November 23, 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.52
The deepest reverence toward God and equality with God. Christ, when on earth, appeared full of holy reverence toward the Father. He paid worship to him, praying to him with postures of reverence: He “knelt down and prayed” (Luke 22:41). This became Christ as one who had taken on him the human nature, but at the same time he existed in the divine nature, so that his person was in every way equal to the person of the Father. God the Father has no attribute or perfection that the Son has not, in equal degree and equal glory.
Infinite worthiness of good and the greatest patience under sufferings of evil. He was perfectly innocent and deserved no suffering. He deserved nothing from God by any guilt of his own, and he deserved no ill from human beings. Yes, he was not only undeserving of suffering, but he was infinitely worthy—worthy of the infinite love of the Father, worthy of infinite and eternal happiness, and infinitely worthy of all possible esteem, love, and service from all peoples.
And yet he was perfectly patient under the greatest sufferings that ever were endured in this world: He “endured the cross, scorning its shame” (Heb. 12:2). He suffered nothing from his Father for his faults but for ours, and he suffered from humans not for his faults but for those things for which he was infinitely worthy of their love and honor, which made his patience the more wonderful and the more glorious: “How is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. ‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.’ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:20–24). There is no such coming together of innocence, worthiness, and patience under sufferings as in the person of Christ.
—Jonathan Edwards