I Fell on My Face

The Apostle John was exiled to the island of Patmos “for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:9). It was there that the Spirit of God gave him a vision of the glorified Savior. “I saw…one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And…out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength” (Revelation 1: 13-16).

The image is not one of a Lamb, meek and mild, slain for the sins of mankind, i.e. the Christ of Calvary. Rather, here we have Christ, the eternal God and Judge. Jesus declares of himself, “I am the first and the last; I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, amen; and have the keys of hell and death” (Revelation 1:17-18). John had spent many days with the Jesus of Calvary, but when he saw this Jesus, he “fell at his feet as dead” (Revelation 1:17).

We would do well to see Christ in this light. We speak glibly of “putting our hand in the hand of the man from Galilee”, but don’t often consider standing before the “high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy” (Isaiah 57:15). That is a completely different picture of Christ, one that we are not comfortable with if we do not know him. But the picture reveals him as he is!

Others saw this striking glory of the living God and responded as John did. Ezekiel saw the transcendent glory of the eternal Father in a vision at the River Chebar during the Babylonian captivity. Upon taking it all in, he simply records “This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face” (Ezekiel 1:28).

Isaiah records “I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple”. He tells us in this vision “the seraphim…cried one to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:1-4). John, in his gospel, reveals that this was a vision of Christ prior to his incarnation (John 12:41).

Christ is indeed the Lamb of God slain for the sins of the world (John 1:29). But, the Apostle Paul warned the Athenians on Mars’ Hill that “God…now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31). As the resurrected Jesus said “I am alive for evermore, amen; and have the keys of hell and death.” You need not fear Jesus as Judge, if you know Jesus, the Lamb!