Overcoming: The Way of the Cross

Revelation 5:5-7

⁵ and one of the elders said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.”

⁶ And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. ⁷ And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.

Revelation 7: 4, 9, 14

⁴ And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel….
⁹ After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands…….¹⁴“…These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

In the above verses John hears about a Lion but sees a Lamb. He hears about 144,000 but sees a great multitude that no one could count. The Lion of Judah overcomes as a “Lamb standing, as if slain” and the 144,000, a figure that seems to represent an army, actually is a great multitude of martyrs. How we expect that the Lord would have overcome is not the way that He actually overcame. No Messiah-expecting Jew (Peter is a great example of this) would have ever expected this either.  Jesus has overcome by submitting to the will of His Father and taking on the cross, with the intent of glorifying God and bringing us salvation. This great multitude, whom John sees worshiping the Lamb, has overcome in the same manner: by following Christ’s example in submitting to the will of God. They are not an army of Christian soldiers readied with supernatural artillery but martyrs in white robes cleansed by the blood of Jesus. They embrace the example of the Risen Lamb. It’s what Luther called having a Theology of the Cross (as opposed to a Theology of Glory). It is a victory that we find in submission to whatever trial that God calls us through. No matter what path may lay ahead, whatever ‘little Gethsemane’ we may face, we must be defined as ones who love and pray for our enemies, who overcome evil with good, and who say, as adopted children through the blood of Christ, “Father, Thy Will be done.” May the same Holy Spirit, whose power raised Christ from the dead and now dwells within we who believe, fill us with the strength to overcome whatever painful paths may come while helping our gaze to stay firmly focused on the One Who has Overcome.