‘And one of the elders answered me saying, “These who are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and from where do they come?” And I say to him, “Sir (my lord), you know”.'
It is indicative of John's state that it is not he who asks the question. He is struck dumb by what he is observing. Thus the elder is responding to his unspoken question as he asks his questions about those clothed in white robes. And to his question John can only say humbly, “Sir, you know”.
“These are those who are coming out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
The elder answers his own questions. All through the present tribulation and the greater tribulations to come Christians will be dying, but now they know that they need not fear. For it is to this that they will come.
‘Those who are coming', the present participle. We may be intended to read it as ‘the coming ones who have come'. It is quite probable that this scene occurs after the resurrection, and includes all God's people, for they are now not ‘under the altar' (Revelation 6:9) but active in Heaven. Thus it could include those who have been ‘raptured' (1 Thessalonians 4:17). The present tenses need not militate against this, for the vision could be revealing the future situation of those who are at present ‘coming out of great tribulation'. But the primary lesson of the passage is to those who must face tribulation, (and we must remember that even today many Christians around the world do face great tribulation), assuring them of their final guaranteed place in Heaven.
‘The great tribulation'. As mentioned above this refers to the period that John is forecasting as soon to come for the people of his day, and the definite article (‘the') refers back to the message to the church at Thyatira. This is not specifically the ‘great tribulation' spoken of by Jesus, for that referred to events in Palestine. It is looking at what John will later describe in more detail, the great tribulation which would necessarily affect the church in the near future through both persecution and tumultuous events.
John wants God's people to know that although such great tribulation is coming, and persecution is coming for them, they need not be afraid because of Whose they are. This ‘great tribulation' is thus wider in scope than tribulation already experienced by the churches. Later in the book we will indeed see the great tribulation that the world must face, and would face constantly through the ages. Christians also must experience some of its effects. But we know from this chapter that they are under God's protection.
We can compare how Jesus Himself spoke of the tribulation that would come on the Jews through the ages (Luke 21:24). Thus tribulation will come to the church, to the world and to the Jews. (It has nothing directly to do with a ‘Great Tribulation' at the end of the age which as such is not specifically spoke of in Scripture. But tribulation is the lot of both the church and the world, especially in the Near and Middle East, and there will no doubt be tribulation towards the end. ‘To the end wars and desolations are determined' (Daniel 9:26)).
‘They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' These are not the white robes given to overcomers. These are representative of their own inner and outward appearance. While these garments had been somewhat marred, they are now pure and clean. But how did they wash them? Not through baptism for baptism is never directly stated to be a washing. (To John the Baptiser and Jesus it is a picture of the lifegiving activity of the Spirit in operation like the rain in nature. To Paul it is a dying and rising again in Christ. Neither see it as washing). Rather the washing here is ‘the washing of water by the word' which sanctifies and cleanses (Ephesians 5:26), and ‘the washing of regeneration' (Titus 3:5). It is the new birth that cleanses the people of God, followed by their receiving and obeying the word of God. This is why the church as the bride of Christ will wear garments which represent ‘the righteous doings of the saints' (Revelation 19:8), for true faith results in true action. It is this new birth that has made them fit to stand before God.
Furthermore they have used a special whitener, they have been ‘made white in the blood of the Lamb'. The blood is not seen as washing but as adding extra whiteness. In the words of Isaiah 1:18, ‘though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow'. It is ultimately through Christ's death that they are fitted for the Father's presence.