I have been thinking about this one He gives Himself in Revelation 3:14 – the Amen. What does it mean? There are at least two things it communicates.
He is the faithful revelation of God to man
Amen is a Hebrew word that comes “from a root meaning ‘to be firm, steady, trustworthy’”.[1] It was used to signify that what you said was true, or to say you agree with what someone else has said.
God has been severely misrepresented. There have been many people who have claimed to speak for God, but God could not say Amen to their message. They have slandered Him and people have got the wrong idea about what God is like.
However, Jesus Christ claimed to be the revelation of God to man. He said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). He claimed to speak the Father’s words and do the Father’s works (John 14:10). God says Amen to those claims.
When we look at Christ we are looking at God. When we see Him caring for the outcast, blessing the children, lifting the fallen, feeding the hungry, condemning the hypocrites, comforting the sorrowing, warning of hell, weeping for the lost, dying for sinners, we have to see that this is what God is like. He is the faithful revelation of God.
He is the final revelation of God to man
You say Amen to signify that you have finished – you’ve said all you want to say.
There are some passages of the Old Testament which people find strange, even troubling.[2] It is important to remember that while the Old Testament is an accurate revelation of what God is like (the Old Testament is God’s Word), it is not an adequate revelation of what God is like – it was partial. The Old Testament was like a jigsaw puzzle in which God was revealing Himself piece by piece. Each writer put in another piece of the picture. Every piece was what it was supposed to be and where it was supposed to be, but there was much more of God to be revealed. Jesus Christ wasn’t another piece of the puzzle. He is the picture on the box. When we see the whole picture, it helps us understand things that couldn’t have been understood before – we can make sense of those parts of the puzzle that were so puzzling. He isn’t another prophet pointing to God, but He is the God the prophets were pointing to. As one Bible teacher put it, “When we look at Jesus Christ, all the guessing games about God stop.”
He is the whole story, the full message, the entire picture, the complete revelation, and so God says, “Amen”. He has nothing more to add. He has said it all in Christ.
[1] New Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, IVP, 1996.
[2] There are articles that go into more detail on these issues here.
