Revelation 5:9-10

Revelation 5:9-10. And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy, art thou to take the roll, and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slaughtered, and didst purchase to God in thy blood men out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation; and didst make them to our God a kingdom and priests, and they reign over the earth. Note again a change of tense. The Elders ‘sing,' not ‘sang.' The continuous worship of heaven is brought before us by the change. The song, as we have seen, is that of the twenty-four Elders alone. It is a ‘new' song, new in its substance, because it celebrates what no imagination of man could before have conceived, and no tongue have uttered, the glory of a complete redemption. The song is not sung only because the roll is opened: its main burden is the ground upon which the Lamb had been found worthy to open it. It consists of three parts: (i) ‘Thou wast slaughtered.' The sacrificial death of the Lamb is the prominent point; but this death is not necessarily confined to the death upon the cross. It includes the whole of the humiliation and self-sacrifice of Jesus. (2) ‘Thou didst purchase,' etc. Applying the rule of interpretation already more than once alluded to, these words must be compared with the larger and fuller expressions of chap. Revelation 14:3-4, where we have the addition of the words, ‘from the earth' and ‘from men.' It is thus not of redemption from death only by the sacrifice of the Lamb that the song before us speaks, but of the fact that, through that sacrifice, believers are taken out of the earth with all its evils, and are translated into the happiness of the heavenly and triumphant Church. Those purchased are gathered out of all the earth, universality being indicated by the mention of four sources from which they come, and they are purchased ‘in' the blood of the Lamb. Full force ought to be given to the preposition ‘in;' for here, as always, the ‘blood' of Christ is more than the blood shed at the moment of His death. It is the blood, the life won through death, in which He presents Himself before the throne of, God, with all His people in Him. ‘In' His blood they stand. ‘In' His life they live; and they appear before God not merely with their sins washed away, but planted into their Lord's life of perfect obedience and submission to the Father's will. They offer themselves as ‘living sacrifices' in Him who, having died once, dieth no more; and, not in virtue only of a righteousness outwardly imputed to them, but also of an inward and real life-union to Him in whom the Father is well pleased, they are ‘accepted' and ‘complete.' The force of this great truth is lost if we translate either ‘by the blood' or ‘with the blood.' (3) ‘And didst make them,' etc. (comp. chap. Revelation 1:6).

At the word ‘priests' there seems to be a pause, the following clause constituting a distinct proposition. Nor ought we to translate ‘upon,' but ‘over,' the earth. They are not upon the earth at all, and cannot therefore be said to be there ‘exerting those influences, promoting those principles, and dispensing those laws of righteousness, holiness, and peace which in reality rule all the best developments of life and history.' They are the Church triumphant in heaven. The ‘earth' has been their foe, and it is not now reformed by them: it is subdued beneath them. They have the position of Jesus Himself (comp. chap. Revelation 3:21); the final promise to ‘him that overcometh' is fulfilled to them; their victory is complete. Finally, we may notice the word ‘them' in Revelation 5:10. We might have expected ‘us' to be the word used by the triumphant Church as she speaks in the twenty-four Elders who represent her. But the Church views herself objectively; and in the song that she sings, turns her thoughts to Him who has redeemed her. The method of expression is not unlike that of John 17:3.