What is in the scroll? Study Revelation 5 with context, apologetic analysis, and cross-references.
Dr. Lucas D. Shallua Commentary · REVELATION 5 — THE LAMB WHO IS WORTHY TO OPEN THE SCROLL
It is commonly understood as the title deed to creation, containing the judgments and events by which God will take back the earth and establish His kingdom. Others see the book of destiny or God's covenant. The Lamb's authority to open it shows that the redemption He has accomplished gives Him the right to carry out God's purposes.
Because He fulfills the Old Testament promise of a conquering king through the sacrifice of the cross. The Lion's victory is accomplished by the Lamb's death. The book shows that Christ's way of overcoming is by suffering love, and that His people are to overcome in the same way (12:11).
Yes. The Lamb is worshiped together with the One on the throne, receives the same praise, and is described with the Spirit's sevenfold presence. In a book that forbids the worship of anyone but God (19:10; 22:8–9), worshiping the Lamb is a clear affirmation of His deity.
It supports the idea that the redeemed will exercise rule on the earth, which fits the premillennial reading, in which Christ returns and reigns for a thousand years before the new heavens and earth (20:1–6). Amillennialists understand the reign as the present spiritual reign of believers. This commentary holds the premillennial view with humility.
Chapter 5 continues the throne-room scene from chapter 4 and introduces the central figure of the book, the Lamb. The scroll in God's hand contains the unfolding of God's purposes for the world, and only the Lamb is worthy to open it. The chapter is the theological heart of the book, since it shows that the victory over evil and the carrying out of God's plan depend on the cross. The Lamb who was slain is the Lion who conquers, and the way in which He conquers is by sacrifice. The scene prepares for the seals, trumpets, and bowls that follow, which proceed from the Lamb's authority.
The worship of Jesus in this chapter is important historically. The early Christians were Jewish monotheists, and yet they worshiped Jesus in a way that treated Him as divine, as shown by Pliny's letter around AD 112, in which he reports that Christians sang a hymn to Christ as to a god. Scholars such as Larry Hurtado and Richard Bauckham have argued that devotion to Jesus as divine arose very early, within a Jewish setting, and not through later pagan influence. Revelation 5 is a striking expression of that devotion, and it shows that, in the mind of John, the exalted Jesus shares in the identity of the one God. The imagery of a sealed scroll would also have been understood in the Roman world, where legal documents, such as wills, were sealed by witnesses, and where the opening of a sealed document required proper authority.
This study preserves the hard questions, explanations, context, apologetic note, and references from Dr. Shallua's Commentary.