And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
The New Song, Rev 5:9-13
9. And they sung ] Should be they sing. It may be only an historic present, but perhaps, though to the Seer the song of adoration appeared to begin now, and to stop in time to let other voices be heard, he means to intimate that in fact their adoration is continued to eternity. See on Rev 4:9-10.
and hast redeemed ] The word rendered “redeemed” means simply “bought,” as it is rendered in 1Co 6:20, &c.: it does not express that the effect of the purchase was to restore those bought either to their rightful owner, or to liberty, though of course both are true, but all that this text expresses, is, that Christ has bought us, and that we now belong to His Father.
us ] Should be omitted. The elders probably represent the whole multitude of the redeemed, but they are not here said to belong to their number, and the living creatures certainly do not. The true reading is, “Thou wast slain, and hast purchased to God by Thy Blood out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nations, and hast made them unto our God a kingdom and priests, and they [shall] reign upon the earth.”
to God ] Notice that the phrase is the exact reverse of some lax modern language on the Atonement, which speaks as if the Son redeemed men from the Father. To say that Christ redeemed men from God’s wrath may be justified (e.g. by Gal 3:13); but even that mode of expression is not exactly Scriptural. The metaphor of a ransom, which is frequent in Scripture, must not be pressed.
out of every kindred ] The first of many indications in this Book of the catholicity of the Church: of course, a conclusive refutation of the theories (see on Rev 2:2) which ascribe to this Book a controversial anti-Pauline purpose, and a spirit of Jewish exclusiveness. There is really hardly anything in St Paul as strong as this or Rev 7:9.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And they sung a new song – Compare Rev 14:3. New in the sense that it is a song consequent on redemption, and distinguished therefore from the songs sung in heaven before the work of redemption was consummated. We may suppose that songs of adoration have always been sung in heaven; we know that the praises of God were celebrated by the angelic choirs when the foundations of the earth were laid Job 38:7; but the song of redemption was a different song, and is one that would never have been sung there if man had not fallen, and if the Redeemer had not died. This song strikes notes which the ether songs do not strike, and refers to glories of the divine character which, but for the work of redemption, would not have been brought into view. In this sense the song was new; it will continue to be new in the sense that it will be sung afresh as redeemed million continue to ascend to heaven. Compare Psa 40:3; Psa 96:1; Psa 144:9; Isa 42:10.
Thou art worthy to take the book, … – This was the occasion or ground of the new song, that by his coming and death he had acquired a right to approach where no other one could approach, and to do what no other one could do.
For thou wast slain – The language here is such as would be appropriate to a lamb slain as a sacrifice. The idea is, that the fact that he was thus slain constituted the ground of his worthiness to open the book. It could not be meant that there was in him no other ground of worthiness, but that this was what was most conspicuous. It is just the outburst of the grateful feeling resulting from redemption, that he who has died to save the soul is worthy of all honor, and is suited to accomplish what no other being in the universe can do. However this may appear to the inhabitants of other worlds, or however it may appear to the dwellers on the earth who have no interest in the work of redemption, yet all who are redeemed will agree in the sentiment that He who has ransomed them with his blood has performed a work to do which every other being was incompetent, and that now all honor in heaven and on earth may appropriately be conferred on him.
And hast redeemed us – The word used here – agorazo – means properly to purchase, to buy; and is thus employed to denote redemption, because redemption was accomplished by the payment of a price. On the meaning of the word, see the notes on 2Pe 2:1.
To God – That is, so that we become his, and are to be henceforward regarded as such; or so that he might possess us as his own. See the notes on 2Co 5:15. This is the true nature of redemption, that by the price paid we are rescued from the servitude of Satan, and are henceforth to regard ourselves as belonging unto God.
By thy blood – See the notes on Act 20:28. This is such language as they use who believe in the doctrine of the atonement, and is such as would be used by them alone. It would not be employed by those who believe that Christ was a mere martyr, or that he lived and died merely as a teacher of morality. If he was truly an atoning sacrifice, the language is full of meaning; if not, it has no significance and could not be understood.
Out of every kindred – Literally, of every tribe – phules. The word tribe means properly a comparatively small division or class of people associated together (Prof. Stuart). It refers to a family, or race, having a common ancestor, and usually associated or banded together – as one of the tribes of Israel; a tribe of Indians; a tribe of plants; a tribe of animals, etc. This is such language as a Jew would use, denoting one of the smaller divisions that made up a nation of people; and the meaning would seem to be, that it will be found ultimately to be true that the redeemed will have been taken from all such minor divisions of the human family – not only from the different nations but from the smaller divisions of those nations. This can only be true from the fact that the knowledge of the true religion will yet be diffused among all those smaller portions of the human race; that is, that its diffusion will be universal.
And tongue – People speaking all languages. The word used here would seem to denote a division of the human family larger than a tribe, but smaller than a nation. It was formerly a fact that a nation might be made up of those who spoke many different languages – as, for example, the Assyrian, the Babylonian, or the Roman nations. Compare Dan 3:29; Dan 4:1. The meaning here is, that no matter what language the component parts of the nations speak, the gospel will be conveyed to them, and in their own tongue they will learn the wonderful works of God. Compare Act 2:8-11.
And people – The word used here – laos – properly denotes a people considered as a mass, made up of smaller divisions – as an association of smaller bodies – or as a multitude of such bodies united together. It is distinguished from another word commonly applied to a people – demos – for that is applied to a community of free citizens, considered as on a level, or without reference to any minor divisions or distinctions. The words used here would apply to an army, considered as made up of regiments, battalions, or tribes; to a mass-meeting, made up of societies of different trades or professions; to a nation, made up of different associated communities, etc. It denotes a larger body of people than the previous words; and the idea is, that no matter of what people or nation, considered as made up of such separate portions, one may be, he will not be excluded from the blessings of redemption. The sense would be well expressed, by saying, for instance, that there will be found there those of the Gaelic race, the Celtic, the Anglo-Saxon, the Mongolian, the African, etc.
And nation – Ethnous. A word of still larger signification; the people in a still wider sense; a people or nation considered as distinct from all others. The word would embrace all who come under one sovereignty or rule; as, for example, the British nation, however many rumor tribes there may be; however many different languages may be spoken; and however many separate people there may be – as the Anglo-Saxon, the Scottish, the Irish, the people of Hindustan, of Labrador, of New South Wales, etc. The words used here by John would together denote nations of every kind, great and small; and the sense is, that the blessings of redemption will be extended to all parts of the earth.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 9. A new song] Composed on the matters and blessings of the Gospel, which was just now opened on earth. But new song may signify a most excellent song; and by this the Gospel and its blessings are probably signified. The Gospel is called a new song, Ps 96:1. And perhaps there is an allusion in the harps here to Ps 144:9: I will sing a NEW SONG unto thee, O God: upon a PSALTERY, and an INSTRUMENT of TEN STRINGS, c. The same form of speech is found, Isa 42:10: Sing unto the Lord a NEW SONG, c. and there the prophet seems to have the Gospel dispensation particularly in view.
Thou-hast redeemed us to God – out of every – nation] It appears, therefore, that the living creatures and the elders represent the aggregate of the followers of God or the Christian Church in all nations, and among all kinds of people, and perhaps through the whole compass of time: and all these are said to be redeemed by Christ’s blood, plainly showing that his life was a sacrificial offering for the sins of mankind.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And they sung a new song: by a new song is either to be understood an excellent song, (for new songs are usually most valued), or (which pleaseth me best) new as to the matter of it; for the servants of God under the Old Testament could not bless God for the actual redemption of man by the blood of Christ, but only rejoice in hope, embracing the promises seen afar off by the eye of faith.
Saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; they acknowledge Christ worthy to be intrusted with his church, and the revelations of the counsels of God, with relation to it, to open them.
