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Verse:When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” —Revelation 1:17, 18
Do not be afraid” is not usually the first message we think of when we think of the book of Revelation. But after instructing John to write down what he is about to see (Revelation 1:11), “Do not be afraid” is the first command of this sometimes frightening book. So, if we are reading Revelation correctly, it will be the first thing we think of regarding its message. Even though often overlooked, the “Do not be afraid” is explicit.
It is not incidental or out of place.
This is the larger message in the opening of the book of Revelation. “Assurance and reassurance do not let up: in the right hand placed on John; in the claim regarding the speaker’s identity; in the speaker’s death and resurrection, henceforth ‘alive forever and ever’; in the confident declaration that the speaker has ‘the keys’ that ensure the reversal of death and the exposé of ‘Hades.’ ”* When the one telling us not to be afraid is one who has experienced overcoming death itself, there is not much we need to be afraid of.
When our worst-case scenario is already taken care of, and the forces who would pursue that option are already defeated, there is little need for fear.
When read this way, Revelation is the story of how Jesus gives final effect to the victory He has already won and an invitation for us to choose to be part of that victory. So, even when it seems that the battle might be running the other way, “Do not be afraid.”
* Sigve K. Tonstad, Revelation (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2019), 57.