Joel famously prophesied, “Your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams.” I guess I have reached the stage of, old, as the Lord speaks to me through dreams. As I write this at 6:30 A.M., I have arisen from a dream. In this dream, I was riding in a car and the car made a sharp U turn. The maneuver took me by surprise and as I tried to assess what had just happened, I saw a drawing of what had just occurred. As I studied the drawing, I heard the words, “You must go back, you missed something.” Then as I meditated on that, I wondered whatever did I miss? As I questioned this in my dream sleep state, I heard the word, seal.
My mind immediately went to the last two windows I had replaced in my house. In my dream, I decided the seal on one of the windows had broken. It would undoubtedly need to be replaced, but then I awoke. I knew I had to go back in my study of Revelation because I had missed something, but what? Then the word, seal, returned to my consciousness and I began to consider, what is a seal? My mind raced as I searched the book of Revelation mentally looking for the word, seal, or the concept of seal.
It wasn’t long before I realized the scroll of Revelation chapter 5 is sealed with seven seals. In my previous study, I defined a seal as a device, usually made of wax, used to keep a document closed. It is usually stamped with a device engraved with an image signifying the one who sealed it. The seal is used to keep an official document closed, but I missed the importance of the seal itself.
In chapter 5 of Revelation, we see one sitting on a throne and in His hand is a scroll. A scroll is a rolled up length of paper. We are told this scroll has seven seals, which means, along the leading edge of the scroll are seven wax seals. This indicates there are seven documents rolled up as one, making a book, each one sealed to the next. Each seal is stamped with an official stamp.
As an example, let’s consider the seal of the United States of America. A seal is both the device that keeps the scroll closed, keeping the scroll from opening, and the device that is used to mark ownership of the scroll. All correspondence from the President of the United States has this seal on it and only his representatives are authorized to break the seal and open the correspondence. Thus, as I said before, the seal is there to keep the document secret until an authorized person opens it. There is another point to be made here, however. The Presidential seal of the United States of America is synonymous with Presidential authority and executive power.
So, in Revelation 5, a strong angel proclaims with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and loose the seals thereof?” The further statement, “No man in heaven or in earth was able to open the book, neither to look upon,” is a function of the mark in the seal. The seal embodies the full authority and power of the one who sealed it.
Thus, in verse 6 of Revelation 5, John said, “I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain.” This lamb took the scroll out of the hand of the one who sat on the throne. In other words, the lamb had authority to take the scroll from the one on the throne.
So, in my previous studies, I have emphasized the supremacy of Jesus. Philippians 2 reveals the Father exalted Jesus above all principalities and powers. As far as I know, the word all, still means all, which means the Father exalted Jesus above Himself. Even the Father God will bow His knee to His Son. He has made it so Himself. My suspicion has been that it was Jesus we see sitting on the throne and it is Jesus taking the scroll from the one who sits on the throne.
However, I didn’t fully appreciate the sentence, “I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain.” On numerous occasions during Jesus’ three to three and one half year ministry on earth, He said, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father,” which means, Jesus was the perfect representation of the Father.
Hebrews 9:14 tells us, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God.” This verse tells us Jesus offered Himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for sin. This could not have happened on the cross, where Jesus took on Himself the curse of the law. So, when was the Lamb of God slain?
Of course, we now know Jesus ascended to heaven after His death on the cross and presented Himself to God, where God sacrificed Jesus, and after Jesus’ life had poured out into a bowl, the Father infused His own life into Jesus. This gives new meaning to the phrase, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” The opposite is also true, “If you have seen the Father, you have seen Jesus,” because it is the life of the Father that animates Jesus.
Thus, when we see a scroll in the hands of the one who sits on the throne and the Lamb worthy to break the seals of that scroll, the same authority and power that sealed the scroll is in the one who is found worthy to break the seals. Jesus famously said, “I and the Father are one,” which finds new meaning in Hebrews 9:14.
There is more here however. Jesus told His disciples, “All power in heaven and earth has been given to me.” In order for this to be true, when the Father imparted His life into Jesus to raise Him from the dead, He also imparted His power and authority. This left the Father without power and authority and all power in Jesus’ hands, but let’s look a bit deeper. Jesus said, “I have power to lay down my life and take it up again.” This concept is usually applied to the cross, but Philippians 2 records how Jesus laid aside His Godhood to come to earth as a man.
So, in John 10:18, is Jesus referring to His natural life, the life of man, or was He referring to the life of God He laid down to come to earth as a man? Either way, it must be understood Jesus laid down the life of God to come to earth but had an edict form God that He could take the power and authority of God He laid down, back up, after everything was said and done. So, when Jesus dies as a man on that altar in heaven for all mankind’s sins and the Father God infuses His own life into Jesus to raise the man Christ Jesus back to life, Jesus also takes His own life of God back up. This makes Jesus greater than His Father.