For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us, &c.; because he had redeemed his church, scattered over all the world, from sin, death, and hell, unto God, to serve him, and to live for ever with him, and that with no less price than his own blood; Wherefore (as the apostle tells us, Phi 2:9) God hath exalted him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. sungGreek, “sing”:it is their blessed occupation continually. The theme of redemptionis ever new, ever suggesting fresh thoughts of praise, embodied inthe “new song.”
us to GodSo manuscriptB, Coptic, Vulgate, and CYPRIAN.But A omits “us”: and Aleph reads instead, “toour God.”
out ofthe presentelection-church gathered out of the world, as distinguishedfrom the peoples gathered to Christ as the subjects, not of anelection, but of a general and world-wide conversion of all nations.
kindred . . . tongue . . .people . . . nationThe number four marks world-wideextension: the four quarters of the world. For “kindred,”translate as Greek, “tribe.” This term and “people”are usually restricted to Israel: “tongue and nation”to the Gentiles (Rev 7:9;Rev 11:9; Rev 13:7,the oldest reading; Re 14:6).Thus there is here marked the election-Church gathered from Jews andGentiles. In Re 10:11, for”tribes,” we find among the four terms “kings”;in Re 17:15, “multitudes.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they sung a new song,…. Upon a new occasion and subject, redemption by the blood of the Lamb, and his worthiness to open the sealed book; and in distinction from the old song of Moses and the children of Israel at the Red sea; and this was a most famous and excellent song, an unheard of one, and which none could learn, or sing, but the redeemed of the Lamb:
saying, thou art worthy to take the book, and open the seals thereof. The Arabic version reads, “thou, O Lamb”; the reasons why they ascribe such fitness, ability, and dignity to him, are as follow:
for thou wast slain: by men, and for the sins of men; whereby, as he became worthy in his priestly office to take away the sins of his people, and to have all the glory of their salvation, and, in his kingly office, to have all power and authority, and to be exalted above every name, so, in his prophetic office, to have perfect knowledge, as man and Mediator, of all the future events that were to befall his church and people, and to make them known, and fulfil them:
and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; this shows, that as the four living creatures, and four and twenty elders, were not angels, so they were not representatives of the Jewish church; or the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament; not even the apostles of the New; for they were all Jews, and could not be said to be redeemed out of every tongue, nation, and people; and also that not the Jews only were redeemed by Christ, but the Gentiles also, and not all mankind, or every individual of human nature, but some out of all the nations of the earth; for God hath chosen some, both of Jews and Gentiles, and these Christ has redeemed and therefore the Gospel is sent unto all nations, that these among them may be called and saved. The redemption of them supposes them to have been in a state of slavery and bondage, as they are by nature, to sin, Satan, and the law; and signifies a deliverance from such a state, which Christ has obtained, not barely by power, but by price, as the word here used signifies, and may be rendered, “and hast bought us” and the price with which he has bought them in his own “blood”, and which is of full and sufficient value, it being not only the blood of a man, of an innocent man, but of one that is God as well as man: and this price was paid “to God”, and to his justice, against whom men have sinned, whose law they have broken, and whose justice they have injured and affronted, that he might reconcile them to God, bring them near to him, and that they might serve him in righteousness and true holiness.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
They sing (). Present active indicative of . Old verb, to chant with lyrical emotion (Col 3:16).
A new song ( ). Cognate accusative for (, song) is from , that is (the verb used), old word already used (Col 3:16; Eph 5:19), called because a fresh song for new mercies (Isa 42:10; Ps 33:3; Ps 40:3, etc.), here in praise of redemption to Christ (14:3) like the new name (Rev 2:17; Rev 3:12), the new Jerusalem (Rev 3:12; Rev 21:2), the new heaven and the new earth (21:1), not the old song of creation (Rev 4:8; Rev 4:11) to God.
For thou wast slain ( ). Second aorist passive indicative of . used by Paul and Peter of our purchase from sin by Christ (1Cor 6:20; 1Cor 7:23; Gal 3:13; Gal 4:5; 2Pet 2:1; cf. 1Pe 1:18f.).
Unto God ( ). Dative case of advantage as also in verse 10.
With thy blood ( ). Instrumental use of as in 1:5. The blood of Christ as the price of our redemption runs all through the Apocalypse. This is the reason why Christ is worthy to “take the book and open its seals.” That is, he is worthy to receive adoration and worship (4:11) as the Father does.
Men of every ( ). No (men) or (some) before in the Greek. See a like ellipsis in 11:9 with a like grouping of words for all mankind, representatives of all races and nations (Rev 7:9; Rev 13:7; Rev 14:6).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
They sing. Present tense, denoting the continuous, unceasing worship of heaven, or possibly, as describing their “office generally rather than the mere one particular case of its exercise” (Alford).
Redeem [] . Lit., purchase, as Rev. See Joh 4:8; Joh 6:5. Us. Omit us and supply men, as Rev.
With Thy blood [ ] . Lit., “in Thy blood.” The preposition in is used Hebraistically of the price; the value of the thing purchased being contained in the price.
Kindred [] . Rev., tribe. Often in the New Testament of the twelve tribes of Israel.
People, nation [, ] . See on 1Pe 2:9.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And they sung a new song, saying,” (kai adousin oden kainen legontes) “And they sing a new song, saying; In rhythmic words and with instrumental music of praise the (24) elders and (4) living creatures in unison, praise God, in song, as follows: (Rev 4:11; Rev 14:3)
2) “Thou art worthy to take the book,” (aksios ei labein to biblion) “Thou art worthy to receive the scroll,” These were knowledgeable and devoted redeemed ones before the heavenly throne from national Israel, the church, and the Gentiles of all nations, 1Co 10:32.
3) “And to open the seals thereof,” (kai anoiksai tas sphagidas autou) “And to open (to break) the seals of it,” the book that was sealed within and without. Remember a seal denotes ownership or administrative authority. Sealed legal instruments are to be opened only by the ones owning them or whose name they bear, Eph 1:14; Eph 4:30; 2Ti 2:19; Joh 17:4.
4) “For thou wast slain,” (hoti esphages) “Because thou wast slain; The causative occasion for heaven’s testimony of praise is the slain Redeemer, Act 2:36; Act 5:30; Act 10:39; Rom 3:24-25.
5) “And hast redeemed us to God by thy blood,” (kai egorasas to theo en hima sou) “And thou didst purchase (redeem us) to God by thy blood; Eph 1:7; 1Pe 1:18-20; Rom 5:9; Rev 12:11.
6) “Out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation,” (ek pases phules kai glosses kai laou kai ethnous) “Out of (from among) every tribe, and language and people, and nation or race,” Rev 7:9-15; who are these? These are the redeemed before the throne, while the seven-seal judgments are being poured out upon the earth, Rev 6:1 to Rev 18:24.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Tomlinsons Comments
The Heavenly Doxologies
Text (Rev. 5:9-14)
These elders sang a new song; new, because it is in praise of a new triumph of Christ, who has been found worthy to open the seals which are to uncover the events of the future.
Whereas, in the fourth chapter, we hear the angelic princes sing-of Redemption.
Music lovers will understand that an oratorio is a musical composition in which solos and choruses are sung in accompaniment to instruments. Here we see Cherubim and Seraphim and angelic princes, with their golden harps, together constituting a heavenly choir, chanting celestial music.
Note the arrangement and order of these musical numbers.
The oratorio begins with a quartet, the four living creatures, singing the seraphs song. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. (Rev. 4:8)
This is followed by the massed singing and playing of the twenty-four princes.
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor, and power, for Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. (Rev. 4:11)
Thus we see the first part of the oratorio is devoted to the subject of the creation. The created angelic intelligences, having never needed nor experienced redemption, could sing only in praise of their creator.
Following the singing of creation there is heard a solo voice of a strong angel;
Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? (Rev. 5:2)
Then follows the gladsome response by one of the elders:
Weep not: behold the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed (or overcome) to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. (Rev. 5:5)
When the Lamb takes the book out of the hand of the Creator, the quartet and the choir of heavenly princes break forth in unison, singing the new song.
Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made them to be unto our God kings and priests: and they shall reign on the earth. (Rev. 5:9-10)
Then the entire angelic choir, consisting of ten thousand times ten thousand and thousand of thousands bursts forth in majestic chorus, which must have reverberated throughout the corridors of glory. They sang perfectly as one voice and with a loud voice:
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing.
Then comes the grand finale of this stirring oratorio as it comes to a swelling crescendo. In this concluding epilogue of this transcendently glorious oratorio the four living creatures, or seraphim and cherubim; the elders, or angelic princes; the myriads of angels, heavenly creatures a little higher creation than man (Heb. 2:6-7); and every created thing which is in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them join in mighty chorus in praising both Creator and Redeemer:
Blessing and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne (the Creator) and unto the Lamb (the Redeemer), for ever and ever. (Rev. 5:13)
Then as the heavenly oratorio, like the sound of many waters, dies away, there is heard the sound of a great and grand Amen. It is chanted by the four living creatures, or the highest range of Gods angelic intelligences, the cherubim and seraphim.
Then there seems to fall a great hush and breathless silence as the twenty-four heavenly princes fall down to worship Him who liveth forever and ever.
Truly we have been listening through the open door to the oratorio of the Choir Invisible!
This instrumented Heavenly choir has prepared us for the opening of the seals. How fitting this should be:
The prophets of old prophesied to the tune of instrumental music:
Thou shall meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp before them; and they shall prophecy. (1Sa. 10:5)
The hand of the Lord came upon Elisha when the minstrel played.
But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him. (2Ki. 3:15)
The sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun prophesied with harp, psalteries and cymbals (1Ch. 25:3-6)
And Habakkuk closed his prophesies with instructions to the chief singer on my stringed instruments. (Hab. 3:19)
As the prophets of old spoke to the accompaniment of instrumental music so the opening of the seals was preceded by the massed choirs of heaven and earth singing this wondrously soul inspiring oratorio.
