To Him...

John the Revelator provides a threefold description of Jesus as the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Then, he describes three works of Jesus: He loves us, he has freed us, and he has made us a kingdom.

Do we live as though we believe these three truths?

• He loves us. Yes, God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, but he also loves us in the present. He is even now interceding for us (Romans 8.34), so that we can approach the Father with confidence.
• He has freed us. Past tense. It has been accomplished. In Jesus' own words, “It is finished” (John 19.30). So many of us cannot grasp that freedom. Fixating on things which bind us, we fail to focus our minds on Christ. Remember, “It is for freedom that Christ set us free” (Galatians 5.1).
• He has made us a kingdom. In this kingdom we are priests to his God and Father. Why priests? To offer up the spiritual sacrifices: prayer and praise, a broken heart and contrite spirit, and our very selves as living sacrifices, acceptable to God.

Praise be to Jesus, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth! To him be glory and dominion forever and ever!