In Revelation 1:5 John refers to Jesus as: the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the prince of the kings of this world, but how should we understand these descriptions of our Lord? First of all the Faithful Witness, according to the Scriptures, is the Messiah (Psalm 89:35-37. His throne is established as a Faithful Witness in heaven, just as the sun and moon witness to God’s glory. God has given Jesus as a Witness to the people, as their Leader and Commander (Isaiah 55:3-4). Although his witness was rejected by men (John 3:11, 32), yet his witness is true (John 8:14-16). Nevertheless, some will receive his testimony (John 18:37), and when we embrace the Truth, we have the Witness in ourselves (1John 5:9-10).
Secondly, John’s phrase: the firstborn from the dead is a reference to Psalm 2 where Jesus, is declared to be the Messiah. Psalm 2 is a Messianic Psalm, and was sung at the coronation of nearly every king who succeeded David. Its first lines (Psalm 2:1-6) were said to be fulfilled in Jesus’ crucifixion in Acts 4:25-28, and the phrase “…the LORD hath said unto me, ‘Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee’ (Psalm 2:7) was fulfilled on the day Jesus was resurrected from the dead, and so says Paul (Colossians 1:18; 1Corinthians 15:20-23).
Finally, John writes in Revelation 1:5 that Jesus is the Prince of the kings of the earth. That is, he is speaking of Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords (1Timothy 6:15; Revelation 11:15, 18; 17:14; 19:16). In other words, the Messiah is higher than the kings of the earth, and God has raised him up to govern the world (cf. Psalm 89:20, 27). Jesus reigns in order to bring his enemies into submission to him (1Corinthians 15:25). In the Messianic Psalm 2, after he had been declared as Messiah at his resurrection (Psalm 2:7), the Father tells Jesus:
“Ask of me and I shall give you the heathen for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel. Be wise now therefore, O you kings: be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” (Psalm 2:8-12)
In Psalm 2:9 we are told the Messiah will “break them with a rod of iron” but this is modified in Revelation 2:27 to “he will rule them with a rod of iron.” Here the sense seems to be a ‘scepter of iron’ meaning to rule with impregnable power, governing the enemies of the Lord in a manner that cannot be successfully opposed, and in this manner, i.e. through the Gospel, the nations are successfully subdued.[1]
John then praises Jesus as the one who loved us by washing us from our sins through his own blood (i.e. his death, the cross), and has made us a kingdom of priests to God, our Father, and to him, i.e. Jesus “be glory and dominion forever” (Revelation 1:5-6; cf. Exodus 19:6).
By claiming that we are washed from our sins in the blood of Christ, John is declaring the establishment of the predicted New Covenant that God said he would make with his people. Jeremiah had predicted God would make such a covenant, which would be quite unlike the one he made under Moses (Jeremiah 31:31-33). Rather he would put his law within the hearts of men. Ezekiel describes it as washing away our uncleanness and changing our hearts from stone to flesh and giving us not only a new spirit, but God’s own Spirit to dwell within us (Ezekiel 36:25-27). Zechariah describes it as a great Fountain that opens for the House of David, indicating that the Fountain is for the disciples of Jesus, the Messiah, and this Fountain will wash away their sins (Zechariah 13:1). The cleansing, then, points to the coming of the Messiah, and Paul indicates that only his disciples will enter his Kingdom or Nation (1Corinthians 6:9-11).
According to John, Jesus has made us a kingdom of priests (Revelation 1:6; cf. 5:10; 20:6). Israel, especially the Levites, were called to be a kingdom or a nations of priests to God (Exodus 19:6). The Jews continued to be the priests of God until that responsibility was taken away from them when their Temple was destroyed in 70 AD. Once that was done two things were made clear, as far as men’s relationship to God was concerned. First, the Jews no longer had a Divine mandate to stand between God and the world. God rejected them, just as they had rejected him. Secondly, it became crystal clear that God had chosen another nation to be his priests, and that nation included both Jews and gentiles who submitted to Jesus as their Messiah. So, although believers were considered by God to be his priests together with national Jews before the Temple was destroyed (1Peter 2:5-9; Romans 12:1; cp. Exodus 19:6), it became clear to all the world after the Jewish War with Rome that this was no longer so. From that time forward, it was the Church alone (not the nation of the Jews) who had gone into all the world, representing God, and calling for repentance and submission to his will. The Church is the new Jerusalem (Revelation 21:1-2) come down out of heaven from God and all nations flow unto it (Isaiah 2:2).
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[1] See Barns’ Notes on Revelation 2:27
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