Revelation: Worthy Is the Lamb (Revelation 5)


The Lamb is Revelation’s defining title for Christ. This lamb imagery is connected to the Old Testament book of Isaiah. The imagery is central to the prophecy of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53. There the future sacrifice for sin is pictured as a lamb being led to the slaughter. Jesus fulfilled this prophecy. He was the Lamb of God sacrificed for the sins of the world.

In the book of Revelation, this lamb metaphor has a double image. It tells us the slaughtered Lamb is coming a second time as the Word of God’s wrath to require the blood of all who oppose him (Revelation 6:16; 19:7, 9, 11-16). But Jesus Christ, the Lamb, first shed his
own blood. That is what makes him worthy to open the scroll and reveal the message of the book of Revelation. The angelic hosts of heaven praise the Lamb, saying he is worthy to open the book’s meaning because he was killed. With his blood he has “purchased people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).

shedding his own blood (Revelation 1;5; 5:9; 7:14; 12:11).



Was this Article Helpful ?  

Help us provide more content like this by giving today