The Deity of Christ in Revelation 5

I once had a study with two “Jehovah’s Witnesses” during which I asked one of them if it would be acceptable if I bowed down to him exclaiming, “Worthy are you to receive honor, glory, and blessing”? His companion adamantly answered, “No, he’s not God.” I replied, “I agree, but you also say Jesus is not God, yet this is what the multitude of angels proclaimed to Him in Revelation 5:11-12:

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing (Legacy Standard Bible).

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society denies Jesus’ deity and subsequently rejects that He should be worshipped, but these two gentlemen well recognized the kind of worship in my question to be deserving of nobody other or less than God. They also recognized the dilemma they faced once they read that such worship was offered to the “Lamb” (i.e., Jesus—John 1:29, 36) in Revelation.

Observe also: “And when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.” (Revelation 5:8). Why would the heavenly beings prostrate themselves before Christ (as did numerous humans whom Jesus did not rebuke for so doing—Matt. 2:11; 15:25; 18:26; Luke 8:41; 17:16) and worship Him when worship is reserved for God (Matt. 4:10; Acts 10:25-26; Rev. 19:10)?—Why?—Because the Son is deity (Col. 2:9).

Furthermore, we see Jesus included in the worship given to the Father in verse 13:

And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be the blessing and the honor and the glory and the might forever and ever.

What honor they give to the Father here they give to His Son with Him. Would it not be a great evil to include together with God in worship and praise anyone unequal with Him—anyone less than God. Both the Father and the Lamb will be the heavenly temple (Rev. 21:22), and both the Father and the Son will be the light of that temple (Rev. 21:23). They are both the Creator (Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16; 1 Tim. 4:3), and with this fact, it is interesting that in Revelation 4:10 - 11, the creative work is one of the causes of praise and worship offered to Him that “sat on the throne.”

This worship is given to the Father and Jesus together; for They both are the Creator, and They both “sit on the throne” (Rev. 22:3). Jesus and the Father are one. The “Witnesses” cannot sensibly deny this to be the case in these two verses. In fact, it is said that “for Thy pleasure they are and were created,” and the inspired apostle Paul informs us that Jesus was He for Whom everything was created: “For by him [Jesus] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him” (Col. 1:16).

By no means does this cover the breadth of the biblical substance of the deity of Jesus Christ, but it certainly presents the equality of the Son and the Father. In Jesus, “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (ESV—Col. 2:9). Let us give praise, honor, and glory to both Jesus, and the blessed Father!

• Jesus jointly receives with the Father the kind of worship due only to God

• Creative work is a divine attribute for which God is worshiped, and Jesus receives this worship for this attribute

• Jesus is distinguished from creation