No wonder Christ in the model prayer taught them to pray, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Mat. 6:10) It is His Divine will that singing, and with instruments shall be done by choirs on both sides of the veilheaven and earth.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(9, 10) And they sung a new song, saying . . .Better, And they sing a new song, saying. The use of the present (sing) is another example of that intensity of interest of which the change of tense in the last verse afforded an instance. As he records his vision, he sees it anew; he describes the action as though it were even now taking place, and he still hears the notes of praise. He who knows what it is to have the strains of some rich melody haunt him for days will understand how the prophet would hear the glad chorus burst forth afresh in his ears when he recalled the vision. The new song; the chorus of the redeemed
Worthy art Thou to take the roll,
And to open the seals thereof;
For Thou wast slain,
And didst buy to God in Thy blood
Out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation,
And didst make them a kingdom and priests,
And they reign upon the earth.
The English version, hast redeemed, and hast made, weakens the reference to the completed character of Christs redeeming work. It is the great victory in suffering and death which inspires the song, and makes them sing, Thou art worthy; and so they speak of that work of Christ as a work truly done: Thou didst buy (omit us) out of every tribe, &c., and didst make them, &c. The suffering Saviour has died, has broken the bond of the oppressor, has claimed, by right of purchase, mankind as His own; and the price was His blood. It is well to notice the harmony between this passage and the statements of other Apostles: Ye are not your own; bought with a price. (See 1Co. 6:20; 1Co. 7:23; 1Pe. 1:18-19; 2Pe. 2:1.) Observe, also, the four terms (tribe, tongue, people, nation), employed as if to give emphasis to the universality of redemption, for four is the number of extension in all directions. With this compare Rom. 5:15-19; Col. 3:11; Heb. 2:9. We have a right to teach all to say, He redeemed me and all mankind. It is instructive to dwell on the climax they reign, in contrast with Thou wast slain. It is like an anticipation of the now familiar words
Thine the sharp thorns, and mine the golden crown;
Mine the life won, and Thine the life laid down.
Didst make them a kingdom and priests. (See Rev. 1:6.) This kingdom and reign is the outcome of Christs work. Every precept of Christianity is quickened by the power of the death and resurrection of Christ. It is by the presence of this power that they are Christians, and it is as Christians that they conquer the world (Westcott). They reign on the earth. Such is the best reading; the tense is present It is not, I think, to be explained away as a vivid realisation of the future; it is a simple statement, which is as true as that the followers of Christ are a kingdom and priests. They reign with and in Christ, but they also reign on the earth. Christ gives them a kingship, even sovereignty over themselvesthe first, best, and most philanthropic of all kingships. He gives them, too, a kingship on the earth among men, for they are exerting those influences, promoting those principles, and dispensing those laws of righteousness, holiness, and peace which in reality rule all the best developments of life and history. All who traverse these laws are intruders, transitory tyrants, exerting only a phantom power. They are not kings: they may govern, they do not reign. (Comp. 1Co. 3:21-23; Eph. 2:6.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. New song As demanded by a new occasion. All the old melodies suited their occasion; but this event demands a fresh composition, fresh words, and fresh melody.
Hast redeemed Rather, Greek aorist, didst redeem, namely, at the crucifixion. Us is rejected by the best authorities, and so redeemed is without an expressed objective. So, also, the us of Rev 5:10 should, according to the best authorities, be them, thereby showing that the implied objective here should also be third person them. So, also, we in Rev 5:10, should be they. The song does not express explicitly the thought that themselves had been redeemed and should reign. And this avoidance, perhaps, may imply that the cherubic beasts took share in the song, and thus necessitated the third person, since the earth was not redeemed, and could not reign.
By thy blood Deeply emphatic. Not by example or teaching of the Lamb were they redeemed, but also by blood.
Kindred nations The earth-wide four. The limitation out of seems to imply that the redemption did not take effect with the entire race. All are not saved by it.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Rev 5:9. And they sung a new song, Excellent in its kind, and composed on a much greater occasion, and in much sublimer strains of divine harmony, than those which the priests and Levites sung in the temple of Jerusalem; saying, Worthy art thou to take the book from the hand, as it were, of God the Father; for thou, O blessed Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, wast slain to expiate our guilt; and thou hast redeemed us to God by thy precious Blood, from the dominion and indwelling of sin, the tyranny of Satan, the curse of the law, and the wrath of a justly incensed Deity; whose servants and children we are now become in consequence of thykind and gracious interposition, and the efficacy of thy divine Spirit. And we are now assembled round the throne out of every tribe, and language, and people, and nation, near and afar off, sacred and prophane, learned and barbarous: thy power and thy mercy have rescued us from all our bondage and misery.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rev 5:9 . , viz., they who have fallen down; i.e., the four beings and the twenty-four elders. [1937] Hengstenb. arbitrarily understands this: “That the elders come forward as the speakers of the chorus formed of them and the four beasts.”
. Cf. Rev 14:3 . Too indefinitely, N. de Lyra: “pertaining to the N. T.;” yet he has also the correct feeling that the new song refers to a new subject. Here this is not completed redemption, [1938] but as the succeeding song itself shows, and the express connection determines, the worthiness [1939] of the Lamb to open the book, [1940] acquired through the painful work [1941] of redemption. [See Note XLVII., p. 217.] introduces the song announced ( . . . ). Cf. Rev 4:1 ; Rev 4:8 .
. The Lamb himself is represented . [1942] In the entire statement presenting the ground ( . ) for the , . . . , the aorists , , , are to be strictly observed: they refer to the definite fact that has once occurred, of the crucifying of the Lord ( ), and this one fact [1943] is described according to its effect: , . . . , and . Incorrectly, Beng.: “ And hast purchased us to be thy possession. This refers not to the redemption itself, which occurred when the Lamb was slaughtered and his blood was sprinkled, but to its fruit, and refers, therefore, to those saints who have finished their course, and who have been bought from the earth, Rev 14:3 .” Bengel’s error is occasioned by the false reading . [1944]
Incorrectly, Ewald: “By his bloody death he redeemed them to God, delivering to them the doctrine , following which they could emerge from the servitude of vices.” How completely the concurs with the , is evident especially from the fact that the blood of the slain Lamb is designated as the price of the purchase. [1945] On the subject itself, cf. 1Co 6:20 ; 1Pe 1:18 sqq.; Act 20:28 .
. Object with the partitive . Cf. 1Jn 4:13 ; Mat 25:8 (Act 2:17 ). In the connection of the four expressions, the progress from less to greater [1946] is of no significance, because unintentional; but what is of importance, and recurs uniformly in all similar passages, even though another expression [1947] be chosen, is the number four, which serves to mark [1948] the idea of universality. [1949] Every more definite reference, however, which is given any one of the four expressions, [1950] is consistent neither with the , nor with the intention of the entire manner of expression.
. This passage is distinguished from what is said in Rev 1:6 , first , by the before , and immediately afterwards by the important addition , . . . The latter would be superfluous, if either the reading received by Hengstenb., etc., were correct, [1951] or the could have had the meaning stated by Hengstenb. on Rev 1:6 , i.e., “a people invested with regal authority.” Three things are here expressed: first , that those purchased to be God’s property have been made into a , viz., of God, i.e., they are gathered as God’s property into God’s kingdom; immediately afterwards ( ) that they are made priests; finally ( ), they themselves have been invested with regal authority. So Ebrard, correctly. [1952] The last, expressed in an independent member of the sentence, and so far distinguished from the two predicates and , has its justification in the meaning of Rev 1:9 ; and it is a perversion to change the present into a future, [1953] or to take it in the sense of a future. It is especially appropriate that the heavenly beings into whose mouths the song of praise, Rev 5:9-10 , is placed, should recognize in the contending and persecuting church the kings of the earth.
[1937] De Wette, etc.
[1938] C. a Lap., Beng., etc.
[1939] In violation of the context, Klief.: The reception and sealing of the book have to do with “the actual final accomplishment of the divine purpose.” The subject here has to do with the opening of the book only in order that the revelation of the mysteries therein contained may be communicated to the seer.
[1940] Cf. Vitr., who, at the same time, thinks of the new kind of song; Stern, Ebrard, Hengstenb.
[1941] Cf. also Rev 5:5 .
[1942] Cf. Ew.
[1943] Cf. Rev 1:5 sqq.
[1944] See Critical Notes.
[1945] . . . Cf. Winer, p. 365.
[1946] Rev 7:9 , Rev 11:9 , Rev 13:7 , Rev 14:6 ; cf. Rev 10:11 , Rev 17:15 .
[1947] Rev 7:9 , Rev 11:9 , Rev 13:7 , Rev 14:6 ; cf. Rev 10:11 , Rev 17:15 .
[1948] Beng., Hengstenb.
[1949] Beng., Hengstenb.
[1950] Beng. refers the , Zll. the , to the Jews.
[1951] See Critical Notes.
[1952] Cf. Beng.
[1953] See Critical Notes.
