Three Characteristics of the Lord Jesus and Three Actions

 ... from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. 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 his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.  (Rev 1:5-6)

 The Lord in the above verses of Scripture is first described as “the faithful witness”. When Christ came to earth He was as a witness to God and for God. When challenged by Pilate as to whether He was a king, the Lord replied, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth” (John 18:37). The “truth” here means the truth about God, about Christ Himself, about the Holy Spirit, about man, sin, salvation, and all the other great doctrines of Christianity. On one occasion He described Himself as “the truth” (John 14:6). He had come to give evidence of His Father, so that He could say, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father”, (John 14:9). The very works that the Father had given Him to finish, those same works bore witness that the Father had sent Him (John 5:36). The words He spoke were the words that the Father had given Him to say (John 8:28; John 12:49; John 17:8).

Secondly, He is described as “the first begotten of the dead”. This refers to His resurrection. Many had been raised from the dead in previous days, and the Lord Himself had raised several, e,g, Jairus’ daughter (Mar 5:41-42), the son of the widow of Cain (Luk 7:14), and perhaps most famously, Lazarus (John 11:43). But all these people who had been wonderfully raised from the dead, died again. This is the difference with regards to the Lord. When God raised Him from the dead, it was never to die again, but to live for evermore (Rev 1:18). He was truly the first to be brought back to life and to live for ever, and is the pattern of what God will do for redeemed men. This is the kind of resurrection all believers will experience when the body is not only raised from the grave but changed and fitted for a subsequent state (1Cor. 15:51-54).

Thirdly, He is described as “the prince (or better, the ruler) of the kings of the earth”. There is not much evidence of that in the world we live in, that Christ is the ruler of the kings, presidents, prime ministers, etc, of this world. But the day will come when that will be so. Other events have to take place first, namely the Lord coming for His Church, a time of Great Tribulation, and then the Lord will establish His reign upon earth, and He will indeed be the “ruler of the kings of the earth”.

Then three actions are described in these verses. Firstly that “He loved us”. This He demonstrated time and time again whilst on earth, in that He physically healed those with great obvious needs, He fed those who were hungry, He gave comfort to those who were sorrowing, He taught us the ways and truths of God. But the greatest demonstration of His love was at the Cross, where He was made sin for us, the One who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21). Paul says that he was living his life by faith in the “the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal 2:20). The Lord’s is an unchangeable love, and just as the Father hath loved Him, so He loves us (John 15:9), and nothing will ever separate us from the love of Christ (Rom 8:35).

Then we are told that He has “washed us from our sins in His own blood”. The KJV is almost too literal a translation, and it would be better rendered "by His own blood" (ASV) to describe the means of cleansing. "Blood" refers to the value of the death of Christ applied to sinners. "The blood" of Christ means more that just the death of Christ. It refers to a particular aspect of that death, as a sacrifice. The Old Testament foreshadowed this sacrifice in the blood of the victims offered under the OT Law, not for redemption but for purposes of purification and as a temporary covering of sins committed. It cost Christ His life’s blood to effect this essential cleansing from our sins.

Note the order of the words. The Lord Jesus loved us and then He washed us. He loved us before He washed us, while we were still in our sins and spiritually filthy. It was this great unprovoked love that led Him to Calvary where His shed blood washed our sins away. We love Him because He did it! He loved us before He did it!

There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel's veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.

And then thirdly, He made us “kings and priests”, or better a kingdom of priests. A priest is a person who goes before God on behalf of others on the basis of the sacrifice of Christ. This promise is not dissimilar to Exo. 19:6; that was a promise made to national Israel, but is now applied to the redeemed of this age. Similarly 1Pet. 2:9.

While priestly functions are exercised by believers today in our worship - we believe in the “priesthood of all believers" - the word is not used in the gospels or epistles to describe believers.  As holy priests, we offer spiritual sacrifices to God: our persons, our possessions, our praise, and our service. As royal priests, we tell forth the Excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvellous light.

No wonder the verse closes with the benediction: “to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen”