The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 49

Il, MAN IS DIVINELY DIGNIFIED AS A BEPRj!:SENTATIVE OF THE Tuvrim TO MAN, "John to the seven Churches which a.re in Asia" (ver. 4). rrThe enumeration which presently follows," says Dr. Vaughan, "of the Churches designed, shows that Asia is here used in its narrowest sense : not of the quarter of the globe so denominated, not even of Asia. Minor, but of one province on the western side of that country, expressly distinguished in two well-known passages of the Acts of the Apostles, from Cappadocia and Pontus, from Phrygia and Pamphylia., from Gala.tia., Mysia., a.no. Bithynia." Not only is he divinely dignified who is employed a.s the Messenger of the Divine, but he to whom the Divine is sent. The seven congregations in Asia Minor were highly honoured of G0<l as the objects of his redemptive message. How dignified of Goo is the man who i& made a.t once the .Recipient and the Me!J(J(lnger of Divine thoughts-I -D.T. Vera. 5-7.-(Jhrist and the soul. "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and bis Father; to him be glory," etc. These words suggest a few thoughts concerning Christ and the soul. L CHRIST IS THE LovER OF THE SOUL. "Unto him that loved us" (ver. 5), Other beings may love the human soul-angels may, saints may-but no one has loved it as Christ has. 1. He loved it with an a'fNolutely disinterested love. Alas I we know but little of dlainterested affection. With all our love for each other, there is generally a mixture of selfishness. But Christ had nothing to gain from the human spirit; its damnation would not diminish his blessedness ; its salvation would not add to hie ineffable bliss. He loved the soul for its own sake, as the offspring of God, endowed with wonderful cap;1bilities, pusSessing in itself a fountain of influence that would spread indefinitely through all time and space. 2. He loved it with a practicall,g ,el,f- sacrificing love. It was not a love tha.t existed merely as an emotion, or tha.t even wrought occasional services; it was a love that led to the sacrifice of himself. "He loved us, and gave himself for us." "Greater love haih no man than this, that a man lay down his life." 3. He loved it with an earnestly forgiving love. " When we were enemiGB Christ died for the ungodly." He loved those who were not only out of sympathy with him, but who were in malignant hostility to him; and bis love was not only such as to incline him to listen to petitions for pardon, but as inspired him with an in tense longing to forgive bis enemies. "Herein is love." Who ever loved like this? Here is a love whose height, depth, length, breadth, passeth all knowledge, ll. CHRIST IS THE CLEANSER OF THE SOUL. "And washed ['loosed'] us from our eins in his own blood" (ver. 5). The moral restoration of the soul to the knowledge, image, and enjoyment of God is represented in a variety of figures in the Bible, which is a highly figurative book, When the lost state of the soul is represented as a state of OOfldemnation, then its restoration is represented as/Q1'giveness or jU8tifa;ation; when its lost state is represented as enmity to God, then its restoration is set forth under the metaphor of r.econciliatwn.; when its lost state is represented as a state of death or .Zeep, then its restoration is set forth as a quickening and awalrenmg; when its lost state is represented as a. bondage, then its restoration is set forth as an enfranchisMMnt; when its lost state is represented as a. state of pollutioo or uncleanness, then its restora- tion is represented as a washing or a c'leansing. All these figurative expressions represent one thing-the moral restoration of the soul; and this is spoken of in the text BB wronght by Christ. « Washed us from our sins in his own blood." 1'o be washed in blood is an expression that sounds incongruous and somewhat offensive; but it does not mean material blood, as the vulgar and the sensuous understand, but the spiritual blood, which is his moral life, his self-sacrificing love. The cleansing influence which is here applied to the blood is elsewhere applied to the "Name of Christ." Now·" ye are clean through the word I have spoken;" again," Sanctified through thy truth." 'l'ben to the "water of the Word," "That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word." The" Name," the "Word," the ''Spirit,"the "1'ruth," whiob are represented in such passages as cleansing the soul, must of course be regarded as meaning essentially the same thing as "blood" here, which stands for the moral epirit of Christ, which is the same thing as Christ himself. lie it is who cleanscth the aoul--cleanscth it by bis lilc. The figurative language here is purely Judaic, ta.ke11  THE REVELATION OF ST. JOHN 'l'HE DIVINE. [CH. 1. 1-20. ' from the old temple ceremonies; for "almost all things were purified by the Law through blood." 'fhe grand mission and work of Christ are to put away sin from tht soul, Sin is the guilt, sin is the curse, sin is the ruin of human nature. Sin is not so engrained, so wrought into the texture of the human soul that it cannot be removed; it can be washed out-, it is separable from it, it can be detached. III. CHRIST 18 THE ENNOBLER OF THE SOUL. "Bath made us kings and priests unto God" (ver. G). 1. Christ makes souls" kings." "I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me." Souls in their unregenerate state are paupers, prisoners, slaves; they are the mere creatures of internal passions and external circumstances. Christ enthrones the soul, gives it the sceptre of self-control, and enables it to make all things subservient to its own moral advancement, 2. (JhriBt makes souls "priests." True priests are in some re11pects greater than kings. Kings have to do with creatures, priests with God. Christ, then, is the Ennobler of souls. ,vorldly sovereigns may and do bestow titles of grea_tness on men. The wonder is that they should have the audacity to attempt to ennoble by bestowing titles. They cannot lh,,gtow greatness itself. Christ bestows true greatness-greatness of thought, heart, sympathy, aim, nature. He alone is great whom Christ makes great, all others are .in the bonds of corruption. IV. CHRIST IS THE DElTY OF THE SOUL. •• To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever." 'l'he souls whom Christ has loved, cleansed, and ennobled feel that he is their God, anrl render to him the willing and everlasting homage of their nature. "Utito him that loved us, and washed [loosed] ns from our sins in [by] his own blood." God in Christ is the grand object of human worship, and those whom Christ bas thus restored cannot but worship him. Worship with them is not a service, but a spirit; is not obedience to a law, but the irrepressible instinct of a life. V. CHRIST 18 THE HOPE OF THE SOUL. « Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him" ~ver. 7). The high probability is that this is a prophetic description of Christ as he came in his providence to the destruction of Jerasalem. Between his final advent and this there are so many striking resemblances that the description of the one is remarkably applicable to the other. .Applying the words to the final advent, we have four facts concerning it. 1. Ghrist w.ill coma. Reason and conscience, as well as the Bible, teach this. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of it; Job knew that he would stand again upon the earth. Christ and his apostles frequently and unequivocally taught it (Luke ix. 26). 2. His coming will 'be terribly grand. " On the clouds of heaven." The grandest objects to mortal eyes -are the heavens that encircle us. Their vast expanse and immeasurable height, all radiant with rolling orbs in boundle8s variety, seem to bear us into the awful depths of infini 4