AP

Revelation 19:13-16  [‘Faithful and True’, the rider of the White Horse] is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.  The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean.  Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations.  “He will rule them with an iron sceptre.”  He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.  On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

The imagery in the vision the Apostle John was given, and which he wrote down as the ‘Revelation’ (Greek: ‘Apocalypse’ – ‘that which was hidden uncovered’) is both very scary and very comforting.

God is showing us that in Jesus, his Son, he means business!  As John had declared in his Gospel, Jesus is the ‘Word of God’, God speaking clearly and unambiguously to us (John 1:1-14).

Because Jesus ‘trod the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty’ on behalf of all those who belong to him, his own pure ‘white robe’ is permanently stained with blood – the blood of his atoning sacrifice, and the blood of our sin.  This means that we are now ‘dressed in fine linen, white and clean’!

How very comforting is this!  “Because the sinless Saviour died, my sinful soul is counted free, for God, the Just, is satisfied to look on him, and pardon me” (Charitie Lees de Chenez).

But the very scary thing is that, because Jesus, by his atoning death and glorious resurrection, has conquered sin and Satan and death, he will come again in victory at his Second Coming, which we can anticipate with confidence and hope because of his amazing grace.  But all those who have persisted in refusing to turn to him in repentance-and-faith, and take refuge in him as Saviour and bow to him as Lord, will have to meet him as their Judge – the ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’ with his ‘sharp sword’ and ‘iron sceptre’.

Yes, God is gracious, compassionate and forgiving, but he also means business in Jesus.  Do you?  This is the message with which we are entrusted to bring to a lost world before it is too late.  As a Church sign on a busy highway warns, “You are now going at exactly 60 Minutes per Hour towards meeting God”.  It will be comforting to meet him as Saviour and Lord, but terrible to meet him as King and Judge!

– Bruce Christian