Thinking in 3’s - Revelation 5:9-10 - What Christ Has Done

Thinking in 3’s - Revelation 5:9-10 - What Christ Has Done

Rev. 5:9 And they sang a new song, saying,“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, ¹⁰ and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

We have before us a climatic passage of redemptive history, with Christ at the center. We have a description of what Christ has done.

First of all, He was slain. This first action has a passive verb. That is, it was done to Him. He didn’t kill Himself, but He was killed. And yet, it is an action that He did in that He offered Himself; He allowed it to happen. This first action does not involve us personally. Sure, the results of this action have much to do with us, but the action itself is outside of us. Jesus did not offer Himself to be slain because we asked Him to; not because we had anything to do with motivating Him to do so. He did it because He chose to do so; because He Himself wanted to do so. And, the next two points could not have happened had He not accomplished the first. He was slain.

Secondly, He ransomed a people for God. That is, He purchased us. The price was His blood, and with His blood He purchased us from slavery. There has been a lot written over the years, debating to whom the ransom was paid. Some say it was paid to Satan. I don’t think this is correct. Jesus didn’t have to pay Satan off. We were not on the trading block. That’s the kind of deal that Satan tried to swing with Jesus in the temptation in the wilderness: “If you do this, I will give you this.” No, Jesus is pictured as the strong deliverer who overpowers the claims of Satan on us. So the ransom is paid not to Satan, but to the justice of God. He paid the penalty of our sin, under which we were bound. And we should understand, then, that Jesus, along with the Father, have placed great value upon us, and upon a relationship with us, as evidenced by the costly, sacrificial paying of this ransom.

Jesus died for us, and He saved us, redeemed us, through the paying of the ransom. But He did not just leave us sitting there, unchanged. He now steps beyond the actions that occur before us and above us, and now acts in us. “You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God.” He makes us into something that we were not before. We were aliens and outcasts. Now we are citizens of a new kingdom. We belong. We were unclean and unworthy. Now we are called saints, and called to be priests, in touch with God, and called to His service.

The three-fold work of Christ as described in these verses is sweeping. May we live in the light of these actions. May we be thankful and gracious; consistently amazed and faithful.