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12 Here is the patience of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." 13 I heard the voice from heaven saying, "Write, 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.'" "Yes," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them."
Here is the patience of the saints
I believe it is safe to assume that though this statement comes immediately after the description of the torment experienced by those who worship the beast, the image and have their mark, that this is about contrast, not an extension of that previous description. Revelation is filled with contrasts, and for good reason. The whole book is a wakeup call for all to rethink how they see God in order that they may be brought to repentance and turn away from the ways of this world with its darkness and come into the kingdom of light.
I want to point out here a likely more accurate translation of this verse that provides a little different perspective.
Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith of Jesus. (Revelation 14:12 NRSV)
While those who have chosen to be identified with the beast and its system of force and deception, those who choose to follow the Lamb and adhere to His principles despite all persecution and pressure to conform to the common good need to know that they are called to endure patiently and not give up. It is also made clear here that this endurance involves clinging to the faith of Jesus, meaning the faith that He perfected as a human and brought to full maturity. But more on that later.
If anyone has captivity, he will go. If anyone is with the sword, he must be killed. Here is the endurance and the faith of the saints. (Revelation 13:10)
I know your works, and your toil and perseverance, and that you can't tolerate evil men, and have tested those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and found them false. You have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake, and have not grown weary. (Revelation 2:2-3)
Because you kept my command to endure, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, which is to come on the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth. (Revelation 3:10)
Rest in Yahweh, and wait patiently for him. Don't fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who makes wicked plots happen. (Psalms 37:7)
For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hurries toward the end, and won't prove false. Though it takes time, wait for it; because it will surely come. It won't delay. (Habakkuk 2:3)
Then many will stumble, and will deliver up one another, and will hate one another. Many false prophets will arise, and will lead many astray. Because iniquity will be multiplied, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end, the same will be saved. (Matthew 24:10-13)
Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines, and plagues in various places. There will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name's sake. It will turn out as a testimony for you.
Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict. You will be handed over even by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends. They will cause some of you to be put to death. You will be hated by all men for my name's sake. And not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will win your lives. (Luke 21:10-19)
Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God; who "will pay back to everyone according to their works:" to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility – eternal life; but to those who are self-seeking, and don't obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath and indignation, oppression and anguish, on every soul of man who works evil, on the Jew first, and also on the Greek. But glory, honor, and peace go to every man who works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God. (Romans 2:4-11)
Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering works perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope: and hope doesn't disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)
Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, to be building him up. For even Christ didn't please himself. But, as it is written, "The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me." For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through patience and through encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Now the God of patience and of encouragement grant you to be of the same mind one with another according to Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore accept one another, even as Christ also accepted you, to the glory of God. (Romans 15:2-7)
For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don't cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; (Colossians 1:9-12)
We are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, even as it is appropriate, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each and every one of you towards one another abounds; so that we ourselves boast about you in the assemblies of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions which you endure. This is an obvious sign of the righteous judgment of God, to the end that you may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God, for which you also suffer. (2 Thessalonians 1:3-5)
What is the righteous judgment of God? It is what God has declared to be true about our identity. What Paul is pointing out here is that when people believe and embrace their true identity from God and allow that Spirit to produce its fruit in their lives, His righteous judgment of them is proven to be right. This is clearly described in the surrounding context in this passage.
May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patience of Christ. (2 Thessalonians 3:5)
Therefore don't throw away your boldness, which has a great reward. For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. "In a very little while, he who comes will come, and will not wait. But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him." But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:35-39)
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)
Be patient therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient over it, until it receives the early and late rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. (James 5:7-8)
This patient endurance is a choice by those who want to follow the Lamb wherever He goes, to persist in keeping themselves in the love of God at the heart level. To establish our heart in the truth is what the sealing is all about that we studied in chapter 7. This is the most important preparation possible as it is our heart condition that is most important in determining the direction we will take in the end.
those who keep the commandments of God
The dragon grew angry with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep God's commandments and hold Jesus' testimony. (Revelation 12:17)
Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city. (Revelation 22:14)
I know that his commandment is eternal life. The things therefore which I speak, even as the Father has said to me, so I speak. (John 12:50)
One who has my commandments, and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him." (John 14:21)
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and remain in his love. (John 15:10)
This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he commanded. He who keeps his commandments remains in him, and he in him. By this we know that he remains in us, by the Spirit which he gave us. (1 John 3:23-24)
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous. (1 John 5:2-3)
and the faith of Jesus
The dragon grew angry with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep God's commandments and hold Jesus' testimony. (Revelation 12:17)
I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. You hold firmly to my name, and didn't deny my faith in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. (Revelation 2:13)
Behold, his soul is puffed up. It is not upright in him, but the righteous will live by his faith. (Habakkuk 2:4)
I tell you that he will avenge them quickly. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8)
One who believes in the Son has eternal life, but one who disobeys the Son won't see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36)
It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and are life. (John 6:63)
He who sent me is with me. The Father hasn't left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him. (John 8:29)
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26)
Jesus cried out and said, "Whoever believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me. (John 12:44)
Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father. Whatever you will ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it. (John 14:12-14)
But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God set forth to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God's forbearance; to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:21-26)
We must stop and unpack this last passage more clearly than how it appears on the surface so we can truly grasp what this faith of Jesus actually involves.
