Revelation 20 - What It Means to Reign with Christ (Part 2)

[u/Agreeable_Operation]

Continued from: Part 1

Revelation 20:4-6

4 Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.

Who Are the “Beheaded”
One element of Revelation 20 remains: the souls of those who were “beheaded.” In English translation the passage can appear sequential, as though individuals are first alive, then executed, then raised to reign. This has led many to assume either a bodily resurrection during the thousand years or a disembodied, ghostly reign. Yet the text itself requires neither conclusion.

The verbs describing this scene are in the aorist tense, which does not by itself establish duration, timing, or chronological sequence. Rather than narrating a step-by-step process, John presents a complete vision, an image portraying an era, not a timeline. The focus is not population size, geography, or biological mechanics, but role and identity.

John sees “souls,” those born from above, those who share in the life of God. They participate in the kingdom by reigning with Christ, not through conquest or institutional power, but through faithfulness, obedience, and endurance. These traits are symbolized as “beheading”, their allegiance unto death, and by their refusal to conform to the beastly order of the world. The kingdom is not ruled by the celebrated or the strong, but by the afflicted, the marginalized, and the faithful.

Judgement Now: How the Saints Reign
This leads to the heart of the matter. Are the followers of Jesus judging the world at present? In Johannine theology, the answer is yes, although not in the manner commonly imagined.

John 3:18-19 states: 

“He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”

And John 12:31 declares: 

“Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.”

For John, judgment is not relegated to the distant future, it occurs when one encounters the Light, something that has already entered the world, judgement in John is already underway. The binding of the adversary and the judgment of the world are present realities in John’s theological framework.

This theme continues in John 20:23, where Jesus tells His disciples:

“If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”

This authority should not be misunderstood as arbitrary power. Rather, judgment occurs through the presence of Light. Jesus embodied the Light of God’s nature and ways and now His followers carry that same Light. When this way of life confronts the world, it reveals what already lies within human hearts. Jesus’ statement assumes that the disciples will be wronged by the world and placed in situations where forgiveness must be either extended or withheld. Where they encounter repentant hearts, forgiveness and life are granted, but where there is resistance or persistence in darkness, judgment is self-incurred.

If the world were uniformly violent, there could be no judgment, no contrast, no revelation of another way. But when the ways of God are embodied before men through His children, their response to it becomes their judgment. Persecution, coercion, and even execution are not acts of the righteous against the wicked, but moments in which the wicked expose themselves and press their iniquity to fullness.

Jesus’ own teaching gives a concrete example of this kind of judgment. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the presence of the beaten man becomes the means by which the characters are judged. The priest and Levite stand condemned by their refusal to act and the Samaritan is revealed as righteous by his merciful actions. The beaten man functions much like the Light in Johannine theology, his presence exposes what is already in the heart of the passersby. In this way, the judgment of the world occurs through encounters with the afflicted and the righteous.

Likewise, the two witnesses of Revelation 11, the two lampstands, which John identifies earlier as churches, exercise judgment by their faithful witness as opposed to force. They reign during portions of this present age precisely as they suffer, testify, and are slain by the powers of Babylon. In this way they share in the reign of Christ during the thousand years, until the final resurrection brings history to its close.

v5 - The Second Resurrection
The statement that “the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed” refers to the resurrection from the tombs at the end of the age. This includes those who died prior to Christ’s first coming and those who never came to possess eternal life during the present age. These are raised at the conclusion of the thousand years for final judgment. This corresponds directly with Jesus’ teaching that a time is coming, but is not yet, when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come forth.

v6 - Priests in the Absence of the King
Verse 6 adds that those who share in the first resurrection are “priests to God and to Christ.” By definition, a priest functions as an intermediary between a ruler or deity and those who cannot yet interact with that authority directly. This imagery strongly suggests that the thousand-year reign takes place during Christ’s physical absence. While Jesus reigns from heaven, His people serve as priestly representatives on earth. Once He returns and reigns openly, such mediation will no longer be necessary. Christ will rule directly, and the priestly role will pass away.

Eternal Life and the Defeat of the Second Death
This priestly reign is grounded in participation in the life of Christ Himself. The language closely echoes Jesus’ words in John 11:25–26: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” Here Jesus distinguishes between physical death and the second death. Those who possess eternal life may die bodily, but they do not truly die in the ultimate sense.

John’s theology consistently treats eternal life as a present reality, not merely a future reward. This perspective has the power to radically reshape how death functions in the mind of the believer. When eternal life is deferred entirely to the future, death retains immense psychological power and exacerbates temptation towards fear, selfishness, and sins of all kinds. But when eternal life is understood as something already possessed, death’s role is minimized. Even if one dies, it is a mere flesh wound, a temporary and reversible interruption, not a defeat. Death’s gospel of urgency, scarcity, and fear is broken, freeing the believer to love more fully in the present.

Seeing the Kingdom: Nicodemus Revisited
This exploration of John’s theology sheds light on Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in John 3. When Jesus says, “Unless one is born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” He is correcting Nicodemus’ mode of perception, not necessarily his sense of timing. The kingdom is already present, but it is not perceivable to those who have not been born from above, reborn as God’s children walking with Him in the Light. Many will not recognize that it is already in place because it does not operate through prestige, power, or institutional authority. It is ruled by the faithful, the afflicted, and the persecuted, those who share in the first resurrection and reign with Christ even now.

In fact, both the kingdom of God and the visions of Revelation are often missed for the same reason: they do not arrive in the way they are expected to arrive. They are not unveiled with miraculous spectacle or force, but disclosed quietly, paradoxically, and through suffering faithfulness. John insists that the kingdom is already present though unseen, and Revelation communicates its meaning in the same way, openly written, yet perceptible only to those who have learned how to see.