Revelation 5:6 Commentary and Bible Study

‘In the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders stood a Lamb’ – right next to the Father – ‘as it had been slain’ – glorified wounds in his side – ‘having seven horns’ – the number of perfection. The horn is the symbol of power; he has ultimate power, ‘and seven eyes’ – he is all knowing; nothing can be hidden from his sight. He has the attributes of God. He is equal with the Father, and always has been. ‘Which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth’ – he is totally identified also with the Holy Spirit who is a separate person, but they are together. John now sees the one who has prevailed to open the book, but his form is altogether surprising. Instead of a great warrior or a great king clothed in majesty, he sees a Lamb, for the Lord is represented by the form which most sums up the nature of his commission on earth. It was by taking the form of a servant that he conquered the devil. It was by fulfilling the part of the Lamb of God that he overcame. He allowed himself to be ‘despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief’, so that ‘we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.’ ‘But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed’ (Isaiah 53:5). He is ‘the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29). He was put to death in our place and took the punishment of our sins. This is the heart of his work in opening the seals of the scroll, for redemption is at the heart of the plan of God. Without redemption, there would have been no creation, for even the pre-fall world contained types of redemption, marriage itself being one of them.Yet the Lamb is now standing alive, for this is the Lord Jesus, risen from the dead but retaining his character as the Lamb for all eternity, so that the saints may always be reminded of the cost of their salvation.