How Triumphant Is the Triumphant Christ
part 2

John 3:16-17
Revelation 1:7
Isaiah 25:6-8

John 3: 16-17--For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

Introduction and Review

There is no doubt. God intends the salvation of the world. How successful will Jesus be in accomplishing what God intends? Do you recall what I said last Sunday about what Revelation says about the success rate of Jesus?

"Jesus will not lose. He will not lose anything He sets out to save."

Nowhere in all the New Testament is there a greater assurance of salvation than we find in many verses from Revelation. Jesus does not lose. The ultimately triumphant Christ sets out to save the Christians in the seven churches of Asia and, by the power of the Lamb of God, they are saved. The ultimately triumphant Christ sets out to save all the peoples and all the nations. If the ultimately triumphant Christ intends the salvation of all the nations and peoples of the Earth, who does Jesus in fact save?

There are at least five passages in Revelation that suggest that Jesus who cannot lose does in fact save all the peoples and nations. Theologically this is called Universal Salvation. These verses in Revelation are part of a wide stream of at least 29 other scripture lessons in the rest of the Bible that lean heavily in the same direction.

However, I also told you something else that Revelation says about Jesus:

"Revelation has numerous passages, especially Revelation 20:13-14, intense and agonizing passages, which make it terribly clear that every human being will be judged by their works. And that judgment will be harsh and decisive. Before the judgment seat of Christ few will be adjudged righteous enough to escape their doom"…in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. "

In texts such as this in Revelation, and in many other scripture lessons from the rest of the Bible, radical accountability is taught. Only some will be saved. Theologically, this is called Limited Salvation-entrance into heaven is limited. In Revelation the limit is defined by what you do. In Romans the limit is defined by what you believe. Nowhere in the New Testament will you find less assurance of salvation than you find in some texts in Revelation. Everyone, before the judgment seat of Christ, is…shaking in their boots.

Limited Salvation or Universal Salvation? What do you believe? How important is this question to you?

Limited or Universal Salvation? A Time When it Matters

It is extremely important to me when I am leading a funeral, especially when the funeral is for someone who is not an adult or who has not led a good life or who has not professed and lived faith in Jesus. Imagine that you are attending the funeral of your Uncle Peter. Uncle Peter was married for forty-two years to your Aunt Samantha. Aunt Samantha is a fundamentalist and when it came to religious matters she was very hard on Uncle Peter, who stridently refused to go to worship with her at that church he called, "hateful." Imagine the funeral for Uncle Peter at Aunt Samantha's "hateful" church. The tremors from the Pastor's words of condemnation feel like an earthquake. Finally Aunt Samantha has Uncle Peter where she wants him. In the center of the aisle. Too bad that he had to be rolled there, that he would not go there on his knees while he was alive. Too bad his fate is now sealed for eternity. Aunt Samantha's fire and brimstone pastor knows how to talk about hell. And that is exactly where you are headed, he tells his captive audience, if you don't believe what we believe at Aunt Samantha's church. This is Limited Salvation in an extreme form. Heaven is for the select elect who believe what they believe at Aunt Samantha's church. Universal Salvation, on the other hand, asks you to believe that putting up with Aunt Samantha for forty-two years earned Uncle Peter a good shot at heaven. Humor aside, it would be more accurate to say that Universal Salvation asks you to at least consider the possibility that the victory of the ultimately triumphant Christ includes Uncle Peter, because that is the way Jesus wants it.

Whenever I write a funeral service I have to decide whether to lean in the general direction of Limited Salvation or the general direction of Universal Salvation. For example, I would like to share with you a few paragraphs from a service I wrote about twenty years ago. Keep in mind, please, this common formulation of the doctrine of Limited Salvation: "Only those who are converted and confess faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord of their lives are saved and go to heaven." Therefore, those who are excluded from heaven have been said, by various theologians, churches and Christians, to include:

1. All babies, infants and children who die outside of Baptism

2. Everyone who has heard of Jesus and rejected him, including non-believers and believers from other religions, no matter what they have done with their lives.

3. Everyone who has never heard of Jesus.

When I am was the one who was called upon to lead the funeral service for Krystyna, a beautiful two month old who died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, there was no way, despite the leanings of some conservatives in my church, that my words would lean in the direction of Limited Salvation. Rather, the unlimited love of God, and the power of the Ultimately Triumphant Christ who never loses, inspire words like these:

Krystyna's Story

"The depth of our grief at the death of Krystyna is matched only by the breadth of our speculations and explanations as to all the hows and whys and reasons and purposes and meanings of this tragedy.

