Notes on the book of Revelations/Chapter 1

by John Nelson Darby

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Consistently herewith, the address is not an address of personal relationship, but the presenting of that which is the subject of knowledge. The most blessed truths of redemption may shine forth throughout it, yet it is not the address simply of the Father, by the Spirit, to the family, as to the things which concern them within the family. The Father^[1] is not spoken of in it, save in one place, as the Lamb's Father, or we, save as kings and priests to His Father; never as in intercourse with the children as His children. This difference, and the corresponding characters of the operation of the Spirit, I find constantly maintained in the Scriptures.

Accordingly we find (with much additional light, indeed, for the sphere is much wider, and the foundation of Divine conduct on a much fuller and more widely extended base) that the position and imagery of the Revelations are all Jewish in character, though not Jewish in place. Neglect of this last point has misled many whose views have been contracted, and who have not in this, I believe, been led by the Spirit of God.

It is not the Father we have here (at least not, in that character), but the temple and temple circumstances: He that was, and is, and He that comes. It is a throne, and not a family: but it is not, on the other hand, the temple on earth at all, but the mind of God acting there, on the throne, but in the perfection of that provident wisdom, in which the seven spirits are before the throne, Him that sat on the throne^[2] is the character and leading title of the Almighty in the Revelations; but that throne is not at Jerusalem, and has nothing to do with it immediately as the place of its establishment.

It is, in this sense, the Book of the Throne when the King had been rejected upon earth.

We have, in conformity to this idea, not the Son in the bosom of the Father, but a revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to him; and he sent and signified it by an angel to his servant John. All this is Jewish in its character. It is not the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost testifying, but God, Jesus Christ, and the ministration of angels to a servant: none of the other things, of course, ceased to be true; but it was not the character here developed. It is therefore the word of God, the testimony of Jesus Christ, and visions; and there is blessing on the reader. It is addressed to the church in its full privilege; but the subject presented is governance, and order, and control, not Sonship with the Father. God would instruct his servants.

The blessings to the churches are conformable to this; from one who bears the character of Ancient of Days, who shall come—who was, and is, and is to come: and we see the Spirit, not as on earth, the Comforter (come down here, and, in the sons, looking up there), but in his various and manifold sufficiency and perfection, in the presence of the throne, and as afterwards sent in power into the earth—providential protection and power—and from the Lord: not as the Son, one with his Father (see John xiv. 20), so that we are with Him there through the union of the Spirit, but, seen as in human character, as a faithful witness, the first begotten from the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth: glorious in all this, but human.

Still the Church is put in full confidence here; for the praise to this blessed One is praise in which this word of the Spirit “us,” is ever found: and, seeing Him in the glory, she breaks out, by the Spirit in the Apostle, into thanksgiving, for His praise cannot be passed by; for she is loved, washed, and will reign in nearness to God and his Father.^[3]

To the world, and to the Jews, His coming will be sorrow. Here, then, we find the place of all these parties at the outset. This is its form, then, ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν ἐρχόμενος—the perfection of fulness of the Spirit before the throne: Jesus known as faithful, risen, to reign, all on earth.^[4] The Church, meanwhile, knowing its own position in this, therefore says, not Our Father, but His—His God and Father: for so it is. The announcement of what the purport of Jesus’ coming is to the world follows thereon, completing what He is and was on earth, the Church’s portion thereby, and the world’s at His coming. In ver. 8 we have the announcement of his titles and character here, by “The Lord.” Upon his name thus developed, all the stability of purpose and government hung; and the Church had need to know this in all the circumstances which followed. Her place follows: as to the present, in the place of the instrument of this word of God and testimony of Jesus Christ (the word is God’s, the testimony Jesus’; in hearing Him we “set to our seal that God is true”); “your brother in tribulation, and partaker of the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.” This is the Church’s place through the recognition of Sonship, while the throne is above. But it is not in union and headship, but kingdom and patience. Still, in whatever form, the word she ministers is the word of God or the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Lordship in itself is not the highest title of Christ: “God hath made Him both Lord and Christ.” To us there is but one God, the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ. But in this word the Herald of God announces all the style of His ancient and future glory. Further, this book does not present to us the Holy Ghost received of the Father, sent down to produce a public testimony to the world. Nor is it a gift received as needful for the maintenance of the Church, and communicated “for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body: of Christ, till we all come,” &c. But it is a revelation given to Christ, and communicated when the Church had begun to decay, instead of growing; and had need, in its severed compartments, at very best to be reproved or encouraged, as so looked at apart—as these several candlesticks,—the Son of Man interfering as the high priest, but judicially—a revelation given (not the Spirit communicated) when all this darkness and (in principle) apostasy had come in. Each one of these seems another thing, and less immediate than the promise in John already referred to (xiv. 20), “In that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.”

