Start at Revelation

You tunneled through December and a Bible-reading plan ending in Revelation. Now, at the start of a new year, you feel tired. You meant to savor the Advent season, but you barely remember the last forty days. Everyone’s beginning new Bible-reading plans, and you oscillate, thinking, do I take a rest or start again?

Instead of picturing yourself at the starting line, remember, the Christian life is likened to a long race. Run with your eyes fixed on Jesus (Heb. 12:1-2), and before you fix yourself on a Bible-reading plan, look for Jesus in the book of Revelation.

Whether you’ve skimmed Revelation or studied Revelation in depth, start your year by fully reading Revelation’s twenty-two chapters. You’ll encounter drastic symbolism and depictions. You’ll want to skip ahead in search of comfort, but don’t skim. Read with intent. Your current worldview will be stretched causing you to look for the Savior you know, for the God who stitched together all of Scripture. You’ll emerge at the end because God is trustworthy. His ways are just and true (Rev. 15:3).

When Jesus emerges in Revelation, he’s the same Jesus of the Gospels and yet he’s initially unrecognizable to John who sees the vision and authors the book. John falls over at the sight of the glorified, risen, and blazing Jesus. Jesus says, “Fear not,” and he grants John vision to see what will happen—all that pertains to the world, to God, and eternity—and tells John to write it down for you and me to read.

A few months ago, I read Revelation and decided I’d revisit these pages again in January. The start of the new year is a time for recentering, and I want to see Jesus in the Bible’s continuous story that includes history, events, and an actual place where we will live with Jesus as King.

Present-day events cloud my ability to remember and perceive this story, recalling where peace is found and what defines greatness. Revelation is a compass that outlasts our present troubles. Inspired by the Holy Spirit and full of depictions and words from Jesus, Revelation highlights God’s faithfulness as recounted in the Bible from beginning to end.

Bible-reading plans have placed me in the desert with the Israelites. I’ve traced Paul’s travels and studied his letters to the early church. Every instance of Bible reading pivots me to remember God’s reality and presence, especially with helpful study tools that point to Christ in the redemptive story of Scripture. All these instances verse me further in God’s language and character. I imagine you agree Bible reading is vital nutrition for your soul (Matt. 4:4).

While application-based studies prompt us to turn passages into mini life lessons for our flourishing and good, Scripture tells us our good is found in the person of Christ, “the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:2), “the good shepherd (John 10:11), and the shepherd who will guide us to “springs of living water” (Rev. 7:17).

When I was young, the passages I’d heard plucked from Revelation and recited as standalones left me wanting to avoid this final book. There are Bible verses and passages people misinterpret, which is why every instance of Bible reading gives you opportunity to read carefully and responsibly.

Jen Wilkin’s book Women of the Word has been a helpful church resource for over a decade. Wilkin describes a Bible-reading method that uncovers first what a passage says about God. People are prone to decipher what a passage says about themselves. Read, instead, in search of God. Consider also context, genre, and intended audience of each book of the Bible, as Wilkin proposes. This method assisted me as I read Revelation most recently. I emerged knowing God more, just as seeking the Triune God in Scripture is always the goal.

The chapters with images I still can’t fully understand, their mysteries are no longer cumbersome because Jesus is there in Revelation. Jesus, whose face we will see, says he’s coming to dwell with us and make things new.

Revelation speaks to you in your present-day troubles as you feel weary and unsure about what this year might hold. Revelation first frightened, then comforted me, just as I imagine it was for John whom Jesus spoke to and invited into the story.

It should be noted that Jesus’s gospel has invited you and me into this very story. Jesus’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension forever changed the future, making you a friend of God. You, dearly loved, once separated from God because of sin, are counted righteous because of Christ. The Holy Spirit sealed you and dwells in you, guiding you every time you read Scripture.

When you and I read Scripture, we are reveling in this good news again and again.

“Revelation is very much a capstone to the Bible’s unified storyline,” says author and theologian Brandon Smith. At the Bible’s end, we read that Christ will return, initiating a new beginning.

Open the year by reading Revelation. You’re invited into the story as a friend, one who’s dearly loved by God because of Christ Jesus. Consider the larger redemptive story of the Bible and look for Jesus as you read Revelation. You’ve been running the race of the Christian life, and Jesus is there with you. The Holy Spirit comforts you through the unknowns of a new year when present-day events shroud clarity. Fix your eyes on Jesus by reading Revelation as you start your new year.