NOTES BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR
XLVII. Rev 5:9 .
The adjective is , new in kind , not , recent . Luthard: “In distinction from the song of creation (ch. 4), the new song of redemption.” Bengel: “The word new is a thoroughly Apocalyptic word, new name, new song, new heavens, new earth, new Jerusalem, every thing new.” Calov.: “It is new because the singers are new, viz., the renewed in heaven; and the theme is new, viz., the incarnation, passion, and redemption of Christ.” [1993]
[1993] Cf. De Apocalypsi Joannea ex rebus vatis aetate gestis explicanda disseruit . Ed. Bhmer. Fasc. 1, Hal. Sax., 1854.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
Ver. 9. And they sung ] A general joy in heaven and earth. Surely, it is a pleasant thing to see the light; how much more to see the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ! 2Co 4:6 . What a deal of triumph and exaltation is here all the Church over upon the opening of this book upon the receipt of this revelation! Should not this excite and kindle in our hearts a more earnest desire of understanding these mysteries? “Oh, I could find in my heart to fall afresh upon the study of the Revelation, had I strength to do it,” said my reverend old master unto me, a little before his death; Mr John Ballam, I mean, minister of the word for many years at Evesham, where I heard him (in my childhood) preaching many a sweet sermon upon the second and third chapters of this book.
A new song ] For the new work of redemption, besides that old song, Rev 4:11 , for that of creation.
Out of every kindred ] Let this be noted against the doctrine of universal redemption that is now again so violently cried up among us.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Rev 5:9 . . followed (14) by , as in the worship of the church on earth (Col 3:16 , 1Co 14:15-16 ). (historic present) no longer to God as creator (Rev 4:11 ) but to the Lamb as redeemer, for the cost and scope and issue of his redemption. This unique and remarkable passage in early Christian literature marks the growing sense and value attaching to Jesus as being far more than a mere national messiah, in fact as the one assurance of God possessed by men, as their pledge of bliss and privilege and pardon. And this is due to his redeeming function, upon which the relationship of men to God depends. It is a further stage of the Christian development when, as in Asc. Isa. ix. 27 32, the vision and praise of Jesus is followed by that of the Holy Spirit (ver 35, 36) and of God himself (ver 37 42). The prophet John’s “theology” is less advanced. Universal allegiance and homage paid not, as in the contemporary sense of the , to a Csar’s proud pretensions, but to the sacrifice of a Christ (see G. A. Smith, Hist. Geogr. 478, 479) is a new thing in the world. An undivided church, gathered from the divisions of humanity, is also a new and unexpected development, to which a foil is presented by the exclusiveness voiced at the annual Jewish paschal rite, and in the daily Shema-prayer (“For Thou hast chosen us from amongst all nations and tongues. Blessed be the Lord that chose in love his people Israel”). For ( cf. note on Rev 1:5 ) = the buying of slaves, cf. Dittenberger’s Orientis Gr. Inscript. Selectae , 338 23 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
new song. See Rev 14:3.
new. See Mat 9:17.
hast redeemed = didst purchase.
redeemed. Greek. agorazo. Always “buy”, except here and Rev 14:3, Rev 14:4 (redeem).
us. Most texts omit “us”, and find object in Rev 5:10, “them”.
by. Greek. en. App-104.
kindred = tribe, Rev 5:5.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Rev 5:9. ) So Psa 144:9, ; but in the other Psalms it is .- ) So, , ch. Rev 7:9 , ch. Rev 11:9; , ch. Rev 13:7; , ch. Rev 14:6. So, commonly, , ch. Rev 10:11; , ch. Rev 17:15. In these passages , and , are always mentioned; but instead of , is used once, and once. The number of four, therefore, is always preserved, having regard to the four quarters of the world. The number of three is used, Dan 3:4; Dan 3:7; Dan 3:29, the tribes (in Hebrew) being excepted; that is, the Israelites.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
the One Worthy to Open It
Rev 5:9-14
Jesus is worthy to unroll the mystic scroll of history, because He loved and loves our race as no other has ever done; and He is equally worthy to open each new phase of our lives. When He came into the world He said, In the volume of the book it is written of me. We need not fear those pierced hands. If we are His purchased property, He will provide for us. If we are priests and kings in His ideal, we may trust Him so to arrange our life-plan as to secure the best exercise of those sacred functions.
Notice how the out-circling song of the redeemed reaches out in further and yet further response. It begins with the little group around the throne; then it spreads to the angels in their myriads; and thence it is borne forward and outward in concentric rings until the utmost shores of space are struck by the billows of song and it reverberates back to the living creatures and the elders. Heaven is full of the sacrificial side of our Saviors death. The heavenly beings describe themselves as His purchased chattels, and stand closer to Christ than the angels; but these bright ministers of Gods will have learned their deepest lessons of God from His redemptive dealings with men.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
redeemed
(See Scofield “Rom 3:24”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
An Opened Book and a New Song
They sing a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.Rev 5:9.
1. The previous chapter of Revelation shows us how creation reveals Gods glory. But what of His love, and His eternal purpose for man? Were there nothing beyond the revelation of God in nature, we could speak of these only with hesitating lips and stammering utterance. Hence, to the vision of the four living creatures, with their ceaseless song of praise for the blessings of creation, there succeeds another vision, which discloses how the revelation of Gods eternal purpose of love is manifested in the Incarnation, and which thus leads up to the adoration of the Lamb and the hymn of thanksgiving for the blessings of redemption. Once more the Seer looks, and sees in the right hand of the Almighty seated on the throne a book written within and on the back, close sealed with seven seals. This book wherein are written the things which are to be hereafter is best interpreted of the expression of Gods purpose and will. It is close sealed, because apart from Christ, Gods purpose is inscrutable.
2. On the unsealing of this book and the revelation of its contents depends the possibility of counselling and encouraging in advance the trembling Churches of Christ; and the heart of the Seer is heavy as he realizes that even in heaven no one can be found who is worthy to open the book. To the cynic, life may be a comedy that provokes to laughter; but to all thoughtful and serious men, if there be no Divinely given explanation of its purpose, it is a tragedy that moves to tears. No wonder, then, that St. John weeps much as he stands before the sealed book, unable to read it himself or to find one to open it and interpret its contents to him. His tears, however, are stopped, for the voice of an angel proclaims: The Lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath overcome, to open the book and the seven seals thereof. The mystery is not destined to remain insoluble. There is One who can unravel it.
3. When the promised figure of the One who is worthy appears, He is seen under the figure of a Lamb, a Lamb as though it had been slainslain in sacrifice, as the word suggests. The lion is the symbol of all that is strong and kingly and majestic, the very type of power and might; the lamb is the symbol of all that is meek and gentle and lowly. Its associations are with suffering and death; it is the animal fittest for sacrifice. The vision thus teaches us that only in Christ and through the Incarnation and Passion are Gods love and purpose disclosed. None but Christ can open the book. And it is a thought that is full of significance for us that, even when heavenly voices were proclaiming the victory of the Son of God, the saint could see nothing that looked like strength and power and kingship, but only that which was weak and suffering, and bore the marks of sacrifice and deatha Lamb as it had been slain.
4. When the Lamb takes the book, when it is seen that there is One capable of revealing Gods purpose and of disclosing His will, at once there is a burst of praise from all created life. All Heaven fell down and worshipped the Lamb with a new song, the Hymn of Redemption, a redemption purchased unto God by the sacrifice of His life; the purchase being men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation. This new song breaks first from the lips of the heavenly host, from the four living creatures, and the four-and-twenty elders; but it is caught up by voices which have not been heard as yet. Created things not only in heaven but also on earth add their harmonies to swell the song. For now, through the salvation which has been wrought by the Lamb, a place has been made for them along with the unfallen angels, the beings unstained by sin; the theme of their rejoicing worship is not the redemption only, but to that they add the creation too, which in the preceding chapter had been hymned by the angels alone. The worship which these had offered to him that sitteth upon the throne, and the worship which is offered by earth and heaven to the Lamb, now flow together in one stream. All Gods creatures join to sing the double hymn of creation and redemption, wherein the glory of God is complete.
The meaning of the passage has been obscured by the adoption in the received text of the Authorized Version of an inferior reading which makes the angels sing, Thou hast redeemed us to God. It is to this incorrect reading that we owe the luckless misconception by which the kingly angels have been transformed into representatives of humanity. But these beings were regarded by the Seer as superhuman and, consequently, were not objects of Divine redemption. The Revised Version has followed the better reading and translates, Thou didst purchase unto God men of every tribe, making the necessary changes throughout the hymn.
It is possible to estimate the greatness of a mans thought by the effect it produces on other master minds. This test can be applied to the Seers vision of the worship of the Lamb, with the utmost confidence in the result. This chapter of the Revelation fired such enthusiasm in the soul of Hubert van Eyck that he produced the masterpiece which called the Flemish school of painting into existence. But it is not necessary to travel to Ghent to view the Adoration of the Lamb in order to realize the force of the inspiration which is inherent in these visions. The massive choruses at the close of Handels Messiah represent the highest flight of human genius in the endeavour to suggest the mighty volume of praise which the Seer has built up on the great pedal note of Redemption.1 [Note: R. W. Pounder, Historical Notes on the Book of Revelation, 173.]
