Now we come to verse 6 of these early glimmerings of The Revelation of Jesus Christ.
And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Having just identified this Jesus as the One ordained of God to redeem fallen sons and daughters of Adam by His blood, John proceeds to identify the mind-bending out-workings of that redemptive work. He tells us that we (that have been redeemed by His blood) are now kings and priests unto God (His Father).
This really is stunning. When John wrote these words, we recall, he was in exile on the rugged island of Patmos. He had been exiled there by the Roman emperor for not worshipping any of the Roman gods, including Caesar himself. Yet, he clearly understood that through God’s redemptive work in Christ he was ‘more than a conqueror.’[1] He was a king and a priest. Not: He would eventually be a king and a priest. He was then, at that moment, a king and a priest.
These two roles were never joined in Israel, among the Hebrew people themselves. No king of Israel was ever also a priest in the tabernacle or the temple. Melchisedec was the king of Salem that met Abram, and was there also spoken of as ‘the priest of the most high God.’[2] Later, in Hebrews 5-6, Melchisedec is shown to have been a Type of Christ, fore-shadowing the ordained Redeemer of God that would be both King and Priest.
*****
How does this portion of the Truth given by God in the book of The Revelation help me to better see and understand the Revelation of Jesus Christ?
What have learned about Jesus Christ from these three verses? [Revelation 1:4-6]
I am going to quote here from another commentator on The Revelation. Commenting upon these aspects of this early portion of The Revelation of Jesus Christ, he says;
"Jesus Christ is mentioned last so as to lead on easily to those features of Him which were to be next stated, namely, His relation, (1) to the truth, “the faithful witness”; (2) to the world of the dead, from which He was the first to rise in resurrection life, and which as “firstborn” He owns and controls (ver. 18); (3) to the nations, for He is their overlord by the Father’s appointment (Ps 2). Thus He is Prophet, Priest, and King. His relationship to His people is declared specially: He loved and liberated them, and constituted them to be a kingdom of priests, to the everlasting glory of His God and Father."[3]
[1] Romans 8:37- Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. [2] Genesis 14:17ff. [3] G. H. Lang, The Revelation of Jesus Christ: Selected Studies (Hayesville, North Carolina: Schoettle Publishing CO., Inc., 2006), 73.