VI

The Revelation of St. John implies the priestly and sacrificial character of Christian life and worship, and that the central point of these is to be found in the sacrifice of the heavenly sanctuary. In the vision of the worship of heaven, the imagery of which appears to have been taken from the worship of the Church on earth, the living creatures and the elders are depicted as worshipping the “Lamb standing, as though it had been slain,” that is, our Lord living and active after passing through death present in His slain but victorious Manhood, and praising Him because He has made men to be “a kingdom and priests”.

This same idea of the central action of our Lord in heaven is found in the First Epistle of St. John. “If any man sin,” it is there said, “we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.” This advocacy of our Lord is here referred to as a present work carried on by Him in His heavenly life and making His propitiation effective for Christians. As Bishop Westcott wrote:—

“Nothing is said of the manner of Christ’s pleading: that is a subject wholly beyond our present powers. It is enough that St. John represents it as the act of a Saviour still living and in a living relation with His people. His work for them continues as real as during His earthly life, though the conditions of it are changed. He is still acting personally in their behalf, and not only by the unexhausted and prevailing power of what He has once done. He Himself uses for His people the virtue of the work which He accomplished on earth.… The ‘propitiation’ itself is spoken of as something eternally valid and not as past.”