Will Jesus still have the scars of crucifixion in heaven?

On earth John had heard the words, "Behold the Lamb of God." He had followed the Lamb in His humiliation. He had stood at the foot of the cross and been a witness of the Lamb in His sufferings. He had seen Him when men pierced His hands and feet at the place of the three crosses, "where they crucified Him, and two others with Him, on either side one and Jesus in the midst"; he had seen Jesus as the risen Man on the evening of the resurrection day when Jesus came and "stood in the midst" and showed His disciples the wound marks in His hands and feet; and now, transported to heaven, thronged with the vast host of the redeemed, and ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of angels — in the very centre of heavenly glory — he sees "in the midst of the throne … a Lamb as it had been slain." He sees the Lamb in His glories — JESUS with the wound marks in His hands and feet, the only Man in all that eternal glory who will bear any trace of the sorrows of time.

In just the same way, the Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, bearing the marks of death upon Him, and after a brief stay amongst men down here, He ascended up into the heavens, still bearing those same marks — proof that His work is completed; His victory won; our sins put away; and He Himself, and we with Him, are now accepted on high. In a coming day He will present His church to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. (Ephesians 5:27.) The wounds and scars of her warfare down here will all be gone up there, but to all eternity our Lord Jesus Christ will bear those marks of death in His hands and feet and side.

Nails pierced the hands and feet of the Saviour when they crucified Him, the marks of which He showed to the disciples after His resurrection, John 20:20, 25; and which marks He still retains. Zech. 13:6.

In the midst of the heavenly scene stood a Lamb as slain. The wound prints in Him as risen beheld by the disciples (John 20:20, 25, 27) are now seen by John in Him glorified. The memories of Calvary are treasured in Heaven*. John the baptist first pointed out Jesus on earth as the “Lamb of God” (John 1:29-36); John the apostle now beholds Him in that same character on high. But how different the position! There, wounded and slain (Isa. 53); here, the centre of Heaven’s strength and glory, yet bearing in His Person the marks and scars of the cross.

The “Lamb standing” between the throne and the elders is the first step to the assumption of the inheritance. He is about to take to Himself His great power and reign. At present He sits with His Father in His throne (Rev. 3:21), and with Jehovah at His right hand (Ps. 110:1). But the session of patience is seen by the Seer to be at an end. The Lamb vacates the “throne” and “right hand,” and stands ready to act. Standing intimates readiness for action: sitting refers to a state of quiescence.

We have referred to the glorified throng in Heaven. John sees them in Rev. 4 and Rev. 5, represented by twenty-four enthroned elders. The sight of the once-slain Lamb standing in the midst of the throne brings them down upon their faces in adoration and song. Be it noted that there will be only one wounded Man in Heaven. Whatever may have been the sufferings of saints throughout the dispensations, and however mangled their poor bodies may have been, no trace of it will be seen in Heaven. It will be a brilliant throng of perfected humanity that will surround the throne of God. But the One to whom all are indebted for their salvation and blessing will carry the marks of earth's indignity and suffering for ever. This tender appeal to our affections will never pass away.

Care must be taken not to put into a scripture more than it actually contains. The words are, "And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain," etc. That our blessed Lord, after His resurrection, bore the marks of the nails in His hands, and of the spear thrust in His side, we know from John 20; but whether it was these John beheld when in vision he saw the Lamb in the midst of the throne, and therefore was led to describe Him as One that had been slain, is not revealed. The object of the Spirit of God in calling attention to this characteristic is doubtless to identify the exalted with the suffering Lamb, and to teach that He who alone had "prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof," was the same who had suffered at Calvary, and that His present power and exaltation were possessed in virtue of His death. A beautiful type of His glory in the kingdom as the result of His sacrificial death is found in Numbers 4, where for the transport of the brazen altar through the wilderness, it was commanded that a purple cloth (symbol of royalty) should be spread thereon, before the badgers' skins were thrown over the various vessels of ministry. All the displayed glories of Christ indeed follow upon His suffering. (See Luke 24:26; 1 Peter 1:11.) So for the Christian it is, "If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him," and, "If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together." (2 Tim. 2:12; Rom. 8:17.)

Care must be taken not to put into a scripture more than it actually contains. The words are, "And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain," etc. That our blessed Lord, after His resurrection, bore the marks of the nails in His hands, and of the spear thrust in His side, we know from John 20; but whether it was these John beheld when in vision he saw the Lamb in the midst of the throne, and therefore was led to describe Him as One that had been slain, is not revealed. The object of the Spirit of God in calling attention to this characteristic is doubtless to identify the exalted with the suffering Lamb, and to teach that He who alone had "prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof," was the same who had suffered at Calvary, and that His present power and exaltation were possessed in virtue of His death. A beautiful type of His glory in the kingdom as the result of His sacrificial death is found in Numbers 4, where for the transport of the brazen altar through the wilderness, it was commanded that a purple cloth (symbol of royalty) should be spread thereon, before the badgers' skins were thrown over the various vessels of ministry. All the displayed glories of Christ indeed follow upon His suffering. (See Luke 24:26; 1 Peter 1:11.) So for the Christian it is, "If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him," and, "If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together." (2 Tim. 2:12; Rom. 8:17.)

John says, "I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain;" showing us that it was by the blood that Jesus prevailed to open the book, and that the cross is so precious to God that He has transplanted it, as it were, to His own blessed presence in the midst of the throne of heaven. There the Lamb is seen "as it had been slain," not now in weakness, but in power; and that, too, in all the perfection of intelligence and wisdom, as we learn from His "having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth." (Compare Zech. 4:10.)

Thus we see Christ, the "power of God and the wisdom of God," "the Lion of the tribe of Judah," standing in the midst of the throne of heaven, "a Lamb as it had been slain; and He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat on the throne."

"And I saw standing in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb, as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth."

The Lamb is not here represented as upon the throne, but in the midst of a circle formed by the throne, the living creatures, and the elders. Lamb as He is (and the word used emphasizes the connected thought of feebleness in some way), the attribute of perfect power is seen in the seven horns as that of omniscience is seen in the seven eyes, with the still more decisive interpretation given them. Still the feebleness is again marked, and to the extreme, in the note appended that it was "as though it had been slain." Weakness, then, we are to mark in the One depicted here as well as power, and the evident tokens of past suffering even to death, although alive out of death.

Verses 6, 10. In the midst of the throne and of the elders stood a Lamb as it had been slain. The Lamb had seven horns. The horns are the emblem of power; seven is the symbol of perfection. The seven horns are expressive of perfection in power; the seven eyes are the perfection of the Spirit who sees all. It is the active power of the perfect wisdom of the Lamb who acts on the earth. The Lamb is always seen as if it had been slain, and not as yet manifested in glory. Boaz had to redeem Elimelech's land, and Ruth is a type of the redeemed. Jesus, the true Boaz, the alone mighty One, redeems Ruth, His own people, and the land of Elimelech, the earth. That which gives to the Lamb the right to exercise all power is that He has paid the ransom to God. God had, as it were, lost the inheritance. But the Lamb has redeemed it to God.