In the book I’m working on I have a chapter on the subject of The Spiritual Scale to Lamb-Lion Splendor. I discuss the two high points of these two great words – Lamb and Lion – and what they should mean for us in our daily Christian walk. In the Gospel of John (1:36), John the Baptist tells his disciples to “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” Jesus is appearing for the first time to the people to begin his ministry of love, power, and redemption. The second passage is in Revelation 5:1-5. There we see the apostle John weeping because no one seems to be qualified or able to open the scrolls of Revelation held in the hand of Father God.
All of us weep, do we not ,even as the great Apostle, when we don’t know the future, are fearful of the present, and confused about our source of deliverance from the past! As Proverbs so well puts it, “Where there is no vision of God the people are destitute and waste away!” (Prov. 29:18). At the point of John’s greatest anxieties one of the elders steps forward and tells him, “Do not weep! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the root of David has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals!” The verbs used for both behold the Lamb and behold the Lion are Greek imperatives. This means they are not simply casual comments or helpful suggestions but firm commands.
From this brief little observation at the wonder of Scripture I see two applications that should mold us and grip us daily about the Lamb and the Lion of God. To behold and comprehend the releasing salvation of the Lamb and the revealing intentions of the Lion will produce in us the reigning purposes of the abundant life as we walk the earth! Our pattern of living encompasses four character transformations as a result of Lamb-Lion comprehension: 1) we hunger for more of Jesus, 2) we forget our own and the world’s trivial and irrelevant agendas, 3) we discover, lift up, carry, and endure the cross the Lord has chosen for us, and, then, 4) we follow increasingly in the steps of Jesus as He points them out and tells us what they mean!
Of course the Lamb and the Lion are both designations for the Lord Jesus. He is first the Lamb of God in the Father’s script for filling His coming kingdom with a unique race of people. As the Redeemer of all mankind who accepts and picks up His own cross, we must do likewise if we are to grasp and live out the thrilling purposes of His life and mission! Don’t we see clearly that the Lamb is a releaser and the Lion is a revealer. In Luke 4:16 the Lord Jesus preaches His first sermon at the synagogue in Nazareth. He announces that the Spirit of the Lord is upon Him 1) to share the Father’s great news to people in spiritual poverty, 2) to proclaim freedom to those in bondage, 3) to restore sight to those who are blind, 4) to release the oppressed from their fears, and 5) to explain how it can all happen immediately if they faith His message! How our hearts should be incredibly gratified that we have a Lamb that takes and is taking away our sin while lifting us out of our bondages to empty idols and hopeless pursuits! Jesus as the Lamb is our releaser!
In the same way, we have a Lion who in His heavenly power will unwrap the future for each of us as we need to know it and do so with the assurance that He is working all things for good in our life. Our simple key to experientially possess this explosive promise is to seek, discover, and yield to what the Lion reveals. The more we learn about the Lion’s loving and certain guarantees to us for our future and the overcomings of our past, the more we will control our present and live boldly in the strength of His pardon, peace, purpose, and power. “The righteous are as bold as a lion!” (Prov.28:1).
Our Lord clearly explained the power of His truth in John 8:32, “To increasingly know the truth about the past, the present, and the future is to be free from everything that would blind us to the splendor and brilliance of the Father!” (HDM). Jesus as the Lion is our revealer.
The meaning for us is clear. The Lord Jesus said that He was sending us into the world even as the Father has sent Him (John 17:18, 20:21). This means to me that we, too, are to live like a Lamb and think like a Lion. The disciple who hungers with a cross passion for this ambition will indeed become a releaser and a revealer of the Lamb and the Lion to anyone else who truly “beholds”! It always happens to the degree that they also hunger for more of the releasing Jesus and the wonders He is ready to reveal!
