The Father and the Son

“And I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.
And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?
And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.” (Rev. 5:1-4).

John wept because the Father and all heaven wept. It was the book of God’s character, bound up by Satan’s charges. None of the angels nor unfallen worlds, not even Satan himself could undo the allegations conjured up from hell.

The Father couldn’t justify Himself nor His form of government. Self-justification would negate all His efforts to extract Himself from the falsehoods of the strongest and wiliest of His creation. Nothing but the greatest demonstration of self-sacrifice could remove the stains placed against His reputation. The Creator was uttterly destroyed at the treatment from those whom He had always only loved, His children whom He had cared for and rejoiced in.

“And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.” (Rev. 5:5).

Only He who was the express image of His character and alone intimately knew His Father must save Him. “All things are delivered unto Me of My Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son.” (Matt. 11:27).

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder.” (Is. 9:6).

“He bearing His cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: where they crucified Him.” (Jn. 19:17,18). “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.” (2Cor. 5:19).

In the death of Christ we see the death of God, for God was in Christ. We can have advocacy, and so did His Father voluntarily seek advocacy in His Son; He sought out One who could reveal Him correctly, One who understood all the issues infinitely deeply. The Son was the very center of salvation for His God and His creation.

What we see in Yahweh of the Old Testament and Messiah of the New Testament is a composite of the one and only Lord God who has ever dealt with man. The Father trusted all things to His Son until the Son of God could put down all of His Father’s enemies, namely, Satan and his seed.

With the weight of eternal consequences bearing upon Him, the Son successfully expunged every one of Satan’s accusations against His Father and His Father’s character and law of love. These accusations centered around God’s justice and mercy. Satan said they could not exist simultaneously. In his spotless life and at the cross Christ proved Satan wrong.

By His dealing with sinful humanity from the very first, the Son of God proved that those two ingredients of love, justice and mercy, were wholly homogenized together in everything God had ever done. Just as the purple veil blends its scarlet and blue threads inconspicuously woven together; so must our God dispense justice with mercy, and mercy with justice. Each component separately would cease to be love.

How forceful was the tonnage of sin and love Jesus carried for His Father!

“He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
Then saith He unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with Me.
And He went a little farther, and fell on His face.” (Matt. 26:37-39).

“And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Lk. 22:44).

Though the Father foresaw it all from eternity past, when the great rebellion broke, and all the hatred and destruction, the self-sufficiency and ingratitude, the pride and boasting, and the death and evil that came with it began and spread, it desolated the Creator. When upon that one untouchable thing, the freedom to choose, hinged the making of enemies of the empire in His children, the great God died within, as it were. Mortal death passed on to Adam, his children, and his world when they turned away from God to love self, so that they could taste a little of what their choice had done to their heavenly Father.

He needed someone to catch Him, and He found in His Son just the person for that. But in carrying His stricken and broken Father, and dealing with the sin problem in the children, it bent the Son over with the weight. The Son of God carried the whole load, even until it crushed Him. But in the crushing out of His life, He saved His Father’s children and brought His Father all the way to safety. In His Son alone could the Father see the redemption of His kingdom.

As “a priest upon His throne” Christ manifested His Father perfectly. (Zech. 6:13). When He took the cross on His shoulder, He was bent over because of His Father’s heaviness. In Christ’s love for lost humanity the smitten Father was revealed; then it is that we see the secret things of God that happened on the throne of heaven before the world was, and even more so since humanity fell.

In the Son’s perfect sacrifice of self could be the only antidote for any potential future rebellion, and all future desire to serve self and exalt self. In the cross of Christ is the one eternal cure for a disestablishment of God’s original perfect kingdom of self-forgetfulness. Once fully restored, Eden will again reign, and all who have their part in it will know the full, true existence of tenderest love and other-centeredness. Never a thought will arise to disturb the pervasive forgetfulness of self from any quarter of a vast universe of love, throughout the ceaseless millennia.

“And 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....
And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne.
And when He had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials....
And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;
Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.” (Rev. 5:6-12).

“Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet….
For He hath put all things under His feet….
And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.” (1Cor. 15:24-28).

“And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.
And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped Him that liveth for ever and ever.” (Rev. 5:13,14).

“And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” (Dan. 7:14).

“The God of heaven [shall] set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people… and it shall stand for ever.” (Dan. 2:44).

“And of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end.” (Is. 9:7).