Nothing can be compared to the ‘marriage’ between Jesus Christ and His Church. The typology can make something clear to us, like the marriage between Rebecca and Isaac, and Asenath and Joseph who became ruler over the whole of Egypt on marrying Asenath, and receives the title: ‘Zaphenath-Paneah’: ‘Saviour of the world’!1 Zipporah and Moses, Ruth and Boaz, but the height and the depth of Christ’s love for His bride is unfathomable. This marriage implies conformity to the Son. Paul explained in Romans 8:29 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren” and in Philippians 3:10 and 20-21: “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead…For our citizenship is in Heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His Glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” Being ‘married’ to Jesus means becoming a housemate of God and partaking of the divine nature, being completely absorbed into His Glory. Revelation 21:2 and 10-11 “And I saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband…the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down out of Heaven from God, having the Glory of God.” The New Jerusalem is God’s dwelling- place, containing the ‘corporeality’ of God as it were, not built by the hands of men, but by the Lord Himself, as Eve is built from Adam, in perfect communion and unity with Him.2 This is incomprehensible glory. His love is made perfect in this ‘marriage’ of the Lamb to His Church. He has died on the cross as a martyr for her. He has purified and sanctified her by the Holy Spirit during the long time of waiting and engagement, and cared for her in times of persecution and misery. He has forgiven her seventy times seven,3 when she committed all kinds of sins.
John is so overwhelmed by this vision of the future that an ‘incident’ takes place. He wants to worship the angel who shows him all this! The frightened angel cries out: ‘No, no, not that! I am also simply a co-servant of yours, John, and of everyone who belongs to Jesus.’ Even the mightiest manifestations of celestial creatures, pure and holy, are not to be worshipped. They also cannot mediate between man and God. This is also true of dead people, such as Mary, the mother of Jesus and Roman Catholic so-called ‘saints’. There is no other mediator between God and man, than Jesus Christ. “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all.”1 Timothy 1:5. Whoever dies in Jesus is blessed and their deeds follow them.4 The worship of redeemed people or of angels is clearly forbidden. “These are the mighty words of God, which I am bringing you,” the angel had said. “That is what you may trust in, and you may pray to the Father and the Son, and the Spirit will come to your assistance in that respect.”5 The angel seems to be saying: ‘The words I am bringing you, which I may speak to you, are not my words, but they are prophetic words God has entrusted me with. The Spirit who breathes out the prophetic word is the testimony of Jesus. ‘For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’ I, as an angel, am just the servant of you, human beings. You, John, and your brothers and sisters throughout the centuries and from everywhere in the whole world have the ‘testimony of Jesus’. You have been predestined, called, justified, glorified people, human beings! Worship God!’ The Bible, God’s Word, breathes out Christ. ‘The Scriptures testify of Me,’ He says.6 There is where we find Jesus, and when we have found Him (or rather, when He has found us, rebellious creatures) and when we have accepted Him, by His grace, the ‘testimony of Jesus’ also emanates from us. The ‘prophetic words’ we speak are then also loaded with Christ. To prophecy – Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:3 – is “…one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation.” Then it can also be said of us, that it is the ‘testimony of Jesus’ that fills our ‘prophetic’ speaking and preaching and teaching by Holy Spirit. The Word of God, the Word of God made flesh, the Spirit of God and the redeemed, born-again people of God: they all point to Christ, and Christ is of God.
• To have and hold and keep the ‘testimony of Jesus’ also means having and holding the testimony of the ‘revelation of Jesus’, and thus also keeping and holding the content of ‘the Book of Revelation’.
• The expression reminds us of what the angel says later, when he says again: “Do not worship me! I am a co-servant of you, and of your brethren, the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book; worship God!”7
Bible References:
1.Genesis 41:44–45 2.Revelation 21 3.Matthew 18:21–22 4.Revelation 14:13 5.Romans 8:26–27 6.John 5:39 7.Revelation 22:9
