Meditating on Revelation 1 today, so here’s an atonement thread for your Monday evening: penal substitution & Christus victor in Rev. 1:5b-6.

“To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

1. Jesus loves us! Christ’s sacrificial, unconditional, unmerited love for us is the first attribute commended in this doxology and undergirds everything that follows.

2. Jesus has freed us from our sins (Christus Victor). He has released us from our enslavement to sin and death, loosing us from the power we were subjected to through his defeat of it,

3. by his blood! (Penal substitution.) Throughout the NT and Rev., we see that Jesus’ victory came precisely through His sacrificial death as our Substitute, the Lamb who was slain. He is the propitiation for our sins.

4. Christ has made us a kingdom of priests: we are freed from sin, made His people, and now serve Him in His reign, His kingdom that both has and will come. We persuade others to be united with Him and look forward to His restoration of all things.

5. All this is for His glory & dominion forever and ever!

So, Christ’s death is understood in John’s doxology in Rev 1:5-6 as providing propitiation for sins, forgiveness, and freedom. Through it He was/is both Substitute for sinners and Victor over sin, Satan, evil, and death.