Are You Serious?!
At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. -Revelation 4:2-3, NIV
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. -Hebrews 4:16, NIV
But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. -Galatians 4:4-7, NIV
Revelation 4 and 5 is a mind-boggling glimpse into the throne room of God. All of the imagery is way out beyond what our earth-bound existence familiarizes us. Most beyond us, is the One sitting on the throne. So much so that John doesn’t even try to put words around Him. He is ineffable[i]. All of this adds up to a picture of majesty, power, glory, and wisdom beyond our wildest imaginations. It should push us out of the center of our tiny universe and into the vastness that is reality firmly in the grasp of a God who is impossible to fully comprehend. His sovereignty unquestioned should calm our anxieties and quiet our fears. His unsearchable wisdom unfolding history should erase our persistent questions of who is in charge and what the end of this story will be. His ‘otherness’ should squash our pride and topple our every idol. He is altogether too awesome for our biggest and brightest thoughts about Him.
Hebrews 4 and Galatians 4 tell us something else about this same mind blowing God. Hebrews 4 states that we can approach this very same throne, the one surrounded by creatures of magnificence which we cannot hope to see, with confidence. WHAT?! Confidence in the face of a Majesty which brings royal priestly angels to fall face down in worship? Yes, confidence. Not in ourselves but in Jesus our Great High Priest Who has opened the way for us to enter. Given the throne we are approaching, that is saying something beyond what we can comprehend. Confidence approaching the throne. But, then we add in Galatians 4 and if the picture doesn’t get even more mind bending. This indescribable One on the throne adopts us as children!? How can it be? We don’t just get to approach the throne with confidence, we get to do so as children. Seriously?! Of all that leaves us in awe-filled worship in Revelation 4, these twin realities amplify them over and over to our souls. And if we can catch but a measure of the privilege afforded to us, we will live in humble adoration of the One sitting on the throne of heaven for time and eternity.
[i] Not able to be described in words, for further definition, click here.
Bonus: Commentary Quotes on Revelation 4
“Thus John begins his unfolding of what he saw that was soon to take place by taking his beleaguered (and not always faithful) readers of chapters 2 and 3 into the throne room of the eternal God. But no picture of God himself was given; rather, John described the awesome splendor and majesty that surround God. The picture is intensely evocative- of God’s greatness and sovereignty; the only proper response, as one finds in heaven itself, is obeisance and worship. Surely the intent of this is to remind those who are about to suffer that God is nonetheless sovereign Lord of the universe.” – Robert H. Mounce
“Christians must experience God in his glorious splendor…” -Grant R. Osborne
“God has not abandoned the world, and it is indeed his world. He made all things and made them for his own purpose. John’s readers must not think that evil is in control. Evil is real. But the divine purpose stills stands.”- Leon Morris