The same rider on the white horse appeared in chapter 6:2, the first of the horsemen of the apocalypse. Previously its rider went out conquering and to conquer on earth; now he is seen in heaven, because the mission of its rider is fulfilled.
‘Faithful and True.’ He says of himself, ‘I am the way the truth and the life’ (John 14:6). Christ cannot lie. He may hide and he may obscure his purpose so that he catches the crafty in their craftiness, but he cannot lie. He has told us that it is the devil who lies and is the father of lies. Every lie is darkness and in God there is no darkness at all. How then could he defeat the devil by resorting to a lie. That would spoil everything else he had done. That would open up a hole in his defence which the devil would exploit without hesitation. How could Christ require his people to refrain from all lying when he could not get by without lying himself? Men sometimes tell the truth because they are being observed, but Christ loves the truth for its own sake and speaks the truth even when no other can trace his path. To him it is something pure and clean. As the Son of Man, his adherence to truth fills him with strength. He conducts this war perfectly. He never allows the devil to provoke him to return evil for evil. The devil for his part breaks all the rules of war. No tactic is too mean or underhand for him. He does not observe honour or chivalry. He has long ago sacrificed his integrity and his aim is to bring all others down with him, even the Son of God. But Christ maintains his perfect integrity in this battle. He will never break one commandment of God in order to keep another. There is no need to do so for the law of God is never inconsistent with itself. He remains true to God for Satan will never be allowed to succeed in dividing Jesus Christ from his Father.