“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and shouting out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb’” (Revelation 7:9)
When the icons portray this glorious scenario of countless saints all in white and gold, the viewer can make a conventional error—to think of them not as individuals with their own personalities but as a group without separate characteristics. Quite the contrary, they have been or shall be free of all the restraints that proceed from sinfulness and open them to union with divinity. These are the ones with clear consciences, having dealt with and having long since been forgiven all their sins committed “knowingly or unknowingly” and are liberated from evil accretions. They are open to receiving the light of Christ, their white dress reflecting His illumination, and they have no cause to hide from His brilliance. They are transparent to Him, and His glory can penetrate like light into and through diamonds. Each is known to Him as an individual.
We have that image in metaphor, when we read the parable of the Good Shepherd who knows His sheep, and whose sheep know Him [John 10:1-6]. It is the sinful ones who presume they can hide in the mob, or by lowering their eyes, they can ignore His penetrating glare. Does personhood matter? If not to us, it does to Christ.
Consider yet another parable about sheep, Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd [Luke 15:4]. Christ can take the risk of leaving the ninety nine to fend for themselves in order to go out in search of the lost sheep, and when He finds the stray, He lifts it on His shoulders and carries it back to the fold. The original omophorion, the garb worn around the shoulders of a bishop was made of lamb’s wool to emphasize his most important role; i.e., to do what Christ did and now does through him. His only weapon is persuasion. There can be no compulsion or threats, only the power of the Holy Spirit working through His human agent in order to convince the rebel resisting and rejecting the love of Christ to reconcile with the Father and find peace.
Human personality presumes freedom, and not everybody wants to be free. It’s simpler and less confusing to glob onto some cause, group or person that would willingly take away God’s gift of freedom to imagine yourself satisfied and fulfilled. Freedom is not desired by everybody. Jesus says something about the subject in His enigmatic word “self.” “He who would save his self must lose it, but he who will lose his self for the gospel’s sake will find it.” [Matthew 16:25]
To search for security in any way other than by surrendering to Christ completely is to end life empty and without hope of life beyond this world. The meaning of Christ’s riddle about saving or losing oneself is that if a person wants to cling to his existence to the point of selfishness, in the end he will lose it; however, if a person is willing to offer his self for Christ, he will ultimately save it. The premise is that one must own his or her self. You cannot give what you don’t possess. If you are possessed by another, then Satan owns your soul [although he tries to convince you that you are your own person]. To be liberated is to be free from sin. That you must first work out, if you are serious about offering yourself to the Lord Jesus.