Christ, the Morning Star
J. Cairns, D. D. Revelation 2:18-29 And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things said the Son of God, who has his eyes like to a flame of fire… (compared with Revelation 22:16): — In seeking to interpret these words in the second chapter, some have supposed that the "morning star" is not directly connected with Christ; but that the promise is only a general one, setting forth the splendour of the reward of believers. Upon this principle there would be the same blessing promised to the Church of Thyatira under two forms: rule over the nations, and the splendour of such an inheritance here and hereafter. Had our Lord meant to display the splendour of the Christian's reward, He would have spoken of making His people like the morning star, rather than of giving them the morning star; hence I agree with those who understand Christ to promise that lie will give Himself to His faithful ones as their portion and reward. But it is plain that Christ will not for the first time become the morning star to His people when He bestows Himself as their final reward, since He is so already in the present life; and hence we must understand Him as promising to give Himself in a higher measure as the reward of their fidelity. I. I remark THAT CHRIST IS TO HIS PEOPLE THE MORNING STAR OF TIME, AND WILL BE TO THEM THE MORNING STAR OF ETERNITY, BECAUSE HIS LIGHT SHINES AFTER DARKNESS. It belongs to the day star to appear in the midst of gloom when the shades of night are still thick and heavy, and to announce their departure. It was in this sense that Christ came as the light of the world. There was a general sense in which the whole world sat in darkness, as it does still where Christ is not known. "Darkness covered the earth and gross darkness the people." Take the altar at Athens, to which Paul appealed. If we understand its inscription as to "The Unknown God," did not this proclaim God at large as still unknown? When Christ came the world was in the darkness of guilt, with only light enough to read the sentence of conscience, but none to see how it could be reversed. There was the darkness of depravity, for in the night the "beasts of the forest walked abroad," and foul and hideous lusts degraded every land. These causes produced a darkness of untold misery. "The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined." Similar to this first coming of Christ into the world is His first appearing in His saving character to individual sinners. Every sinner to whom Christ has not thus appeared walks in darkness. Let him at length be aroused by the Spirit of God, and how awful is the sense of darkness that overwhelms him! The experience of Christians, indeed, is various. Some have more memory of this darkness than others. Some wander in it longer and plunge into it more deeply. Such is the first grand deliverance from darkness which Christ works for all His people, and which during their earthly history He constantly renews when the clouds of ignorance, the shades of guilt, and the storms of afflictions might gather around them. And now in the second of our texts He promises, as the reward of their faith and loyalty, that He will give Himself to each of them as the morning star of eternity. Here too the emblem shall be fulfilled, for His light will shine after darkness. To every Christian, the brightest, the happiest, the most devoted, there is a sense in which life ends in darkness. The passage from time into eternity is a dark passage. The Christian must enter it alone, and pursue it, it may be, with failing eye and fainting step. There is no night so deep as that of the valley of the shadow of death. But here the last victory over darkness is achieved. "Light is thus sown in the righteous" when the departing spirit is gathered home. And when the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the mighty shadow of the judgment throne falls even upon the redeemed in awe and solemn dread, shall not this bright and morning star rest upon the head of Him who is at once their Judge and Advocate, so that they shall "rise to meet Him, free of fear"? Now has come a world of which it is written, "And there shall be no night there," "the Lord God giveth them light, and the Lamb is the light thereof." II. I remark, THAT CHRIST IS TO HIS PEOPLE THE MORNING STAR OF TIME, AND WILL BE TO THEM THE MORNING STAR OF ETERNITY, BECAUSE HIS LIGHT TRANSCENDS ALL COMPARISON. No one can mistake the morning star in the firmament or confound it with any other orb. It shines pre-eminent and alone. In the words of Milton, it "flames in the forehead of the morning sky." Thus it is with Christ. 1. Christ is preeminent in His titles. Some of these are shared with others; but what a stamp of peculiarity is set upon them as applied to Christ! Is He the Son of God? Then He is His "only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father." is He the Angel of God? Then He is "made so much better than the angels, as He hath obtained by inheritance a more excellent name than they." Is He the Mediator? Then He is "the one Mediator between God and men." Is He the Saviour? Then there is salvation in no other, "for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." 2. Christ is pre-eminent in His offices. As a Prophet, He brings revelation from the highest heaven. As a Priest, He offers the alone and perfect sacrifice. As a King, He is without example. 3. Christ is pre-eminent in His history. To Him all history converges, and in His own it is summed up and transcended. He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah; He is the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley; He is the Pearl of Great Price; He is the Plant of Renown; He is the Bread of Life; He is the precious Corner-stone. 4. What Christ is to His people, He is alone. We have many friends, but only one Redeemer; many earthly helpers, but only One who delivers our souls from the lowest hell. The succour that we receive from others in the things of salvation, so far from disturbing Christ's pre-eminence, only confirms it. The unity which the soul of man receives through Christ is as great a proof of adaptation and design as anything in the outer world. The heart of man needs something to engross it, an object on which it can concentrate all its affections without self-reproach, and which by its admitted sway brings unity into its existence, and concord into all its purposes and aspirations. Now as Christ has fulfilled this end in time, so shall He yet more by His gloriously asserted and devoutly recognised pre-eminence fulfil it to endless ages. His supremacy shall then be disclosed as on earth, in its brightest manifestation, it never yet has been. The morning star shall then shine forth unsullied by a cloud. What new displays of grace and glory Christ in these new circumstances shall make, it is not given to us to know. And while the morning star shall thus emit new and dazzling rays, oh, how different the impression of delight and rapture which His pre-eminence shall make then on His own people from what it made here! Then there shall be no darkness of ignorance or unbelief to hide His beams — no sin, or world, or self, to divide the heart with Him — no creature worship to impair His ascendency — no coldness and lukewarmness even in the Church to damp the rising flame of love and adoration! Love and adoration shall be spontaneous and irresistible. III. I remark, THAT CHRIST IS THE MORNING STAR OF TIME, AND WILL BE THE MORNING STAR OF ETERNITY, BECAUSE HIS LIGHT USHERS IN PERPETUAL DAY. It is the property of the morning star to be the day's harbinger. Other stars rise and shine and set, and leave the darkness still behind them. Hence Christ is not compared to the evening star, though it be in itself as bright as that of the morning, and indeed the same; because in that case the associations would be too gloomy, and the victory would seem to remain for a time on the side of darkness. True, the Christian may be in darkness even after Christ has risen upon him, but it is only "the cloudy and dark day" — it is no more "the black and dark night." The dawn may be overcast, but the day still proceeds. Day still penetrates through the crevices of your unbelief into the dungeon of your despondency; and you are startled in your self-made gloom and solitude by rays that travel from beyond the icy atmosphere from a higher luminary, though you refuse to go forth to them. (J. Cairns, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass; WEB: "To the angel of the assembly in Thyatira write: "The Son of God, who has his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like burnished brass, says these things: