Studies in Revelation: The Trinity in Revelation

At the very beginning of John’s Revelation we get a Trinitarian address:

⁴ John,

To the seven churches in the province of Asia:

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, ⁵ and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.

To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, ⁶ and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.

⁷ “Look, he is coming with the clouds,”
    and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
    and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”
So shall it be! Amen.

⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:4-8, NIV)

John conveys grace and peace from the Father (Him who is, and who was, and who is to come), from the Holy Spirit (the seven spirits before His throne), and from the Son (Jesus Christ, the faithful witness). Then follows a doxology praising “him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood (the Son, Jesus Christ). Then John relates a declaration by the Father.

John shows the equality of each person in the Godhead by the fact that grace and peace comes equally from each person, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He shows the distinctness of each person by the varying descriptions of each one. He does not make clear the line of authority within the Trinity, but we see a reflection of that in verse 1 where he acknowledges that God (the Father) gave Jesus this revelation to give to John, and in 2:28 Jesus relates that the Father has given him authority over the nations.

John quotes Jesus’ message to the church at Sardis, “These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God” (3:1), indicating that the Spirit belongs to the Father but is also in the hands of the Son, under Jesus’ authority. Jesus will sit down with his Father on His throne (3:21), a subordinate position to the Father, though nevertheless he is absolute deity.

In chapter 4, John’s vision of heaven, we see again the triune God, the Father sitting on His throne (4:2,3), the Spirit in front of the throne (4:5), and then in 5:5,6 we’re introduced to the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb who was slain, who alone is worthy to open the seven sealed scroll of judgment. Each member of the Trinity is in unity with the other and yet each has unique responsibilities.

That the Son and the Father are equally deity is affirmed by each receiving the same exact praise (5:13). This is affirmed again in 7:10, “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” They are associated again in 12:10, “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah.” Yet again in 14:1 we read, “Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.”

John declares in 15:4 that the Father alone is holy and that the nations worship Him, but Jesus is declared to be holy (3:7) and the one whom all nations will bow down to when he is identified as the son of man of Daniel 7 (Revelation 1:7).

Jesus’ equality with the Father is displayed once again in the new heaven and new earth and the heavenly Jerusalem when it is said, “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (21:22). We’re told, “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him” (22:3). The Father declares of Himself in 21:6, that He is the Alpha and Omega, and Jesus makes the same claim in 22:13.

We see the Spirit mentioned again but not pictured in association with the Father and the Son. It should not be taken as a slight of the Spirit, as His role is typically the least visible.