Word Alive

He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.~ Revelation 19:13


Welcome back. Yes it's Monday, and there is mercifully not a Clint Eastwood reference in sight. It could be a good day.

Now for once I have to involve myself in speculation when I look at this verse and it's description of Christ as wearing a robe dipped in blood.

The robe dipped in blood is could be a reference to the blood of his enemies (and there is no escaping the violence in this prophecy) which seems reasonable as he is also described in this passage as treading the aforementioned winepress of God's wrath (v15).

Or the dipped in blood bit could be referring, of course, to his own precious blood, shed at Calvary for the forgiveness of sins and the purchase of souls.

I will come back to this in a moment.


This title and name 'The Word Of God' does not only appear here in revelation. In fact it is something of a theme in John's writings.

And I do so love John's writing.

At Christmas we sometimes start the story in either Matthew or Luke, with the Angelic announcements about the birth of Christ and with Joseph or Mary's reactions.

And on a superficial level, that is where the story of Christ starts. It is the very first mention of the name 'Jesus the Messiah'.

But I love to start Christmas (and apologies here for mentioning it in August!) with John's own gospel. It reminds us, so profoundly, of the story that was written before the foundation (or creation) of the universe. It tells us that when God 'spoke'. That 'word' was himself. And the darkness became ablaze with light;

 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.


Yes. the 'beginning' was not The beginning. The logos (word) of God was eternal, and it was personal. You see, because God is all truth and all powerful, his word is as good as he is. If he speaks, it passes, it goes forth, it creates....it lives. There is no disconnect between him and his living word.

And the most profound truth in the universe is that this word became human. It took on flesh.
In the cradle wrapped in swaddling, he who could never be restrained, lay otherwise naked before us, as vulnerable as you or I. And John testifies to this. this same Apocalyptic and  Messianic General, fearsome and warrior-like, is this same man, who was born as  a baby to Mary and Joseph.

 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.


And yes, this General, with blazing eyes of fire and a sword in his mouth, is our Jesus.

But this image could also be a personification of  the testimony of Jesus, in a similar fashion to the way that wisdom is personified as a woman calling out in the street, in the book of proverbs.

And I am drawn back again to the saints who, overcame the devil by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.You see, John is very keen on recurring themes. During the prophecy we are almost continuously seeing central messages being repeated and reinforced.

And perhaps this mention of the blood and the word are both an allusion to John's central message about the power of the testimony of Jesus and his blood (His main purpose in writing being to encourage besieged Christians to remain faithful under the threat of persecution and even death itself) and also  a future prediction of Christ's return as the conquering King of all kings.My opinion about the robe dipped in blood, is that it is almost certainly an allusion to the blood that was shed on the cross and that he is marrying it to the notion of the power of the testimony of Jesus once more.

But that does not mean it cannot do both things, and just perhaps, that is why the ambiguity exists in the first place.

Never forget that revelation is written in a code that the early believers would have been able to decipher.

You see, we who have not yet resisted to the point of shedding our blood,  can never really grasp the power of this, I suspect. But Jesus means everything.

And when we are so compromised by our worldly allegiances, we cannot always see how valuable a thing this is, and how precious it is to God that we are faithful to his Son, the Word of God.

We only need to look at the way the Martyrs who did not love their lives so much as to shrink back from death are honoured in heaven in order to see just how valuable that is.

“These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ¹⁵ Therefore,

“they are before the throne of God
    and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne
    will shelter them with his presence.
¹⁶ ‘Never again will they hunger;
    never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat down on them,’^[a]
    nor any scorching heat.
¹⁷ For the Lamb at the centre of the throne
    will be their shepherd;
‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’^[b]
    ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’^[c]”

It is fair to say that our testimony matters. And the principle of making known the one who made himself known to us is at the heart of Christianity, and revelation such as this is at the heart of God himself. It is literally, for him, the word becoming flesh. And the word of God is living and active, (like a double edged sword).

And John was all about testifying to the Word.

In 1 John 1 he says;

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. ² The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. ³ We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
And the best thing of all is that this is not some drudgery or command that we have to enslave ourselves to. No. We are to be full to overflowing with joy, so that what we share can bring others to enjoy the same thing. And the end result of this?

John says he writes this (or should I say shares this) ....To make our joy complete (1 Jn 1;4).


Eternal Word, we thank you for taking on flesh and knowing us in our suffering, and even suffering for our joy. We pray that the testimony of who you are and what you have done will always be on our lips, that we may bring others to fellowship with you through our words,
and that you make our joy complete as we do this,

This day,
And all days.

Amen