The Wednesday Word ~ 12 October, 2022 A.D.

 Jesus: The Amen

by D. G. Miles McKee
 

“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning (origin) of the creation of God“ (Revelation 3:14). Notice how Christ is designated as ‘the Amen’.  When we say, “Amen” as someone prays, we are saying, “So let it be.”  By adding our ‘Amen’, we are identifying with and entering into the petition that has just been made.  When God says ‘Amen’, however, He is saying, “And so it shall be.”  He is the God of truth and faithfulness. He is the ultimate Amen.  When He says something will happen, the mere fact that He has said it guarantees the matter.  He is the guarantor of His word.  He is the One who cannot lie (Titus 1:2).  He is the One with all the power necessary to bring His word to pass.  That which God declares will, therefore, take place because He is the Amen. Yes, Jesus is the Amen.  The root meaning of ‘Amen’ in Hebrew has to do with faithfulness and includes the ideas of 'nourishing and making strong' or 'truth'.  In fact, God is designated, in Isaiah 65:16 as “the God of truth,” literally, “the God of Amen.” It is of no surprise, then, that Jesus used the double amen or ‘verily’ throughout the Gospel of John.  Remember how He said to Nicodemus, “Verily, verily I say unto you except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” Literally, what Jesus said was, “Amen, Amen, I say unto you.”Charles Alexander observes, “It must have struck Nicodemus like a thunderbolt to hear the Saviour declare (with all the solemnity of one speaking from the throne of God,) “Amen, amen, I say unto thee, except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

He further states that, “John is the only gospel writer to use the double “verily” or “amen”, He uses it with great frequency. The double Amen declares that the one who speaks is Himself the Amen, the conclusion of all things, the only truth, the possessor of all wisdom, the full and final authority who speaks from above.’ -Charles Alexander: 'The Spiritual Application of John’s Gospel,' Chapter 7

 Notice how Jesus reversed the accepted order of speech.  Most people employing the word ‘amen’ add it to the end of a sentence, but Christ, in John’s gospel, uses it at the very beginning.  He is both the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega, of divine revelation.  He is the Amen of the will of God, the One who fulfilled the eternal purposes perfectly and entirely.  It is in Christ Jesus that we see the faithful and truthful fulfillment of the promises of God.  Beginning with Genesis 3:15, God promised the defeat of the serpent (Satan) by the seed of the woman. Through successive generations, many additional promises were given concerning the coming seed, the great Deliverer of the people of God.  Now in Christ, these promises have been faithfully fulfilled. He is the Amen, the One who confirms that God is the God of truth and faithfulness. After the resurrection and ascension, we discover the Lord Jesus bearing this same name, “The Amen” — ‘the God of Truth’ when He presents Himself to the Laodicean Church. Let’s read it again, “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning (origin) of the creation of God" (Revelation 3:14). Jesus declares Himself to be the Amen, the faithful “God of Truth.” His words are steeped with the same divine authority and persuasiveness as those of Yahweh because Jesus and Yahweh are One and the same. Christ Jesus has demonstrated the character of God and has faithfully and truthfully fulfilled the promises of God.  That is why we read in 2 Corinthians 1:20, “For all the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” Many names are given to Jesus, for example, The Light of the World, The Bread of life, The I Am, The Christ, The Good Shepherd, The Chief Shepherd, the Resurrection and the Life, and so on and so forth.  Each one of them is helpful as each name tells us something additional about His wonderful character and identity.  Jesus, however, is greater than the sum of all His names.  He is beyond comprehension. Although He is the very depth of the revelation of God, we find ourselves still paddling on the shoreline of comprehension when we could be swimming in the unfathomable ocean of the depths of Christ. His names are an inexhaustible mine of untold treasures. May we be given the grace to dive for riches out of the depth of the reserves of His names.  May we grasp more clearly who it is who is our Master, Lord and God. He is the AMEN! And that’s the Gospel Truth!

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