Revelation 3:14-22 And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things said the Amen, the faithful and true witness… The name which the Lord assumes in addressing this Church is threefold, yet one — "the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God." The name "Amen" as here employed has its root in the Old Testament, where God is called "the God of truth," the God of the Verily, the God of Amen — not merely distinguishing Him from the "lying vanities" of the heathen and the phantom-gods of philosophy, but bringing into view the absolute truth of His nature and of all His attributes. We cannot but mark how supremely and absolutely, in assuming this name, Jesus claims to be what the Jehovah of the Old Testament was. Two successive steps may give us a glimpse of the meaning of this name as now assumed and worn by the Lord. In the first place, He Himself is true, and deserves our absolute trust. His compassions are true, His love is true, His word is true, His smile is true, yea, His very silence is true, even as He said to His disciples, "If it were not so, I would have told you." He does not say and unsay; He does not come and go; He is without variableness or shadow of turning. In the second place, He is the Amen, the Verily, to all that God has spoken. The ancient promises that had come down through thousands of years unfulfilled are fulfilled in Him, and that not in the letter merely, but in the inner spirit. The promises that still look to the future are in Him certain and sure, as hopes. And so with every word that God has spoken, whether promise or threatening. There is no may be or may not be about them; in Him they are all Amen. He is their full and sure accomplishment, even as He is the accomplishment of the past, Besides being the Amen, Jesus is to the Laodiceans "the faithful and true Witness." He is the Messenger and Revealer of the Father, who answers all the deep questions of the conscience and heart, as well as of the intellect, according to the ancient prophecy — "Behold, I have given Him for a Witness to the people." "I have manifested Thy name," He says to the Father, "unto the men whom Thou gavest me out of the world." It is essential to a witness that he have personal knowledge of that which he reports; and this Witness was in the bosom of the Father, and knows what is in His heart. As Witness He is "faithful and true." These two words are like the right hand and the left. As I conceive, they are not interchangeable; but each conveys its own distinct and special meaning. Taken together, they mark that He kept back nothing which the Father delivered unto Him, and that all He said might be relied upon to the last jot and tittle. Once more the Lord names Himself "the Beginning of the creation of God." We trace "the things that are" back and up to Jesus Christ; He is the uncaused cause of their being, their vital origin, "willing" them into existence; and the "increasing purpose" is but the gradual unfolding of the thought of His heart. It is the same truth that fills such words as these: "All things were made by Him," etc. "In Him (comprehended within the sphere of His being, power, and will) were all things created," etc. The grand thought is, that this glorious universe, whose origin lies back of human imagination, was brought into being (according to the will of the eternal Father) by our blessed Redeemer's creative power, and exists for His sake. (J. Culross, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; |
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