4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
There is a great fitness in the 'descriptions' given in these verses of Christ, for they indicate the kind of Christ that we are likely to see in the book of Revelation. This in fact is the
first significance of what we read, for it is the greatness and majesty of Christ that is revealed
to John - and to us - right from the outset. Over against all possible circumstances that might
beset the believer is the unassailable fact of a mighty, all-powerful Christ, Who in His Person
and work transforms every situation and makes us more than conquerors in Him. This is the
force of John's emphasis here. How differently he might have - and could have - begun! He
was in exile, and in all probability constantly watched by guards; he was bereft of all that believers hold dear in their experience, fellowship, worship, service; his circumstances were
such as might have daunted the bravest and most intrepid of men. And yet, he has scarcely
begun his writing when he launches into a great doxology of praise and exultation, 'Unto
Him that loved us...!' This is the blessing the book of Revelation brings - it is the blessing that
first came to John himself, in the triumph of grace over all that was merely natural in his situation. He was in exile, yes; he was isolated from his fellow-believers, yes; he was a prisoner,
yes; but above all, and over all, he was a son of the King, and it was the recognition of this
that made everything different, everything! And any book that can bring this recognition
home to the minds and consciousness of believers is well worth the reading!