5). As God’s Witness, Christ bears God’s testimony to show us what kind of God He is.
The beginning of the creation of God refers to the Lord as the origin, or source, of God’s creation, implying that the Lord is the unchanging and ever-existing source of God’s work. This indicates that the church in Laodicea has changed by leaving the Lord as the source. Moreover, as the beginning of the creation of God, He is the chief of the creation, the first of all creatures.
Christ being the beginning of the creation of God means that the entire universe as God’s creation began from Him. As the unchanging and ever-existing source of God’s work, Christ was the beginning of God’s entire creation. Without Him nothing could happen, because He was the beginning.
God’s dispensing is to dispense His life into His human beings, His creatures. It is Christ who originated the creatures. This indicates that the entire creation is under His control, His headship. He is the beginning, the origination, of God’s entire creation. Thus, the entire creation is under His direction for the purpose of dispensing God into His chosen creatures.