Everyone loves stories, and stories need endings. A story isn’t a story without an ending. Further, stories don’t need just any endings; they need good endings. If there isn’t a good ending, the whole story just isn’t satisfying. The story just isn’t good anymore.
Let me ask you a question. Are you afraid of how the story will end?
December 31 is coming. The story of 2021 will end on New Year’s Eve. Are you anxious about its ending? Maybe you are not anxious about this year’s story’s ending, but you’re anxious about another story’s ending. Perhaps you’re anxious about the story of your life ending or the story of your country ending or the story of your culture ending. Yet we must remember that our stories are really part of one story—God’s story. As 2021 ends, we need to remember who has God’s story and that all our endings are in His hands.
In Revelation 5, we see that our Lord Jesus has all the stories and the ending in His blessed hands. Revelation 5:1 sets before us the book of God’s great story. The book is a scroll with all of what God has planned. It is full and contains all the stories: “I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.” Though the book is in the hands of the Father, there is none “worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof ” (v. 2). What is the response to there being no one to open the book and allow the story to continue? Weeping, much weeping, results (v. 4). How will the story unfold? There will be no blessed ending! No culmination, resolution, closure, and blessed revelation of God’s will and His glory in all things. It appears that in all things He will not be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28).
Yet, there is no reason for anxiety or fear or sadness or dismay. We are told to “weep not,” for “behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and loose the seven seals thereof ” (Rev. 5:5). He is worthy, and He has done what no one else could do.
Who is this Lion? What has He done to be counted worthy? He, the Son of God, has come as the Son of Man—bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, under the law, to be faithful and true, fulfilling all righteousness—to realize God’s great purpose in delivering His people (Dan. 7:13–14; Luke 1:31–35; Gal. 4:1–5): “And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” (Rev. 5:9).
How has He done this? By the power of the Spirit, “having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth” (Rev. 5:6). He is anointed with the Spirit without measure (John 3:34) and has done His work by the power of that Spirit (Matt. 12:28; Heb. 9:14). Further, because the Lion has done His great work as a Lamb, the story of God will unfold, and all our endings are safe in His blessed hands: “And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne” (Rev. 5:7).
Seeing as there is no need to be anxious about any of our endings, including the ending of 2021, how ought we live? What should our response be as we by Spiritworked faith lay hold of the work of our blessed Savior in securing history and all our endings? We should “weep not” (Rev. 5:5). Rather, we must rejoice and take encouragement in Him and His work, as all of creation does in Revelation 5:8–14. They reverently worship the Lamb by rejoicing in recognition of what He has done. As the old year ends, let us see it out with joyful and worshipful hearts, knowing by faith that God’s great story and all our endings—even the ending of 2021—are in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The article originally appeared in the Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth’s Nov/Dec 2021 Issue.