Jesus now has two shares of the power and authority of God. The Holy Spirit evidently also gave up His share to make Jesus the blessed only Potentate and only wise God, 1Timothy 6:15 and Jude 25. Thus, we see Jesus, who was before the Christ, the man who laid aside His Godhood to die on the cross, now made Lord, but not just Lord, Lord of Lords. Jesus is now a completely different person, transformed.
Now, it is my supposition that the scroll is the new covenant, that the new covenant is sealed by the Father after the Church refuses to keep it. What we see in Revelation is a re-release and revealing of the covenant Jesus made with mankind. It is because mankind rejected that covenant that the revealing of it is an indictment against those who rejected it and unleashes judgment to the earth. This is what we see occurring in Revelation 6. As each seal is broken and the secret revealed, judgment is released onto the earth.
The earth has not seen the economy of the new covenant; the new covenant was never fully implemented by the followers of Jesus. Consider the old covenant. A covenant is a contract. Take any contract you have ever entered into. The service provided by the contract only occurs as the contract is obeyed. Disobedience of the contract assures a certain ending of the services provided by the contract. This is what happened to the Children of Israel. God promised them wealth, health, and protection from outside forces as long as they kept covenant with Him.
As the Israelis moved further and further away from obedience, outside forces became stronger and stronger against them until, eventually, the Babylonians took them away captive into a foreign land and the Nation of Israel existed as a wasteland. One indication of disobedience of the new covenant is the uniformity of sickness and disease among Christians and non-Christians alike. One promise of the new covenant is living free from sickness and disease. Christians cannot expect to live free from sickness and disease while disobeying the contract Jesus established with His followers.
The seal that is sealing the scroll is undoubtedly the same seal that is placed into the foreheads of those in Revelation seven. I’m sorry, but there is no way to escape John 15:10. Jesus said, “I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in my Father’s love.” Jesus did that for us; for all mankind. He did that as a substitutionary act of compassion; it is how He fulfilled the old covenant law. Mankind cannot receive blessings from the Father keeping the old covenant law because it has been fulfilled.
Attempting to keep the Ten Commandments is a certain way to guarantee one will not receive the promises of the old covenant. Jesus already did that for us. By attempting to keep the old covenant’s law, we are erasing what Jesus has done for us. Christians today should receive the blessings of the old covenant through faith in the Christ. If we deny what Jesus did for us, by attempting to keep the Ten Commandments He already kept, we deny ourselves the blessings.
The second half of John 15:10 reads, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.” This means you cannot abide in the love of God today without keeping Jesus’ commandments; Jesus wields the power and authority of God. Jesus’ commandments were not issued under the authority of the old covenant law. Jesus had to wait to issue His commandments until after the old covenant law was fulfilled. He could not usurp the authority of the old covenant law by issuing His own commandments and still fulfill the old covenant. The old covenant pronounced a sentence of death on all who could not perfectly keep it. Jesus could not offer eternal life till after the sentence of death was taken away. Therefore, the commandments of the new covenant are found after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.
The book of Revelation records the second attempt by Jesus to get mankind to keep the new covenant law. His first attempt, recorded in Acts 1, went horribly wrong. Jesus has allowed the world to go on in this state for nearly two thousand years but here at the end of the era, Jesus makes a second attempt. If mankind cannot live in the love of Jesus without keeping Jesus’ commandments, mankind cannot make heaven its home without keeping Jesus’ commandments.
The seal of God, therefore, has something to do with the gift of tongues. Jesus’ first commandment was to wait for a baptism with the Holy Spirit. A baptism is a saturation event. In order to keep this commandment, the word, keep, meaning to maintain a prescribed condition, a believer in the Jesus who issued the commandments would need to speak in tongues daily until some level of saturation had occurred.
Those who belong to Jesus are those who are faithful to His commandments; the disobedient are by definition unfaithful. The sealed are those who speak in tongues; they are sealed by the Holy Spirit, or more correctly stated, they are sealed by the continual action of the Holy Spirit flowing over their lips.
Ephesians 1:13 states, “In whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.” The new covenant has two parts. When Jesus died on the cross, He died for all mankind, took the curse of the law on Himself for all mankind. Because of this, He propitiated the sins of the entire world. All who believe this receive the benefits of His death. Those who do not believe, receive the same righteousness, but not the benefits of that righteousness.
To believe in the Christ, however, is a very different faith from believing on the Lord, who is a completely different person. Notice the wording of Ephesians 1:13 again, “In whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.” Non believers receive Jesus’ righteousness and a gift of the Holy Spirit when they believe in the Christ. The verse clearly states the promise comes after faith is exercised; not when faith is exercised. So what is the promise of the Holy Spirit? Well, again, in Acts 1, Jesus calls the baptism with the Holy Spirit the promise of the Father.