I
The New Song
They sing are the opening words of the text. Who are they? If we look back at the preceding verse, we shall see that those who swelled the chorus of the new song are divisible into two companies, two types of life. There are, first, the living creatures, the representatives of nature animate and inanimate, now delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. Then there is redeemed manhood. These united together to swell the new song, which extolled the accomplishment of human redemption. As such it was the continuation and final close of the hymn to the incarnate and suffering Redeemer which had ruled the psalmody of heaven and earth from the Fall. When it began in heaven we know not; but we hear it throughout the Scriptures which testify of His coming. It is the melody which the Bible makes everywhere in its heart to the Lord. It first proclaimed from age to age a coming Deliverer; that song became old, and a new one extolled His Advent; and now the hymn of the Incarnation, which indeed can never become old, receives its perfection when it glorifies the attainment of the great end of the Incarnationthe redemption of the human race. That song began in heaven; for only a few upon earth knew the mystery of the Passion, and none knew it in all its meaning, when the Redeemer left the earth. Nor can we extol the finished work of the eternal wisdom and justice and mercy with the same insight into its glory as is vouchsafed above. The song of creation can be magnified worthily only in heaven. Much more is the song of redemption reserved for that higher scene. There only can it be set to fitting music; and hence the new song, Thou wast slain and didst purchase with thy blood remains the standard and text of our feebler echoes upon earth.
We know not upon how many points Redemption touches; what unseen worlds, what unborn generations, what undeveloped forms of being it embraces. We know not to what Warfare, to what Accomplishment our Lord referred when He spoke those words, It is finished. We know not, in short, as Butler says, what in the works and counsels of God are ends, and what means to a further end, or how what appears to us as final may be initial with Him. But we see enough around us, and within us, to show that it was necessary that Christ should suffer many things, and after that enter into His glory. Enough to learn that we shall find no higher thing above, shall pierce to no deeper thing below, than the Cross and its solemn and tender teachings. If we would climb up into heaven, it is there; if we would go down into hell, it is there also. He alone among men who has clasped this great mystery of grief and love to his bosom sees, if it be as yet but through a glass darkly, how pain and love, yes, joy also, all things that have a living root in humanity, come to bloom under its shadow; how love that cannot die and faith that grows to certainty, and hope that maketh not ashamed, root themselves about it, with all fair things that wither in life, and noble things for which it has no room.1 [Note: Dora Greenwell, The Patience of Hope (ed. 1894), 33.]
1. It was a new songnew, because its topics were new; for what so new and strange as God incarnate shedding His blood upon the cross, and by virtue of that offering redeeming the lost kindreds and nations of the earth?new, because it is the song of the new creation, the song of those to whom all things are become newnew hearts, new lips, new hopes, new graces. And so it is new, and shall be new for ever; no newness to grow old some day; no name of newness to become an anachronism when a few years or a few generations are gone by; but new with an eternal newness, like the everlasting strength and undecaying youth of the Most High. All is new; new to the ancient worshippers of heaven, new to the redeemed who now first join them, new to the saints who daily and hourly enter within the veil, new to the Seer who wrote the word, and new to us who hear it.
It is related of Peter Mackenzie, the Durham miner, who became the noted Wesleyan preacher and lecturer, that when he first started out on his career as an evangelist his purpose was to get a crowd of people together for others to preach to. He would gather the crowd himself, and then get somebody to speak to them. But one day he had a large crowd but no speaker, so they forced him into speaking. He said, If I must preach, give me my subject, and they said, Preach about heaven. Very well, said Peter Mackenzie, and thereupon launched out in a characteristic description of heaven. Right in the middle of his sermon some one shouted out, Peter, what do they do in heaven? He paused for a moment, and then said: One thing they do is to sing. I expect one day to walk along the streets of the eternal city, and come face to face with David playing an accompaniment on his harp to his own great song, The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. I expect some day I shall lead the choir in heaven, and if ever I do, there are two songs I am going to give out. One is No. 749 in the Wesleyan Hymn-book, My God and Father, while I stray; but if I ever give out that song in heaven, half the angels in the choir will say, Peter, you are in heaven, and you cannot stray. Then if I give that out, and they cannot sing it, I will try another, No. 651, in the Wesleyan Hymn-book, Though waves and storms beat oer my head; and then, not half the angels, but the whole choir will be on their feet, saying, Peter Mackenzie, this is heaven; there are no storms here. Then I think I shall stand in wonder and amazement, and say, What shall we sing? and from every angel in the skies will come the answer, Sing the New Song! Sing the New Song! Then all the redeemed in heaven, from the least unto the greatest, will join in singing an ascription of praise unto Him who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in His own precious blood.1 [Note: J. Wilbur Chapman, Bells of Gold, 36.]
2. The new song is sung both by saints on earth and by saints in heaven. It is the song with which the whole company of the redeemed shall enter into the joy of their Lord, sung by the saved as they pass into their full consummation of body and soul. When the judgment is past and the final glory of heaven is attained, we shall all together sing. Those worshippers without us will not be made perfect. That final hymn ear hath not yet heard, nor hath it yet entered into the heart of man, whether in heaven or on earth, to conceive. It cannot be sung till all the singers are made ready; nor shall it be heard but in the New Jerusalem, where He that sitteth upon the throne shall for the last time say, Behold, I make all things new. St. John gives us one brief glimpse, but what we then behold is only the beginning; the spirits of the just made perfect were already there in countless multitudes, as we are told, and their number has been swelling onward from that day to this, filling fast the many mansions of our Fathers house. Singers of this song are constantly passing from the outer courts, where they rehearse it, into the Holiest. Each moment adds a new voice to the harmony of heaven, and not one added voice does the Redeemers ear fail to distinguish. The ransomed of the Lord are returning to Zion, not merely one by one, but in ever-increasing tribes, with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. This door of hope in our valley of Achor gives us a glance that should comfort our life by showing what death is: that it is to the prepared only a passage for his soul, with the same uninterrupted song, scarcely faltering in death, into the presence of Christ and the saints who wait for him.
Dr. Magee, then Bishop of Peterborough, was one of the speakers at a discussion on Pessimism that took place at the Manchester Church Congress of 1888. Christianity, he maintained, was at once both the most pessimistic and most optimistic of all the philosophies of life. You, the pessimist, he said, tell me of the sorrow, the suffering, the misery of humanity; and I tell of the time when death shall be destroyed, and when sorrow and sighing will be done away with, and when men will weep no more. You tell me here of mystery and difficulty and perplexity; and I tell you of the time when we shall know even as we are known, and doubt and mystery, like sin and sorrow and shame, shall fade away in the white light around the throne on which sits the Lamb that died for mankind. There, in the future, lies the completed optimism of Christianity. Here, in the Christian life, though working feebly and imperfectly as it does, is to be seen the evidence of the truth of Christianity that we may take home to our hearts. Let us strengthen this evidence, each one of us, in our daily Christian life, and meanwhile we can patiently await the time when the day of full unclouded vision shall dawn, and the shadows of our fears and doubts shall flee away for ever.1 [Note: J. C. Macdonnell, Life of Archbishop Magee, ii. 254.]
3. We must be encouraged to learn this new song for ourselves. St. John came down from his Patmos elevation, as he came down from Mount Tabor, but not to forget what he had seen and heard. He was still in the Spirit, though he no longer heard these unutterable things; and we know by the opening doxology of this book what strain it was that lingered in his ears. We also are learning the same song. It is our blessed privilege to sing, in these our probationary days of sorrow, and conflict, and salvation not yet finally secure, the song of confident assurance: Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood be glory and dominion for ever. Redemption from our guilt through faith in the atonement; salvation from our defilement through the washing of His Spirit purchased by His blood; the priestly consecration of dominion over our own souls in the strength of union with Himselfthese are the three-one blessings which we may rejoice in by an assured experience in this lower world. If we are taught that song by the Spirit here, and hold fast our confidence unto death, we shall one day sing it new in our Saviours Kingdom.
A minister was calling upon a dying man, who would not accept Jesus. He said God was merciful, and he would trust God. Well, said the minister, what will you do when you get to heaven? He said, I shall do what everybody else does. Well, what do they do? asked the minister. They sing, he said. Will you sing? said the minister. Yes, he said, I shall sing. Then the minister quoted Rev 14:3 : And no man could sing that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, they which were redeemed from the earth. But he had misquoted it. It is not that way; it is thus it should read: And no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, they which were redeemed from the earth. You have got to learn it here to be able to sing it yonder. You have got to strike the note to-day to be able to sing it tomorrow. You have got to get into tune now, or be out of tune yonder.1 [Note: J. Wilbur Chapman, Bells of Gold, 38.]