How did she die?
Why did she die?
What went wrong?
What did I do wrong?
What could I have done right?
Why did God let it happen?

Many of the answers we have heard and, let us be honest, many of the answers that have come into our minds and poured forth from our lips, are thoughtless speculation or cheap theology. Some of our answers do contain a grain of truth but let us all humbly confess that we all know almost nothing. All of our explanations in the face of such a tragedy are at best incomplete.

But something must be said, and so I wish to offer you a few things that I believe to be true.

A poet wrote, "No little child has ever come from God and stayed a brief while, returning again to the Father, without making glad the home, and leaving behind some trace of heaven. The family would count themselves poorer without those cunning caresses, that soft touch, that sudden smile. This short visit was not an incident. It was a benediction."

In the fourth chapter of II Kings is recorded a heart rending story of a woman whose only son died while sitting upon her lap. Her first action was to go to see God's prophet, Elisha. The first question he asked her was, "Is it well with the child?" He wanted her to focus attention on the child.

Though that is not our only concern, it ought to be our first concern. So much of our sorrow at a time of death is self pity. All of our thoughts turn inward. We find it almost impossible to think of anything but our own grief.

Is it well with Krystyna? Jesus, taking a small child in his arms, said, "Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven." Those words ring true to us. There is much else that we are uncertain about but we know that she possessed a little bit of heaven. We know that the child's new world is better than this earth, for it is a home of pure goodness and love. It is safe, lasting, secure and removed from peril. "

Caring for Krystyna's family and the church family and leading her funeral was one of the most painful experiences of my life. It was not a time to speculate on the limits of the capacity of Jesus to save. Rather, it was a time to believe in the desire and ability of Jesus to save.

And, if Krystyna possessed a little bit of heaven, then so did Issac, born into a community where all adults practiced Judaism; and so did Abraham, born into a tribe where all adults practiced Islam, and so did Arzme, born into a native village isolated from anything western, including missionaries, in the depths of the Amazon jungle.

Dialectical Images of Judgment and Mercy

We continue our study of Revelation and within that study we continue to find support for both ultimate judgment and ultimate mercy.

John of Patmos was given a vision from God. To receive this vision from him you have to see it in its entirety. You can't just focus on fragments and verses.

For example, you find in Revelation parallel images of God's judgment and God's mercy.

It is as if Heaven were upheld on two columns, judgment and mercy. It is John's way to take everything to its extreme. God's judgment is absolute. And God's mercy is absolute. One moment John is painting a terrifying picture of judgment that confronts all of us with our sin, including those Christians in the seven churches of Asia who might be looking for an easier way out than dying. Why do you think John included liars in his list of damnable sins? He was telling the Christians that they must not lie even if it cost them their lives. But the next moment, John is painting a picture of a mercy and a forgiveness that covers every sin and extends to everyone. Just as many liberal Christians do not like John's descriptions of judgment and hell, so many conservative Christians do not like what he says about mercy and heaven.

But a fact is a fact. In Revelation, John's Christ cannot be defeated. He is absolutely and infinitely triumphant. He cannot lose. Listen:

Revelation 1:7 Look, Jesus is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen. (See also Revelation 5:13 and 22:2)

Revelation 22:3: No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.

What does that mean, "No longer will there be any curse?" The curse refers to the curse of Adam by which sin entered the world. No more curse. No more sin leading to death.

There is someone out there who believes that Jesus cannot save them, that their life situation is so difficult, or their sin so grave, that there can be no salvation for them. Someone in this congregation is frightened by a decision you have made. It seems to be unredeemable. The book of Revelation says that your sin is already covered. Your life is already in God's hands. You have nothing to fear. And, if only you would believe this good news, you would have peace.

And, someone out there thinks they do not have to worry about God's judgment. Someone is living comfortably and securely in their own goodness, unconscious of how the sin of their lives impacts others. Someone else has confessed faith in Jesus and thinks they can therefore continue to behave badly. The book of Revelation says that you will stand accountable before the judgment seat of Christ and your life will be seen for exactly what it is. It would be far better for you were you to see the truth now.

