Who would not be as terrified as John at such an appearance? Who would not fear when realising that eternal judgment was in His hands? We shall all die and stand in the glaring light, brighter than the sun.1 John was exiled to the isle of Patmos because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. His life was completely at the Lord’s service, even to the point of personal suffering. He had seen Jesus on many occasions and in many ways. He saw Him as an ordinary man, walking among the people. He saw Him being humiliated. Jesus had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him2—He was disfigured through torture, beatings and piercings. John had also seen Him on the Mount of Transfiguration, where His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.3 He saw Him risen from the dead—resurrected with His new, everlasting body, with which He entered eternity. John had never before seen Him like this however. He who loved Jesus, who reclined next to Him at the Last Supper, who had looked after Mary, His mother, now fell at His feet as though dead. And then something wonderful happened. Jesus bent over and put His right hand upon His old friend John. Then he very reassuringly told John not to be afraid. He basically said: ‘John, it’s Me! Don’t be afraid, even though I now appear in My divine glory. Yes, I am the First and the Last,4 the Eternal One, and I know that no one can see God and live, but I am the Living One and I give life to whom I please. John, it is really Me. You saw Me die on the cross. I was dead, but I rose from the dead and I am alive from aeon to aeon, from time till eternity, and I have the keys, both of death and of Hades. Do not be afraid!’
• Often, when Heavenly glory becomes visible to mortal, sinful human beings, they are told: “Do not be afraid!”5 However much we are—just at that moment—aware of our sins, we can know, like Peter6 that, when God’s light shines upon us, He is a God of mercy and grace.7
• The word used here for death in Greek is ‘thanatos’; for the grave: ‘Hades’. Greek uses ‘gehenna’ for hell.8 Hades is not the same as hell. The word ‘Hades’ (Hebrew: ‘sheol’) occurs in Matthew 11:23; 16:18; Luke 16:23 (in the story of the rich man and poor Lazarus); Acts 2:27 (a quotation from Psalm 16:10!) and 31, and 1 Corinthians 15:55: “Death, where is your sting?” (at least in some manuscripts). Revelation 20:14 does not say that hell is cast into the lake of fire, but that death and Hades are.
Bible References:
1.Acts 26:13 2.Isaiah 53:1–3 3.Matthew 17:2 4.Cf. Isaiah 44:6; 48:12–13 5.Genesis 15:1, 21:17, 26:24; Exodus 20:20; Judges 6:23; Isaiah 6:5–7; Daniel 10:12, 19; Luke1:13, 30; Acts 27:23–24; also Matthew 14:27; John 6:20 6.Luke 5:8 7.Psalm 103 8.Matthew 5:22, 29–30, 10:28, 18:9, 23:15 and 33 and James 3:6; Mark 9:42–48 and Luke 12:5
