November 22, 2019 – Revelation 5:5–6

“See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.…” Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain.
—Revelation 5:5–6

There meet in the person of Christ [other] diverse qualities that would have been thought incompatible in the same person.51
Infinite majesty and transcendent meekness. These again are two qualities that meet together in no other person but Christ. Meekness is a virtue proper only to the creature, for by it seems to be signified calmness and quietness arising from humility in changeable beings [who] are naturally liable to be put into a ruffle by the assaults of an injurious world. But Christ, being both God and human, has both majesty and meekness.
Christ was a person of infinite majesty. It is he who is spoken of in Psalm 45:3: “Gird your sword upon your side, O mighty one; clothe yourself with splendor and majesty.” It is he who is mighty, “who rides on the clouds” (68:4). It is he who is awesome in his sanctuary (68:35), who is “mightier than the breakers of the sea” (93:4), before whom a “fire goes … and consumes his foes on every side” (97:3); at whose presence the earth quakes and the hills melt (Nah. 1:5); who sits “above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers” (Isa. 40:22); who rebukes the sea and makes it dry (50:2); whose eyes are “like blazing fire” (Rev. 1:14); from whose presence and from whose power the wicked will be punished with everlasting destruction; who is “the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings” (1 Tim. 6:15); whose “kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and [whose] dominion endures through all generations” (Ps. 145:13).
And yet he was the most marvelous instance of meekness and humble quietness of spirit that ever was, agreeing with the prophecies of him: “See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey” (Matt. 21:5). And, agreeing with what Christ declares of himself: “I am gentle and humble in heart” (Matt. 11:29). And agreeing with what was seen in his behavior, for there never was such an instance seen on earth of a meek behavior under injuries and reproaches and toward enemies; “when they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats” (1 Peter 2:23). He had a wonderful spirit of forgiveness, was ready to forgive his worst enemies and [even] prayed for them. With what meekness he appeared in the ring of soldiers [who] were scorning and mocking him; he was silent and “was led like a lamb to the slaughter” (Isa. 53:7). Thus is Christ a lion in majesty and a lamb in meekness.
—Jonathan Edwards