Updated Audio Download August 23, 2023

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Rev 1:6  And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Introduction

As always we will begin our study with the reminder that we are to “Read, hear, and keep the things that are written therein, for the time is at hand.”

Rev 1:3  Blessed [is] he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

“Hath made us kings and priests”

Rev 1:6  And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

So we come to verse six which states that Christ “hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” That phrase “He hath made us kings and priests” appears again just a couple of chapters later in this verse:

Rev 5:10  And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

Who is making this statement here in Revelation 5:10? While we will get to that again when we get to chapter five, we need to go ahead and look at who it is who making this claim. Here are the heavenly symbols of God’s elect who will “reign on earth [as] kings and priests.”

Rev 5:1  And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.
Rev 5:2  And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?
Rev 5:3  And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
Rev 5:4  And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
Rev 5:5  And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
Rev 5:6  And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
Rev 5:7  And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
Rev 5:8  And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four [and] twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
Rev 5:9  And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
Rev 5:10  And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

To whom then is the “us” in this verse referring?

Rev 1:6  And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

According to verses 8-9 of chapter 5, Revelation 1:6 is a reference to the four and twenty elders and to the four beasts which are in the midst of and round about the throne of God!

Where have we seen these creatures before? We first see them as the cherubim who guard the tree of life in the garden of Eden. They next appear with two wings, over the ark of the covenant and on the veil of the temple. The next place we see these same creatures is in the book of Ezekiel chapters 1 and 10. There they have four wings and four faces each. Finally we find them again in the fourth and fifth chapters of Revelation. Here we see them with six wings, and each beast has the same faces but those faces are on separate beasts, and now they are crying “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty…” We have much more to say about these creatures and their association with the seraphims of Isaiah 6, but we will reserve that discussion for our studies in chapters 4 and 5.

Suffice it to say for now that these four creatures, as well as the four and twenty elders around God’s throne, are symbolic of God’s “blessed and holy” elect who will really are “seated with Christ in the heavens, and who now rule with Christ within and will rule with Christ on the earth. Let’s put this sixth verse of chapter 1 with the sixth verse of chapter 20 and see what we can learn:

Rev 1:6  And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

That is the significance of “making us kings and priests.” As we grow in our understanding of the things of the spirit, we will see how it is that a lion can also be called a lamb, and how Christ’s elect can also be called both four creatures and four and twenty elders. Once we come to see that those two symbols typify Christ’s Christ, then we will begin to understand just how much Christ identifies with His Christ.

Now let’s consider what is revealed in the middle part of this verse: “… Unto God and his Father” Let’s look at this verse in the super literal Concordant Version:

Rev 1:6 and makes us a kingdom and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and might for the eons of the eons! Amen!”

That is right, Christ has a “God and a Father.” Nowhere in scripture is that order ever reversed, but it is repeated, just to make that clear:

2Co 11:31  The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.

Eph 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly [places] in Christ:

1Pe 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

So much for the doctrine that Christ and the Father are one and the same. The only way they are one and the same is as we are one with Christ.

Joh 17:22  And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

All things are of God, but all things are by Christ, just as all men are of Adam but all men are by Eve.

1Co 11:8  For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man.
1Co 11:9  Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
1Co 11:10  For this cause ought the woman to have power on [her] head because of the angels.
1Co 11:11  Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.
1Co 11:12  For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.

That is how we are to understand Christ’s relationship to His Father. Just as Adam came out of Christ, so Christ came out of His Father, and we are one with Christ just “as He is one with His Father.”

Rom 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

So while the holy spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual, and we understand that a physical lamb typifies the spiritual sacrifice of Christ, we still are brought to see that spiritual truth “by the things that are made.” That is the very function of the physical realm. How else can an invisible God communicate with His physical creation?

Now let’s look at the end of this verse.

“… to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

The eons of the eons

Let’s look at this part of this verse in the Concordant Version to see what is behind the words “for ever and ever.” We know that God is not so redundant as to say “for eternity and for eternity.” Here is what the Greek really says:

Rev 1:6 and makes us a kingdom and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and might for the eons of the eons! Amen!

We find this phrase “eons of the eons” a double plural, 21 times in the New Testament. Here are a few of those entries from the Concordant Version:

Rom 16:27 to the only, and wise God, through Christ Jesus, be glory for the eons of the eons. Amen!”

