Divine paradox - Chambers, Oswald
There is probably no more prominent feature in bible revelation than that of paradox. In revelation 5 the apostle john records that in his vision he was told the lion of the tribe of Judah . . . Hath prevailed to open the book and he says, lo, in the midst of the throne . . . Stood a lamb! We find a paradox of a similar nature in the book of Isaiah. The prophet has been looking for some great conquering army of the lord, and instead he sees a lonely figure, travelling in the greatness of his strength. If you take all the manifestations of god in the old testament you find them a mass of contradictions: now god is pictured as a man, now as a woman, now as a lonely hero, now as a suffering servant, and until we come to the revelation in the new testament these conflicting characteristics but add confusion to our conception of god. But immediately we see Jesus Christ, we find all the apparent contradictions blended in one unique person. Drummond in his natural law in the spiritual world,15 surely makes a fundamental blunder by that very statement, and surely the contention in butlers analogy16 is right that as there is a law in the natural world so there is also a law in the spiritual world, but that they are not the same laws, the one is the complement of the other. Unless this is born in mind by the student of scripture, and he learns to rely on the holy spirit to interpret the spiritual law as he relies on his own spirit to interpret the natural law, he will not only end in confusion, but will be in danger of disparaging the spiritual law in the bible universe in favour of the natural law in the common-sense universe.
And i saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book . . . Sealed with seven seals (revelation 5:1). I am considering the book in one aspect only, viz. , as containing a knowledge of the future, an understanding of the providence of god in the present, together with a grasp of the past. The deepest clamour of a mans nature once he is awake is to know the whence and whither of life whence came i? Why am i here? Where am i going? In all ages men have tried to pry into the secrets of the future, astrologers, necromancers, spiritualists, or whatever name you may call them by, have all tried to open the book, but without success, because it is a sealed book. I wept much, says john, because no one was found worthy to open the book, or to look thereon (RV).
Because of the sealed character of the book men become indifferent and cease to be exercised over the whence and whither of human destiny; they take no interest in bible revelation, and are amused at our earnest solicitation on their behalfit is all about something we cannot know, and there is no one who can tell us. Others say, there is nothing to know; not, we cannot know, but there is nothing to know, a man lives his life, then dies, and that is all there is. The psalmist refers to such men when he says, the fool hath said in his heart, there is no god. There are others whose sensitive spirit gives them an implicit sense that there is more than this life; there are hidden deeps in their heart that human life and its friendships can never satisfy. The scenes of earth, its sunsets and sunrises, its huge and thoughtful nights all awaken an elemental sadness which makes them wonder why they were born, and they feel keenly because the book is sealed and there is no one able to open it.
But would to god all men knew that there is someone who is worthy to open the book!
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. (revelation 5:5)
Who is this worthy one? If one may say it with reverence, realising the limitation of language, god himself had to be proved worthy to open the book. In the person of Jesus Christ god became man, he trod this earth with naked feet,
And wrought with human hands the creed of creeds in loveliness and perfect deeds.
Tennyson
By his holy life, by his moral integrity and supreme spiritual greatness, Jesus Christ proved that he was worthy to open the book. The book can be opened by only one hand, the pierced hand of the worthy one, our saviour Jesus christ. The childish idea that because god is great he can do anything, good or bad, right or wrong, and we must say nothing, is erroneous. The meaning of moral worth is that certain things are impossible to it: it is impossible for god to lie; it is impossible for jesus christ to contradict his own holiness or to become other than he is. The profound truth for us is that Jesus christ is the worthy one not because he was god incarnate, but because he was god incarnate on the human plane. Being made in the likeness of men (rv ) he accepted our limitations and lived on this earth a life of perfect holiness. Napoleon said of Jesus christ that he had succeeded in making of every human soul an appendage of his own why? Because he had the genius of holiness. There have been great military geniuses, intellectual giants, geniuses of statesmen, but these only exercise influence over a limited number of men; Jesus christ exercises unlimited sway over all men because he is the altogether worthy one.
And i beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne . . . Stood a lamb as it had been slain. (revelation 5:6)
Jesus Christ is the supreme sacrifice for the sin of the world; he is the lamb of god, which taketh away the sin of the world! How the death of Jesus looms all through the bible! It is through his death that we are made partakers of his life and can have gifted to us a pure heart, which he says is the condition for seeing god. Having . . . Seven eyes. The lamb is not only the supreme sacrifice for mans sin, he is the searcher of hearts, searching to the inmost recesses of mind and motive. It is not a curious searching, not an uncanny searching, but the deep wholesome searching the holy spirit gives in order to convict men of their sin and need of a saviour; then when they come to the cross, and through it accept deliverance from sin, Jesus Christ becomes the sovereign of their lives, they love him personally and passionately beyond all other loves of earth.
And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. (revelation 5:7).
Jesus Christ and he alone is able to satisfy the craving of the human heart to know the whence and whither of life. He enables men to understand that they have come into this life from a deep purpose in the heart of god; that the one thing they are here for is to get readjusted to god and become his lovers. And whither are we going? We are going to where the book of life is opened, and we enter into an effulgence of glory (RV ) we can only conceive of now at rare moments.
In the days of his flesh Jesus Christ exhibited this divine paradox of the lion and the lamb. He was the lion in majesty, rebuking the winds and demons: he was the lamb in meekness, who, when he was reviled, reviled not again. He was the lion in power,
Raising the dead: he was the lamb in patience who was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was the lion in authority, ye have heard that it hath been said, . . . But i say unto you . . . : he was the lamb in gentleness, suffer the little children to come unto me. . . . And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.
In our personal lives Jesus Christ proves himself to be all thishe is the lamb to expiate our sins, to lift us out of condemnation and plant within us his own heredity of holiness: he is the lion to rule over us, so that we gladly say, the government [of this life] shall be upon his shoulder. And what is true in individual life is to be true also in the universe at large. The time is coming when the lion of the tribe of Judah shall reign, and when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our lord, and of his Christ.
One remaining paradox in revelation 6:16 the wrath of the lamb is mentioned. We know what the wrath of a lion is like but the wrath of the lamb! It is beyond our conception. All one can say about it is that the wrath of god is the terrible obverse side of the love of god.