To have the faith of Jesus means we believe what Jesus believes. This is not about some magical way of changing God's mind about us when we believe some fictional legal swap where Jesus becomes the fall guy to take the hit from God in order to usher us into paradise. That is the very opposite of the true nature of the faith needed to enter into the abundant life we are created to have in God's presence.
Rightly understood and appreciated, this passage declares things so bold that most Christians resist believing them, but they contain the truth that has the power to set us free as Jesus promised. And Paul starts out by boldly saying that the righteousness revealed as defining God is apart from the law, not an achieved righteousness through perfect law observance but entirely outside of all such thinking or way of measuring. In other words, the kind of righteousness we are being introduced to is not a currency to be exchanged but a description of who God is and how we are meant to reflect it by freely believing it, freely receiving it and freely passing it on to others. It is a description of living free, not a prescription for how to get free.
The saints who keep the commandments here in Revelation 14:12 are described as those having the same faith that Jesus authored and perfected as a human who lived among us and fully identified with us so we would fully identify with His identity as loved children of our shared heavenly Father who is the origin of our righteousness. And while this righteousness is affirmed as authentic by both the law and the prophets, it is not initiated or derived from either source but directly from the only One who is righteous and good and complete.
This righteousness reflected from God through Christ as a human mirror, is said to be both to us and on all who are willing to believe that it is so. Our believe does not make it true but rather grants our authority for it to access our heart so that our experience and condition can come into alignment with the reality of this being our identity already because God arranged it so through the complete demonstration of it in His Son.
Paul becomes even more bold in declaring that God makes no distinction based on our perceived moral worth measured by our past or present actions or sins. Everyone has sinned, and everyone is justified freely without reservation or any involvement or contribution from anyone else. We are justified because God says we are, and when we believe what He says is true over any other argument or feeling, that reality gains access to transform us to become like Him in character, in disposition and in all our relationships with others.
Everyone except God's Christ falls short of the glory of God. We have always assumed that this meant we failed to live up to God's expectations as spelled out in the law, and because we assumed that breaking the law of God is the only definition of sin, then falling short of God's glory has to do with violating the law which presumably arouses the anger of the God who gave us the law. But again, we are making God out to act like we do with each other according to the flesh instead of based solely on the revelation of Him in His Son.
What I now am beginning to realize is that all fall short of the glory of God in how severely narrow and limited we have been in the way we portray His graciousness, kindness, mercy that endures forever and forgiveness that has always been in place without any need to arouse it. It is our picture of what God is like and how He treats sinners that is the main thing that falls short of the true nature of His glory that is alone exposed to the amazed universe and a skeptical, disbelieving world that demands a god more in line with their expectations in a Messiah.
The redemption signaled by the evidence provided in the blood Christ Jesus is not a bribe that paid God sufficiently to alter His disposition towards repentant sinners. Again, that is a masterful deception of the enemy that derails the kind of faith necessary to enter into life. The power of the blood of Christ is in the evidence of His full identification with our fallen condition that was the true cause of His physical death, meant to convince us that it was never God who is behind our estrangement but the dark, fearful feelings induced by the lies we have been fed for 6,000 years from the father of lies.
God sent His Son as the only One who could effectively expose the real disposition of God towards us that had been so darkened by every other witness previous to Him. He offered Himself as a reconciling sacrifice, giving us full access to God to commit our worst crimes against Him to see if He might react in any way that would justify our resentment and hatred of Him caused by the lies we have been fed. The atoning sacrifice had nothing to do with changing God's mind about us, but everything to do with changing our mind about God. The blood of the violently slaughtered Lamb is the proof positive that God's love cannot be suppressed, His mercy lasts forever and His forgiveness is unconditional. The only thing standing between us and eternal joy is our willingness to believe in the evidence provided by Jesus in His blood and the revelation of God's kind of unconditional righteous as reflected in the unconditional love and forgiveness of His Son under any and all circumstances.
His righteousness is demonstrated by His passing over of our previous sins, meaning God has never been in the accounting business of tallying up our bad deeds and holding them against us by a spirit of offense like we do. God has never, and will never take offense over any sin by anyone. God is not the obstacle to surmount for us to enjoy heaven; our disposition about God is what must be transformed before we will ever be able to stand and thrive in the presence of the everlasting burning of God's passionate love towards each one of us.
It is when we choose to believe in Jesus version of God, the kind of God Jesus had faith in and rested in all His time while living among the fierce opposition of sinners against Himself on earth – that is when we transition from being liars about God to justifying Him as being true.
For what if some were without faith? Will their lack of faith nullify the faithfulness of God? May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, "That you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment." (Romans 3:3-4)
It is God's words that are true, and He is justified when we choose to believe His words against all other contrary evidence claiming differently about who we are and who He is. When we choose to believe the evidence of God's pure righteousness, His unaffected love, His unbending devotion to loving and caring for every last creature He has ever created, then the enemy's lies lose their power over us and we live in the light as He is in the light and the blood proving His love washes away all of our sins, the dysfunctions caused by the lies we have so long believed in exchange for the truth.