1Ti 1:17 Now to the King of the eons, the incorruptible, invisible, only, and wise God, be honor and glory for the eons of the eons! Amen!”

Rev 22:5 And night shall be no more, and they have no need of lamplight and sunlight, for the Lord God shall be illuminating them. And they shall be reigning for the eons of the eons.”

This phrase “for the eons of the eons” is always connected with God’s being glorified, simply because it is a reference to that time when Satan is in the process of being destroyed and our rebellions are all being destroyed and burned up at the same time. It refers both to that time when God’s elect rule the kingdoms of this world and to eonian judgment in the lake of fire. Those are the eons of the eons. “They shall be reigning for the eons of the eons.”

Eon of the eons

Only twice in the Concordant Version do we find the phrase “the eon of the eons.”

Dan 7:18 Yet the saints of the supremacies shall receive the kingdom and they will safeguard the kingdom unto the eon, even unto the eon of the eons.”

Eph 3:21 to Him be the glory in the ecclesia and in Christ Jesus for all the generations of the eon of the eons! Amen!

The holy of holies is the holiest of the holy places. That eon when our old man is destroyed is the best eon of the eons. All the eons are for us, and in Christ we experience all these eons. These scriptures bear this out:

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

2Co 4:15  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

The eon of the eons is that age which brings all enemies under Christ, and brings us to the consummation of the eons.

1Co 15:21  For since by man [came] death, by man [came] also the resurrection of the dead.
1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.
1Co 15:24  Then [cometh] the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
1Co 15:25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26  The last enemy [that] shall be destroyed [is] death.
1Co 15:27  For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under [him, it is] manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
1Co 15:28  And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

That eon, in which all things within us are subdued to Christ, is our “eon of the eons.” It is both within us and in those “things to come.”

The impending eon

“All are yours… things present or things to come” would certainly include the “impending eon.” The scriptures tell us that there is a “present wicked eon” and an “impending eon.” We find this phrase “impending eon” three times in the Concordant Version:

Mat 12:32 And whosoever may be saying a word against the Son of Mankind, it will be pardoned him, yet whoever may be saying aught against the holy spirit, it shall not be pardoned him, neither in this eon nor in that which is impending.

Eph 1:21 [The Christ] up over every sovereignty and authority and power and lordship, and every name that is named, not only in this eon, but also in that which is impending:

Heb 6:5 and tasting the ideal declaration of God, besides the powerful deeds of the impending eon,

It is only “in Christ” that we are seated with Christ in the heavens and experience “the powerful deeds of the impending eon.”

This eon

Whenever we see the phrase “this eon” it is understood to be “this present wicked eon.” For example:

1Co 2:6 Yet wisdom are we speaking among the mature, yet a wisdom not of this eon, neither of the chief men of this eon, who are being discarded,

2Co 4:4 in whom the god of this eon blinds the apprehensions of the unbelieving so that the illumination of the evangel of the glory of Christ, Who is the Image of the invisible God, does not irradiate them.”

Gal 1:4 Who gives Himself for our sins, so that He might extricate us out of the present wicked eon, according to the will of our God and Father,

Tit 2:12 training us that, disowning irreverence and worldly desires, we should be living sanely and justly and devoutly in the current eon,

The phrase ‘this eon’ invariably refers to the time we all spend as children of disobedience:

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

As mentioned above, it is only in Christ that we can, while yet in “this wicked eon”, taste “the powerful deeds of the impending eon”, and declare that “sin no longer has dominion over us.”

Rev 1:6  And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him [be] glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

We have seen that, in Christ we are made kings and priests for the purpose of being God’s channel for the salvation of all men of all time. We have been given to know that we are kings and priests to Christ’s ‘God and Father, to whom we give all the glory’ and all the dominion for all the time we rule, both this world and all the time we rule and judge angels:

1Co 6:2  Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co 6:3  Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?

That is for the ‘eons of the eons.’ In Christ, whose “words never pass away,” and who “is, was, and who will be,” we as Christ’s Christ, are given dominion over in in this age (Rom 6:14). This is how we are even now tasting the impending eon.

Eph 1:21 [The Christ] up over every sovereignty and authority and power and lordship, and every name that is named, not only in this eon, but also in that which is impending:

Heb 6:5 and tasting the ideal declaration of God, besides the powerful deeds of the impending eon,

Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.