There is the Sonship of Christ with the Father, in respect of which the Holy Ghost dwells in us—the Spirit of adoption and union, the Comforter—and looks up and places us before the Father even as He the Son is.

There is Christ, the head of the body, the exalted man (the first-born among many brethren)—in which character He receives the promise of the Father, and imparts it, as power for testimony. And there is the Lordship of Christ over the world, which is communicated to the Church, who are kings and priests to His God and Father, by virtue of the previous parts of blessing. This last, after the judgment of the Churches in their present state, is the subject of the book of Revelations. This state of the Churches becomes thus very important and appropriately introductory.

After the heading, and four subsequent verses of introduction, including His work, our position (i.e. as kings and priests), and His coming again, we find the announcement, that, come what would, the Lord was the beginning and ending—the Almighty.

Then we have the revelation to one cast out into the wilderness, the depository of the sorrows of the Church, and so of the providence of God—but in the Spirit, on the day typical of the rest of glory which remains. He sees Christ in the midst of the seven candlesticks; not as a servant, with his loins girt, but in holy execution of judgment as Priest, the symbols of the Ancient of Days being withal upon Him. It is not Christ on high. It is not Christ the head of one body.^[5] It is not Christ in heaven: but he turns and sees Him governing, judging, and holding in his hand the destinies of the several churches. But while, with the symbols of the Ancient of Days upon Him, yet revealing Himself for the Church to the faithful disciple, as one that lived, was dead, and is alive for evermore,^[6] having power over the gates of his enemies, the keys of hell and of death. This the Apostle saw: such was the place Christ took now—a different place from being the communicating head of the body, however true that might also be. The seer was to write these things, and the things which are, and what should be after these things. In a word, we have the Almighty continuance which comprehends all things of the Lord, and the present position of the Son of man in the Churches, yet He that lived, was dead, and was alive, and had power over the power of death: these are the things that are. There is a close connection between the things that are and those that were seen; for, turning to see the voice that spake with him, he sees the Golden Candlesticks. So, often, as in the judgment of the woman, the chief part of the description is of the beast.

1. This is true also of the Hebrews, where sacrifice and priest hood are spoken of, which constitute relationship with God. Here it is supremacy (whatever be the circumstances) which is His character, not with the children, but over all things, over all creation, and ever the throne of Him that was, and is, and is to come.
2. See also (that is, as soon as we come to the prophecy) iv. 2, 10; v. 1, 7, 13; vi. 16. Note also vii. 10 [observe there is no allusion to this from viii. until xix. 4] and xxi. 5. Chapter xx. 11. comes in specially intermediately. As to the city, see xxii. 1.
3. The instant answer of the Church on the announcement of Christ in His titles as to His person, is exceedingly beautiful—and on the announcement of His coming glory (xxii. 16), the instant response of the Church, led by the Spirit, is equally lovely: “The Spirit and the Bride say, Come:” and the Church then takes its full place, while waiting.

   Christ’s relative character is fully shewn and responded to—a faithful witness for God to man—the perfect representative and head of the Church, as the perfect new risen man before God, and the head of power to the world; and the Church sees Him, and then says what He is to herself.

4. i.e. The witness of God, as he was the conqueror of death as the head of the body, and the governor of the world in power.
5. It has therefore passed beyond the condition of the Apostolic Epistles, but not entered on the relation in which Christ stands to the world in government and lordship.
6. The first and the last. Christ as continuous, as Jehovah in power and nature, yet one that had passed through the vicissitudes of the Church’s necessity, so that in all circumstantial changes it might know what and where its security was: so that it was security, not terror, to the individual; so, come what would, the Church would not be prevailed over by her enemies.