4. One peculiarity of the new song lies in those who sing it. For the first time in history it is a united voicea voice out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation. It is not that there has ceased to be a separate tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation. It is from out the diversities that the song is heard. It is not the voice of a brotherhood which has been purchased by the elimination of distinctions; it is a harmony pulsating through these. It is a declaration of the fact that humanity is deeper than all its varieties. It is a protest against the belief that any difference of environment can ever counterbalance the points of agreement between man and man. It is emphatically a new songquite foreign to the spirit of paganism, not native even to the spirit of Judaism. It is the emergence into the world of a fresh thoughtthe idea of an equal human nature lying below the accidents of time and spacethe brotherhood of soul with soul.
It is a delight to a soldier or traveller to look back on his escapes when they are over; and for a saint in heaven to look back on his sins and sorrows upon earth, his fears and tears, his enemies and dangers, his wants and calamities, must make his joy more joyful. Therefore the blessed, in praising the Lamb, mention His redeeming them out of every nation and kindred and tongue; and so, out of their misery and wants and sins, and making them kings and priests unto God. But if they had nothing but content and rest on earth, what room would there have been for these rejoicings hereafter?2 [Note: Richard Baxter.]
5. Four terms (tribe, tongue, people, nation) are employed, as if to give emphasis to the universality of redemption, for four is the number of extension in all directions. The suggestion is that the redemption of Christ is world-wide. There is nothing local in it. There is no restriction in its intention, and there is no restriction in its application. It is co-extensive with the earth in its design; it is co-extensive with human nature in its efficacy. There is no disposition, no conformation, no peculiarity of temper or understanding, of state or of heart, which the purchasing blood cannot reach and meet. And it will be seen that it has reached, that it has met all. It will be seen that, where it has failed to save, it has not been because it was inappropriate, but only because it was unappropriated; because men would not use it, not because it was even for them useless.
Kindred, tongue, people, nation, will not, it appears, be obliterated from the Communion of Saints. Since in that blessed company similarities and varieties will alike become bonds of affection, motives of sympathy, we see as in a glass what they should even now already be to us who are militant here on earth. For earth holds heaven in the bud; our perfection there has to be developed out of our imperfection here.
By grace love of kindred learns to embrace the whole human family. By grace nations become bound and welded together in the unifying Presence of God (see Zec 8:20-23). By grace; but not by nature. Now even kindred often lack warmth, tongues make discord, peoples encroach on one another, nations learn and practise war.Lord, forgive and help us.
A lesson against antipathies. Every kindred, every tongue, every people, every nation, promises to be represented there and associate there: French with Germans, Italians with Austrians, English with Irish, whites with blacks, all ranks with all ranks, all men with all men,an alarum against antipathies!1 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti, The Face of the Deep, 185.]
They are flocking from the East
And the West,
They are flocking from the North
And the South,
Every moment setting forth
From realm of snake or lion,
Swamp or sand,
Ice or burning.
Greatest and least,
Palm in hand
And praise in mouth,
They are flocking up the path
To their rest,
Up the path that hath
No turning.
Up the steeps of Zion
They are mounting,
Coming, coming,
Throngs beyond mans counting;
They are thronging
From the East and West,
From the North and South;
Saints are thronging, loving, longing,
To their land
Of rest,
Palm in hand
And praise in mouth1 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti, Poetical Works, 256.]
II
The Opened Book
1. The new song vindicates for Jesus Christ the unique place which He has taken in the history of the world. By a supreme act of self-sacrifice He has purchased men of all races and nationalities for the service of God, founded a vast spiritual Empire, and converted human life into a priestly service and a royal dignity. He who has done this is worthy to have committed into His hands the keeping of the book of destiny, to break its seals and unroll its closely packed lengths.
In the opinion of the author of the Apocalypse, life with its problems is a sealed book. That is absolutely in accordance with universal human experience. We are asking to-day the same questions as men asked in the earliest days of which we have any record. Look at that old stone Sphinx lying upon the sands of Egypt, relic of those dim, unmeasured stretches of time prior to the Bible. What is it but an effort to express the insoluble riddle of the world; to set forth the complex consciousness of a mystery, which has seemed at times terrible as a lion, at others fascinating and inconsistent as a woman? The elusive smile that still lingers on its face has done successful battle with the sandstorms of long ages; and, in answer to the perennial questions, What? Whence? Whither? seems mockingly to say, Nothing is known, nothing.
We reached Cairo on Christmas Eve [1886], and during the week we saw something of old Cairo under the guidance of friends. Through the kindness of the Sirdar we were able to stay a few days at the deserted villa just under the Pyramids, built many years before by the Khedive for the use of the Empress Eugenie. The Sphinx had at once enthralled Signor; he therefore greatly wished to stay near it, and so be able to see it under various conditions of light. New Years Day found him, in its early hours and late, studying this riddle of the ages; itself a symbol of time, he said, strong and calm, inexorable, with a smile that is cruel. No words can have described, or I think ever can describe, the Sphinx. It is not beautiful in the ordinary sense, yet it has some elements of unexampled beauty. It exercises an extraordinary fascination. The line of the cheek, as seen against the sky, is surprisingly beautifula sweep of twenty feet, and the expression of the face, battered out of shape as it is, has still something indescribably impressive. He knew he had undertaken much when he set himself to paint the portrait of the Sphinx; he tried for the massiveness and the weight of this rock-hewn giant, with yet a certain delicacy, and even tenderness, both from the quality of line and from the crumbling surface of the sandstone, at the same time wishing to express what he perceived in itan epitome of all Egyptian art, its solemnity, mysteryinfinity!1 [Note: M. S. Watts, George Frederic Watts, ii. 65.]
2. I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book close sealed. There is a great and majestic Personality seated upon the throne of all things, in whose right hand is a book which contains the answers to all our serious problems. There may be clouds and darkness round about Him, but righteousness and judgment are the habitation of his throne. Though the mysteries of birth and death, of whence and whither, of pain and sin, cannot be solved by human reason, there is One who knows. Books do not write themselves; in the right hand of Him that sitteth on the throne there is a book close sealed. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a great voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? It is moral worth that is the looked-for qualification. The angel asks the right question, not Who knows how to open the book? but Who is worthy? The problems of life are not intellectual puzzles, but paths of duty. Genius will not solve them; their secret may be unfolded in the consciousness of a child. Moral worth will open the book. No one knoweth the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him. And no one in the heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book, or to look thereon. No one who has tried to untie the knots of the seven seals with reason has been able to give a satisfactory answer.
The Redeemer takes the book; all the problems of life are answered in redemption. Worthy art thou to take the book. Why is that? Because human nature is identical in all ages; we are made for God, and unhappy till we find Him; one step out of self is a step into God; he that abideth in love, abideth in God; Christ lifts us out of self. We hear the echoes of St. Pauls cry, O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Redeemer solves the great problem of life: How can we be delivered from the imperious dominion, the exacting tyranny, of self? By a greater spell He dissipates the Circean enchantments. He ransoms us from the bondage of self by laying down His life, from the flesh-pots of Egypt we loathe and yet love, curse and yet accept, by suffering for us upon the tree. He comes asking nothing but a cross whereon to die. The only life of pure, unselfish, devoted, cleansing, elevating love the world has ever seen is willingly yielded to be broken on the wheel of mans insensate hate, for the life of the world. He was slain, not for Himself, for He was perfect; but for us, for we are sinful.
Victor Hugo was one of the few novelists who have understood the Atonement. In Les Misrables he puts the truth in that oft-told story of the escaping convict, Jean Valjean, hospitably entertained by the good old cur, and robbing him of his silver candlesticks. When the gens darmes caught and brought him back with the booty in his possession, the cur said, Why should he not take them, they are his? Then, when the astonished officers of the law had retired, Jean Valjean, I have bought you from yourself; go and be a better man. So Christs forgiveness buys us from ourselves, lifts us into a higher life.1 [Note: H. H. Snell.]
3. The Lamb of God, who was slain on Calvary, alone has the power to disclose and to interpret the mind and purpose and ways of God. Christ breaks the seals and gives us to read pages which otherwise had been dark to men. We cannot read the Old Testament except in Christs light. Only by an effort of the imagination can we realize how closely sealed and how dark with mystery the Old Testament would have been if Christ had not died and risen again. The truth is as clearly illustrated by the New Testament Scriptures. There are some to-day to whom the New Testament is still a sealed book. Read the Gospels and the Epistles in the light of that death for sin, and every word and deed is translated. The cradle of Bethlehem, the carpenters shop at Nazareth, the Jordan water at baptism, the wilderness of temptation, the garden of Gethsemane, and all the riches of grace in sermon and parable and miracle, stand out as the life-story that leads to the cross. It is the Lamb who was slain that unfolds, interprets, and expounds the New Testament.