Apparently it is all too easy for Christians who do not wish to see this second pillar of John's theology to ignore all of the passages that point towards absolute mercy. The evangelical writer of one commentary on Revelation, R. H. Mounce, manages that neat trick by simply deciding, arbitrarily, to take all the passages about absolute judgment literally and all the passages about absolute mercy as symbolic poetry. However, not only does that do great disservice to the text and its author, it also denies the critical fact that Christians in the seven churches of Asia who faced martyrdom needed to hear both messages, and to hear them in exactly the extreme form in which John presented them. In order to be faithful, even on to death, they had to be brutally reminded that they would be held accountable by Jesus for their actions. And they had to be assured that their salvation was absolutely certain because it did not rest on anything they did but only on Jesus.

For those of you who are not convinced that John intended to paint pictures of, absolute mercy, you might want to do some further Bible study. You may be surprised by how much better you understand Revelation after reading Isaiah. Listen to Isaiah's description of the last days and the inclusion of all peoples:

Isaiah 25:6-8: On this mountain the LORD Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine--the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken.

The God of Isaiah and the Jesus of Revelation intend to bring salvation to all nations and peoples. They will not be defeated. John's people in the Seven Churches of Asia do not need a God who is only partially accomplishes His plans. The only Jesus who will do is an ultimately triumphant Christ.

On the one hand, utter, absolute and devastating judgment, everyone accountable for what they have done-no one certain of their salvation. That is one theological pillar of John's letter to the seven Churches of Asia. Many people, including the protestant reformers, Luther and Calvin, and including most progressive Christians, reject Revelation because of its intense emphasis on judgment.

However, they have forgotten that Revelation also proclaims an ultimately triumphant mercy, a love that will not quit and that can not be defeated, with salvation extended to all. That is the second theological pillar of John's letter to the seven churches of Asia. Many Christians find such a possibility scandalous. And so they retreat from the radical love of John's God and miss one of the most important messages in all of scripture.

Judgment or mercy?
Works or faith?

"Wrong", John says in Revelation. It is:

Judgment and mercy
Works and faith

Both pillars are critical in John's construction of a new heaven and a new earth. Hold judgment and mercy in an appropriate tension and you will begin to understand the truth.

Lean to far one way and you get a picture of a vindictive God who is powerless to accomplish His entire plan and so inflicts infinite punishment on people for finite sins. John's God is not frustrated in his desire to save the entire creation. God does what God intends to do. Jesus saves what Jesus sets out to save. "For God so loved the world…"

Lean too far the other way and suddenly you have many paths to God. You don't take Jesus seriously, and Jesus is the most serious thing God has ever done. In Revelation there is only one path and only one savior, the ultimately triumphant Christ. If anyone is saved it is because of Jesus, no other. You must make your decision for Him.

So, when these two pillars stand side by side each holding its fair share of the weight of truth, what is the truth? The truth I believe-Jesus, and no other, is your savior. Jesus, and no other, is our Lord. Believe in Him. Obey Him. Trust Him always in all ways.

And everybody else? All the peoples? All the nations? I hope it is obvious by now that they are in God's hands. The babies born outside Baptism? The natives who have never heard the name Jesus? The Jews? The Muslims? They are in God's hands. They are not in my tiny hands or your limitedly loving hands. They are not even in the closed hands of the religious extremists of the Christian far right who write books about violent Christians and a war mad Jesus and who worship a mean god who is so small He could fit through the eye of a needle. The whole world is in God's hands and God's hands are big and they are open and they are power and they are love.

That is how, I believe, John teaches us about God. It was how he taught the second century Christians. Before you judge his method as inadequate, remember that he was writing to congregations of martyrs. It was no time for soft-spoken language. John told it the way it was. And you know something, with the world the way it is, and our lives the way they are, that is the way we need to hear God's word too.

Jesus is the ultimately triumphant Lord. He wipes every tear from every eye. He defeats every power of darkness. Our salvation is assured by the price he paid on the cross.

And, there will be hell to pay if we do not also pay the price. We will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and will be judged for what we have done. It is required of us that we say, "yes," to Jesus, and that we follow Him all the way to eternity.

I believe that is John's message. I believe that message. And when the day comes that I can believe it with all my heart, I will do anything for Jesus. It is unlikely that He will need me to die for Him. In this world of ours, truly living for Him will be strain enough.

May the Revelation of John continue to get so under our skins that the ultimately triumphant Christ is absolutely and undefeatably and unalterably the Lord and Savior of our lives.

If it is not so, I strongly suggest that you make it so. The time is short!

The revelation unfolds.

Amen.