“And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints.
“And they sung a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And have made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth” (Rev. 5: 8-10).
Lately, in my morning devotions, I have been singing songs about the Lamb of God. This morning as I worshiped, I sang To the Lamb on the Throne. In recent months, more and more of my focus has been on Jesus as the Lamb of God, which naturally takes me to the altar of His cross and the power of His shed blood. This subject is non-exhaustive, ever birthing deepening revelation. I have always been intrigued by the fact that even in heaven, as related in John’s Revelation 22 times, Jesus is still depicted as the Lamb upon the throne.
Earlier in chapter 5, John was weeping because there was no one worthy to open the scroll with the seven seals. Then, one of the elders told him not to weep because the Lion of the tribe of Judah would open the scroll. But when John turned to look, he did not see a lion—he saw a lamb (v.5). And in the very last chapter, Revelation 22, Jesus is still described as the Lamb upon the throne.
So I keep singing song after song about worshiping the Lamb of God, and there is a plethora of beautiful songs about the Lamb. I do not believe we sing them enough at church. The very first title given to Jesus when He began His ministry at age 30 was ascribed to Him by John the baptizer: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).
Today while singing my favorite song about the Lamb, Revelation 5:9 popped into my mind, and I began to imagine what it will be like when all the saints throughout all the ages bow down to worship the Lamb upon the throne and cast our golden crowns at His feet. I pictured us—not in regal robes of highest royalty, but in our fine white linen garments, which is the righteousness of the saints (Rev.19:8). The righteousness of the saints! That’s what we possess! That’s who we are! “For he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2Corinthians 5:21). This little verse is from a poem I wrote many years ago:
At the foot of the cross the ground is level,
Where Heaven’s forgiveness is never strained,
Where scarlet and crimson are covered in mercy
By the blood of the Lamb who before sin was slain
As I was singing Worthy is the Lamb, and came to the part We crown you now with many crowns, my voice trembled as I imagined laying my crown at the feet of Jesus, singing with innumerable saints the redemptive anthem that even the angels can’t sing: Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. You have redeemed us to God by your blood… It hit me in my spirit: it’s all because of the blood! Our redemption, our graduation to heaven, our pure white garments and golden crowns, are all because of His blood. And not only are we saints, but He has made us kings and priests to reign with Him on the earth.
Tracing the bloody trail of the Lamb of God: From the first shedding of blood in the Garden of Eden when God slew animals for skins to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness; to the shedding of blood of the ram caught in the thickets that Abraham offered up on Mount Moriah instead of his son Isaac; to the millions of animal sacrifices that were offered up from the time of Moses to 70 AD when their Temple was destroyed and the Jews scattered, it was the blood that atoned for the soul and remitted sin (Leviticus 17:11, Hebrews 9:22). But all those rivers of blood that flowed through the millennia were not sufficient to deliver us from the power of sin and give us eternal life. They were a temporary covering to restrain the wrath of God from being poured out on sinners for His broken laws. Instead, judgment fell upon the innocent animal.
More than this, all those multitudinous bloody sacrifices served to point to the one and only, true Lamb of God, so that there when He came, they would recognize Him. One starry night, a virgin named Mary gave birth to the sweetest little lamb—and to whom did the angels announce His coming? To shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem who raised Levitical lambs used in Temple sacrifice, they proclaimed: “Unto you this day a Savior is born.”
The Darling of Heaven
One line in the song Worthy is the Lamb seemed odd to me: the darling of Heaven crucified. I thought darling to be an unusual choice of words. Then it struck me: On that night when Jesus, the little lamb of God, was born, the angels of God were looking over the ramparts of Heaven into a lowly stable where this precious baby lay in swaddling clothes. I think we’d all agree that there’s nothing more darling than a newborn baby, and He was Heaven’s darling. When the evil Herod decreed that all males under the age of two were to be slaughtered, the angels sighed with great relief as the toddler Jesus escaped with His parents to Egypt. And we all know how darling 2-year-olds are. Ten years later, I believe the angels continually high-fived each other as they watched the 12-year-old Jesus, in true rabbinic style, both asking and answering questions with the doctors of the law in the Temple. The darling of heaven was all about His Father’s business!
The next 18 years, they watched Jesus grow in favor with God and man, until the day He stepped onto the shore of divine destiny to be baptized of John. They stood tall in awe as the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove, and the darling of heaven was launched into ministry. When He was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to face the devil, three times they high-fived each other as He summarily defeated Satan. For the next 3 ½ years, they rejoiced with every miracle, every healing, every resurrection He performed. But quickly came the day when His enemies conspired to put Him to death, and on the cursed tree, they crucified the darling of Heaven.
As the Only Begotten Son of God, His blood was uniquely the divine blood of God. No other blood could redeem us and cleanse us: “Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold… But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1Peter 1:18-19).
As the perfect sinless sacrifice, He only had to offer up His body once and for all. From Gethsemane where His sweat dropped to the ground in bloody beads; to Gabbatha where His beaten, mutilated back released pools of blood upon the pavement; His bloodstained face marred with matted blood from the thorns on His brow, His swollen cheeks caked with blood from where His beard was ripped from them, and His head beaten with reeds; to Golgotha’s hill of the skull where His hands and feet were nailed to the cursed tree, Heaven’s perfect Lamb, the Son of God, poured out His blood unto death.
One author* made a comment about Jesus’ appearance to His disciples after the resurrection where they were hiding in fear. Jesus assured them that He was not a spirit, and urged them to see that He had a body of flesh and bone that could be touched. He noted that Jesus did not say that He had a body of flesh and blood, and stated that it was because He had poured out all His blood on the cross.
One day the living blood will stop pumping through our mortal veins, and our hearts will be stilled by death. But we are promised that God will change our vile bodies of weakness and humiliation and will fashion them like onto Jesus’ glorious body (Phil.3:20-21)—a celestial body of flesh and bone. And yet, curiously, we will worship Him in Heaven as He was revealed to John—the Lamb of God—the One who redeemed us by His blood. We will only be accorded entrance into that holy city because our names are inscribed in the most sacred book in Heaven’s annals: The Lamb’s Book of Life.
*Dr. Richard Booker. I highly recommend his book: The Miracle of the Scarlet Thread
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