Thomas Kempis ever preaches the Cross as lifes great secret and underlying fact. Christ is to him the perfect example of self-abandonment and oneness with God, and His Cross is the universal Cross. His victory is the triumph of all disciples who live in Him. While the mystic generally thinks solely or mainly of the Incarnation, Thomas Kempis never forgets the Cross, and thereby at once he safeguards personality as well as preserves his religion from ecstatic excesses. Dying to self and living to Godrenouncing self and regaining self in the holy Jesus love, are the keynotes of his message. The following of Jesus is to him cross-bearing, as the road to inner consolation and peace. Why fearest thou to take up the Cross which leadeth thee to a kingdom? In the Cross is salvation, in the Cross is life, in the Cross is protection against our enemies, in the Cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness, in the Cross is strength of mind, in the Cross joy of spirit, in the Cross the height of virtue, in the Cross the perfection of sanctity. There is no salvation of the soul, nor hope of everlasting life, but in the Cross.2 [Note: D. Butler, Thomas Kempis, 133.]
4. Men who come to Christ always find the key to destiny in His hands. He has opened the book, and for them no longer fate but Jesus Christ is lord and master of their lives. It is not only the Lamb, but the Lamb slain that we see; not only love but sacrifice. The Lamb has death-wounds on its body, as it stands in the first pathos of death, slain though not yet fallen. This is indeed the kind of love that conquers destiny. There are many kinds of loveplacidly selfish love, good-humoured and easy-going affection, that knows nothing of sacrifice. But this is by far too great a task for such love. The book of destiny remains for ever closed to selfishness. So we come in sight of the ancient truth, old indeed as the world though but slowly apprehended, that man must sacrifice to destiny. To gain either the understanding or the mastery of fate we must give up ourselves. It is a hard lesson, but it is the way in which the world is made, and we must all learn it. It is sacrifice, and sacrifice alone, that avails in the last resort to give either peace or victory.
Many a song of praise had previously been sung on earth and in heaven to the glory of the self-existent and eternal God. Many a psalm had also been chanted in honour of the coming Messiah are He made His advent in our world. When He had completed His work of redeeming love on earth, He ascended into heaven amid the acclamations and songs of thousands of angels. But now the redeemed around the throne behold their Lord, whom they remember as the Lamb slain, the Victim which suffered for their sins, taking up and carrying on the design of God in the administration of His Kingdom, so that He may make all things redound to His Fathers glory and to the completion of human redemption. Then they burst forth in this new song.
The song sung by this great multitude, including even the representatives of nature, now delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God, is a new song, for it is the song of the new creation; and its burden, it will be observed, is not creation, but redemption by the blood of the Lamb, a redemption through which all partaking of it are raised to a higher glory and a fairer beauty than that enjoyed and exhibited before sin had as yet entered into the world, and when God saw that all that He had made was good.
As we see Christ moving on towards Calvary, we tremble as we realize how the fate of the world turned on that cross. By accepting it, He revealed the meaning of mans destiny, and He conquered it for man. The Lamb slain prevailed to open the book. The revealing power of the cross has showed how through suffering man is made perfect, and changed the mystery of pain to the hope of glory, the bitter cry to the shout of victory, and the victims of life to the sons of God.
Thou didst purchase us unto God with Thy blood. The slave of past guilt, of besetting sin, of frailty and futility, of dark despair, Jesus ransomed me. And not by a mere act of sovereignty and might. No, but by breaking the alabaster vase of His unblemished body for me, and by pouring forth the costly spikenard of His blood. Can I ever forget it? will it not be the theme of my praise through the unending years of the future?1 [Note: A. Smellie, In the Hour of Silence, 97.]
Others have been compelled to acknowledge mysteries of reason which prepare for and harmonize with the mysteries ascribed to religion by the Christian Church; they have felt that the Incarnation and Passion are not incredible to those who believe and meditate on the earlier mystery of creation; that the difficulties which beset the one are the same in kind as the mysteries which beset the other; that in the region of philosophical thought an acting is a suffering God, and that whatever inclines a commencing inquirer to reject as absurd a belief in a Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, the same principle if pursued into its philosophical consequences would lead to rejecting the belief of any personal God at all.2 [Note: Life of Sir William Rowan Hamilton, 465.]
O Lamb of God, our Light, of fleece how luminous!
If speech would come, as water-lilies rise
From the deep founts and offer sacrifice,
Then might I hope
In majesty of many a trope
To open unto man the glorious Sign
How Thou the Lamb even as a lamp dost shine.
White must Thou be that we may recognize
Thou art the Host, and there must be
In Thy appearing marks of Calvary:
But deep in thought, untainted by event.
Even as from Thy Fathers Bosom sent,
Thou must be manifest. The great I am
Shines through prevailing fleeces, Abels Lamb.3 [Note: Michael Field, Mystic Trees, 131.]
An Opened Book and a New Song
Literature
Carpenter (W. B.), The Revelation (Ellicotts New Testament Commentary), 76.
Chapman (J. W.), Bells of Gold, 26.
Gibson (E. C. S.), The Revelation of St. John the Divine, 81.
Jeffrey (R. T.), Visits to Calvary, 43.
Kelman (J.), Ephemera Eternitatis, 242.
Kuegele (F.), Country Sermons, New Ser., i. 92.
Little (J.), The Day-Spring, 229.
Livesey (H.), The Silver Vein of Truth, 106.
Matheson (G.), Sidelights from Patmos, 123.
Milligan (W.), The Book of Revelation (Expositors Bible), 82.
Moberly (G.), Sermons on the Beatitudes, 236.
Nicoll (W. R.), The Lamb of God, 55.
Nixon (W.), Christ All and in All, 414.
Philip (R.), Redemption; or, The New Song in Heaven, 1.
Pope (W. B.), Discourses on the Lordship of the Incarnate Redeemer, 393.
Pounder (R. W.), Historical Notes on the Book of Revelation, 172.
Robinson (C. S.), Studies in the New Testament, 261.
Rossetti (C. G.), The Face of the Deep, 181.
Scott (C. A.), The Book of the Revelation, 161.
Simcox (W. H.), The Cessation of Prophecy, 158.
Smellie (A.), In the Hour of Silence, 97.
Spencer (I. S.), Sermons, ii. 464.
Swete (H. B.), The Apocalypse of St. John, 80.
Talmage (T. de W.), Sermons, v. 237.
Vaughan (C. J.), Lectures on the Revelation of St. John, 148.
Waddell (R.), Behold the Lamb of God! 177.
Christian Commonwealth, xxxi. (1911) 265 (R. J. Campbell).
Christian World Pulpit, xiii. 258 (W. J. K. Little); li. 394 (T. Jones); lx. 49 (C. Gore); lxxv. 4 (H. H. Snell).
Church of England Pulpit, lii. 194 (C. Gore).
