Who Sits On The Glorious High Throne With God And The Lamb (2)
Our main dish of the day is prepared from two verses of the Bible.
The first is Revelation 5:6 and reads:
And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
The second is Revelation 22:1:
And he showed me a pure river of Water of Life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
From these two verses, we see that The Lamb that was slain shares The Throne of God with Him.
How is it that the slain Lamb shares The Throne of God with Him?
In John 1:36, John the Baptist said of our Lord Jesus:
And looking upon Jesus as He walked, he says, Behold the Lamb of God!
He unveiled Him as The Lamb of God which had been foreshadowed in the scriptures from after Adam’s transgression till Calvary.
Our Lord Jesus Himself reveals His ultimate end as The Lamb of God in Matthew 26:27–28:
(27) And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
(28) For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
The Lamb without blemish or spot had to be slaughtered for His Blood to be shed for our sins to be remitted.
Why was The Lamb of God willing to be slaughtered?
In John 10:17–18, prior to His Crucifixion, He spoke these words:
(17) Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I might take it again.
(18) No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down from Myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it again. I have received this commandment from My Father.
He said His Father commanded Him to lay down His life.
And in John 14:31, He answers our question as to why He was willing to obey His Father’s commandment:
But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father has given Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go away from here.
He was willing to be slain because His love for His Father compelled His obedience to His Father’s commandment.
However, there is yet a second reason why our Lord Jesus was willing to die.
In John 15:12–13, He revealed the other reason why He willingly shed His Blood:
(12) This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
(13) Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
He laid down His life because of His love for you and I also compelled Him to.
Now, here is the point:
The Lamb that was slain shares The Throne of God because He was obedient to the commandment of God, firstly, to love Him supremely and absolutely, and secondly, to love one another.
Coming down to you and me, in John 14:23, our Lord Jesus clearly revealed that our love for Him is made manifest in our obedience, saying:
Jesus answered and said to him, If a man loves Me, he will keep My Word. And My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.
He said, if we love Him, we will obey Him.
Put otherwise, whosoever professes to love our Lord Jesus, and is disobedient to Him is a liar as is stated by His Apostle in 1John 2:4:
He who says, I have known Him, and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
In John 15:12, our Lord Jesus gives us His commandment in simple, yet clear terms:
This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
How did He love us?
Verse 13, of the same 15th chapter of John, answers this for us:
No one has greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
He loved us enough to lay down His life for us.
His Apostle would reecho His revelation of what it means in truth when we say we love the brethren as He gave us Commandment in 1John 3:16:
This is how we know what real love is: Jesus gave his life for us. So we should give our lives for each other as brothers and sisters.
Here is the landing point of what is being said:
The Lamb that was slain Who shares The Throne of God is a revelation that participation in His Throne is given to those who love Him and so obey His commandment to love the brethren as He loved us.
However, there is yet a second facet to the revelation in The Lamb that was slain Who is in the midst of The Throne of God.
In Philippians 2:7 -8, the Apostle Paul captures the essence of our Lord’s mindset relative to His Father in these words:
(7) But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
(8) And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Though, He was and is of the same nature with His Father, He humbled Himself, and submitted to His God.
The response of God to His humility and consequent obedience is detailed for us in Philippians 2:9–11:
(9) Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
(10) so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
(11) and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
God set Him on His Throne with Himself and gave Him a Name that has all the authority of The Throne backed by the fullness of God’s power.
Humility and His consequent obedience is the other reason that the slain Lamb of God shares His Father’s Throne.
The Lamb that was slain reveals that participation in His Throne is granted to the humble.
Our Lord Jesus had said as much to us in Matthew 5:3:
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
To be blessed is to be empowered supernaturally to prosper in the specified direction through the medium of words spoken by one in a position of higher spiritual authority.
To be poor in spirit is to be humble.
In essence, our Lord Jesus said the humble are those who are supernaturally empowered to walk in the reality of the eternal Kingdom of Heaven.
Listen to His Apostle reecho the same in other words in 1Peter 5:5–6:
(5) Likewise, younger ones, be subject to older ones, and all being subject to one another. Put on humility. For God resists proud ones, but He gives grace to the humble.
(6) Therefore be humbled under the mighty hand of God, so that He may exalt you in due time,
God’s ability, otherwise called grace, is given only to the humble.
And like our Lord Jesus was exalted to His Father’s Throne, God exalts the humble in due time.
Here is the summary of all that is being said:
Those who walk in love and humility are the ones who share The Throne of The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world with Him.
We will conclude our meal with these words from 1John 4:7–8:
(7) Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
(8) The one who does not love has not known God. For God is love.
