He Is the Amen (2 of 2) · Vol II: Knowing the King

This matters enormously for the disciple who is living with the gap between what the Verily statements promise and what his daily experience delivers. The prayer that has not yet been answered. The restoration that has not yet come. The prodigal who has not yet returned. The cultural battle that looks, in this moment, like it is being lost. The suffering that has not yet been transformed into the joy Jesus promised.

The Amen who made those promises is not waiting to become reliable. He is the Amen now, from the throne, and His continued intercession from the right hand of the Father (Hebrews 7:25, Romans 8:34) is itself the ongoing enactment of the Amen — the faithfulness and truth of God actively pursuing the completion of every promise the Verily statements contain. The gap between the promise and the experience is not evidence against the Amen. It is the space in which the Amen is actively working toward what He has sealed.

2 Corinthians 1:20 — All the Promises Are Yes

Paul’s statement in 2 Corinthians 1:20 is the New Testament’s most direct commentary on what it means that Jesus is the Amen:

“For every one of God’s promises are “Yes” in him; therefore also through him the “Amen” is spoken, to the glory we give to God.”
— 2 Corinthians 1:20 (NET)

Two movements in this sentence. First: all the promises of God are Yes in Christ. Not some promises. Not the promises that have been fulfilled to this point in salvation history. “No matter how many” — the comprehensive claim that the entirety of what God has ever promised finds its Yes, its fulfillment, its vindication, its guarantee, in the person and work of Jesus. The Verily statements are the voice of that Yes. Every time Jesus says “Very truly I tell you,” He is speaking as the One in whom every divine promise is Yes.

Second: and so through Him the Amen is spoken by us. Paul is describing a liturgical practice — the congregation’s responsive Amen to the proclamation of the gospel in worship. But the theological content he is attaching to that practice is profound: when the congregation says Amen to the proclamation of what God has promised and fulfilled in Christ, they are not merely affirming a speaker’s statement. They are adding their voice to the chorus of creation’s confirmation that the Amen who is Jesus Christ is faithful and true. The congregation’s Amen is the beloved’s echo of the Creator’s Amen.

This is what Part Nine’s final chapter exists to name: the disciple’s Amen. Not the Amen at the end of a prayer. The Amen of an entire life. The wholehearted, informed, cost-counted confirmation that everything the King has declared is true, that He is who He says He is, that what He has promised He will perform, and that following Him into whatever He asks next is the only response that makes sense.

The Amen Sent to Laodicea

It is worth pausing on the fact that Revelation 3:14’s address of Jesus as the Amen appears in the letter to the most tepid, most self-satisfied church in the seven letters. Laodicea was the church that was neither hot nor cold — the church that was lukewarm and therefore in danger of being spat out of the King’s mouth. The church that said “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing” when it was actually wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked (Revelation 3:17).

The Amen who speaks to Laodicea is not addressing the church from a place of contempt. The letter goes on: “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.” (3:19) The Amen who is the faithful and true witness is telling Laodicea the truth it needs to hear because the faithful and true witness does not allow love to soften the truth to the point where the truth is no longer available to do its work.

The Laodicean letter closes with the most intimate invitation in the seven letters:

“Listen! I am standing at the door and knocking! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into his home and share a meal with him, and he with me.”
— Revelation 3:20 (NET)

The Amen — the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation — is standing at the door of the lukewarm church, knocking. Not forcing entry. Knocking. Inviting. Waiting for the response that the letter to Laodicea calls “hearing my voice and opening the door.”

The Verily statements are the voice of the One who is knocking. The volume you have just read is one long invitation to open the door to the knowing that the King has been offering since the night He washed feet in an upper room and said “I no longer call you servants. I call you friends.” The invitation is still extended. The Amen at the door is still there.

ACTION STEPS: WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK

1. Sit with the title ‘the Amen’ for fifteen minutes. Not analyzing it. Receiving it. The person whose voice you have been hearing throughout this volume is the Amen — the ruling principle of creation, the faithful and true witness, the One in whom all divine promises are Yes. Let that land.

2. The Amen was sent to Laodicea — the lukewarm church that thought it needed nothing. Where is the Laodicean condition present in your own life? Where have you settled for a version of faith that is neither hot nor cold? Name it specifically. The Amen is standing at that door, knocking.

3. 2 Corinthians 1:20: all the promises are Yes in Christ, and through Him the Amen is spoken by us. This week, in your prayer life, practice speaking the Amen as a deliberate confirmation of the promises rather than as a liturgical closing. Before you end any prayer: name the specific promise you are affirming. Then speak the Amen to it as your confirmation that the Amen who is Jesus will make it true.