Audio Transcript

None of Pastor John’s messages are more anticipated for me than his annual message at the Passion Conference in early January. This year in Atlanta he preached on Revelation 13 in a message titled “The Beast, the Book, and the Beauty of the Lamb.” It’s worth listening to the entire thing, but here’s a clip. From Revelation 13:8, he explains that the slaying of the Lamb of God was planned before the universe existed. Mind boggling. Here’s John Piper to explain.

In verse 8 we have now arrived at our first point on the journey and our roadmap — namely, eternity past. We see it in the phrase “before the foundation of the world.”

Slain from the Past

What happened there?

All who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. (Revelation 13:8).

There is a book before the foundation of the world. And the book has a name. And the name of the book is “the book of the life of the Lamb who was slain” — which means that, in the mind of the author of this book, the Lamb is slain. It is as good as done. And the author of this book is God.

• The slaying of the Lamb of God was the plan of God before the universe.
• The slaying of the Lamb of God was the plan before the universe existed.
• The slaying of the Lamb of God was the plan before history existed.
• The slaying of the Lamb of God was the plan before sin existed.

If Satan, together with Adam and Eve, thought that when he brought sin into the world he was wrecking God’s plan, he is a fool. He didn’t wreck it. He set it up. Because it was the plan that there be a slain Lamb before the foundation of the world.

Our Song Forever

Now we are going to go back to verse 8. There is lots more there. But we are taking our first tour first. And now we are going to go to the end of history into eternity future. We are going to go to Revelation 5:9–10 to see what they are singing about there. It is all over. History is over. This little footnote called Passion is over. And now we are going to listen to the song of heaven.

And they sang a new song, saying,

“Worthy are you to take the scroll
     and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
     from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
     and they shall reign on the earth.”

Why is he worthy? Because he was slain. That’s what we are going to sing about the worth of the Lamb forever! That is what we are going to sing. We are going to sing bloody songs forever. It is the center of everything. The central song of the universe is the slain Lamb. It was the plan from eternity. It is the song for eternity — yes, it is.

Here’s Revelation 5:12:

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
     to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
     and honor and glory and blessing!”

Because he was slain.

Or in Revelation 7:10, the great multitudes cry out in one voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

So the slain Lamb is the song of the universe forever. That is what Revelation shows us in all of its strangeness. So in eternity past, the plan: a Lamb will be slain. In eternity future, a song: he was slain and he is infinitely worthy because of it.