This is because every last man, woman, and child, on the earth receives Jesus’ righteousness, not through faith, but by edict. Jesus propitiated the whole human race, which means all mankind was made right with God, which means the Holy Spirit dwells inside each and every person on the earth, because each and every person has been redeemed from the law. Only those who believe, receive the benefits. That same Holy Spirit can flow out of the belly of those same people and manifest Himself as tongues. It is the promise of God to those who believe Jesus is Lord. Of course, those who believe Jesus is Lord, naturally obey His commandments. James famously said, “Faith without works is dead,” and those who confess Jesus as lord but fail to keep Jesus’ commandments are expressing dead faith.
I believe chapter seven of Revelation overlays chapter six. I also believe the calling forth of the dead in Christ occurs at the beginning of chapter six. The dead in Christ are called forth and taught the new covenant. They then go out preaching it. Many Christians will hear and believe. 144,000 Jews will also hear and believe. The Jews are representative of those under the old covenant law. These will all go out preaching and many, many, non believers will convert and the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the seas and there will be a great harvest of souls as Jesus calls His beloved to heaven. Before then, however, the established church, which views all this as heresy, will try to put to death as many of those converted as possible because it views this teaching as heresy and a threat to the pure gospel.
Earlier I said, the Presidential seal of the United States of America is synonymous with Presidential authority and executive power. Those who wear the seal of God have God’s authority and executive power. This seal, however, is not the ability to speak with tongues; it is obedience of the Lord’s commandments. All who bear the seal of the Lord Jesus Christ have His executive power and authority. In John 14:12, Jesus said, “Anyone who believes on me will do the works I have done, and greater works than these shall he do because I got to the Father.”
Now, the reference Jesus makes about going to the Father reveals the belief that gives one the ability to duplicate the works Jesus did is not belief in the Christ who died on the cross. When Jesus went to the Father, He was laid across that altar in heaven, in the true tabernacle, and was sacrificed and raised from the dead with all power and established the new covenant, issuing the commandments thereof. Belief in this Jesus produces obedience of those commandments.
Earlier I said the world has not seen the economy of the new covenant. This is because except for a very short time at its inception, the Church has never kept Jesus’ commandments. The world has never seen a time when the followers of Jesus could duplicate His works and outperform Him. This time is fast approaching however.
When Jesus returns with a shout and the voice of an archangel and a trumpet blast, He will raise an army of people who will keep His commandments fastidiously. Many living Christians will join in and 144,000 Jews of the old covenant era will also join in. Today, if I told you, you had to keep Jesus’ commandments, the commandments long ago dismissed by wise Church leaders, in order to perform the works of Jesus, you would scoff, but in the near future Jesus, Himself, will descend from heaven with that truth. Will you then scoff? Will you recognize the Lord? He will not look like the Christ. All who look for the Christ to return will be sorely miffed.
This being true, the statement I made earlier, “Thus, when we see a scroll in the hands of the one who sits on the throne and the Lamb worthy to break the seals of that scroll, the same authority and power that sealed the scroll is in the one who is found worthy to break the seals,” can be further explained. The image that is engraved into the device that marks the seal is undoubtedly a picture of a slain lamb. When John looks at the throne of God, he sees a lamb as though it had been slain. It is this Lamb we ought to obey. Our obedience to the Lamb’s commandments makes us worthy to wear the Lamb’s seal.
The scroll was sealed by a slain lamb and only a slain lamb could open it. The Lamb sealed the scroll and is the only one worthy to open it and unlock its secrets. Remember, Jesus has all authority in heaven and in earth. There is no other who has or has ever had that level of authority. Jesus is the only one worthy to open the scroll and the only one who has authority to do so. Thus, Jesus sealed the scroll in the beginning and breaks those seals to reopen it now.
The whole of the book of Revelation is about keeping this Lamb’s commandments but the secret must be kept so until the Lamb breaks the seals. This is the reason you don’t see any mention of the Lord’s commandments in the whole of the book. I have seen the importance of the commandments of Jesus in the life of the believer, so I can see the veiled references to obedience all throughout the book.
The two witnesses, who trouble the church for a little more than three years, are keepers of the Lord’s commandments. The miracles they perform are a direct result of John 14:12, “Anyone who believes on me will do the works I have done, and greater woks than these shall he do.” “Faith without works is dead,” though, so what works are required by this belief? What single action allows one to live in the love and favor of Jesus? Again, we are forced back to John 15:10, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love.” If only we knew the commandments of Jesus. If we did, we could keep them and live in the love and favor of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.