singing, 11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” (Rev 4:9–11)
These four creatures give glory and thanksgiving continually to the One who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and forever because the Word has always been and will always be. All the saints will always owe the One much glory and gratitude because to the One is due all the glory of their holiness and sanctification. The Word gave himself for them and sanctified them with his blood. They recognize fully his superabundant and generous mercy.
The twenty-four elders who represent the most annihilated saints closest to God fall before him. This abasement of the body shows their entire being is annihilated before God who is everything for them. They give knowledge of God to all future centuries and show that the way to honor God is through their annihilation. They want to do in heaven what they did in earth. They cast their crowns again before the throne at his feet, to show that he is their king who reigns in them and on them, to continually govern and lead them. They have given him all the rights that they had in themselves and he reigns perfectly in them. And as King, they live in his kingdom. In this way, they glorify God as he wants to be glorified through annihilation and by giving him all their rights that they had in themselves.
They say to God, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power. No one is worthy of you. You are infinitely glorified in yourself and you must be in all your creatures. We owe you honor and homage as our only Sovereign, with all the kingdom and power.” They recognize that you are the only power and that you can do everything in them, for them, and by them. All the rest is only weakness.
For you created all things. You have created them anew, giving them a new being and life. All of this is done by your will and not by any merit that is in them to attract such a great grace. Created by your power, you renew them in your will. Everything happens in the divine will. When a soul abandons her own will, whatever that may be, she begins to enter a new state and into a new creation.
Then I saw in the right hand of the one seated on the throne a scroll written on the inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. (Rev 5:1)
This scroll is no other than Jesus Christ, the man-God. He is written on the inside and outside with the truth of God, which he came to bring to the world. Without him this truth would not be known. On the inside, as Word, he is the truth of God. On the outside, he is the scroll that all humanity must read. The truth has always been hidden in God. O God, you are the only truth, and humanity is full of lies. God creates this truth by generating his Word, because the Word is the faithful expression of himself. Only the Son can represent the Father. The demon is jealous that this truth is communicated to human beings and slipped into the world at the beginning in the lie. Because God is all truth and God only can produce truth in human beings, the demon is all lies and can only produce in human beings lies and vanity, contrary to the truth. So all truth is of God, and all lies and deception are of the demon.
The scroll was in the right hand of God because the Word is also all the power of God. As Matthew 28:18 says, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to the Word. In heaven, he is given power to express all the truth of God. On earth, he is given power to manifest this truth to human beings. As John assures us in John 1:14, they saw the fullness of his grace and his truth. But as human beings had lost the truth and substituted lies for it, Jesus Christ came to report truth to the world like a scroll written on the inside with all the interior fullness of God and all the truth of God. Written on the outside, the character of divinity is to be imitated by human beings. Then the truth was reestablished in the world, and the lie was chased away. The oracles of the devil, the father of lies, no longer stopped the truth from being revealed. And as Jesus Christ did not remain forever on the earth, after ascending into heaven, he sent the Spirit of his truth in our hearts in order to banish the lie.
This truth has permanently remained since that time on the earth. And where does this remain? In the church. But even though the truth remains in the church, individual people have often diverted and separated from this truth. The truth holds its seat in the three powers of the soul: in the understanding, memory, and will. Very frequently, faith is the only place where the truth lies. But we also need love and hope where Jesus Christ communicates his truth. There are in us, spirit and heart: the spirit is for the common and general belief, while the heart is to receive the anointing and the Spirit of truth, which is the interior Spirit. This is why Paul says in his writing, “The Spirit of truth has been poured into our hearts.” This is the interior Spirit given and received because as Jesus Christ is a scroll written inside and outside in truth, the church is a scroll written inside and outside in truth, and we too must be the same. We are to embrace the exterior of the church with its practices, services, and commandments with our faith. We are to let ourselves be led, moved, and governed through divine motion by the truth of the interior. We must be written inside with the truth and dive motion of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And outside we must be written with Jesus Christ’s life, his example, actions, and maxims of all that he practiced externally. By doing this, we will be put in truth.
The scroll is sealed with seven seals because before being in the perfection and fullness of truth, we must pass through seven degrees or states and be filled with seven gifts of the spirit. Also, the world will also pass through them before the consummation of truth in the world. It is an admirable thing that the human being is like a little world in which God delights in drawing in miniature what he has done in the vast expanse of the universe. As God composed his body of natural things and elements, he also created the world and composed it of his Spirit and his interior in a like way that all is in the world, be it political or moral and spiritual, also happens in him.
And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” 3 And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. (Rev 5:2)
O God, there is no person in heaven, not even an angel or the greatest saint, who can open the scroll, and was worthy to do this. To open the scroll is no other than to open your bosom. Who can do that, O God, in heaven, on earth, or under the earth? Who is worthy to look into you? For though you show your heart to your servants, no one is worthy to look into it, and they cannot do it by themselves. Who can consider and discover Jesus Christ and his truth? O God, you alone can do this because by looking at your Word, you produce it. But who can look at you? Who can open your bosom and discover your truth? Who can break your seals, without which you remain always hidden and sealed, and never be manifested to human beings?
We also have in us seven failings that prevent the truth from being manifested in us. No living man or creature may break the seal, as no creature, not even the most perfect angel, can open the bosom of God and manifest his truth.
And I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. 5 Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” (Rev 5:4–5)
O John, are you weeping? What caused your tears will be your greatest joy. The joy of a heart that loves comes from the knowledge that all power is in God. Your tears come from your ignorance for when the mystery is disclosed, you will be filled with joy. One of the elders consoled you, and said, Do not weep because the strong and invincible Lion of the tribe of Judah of the immortal Root of David has conquered. He conquered the lie by his death to open the scroll in favor for humanity and to manifest his truth. O God, it seems that in our time the truth is once again banished from the earth and returned to heaven, with so little truth in this world! But the time will come by your strength and power alone, O strong and bold Lion, you will break the seal and open the scroll, and open the new. In breaking the last seal, you show your truth to humanity in a new way. O human beings, who are presently in the lie, the time is coming when truth will have all your glory and your light of day. In his own time, Paul complained that creatures suppress
