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5 And [kai] from [apo] Jesus [Iesous] Christ, [Christos] who is
the faithful [pistos]
witness, [martus] and
the first begotten [prototokos] of [ek] the dead, [nekros] and [kai] the prince [archon] of the kings [basileus] of the earth. [ge] Unto him that loved [agapao]
us, [hemas] and [kai] washed [louo] us [hemas] from [apo] our [hemon] sins [hamartia] in [en] his own [autos] blood, [haima]
6 And [kai] hath made [poieo] us [hemas] kings [basileus] and [kai] priests [hiereus] unto God [theos] and [kai] his [autos] Father; [pater] to him [autos] be glory [doxa] and [kai] dominion [kratos] for [eis] ever [aion] and ever. [aion]
Amen. [amen]KJV-Interlinear
5 and from Jesus Christ, the
faithful witness, the first-born of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the
earth. To Him who loves us, and released us from our sins by His blood,
6 and He has made us to be a
kingdom, priests to His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion
forever and ever. Amen.NASB
The thread of these first five verses and ending in
the sixth verse is, priority.Priority in your life.
You life does not have to be dull wimpy preacher
boy stuff.Your life in doctrine is
actually the opposite.You are the best
at whatever it is you do.If you are in
sports, you do your best to defeat your opponent, but of course not by
cheating.But in football for example,
you hit harder, run faster, practice more than the other guy and so forth.
In the sciences you maintain objectivity and
explore all options.In the military you
fight to win obviously.In business you
think out your policies and market as much as possible, think things through
better than the next guy, and so forth.If you dance you float like no one else.You know the best jokes, have the greatest sense of humor, are relaxed
in your life, you aren't offended easily.You ignore the pettiness that might surround you.
All this because you have
recognized the importance of Bible doctrine in your life, as these first five
verses spell out.
Notice that this book doesn't begin with all the
dragons, and mystical numbers.Doesn't begin with all the curses and plagues and judgments.Instead it begins with the importance of
Bible doctrine, its source and how you should perceive it, learn it, and
possess it.
From Jesus Christ comes
all things.God the Father has given all
things to Jesus Christ to distribute as He pleases.And to us He gives grace, His policy for
human history.
He is the first born from the dead.He was identified with us in our sin and
death when He went to the Cross and paid the price for sin and death in our
place.Death is a separation from all
things.Spiritual death is a separation
from God.Physical death is a separation
from the human body in this life.
Christ went to the Cross and was resurrected from
the dead to become the first of many who will arise later in history.The next resurrection will occur at the
rapture of the Church, when all those believers in this Church Age will be
raised from the dead, or if still alive, will be snatched up into the air,
changing instantaneously into their resurrection bodies.See the resurrection sequence chart on the web
site.
So Christ being the first born from the dead,
defeating death and reversing for us the opportunity of regaining a
relationship with God, is also the ruler of the
earth.Jesus Christ controls history.
The earth advances through history at His will.Without interfering with our individual decision rights, Christ, knowing
all that we will think and do, places us in the right point of history which
benefits each of us as well as all of human history.
He loves us so much, He loved the creation He made
so much, that he provided us with a way out of the misery that we got ourselves
into.He went to the Cross and paid for
our sins with His blood.And this is not
His literal blood, because Jesus Christ did not bleed to death on the Cross.His judgment and spiritual death occurred
during that three hours of screaming in total darkness, from noon until three-o’clock,
and He was very much physically alive during that time.Only after judgment had occurred and was
completed, did Jesus die physically.
As a result, He has made us priests. A priest is
one who has access directly to God.Though there are many people on earth that give themselves this title,
it is phony and not real.Man cannot
make himself into a priest.Man cannot
grant another man the title of priest.Only God can give this title.
And He has made all believers in this Church Age
into a kingdom of priests.Now, we are
not only royal family, but we are priests as well.And with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit,
actually we have the indwelling of all three members of the trinity, we through
fellowship, have direct access to God.
Notice also that credit and glory does not go to
us, but to God alone.For He alone has
control over history and all of creation, despite what man or angel might want
to think to the contrary.