Revelation 5:9

Revelation 5:9

Wherein consists the value of man as man? The text calls our attention to two salient points which are to be found in that valuation, two capacities that belong to us all.

I. Man can think; man can pray; man can live; man can will. That power of thought, that power of will, above all that capacity for affection, leads you to a truth of your nature which is witnessed in the Passion of the Lord. The Passion of Jesus was never more majestic, although it may have been more moving, than at the moment when He stood before the insolent impudence of Herod or the miserable cowardice of Pilate, speechless in the one case, speaking in the other; and as He spoke in the majesty of His sorrow He witnessed to the capacity of sovereignty in man. Man was born a king: "He hath made us kings unto God."

II. But the Passion witnessed to one point more. The Passion, as the world would phrase it, was a failure; it was the witness of the tremendous failure apparently of a matchless mission. Why? Because it was the consummation of that most fruitful and eloquent act of which man is capable: the act of sacrifice. It is a commonplace to repeat that by sacrifice you are born, by sacrifice you are educated, by sacrifice you succeed; but remember that to limit your success to the horizon of time is to cramp that capacity. The Passion appeared to be a failure because the reach of its achievement went further than the horizon of time. Man, in full view of the Passion, is reading the lesson of his great humanity; he is expounding the principle of self-sacrifice; he is acting as a priest to God. Act as a king, conquering self, ruling your passions; act as a priest, sacrifice self rather than give way to what is wrong; and you will ever see before you the witnessing picture of your Divine Redeemer, strengthening you by example and grace.

W. J. Knox-Little, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiii., p. 257.

References: Revelation 5:9; Revelation 5:10. Spurgeon, Sermons;vol. xxi., No. 1225; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. ii., p. 254; vol. v., p. 469. Revelation 6:2. Ibid.,vol. iii., p. 409; H. P. Liddon, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xii., p. 152.Revelation 6:3. Expositor,1st series, vol. iv., p. 297.