Church Family Newspaper, Nov. 8, 1912 (C. G. Lang).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
sung: Rev 7:10-12, Rev 14:3, Psa 33:3, Psa 40:3, Psa 96:1, Psa 98:1, Psa 144:9, Psa 149:1, Isa 42:10
Thou art: Rev 5:2, Rev 5:3, Rev 4:11
for: Rev 5:6, Rev 5:12, Rev 13:8
and hast: Rev 14:4, Rev 14:6, Mat 20:28, Mat 26:28, Act 20:28, Rom 3:24-26, 1Co 6:20, 1Co 7:23, Eph 1:7, Col 1:14, Tit 2:14, Heb 11:14, 1Pe 1:18, 1Pe 1:19, 2Pe 2:1, 1Jo 1:7, 1Jo 2:2
out: Rev 7:9, Rev 11:9, Rev 14:6, Dan 4:1, Dan 6:25, Mar 16:15, Mar 16:16, Col 1:23
Reciprocal: Exo 15:2 – exalt him Exo 15:21 – Sing ye Exo 29:38 – two lambs Lev 4:31 – a sweet Lev 4:32 – a lamb Lev 9:3 – Take ye Lev 25:25 – General Num 16:5 – who is holy Num 35:32 – General Deu 9:26 – which thou hast brought forth Deu 12:23 – the blood is Deu 32:43 – Rejoice 2Sa 7:23 – went 2Sa 22:40 – subdued 1Ch 15:12 – sanctify Psa 9:1 – praise Psa 19:14 – redeemer Psa 27:6 – I will Psa 28:7 – with Psa 31:5 – thou Psa 34:22 – redeemeth Psa 41:13 – Blessed Psa 49:15 – God Psa 71:23 – my soul Psa 74:2 – redeemed Psa 86:12 – praise Psa 95:1 – sing Psa 96:7 – O ye kindreds Psa 98:3 – all the ends Psa 103:4 – redeemeth Psa 107:3 – gathered Psa 111:9 – sent Psa 113:8 – General Psa 117:1 – praise him Psa 130:7 – for with Psa 147:1 – and praise Son 3:11 – his mother Isa 11:6 – General Isa 11:12 – set up Isa 25:1 – thou art Isa 26:2 – righteous Isa 29:22 – who redeemed Isa 35:9 – but Isa 41:9 – whom Isa 41:14 – saith Isa 42:12 – General Isa 43:1 – Fear Isa 43:14 – the Lord Isa 44:24 – thy redeemer Isa 51:11 – the redeemed Isa 53:11 – see Isa 60:6 – they shall show Isa 62:12 – The redeemed Isa 63:9 – in his Jer 30:21 – and I Zec 3:7 – I will Zec 4:7 – shoutings Zec 6:13 – bear Mat 22:10 – and the Mat 22:30 – as Mar 12:6 – They Mar 14:26 – sung Luk 19:38 – glory Luk 24:21 – General Joh 9:38 – Lord Joh 10:15 – and I Joh 11:52 – not Joh 12:28 – and will Joh 12:32 – all men Joh 13:31 – and God Joh 14:6 – no Joh 17:5 – glorify Joh 20:28 – My Lord Act 3:25 – all Act 15:11 – that Rom 3:25 – remission Rom 4:25 – Who was Rom 5:17 – shall reign Rom 16:27 – God 1Co 1:30 – redemption Gal 1:4 – from Gal 3:11 – that Gal 3:13 – redeemed Gal 4:5 – redeem Eph 1:3 – Blessed Eph 1:10 – he Eph 2:7 – show Eph 2:13 – are Eph 3:10 – intent Eph 3:21 – be Eph 5:2 – as Eph 5:23 – he Eph 5:25 – loved Col 1:18 – in all Col 2:10 – the head Col 3:16 – and spiritual 1Ti 1:12 – I thank 1Ti 1:15 – that 1Ti 1:17 – be 1Ti 2:6 – gave Heb 1:6 – And let Heb 2:9 – for every Heb 9:12 – by his Heb 9:15 – for Heb 9:23 – the heavenly Heb 13:15 – the sacrifice Heb 13:21 – to whom Jam 1:9 – in Jam 5:13 – let him sing 1Pe 4:19 – a faithful 2Pe 3:18 – To him 1Jo 3:16 – perceive 1Jo 5:6 – blood Rev 3:7 – he that openeth Rev 5:13 – and unto Rev 6:5 – he had Rev 7:14 – the blood Rev 8:1 – And Rev 15:3 – and the song Rev 19:1 – Salvation Rev 20:4 – and they
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Rev 5:9. It is important to note that the pronoun they means the four beasts (living creatures) and the four and twenty elders of the preceding verse. Also that the connection shows the word saints (righteous persons) applies to those who have lived under the systems designated by these four and four and twenty. After their performance of homage to Christ these creatures state their reasons for it, that He was worthy to be the one to open the book. In stating their reasons they will give their identity to which reference was made in the comments at chapter 4:7. They say, Thou wast slain, and least redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and ‘nation. We know that human beings only are the subjects of salvation, therefore these living creatures represent the redeemed human beings of the earth. The reason there are just four of the creatures in the one group is the fact that the surface of the earth has just four directions, and hence the saved would all come within the scope of those four areas. The four and twenty could join in the identifying declaration on the principle that both of the organized systems of religion were conducted in a way that was looking toward the universal salvation of mankind. Sang a new song. It was new in that they could not sing the praises of Christ as the actual Redeemer until he had qualified by being slain and giving His blood.
Comments by Foy E. Wallace
Verse 9.
8. “They sang a new song, saying, thou wast slain . . . and hast redeemed us to God . . . out of every kindred, people, nation”–Rev 5:9.
The new song was the theme of redemption from sin by the blood of the Lamb, in contrast with redemption of Old Testament Israel from the physical servitude of the song by the sea.
“Redeemed to God” signified the restoration and repossession of a forfeited state, a redemption by a blood price of an inheritance that was lost.
“Out of every kindred, tongue, people, nation.” The new Israel was not tribal or national but composed of all men of all nations, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. It was the sublime vision of the new people of God. (Hos 1:10; Rom 9:25-26; 1Pe 2:10)
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rev 5:9-10. And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy, art thou to take the roll, and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slaughtered, and didst purchase to God in thy blood men out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation; and didst make them to our God a kingdom and priests, and they reign over the earth. Note again a change of tense. The Elders sing, not sang. The continuous worship of heaven is brought before us by the change. The song, as we have seen, is that of the twenty-four Elders alone. It is a new song, new in its substance, because it celebrates what no imagination of man could before have conceived, and no tongue have uttered,the glory of a complete redemption. The song is not sung only because the roll is opened: its main burden is the ground upon which the Lamb had been found worthy to open it. It consists of three parts:(i) Thou wast slaughtered. The sacrificial death of the Lamb is the prominent point; but this death is not necessarily confined to the death upon the cross. It includes the whole of the humiliation and self-sacrifice of Jesus. (2) Thou didst purchase, etc. Applying the rule of interpretation already more than once alluded to, these words must be compared with the larger and fuller expressions of chap. Rev 14:3-4, where we have the addition of the words, from the earth and from men. It is thus not of redemption from death only by the sacrifice of the Lamb that the song before us speaks, but of the fact that, through that sacrifice, believers are taken out of the earth with all its evils, and are translated into the happiness of the heavenly and triumphant Church. Those purchased are gathered out of all the earth,universality being indicated by the mention of four sources from which they come,and they are purchased in the blood of the Lamb. Full force ought to be given to the preposition in; for here, as always, the blood of Christ is more than the blood shed at the moment of His death. It is the blood,the life won through death,in which He presents Himself before the throne of, God, with all His people in Him. In His blood they stand. In His life they live; and they appear before God not merely with their sins washed away, but planted into their Lords life of perfect obedience and submission to the Fathers will. They offer themselves as living sacrifices in Him who, having died once, dieth no more; and, not in virtue only of a righteousness outwardly imputed to them, but also of an inward and real life-union to Him in whom the Father is well pleased, they are accepted and complete. The force of this great truth is lost if we translate either by the blood or with the blood. (3) And didst make them, etc. (comp. chap. Rev 1:6).
At the word priests there seems to be a pause, the following clause constituting a distinct proposition. Nor ought we to translate upon, but over, the earth. They are not upon the earth at all, and cannot therefore be said to be there exerting those influences, promoting those principles, and dispensing those laws of righteousness, holiness, and peace which in reality rule all the best developments of life and history. They are the Church triumphant in heaven. The earth has been their foe, and it is not now reformed by them: it is subdued beneath them. They have the position of Jesus Himself (comp. chap. Rev 3:21); the final promise to him that overcometh is fulfilled to them; their victory is complete. Finally, we may notice the word them in Rev 5:10. We might have expected us to be the word used by the triumphant Church as she speaks in the twenty-four Elders who represent her. But the Church views herself objectively; and in the song that she sings, turns her thoughts to Him who has redeemed her. The method of expression is not unlike that of Joh 17:3.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
They burst into song about the redemption available to all men in the church which Jesus purchased with his own blood. ( Isa 42:10 ; Act 10:34-35 ; Act 20:28 ; 1Co 6:19-20 ; 2Pe 2:1 ; Dan 7:13-14 ) It is a new song because the truths only became reality after the death and resurrection of the Lamb.
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
5:9 And they sung a {b} new {11} song, saying, {12} Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
(b) No common song.
(11) That is, composed according to the present matter, the Lamb having received the book as it were with his feet and opened it with his horns, as it is said in the Song of Solomon
(12) The song of the nobles or princes standing by the throne, consisting of a publication of the praise of Christ and a confirmation of the same from his blessings, both which we have received from him (as are the suffering of his death, our redemption upon the cross by his blood, in this verse: and our communion with him in kingdom and priesthood which long ago he has granted to us with himself and which we hereafter hope to obtain, as our kingdom to come, in Christ, Rev 5:10 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Lamb’s receiving authority from God to advance God’s plan of the ages led these 28 angels to sing a new (Gr. kainen, lit. fresh, distinctive in quality, rather than recent) song of praise. It may be new in the sense that it celebrates His death that inaugurated a new covenant. [Note: Mounce, p. 147.] However, I think it was probably new in the sense that it represented new praise for a new deliverance about to take place.
"This [i.e., "a new song"] is a well-known expression in the psalms, relating to songs sung on festal occasions and celebrating new mercies from God, especially his deliverances from distress (e.g., Psa 40:1; Psa 98:1). It receives a deeper meaning in Isa 42:10, where the new song relates to the new and greater deliverance which the Lord is about to make in the earth." [Note: Beasley-Murray, pp. 126-27. Cf. Psalms 33:3; 40:3; 96:1; 149:1, 9.]
In this song the Lamb receives honor as being worthy in view of four things. The first is His death. The second is the purchase (redemption) of a people for God by His death, including those yet to be saved (cf. Rev 14:2-3; Rev 15:2-4). People from every branch of the human family will make up this company (cf. Gen 10:5; Gen 10:20; Gen 10:31). This does not mean that all will be saved because Jesus died for all, of course. Only those who appropriate the benefits of Christ’s death by faith will be. Tribes, tongues, peoples, and nations represent divisions of humanity based on lineage, language, race, and political orientation. Together these terms describe the universal nature of the redeemed people of God.