I Am Alpha and Omega!

BY DON FORTNER

Revelation 1:8
IN Revelation ONE, it says in verse 8: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." Then, in verse 11 the Lord Jesus told John again, "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last." Toward the end of the book, Christ makes that declaration two more times (21:6; 22:13).

At first glance, this declaration "I am Alpha and Omega" seems easy enough to understand. As Alpha and Omega are the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet, it simply means in our language: I am A and Z. I am the beginning of everything, and the end of everything, and I am everything from the beginning to the end.

Indeed, the apostle Paul has described Christ as being "all" and "in all" and "all in all". But to help you grasp the full impact of that truth, let me show you seven areas in which Christ is Alpha and Omega:

I. In regard to the Creation

Because the Lord Himself describes Alpha and Omega as "the beginning and the ending", this term is clearly linked to the creation.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," the Bible begins. Then, speaking of Christ, the Word that was made flesh, John declares: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."

Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ is the beginning. This whole universe came into existence by His power. He spoke and the world was made. All things are because he made them; and except what he made, nothing is.

Now, there is no way for us to explain that to the unbelieving man, for the unbelieving man is only rational with himself. Relying on his own limited rationality to reason, he cannot understand the things of God. And so, he comes up with all kinds of evolution theories to rationalize the origin of the earth, none of which, however, can stand the test of time. The truth is, God said, "let there be light," and there was light.

Christ is not only the Alpha, He is also the Omega. When He returns to judge the world, He will bring this creation to an end. "The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up" (II Peter 3:10).

II. In the Book of Holy Scripture

Shortly after the Lord Jesus had begun his public ministry, He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." Philip then found his brother Nathanael and told him: "We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph" (John 1:45). Christ is the One of whom Moses and the prophets wrote. In fact, the entire Bible is all about Jesus Christ!

As we've already seen, the very first verse in the Bible speaks of His having created the heaven and the earth. And the final chapters of the Bible speak of His reigning over the new heaven and the new earth.

Just to facilitate your own thinking, you can divide the Scriptures this way: the entire Old Testament is prophetic, all the gospels and the Book of Acts are historical, and the rest of the New Testament is explanatory, teaching us who and what Jesus Christ is. So, from the first to the last book, the message of the Bible, the scheme of the Bible, is the person and work of Christ. This is the Written Word speaking of the Living Word.

I do not say that every isolated thing taken out of context speaks of Christ directly. I do say that everything, every word, every precept, every ordinance, every doctrineas it is understood in the context of the Holy Scripturedirects our hearts to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. If we do not get that understanding, we do not understand the Bible.

III. In regard to God's law

The Lord Jesus Christ is He who gave mankind the law of God. That makes Him the Alpha, the beginning. In Matthew 22, He says, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets" (vv. 37-40).

Who among us, sons and daughters of Adam, can say honestly, "I have loved my God with all my heart"? And who among us has met what the Lord calls the second greatest commandment, loving thy neighbors as thyself? None of us! As sin is the transgression of the law, we are all sinners. And as the wages of sin is death, we all deserve to be eternally punished in hell.

In His mercy, thankfully, Christ came to be the fulfillment of the law. Not having committed a single sin, He lived a perfectly righteous life. The law demands perfection, but not anything greater than the perfection Christ has given. The law demands satisfaction, but not any greater than the infinite satisfaction of the Lord Jesus.

And by His grace, God credits Christ's righteousness to everyone that believes. Being believers, we now come and worship God in the name of Christ. As we bring God the sacrifice of faith, we fulfill the law perfectly and absolutely. Thus, when Jesus fulfilled the law for us, He became to us the end of the law.

Because Jesus is the Omega, we believers no longer have any obligation to the law, any curse from the law, or any dread and fear of the law.

IV. In the covenant of grace

People can squabble and fight about election and predestination all they want to. But election is simply God's sovereign choice. It is God's gracious choice from eternity of a people that He would save for the glory of Christ. And predestination is God's eternal decree to make all his elect conformed to the image of His Son Jesus.

In Isaiah 45:5-22, there is a beautiful passage that begins with the declaration of who Christ isthe God of the covenant of graceand ends with the call for everybody in the world to look to Him and be saved. The covenant of grace is nothing more or less than God's eternal purpose to give his chosen people the gift of eternal life.

The Lord Jesus is the Alpha in regard to this covenant because all the names of the elect were written in His Book of Life from the foundation of the world. And He is the Omega because on Judgment Day, the Book of Life will be right there at the great throne (Rev. 20:12), testifying that all those whom God had elected have indeed received salvation under the covenant of grace.

V. In the process of salvation

Salvation is a big word; it encompasses many parts. When we think about salvation, we sometimes think about only one thing. We think about conviction, or repentance, or faith, or regeneration, or sanctification, or glorification. But, when the Bible speaks of salvation, it includes not only all of those things, but ultimate transformation of all things to the glory of Christ and the everlasting joy of His people.

There once was an old man who had waited for the Savior for a long, long time. Every day he went to the temple, looking for God to fulfill the promise that had been given through the prophets. One day he saw a man with his young wife and the baby who was eight days old. Without asking any question, he walked over and picked up that baby and said: "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation" (Luke 2:29,30).

Christ is the whole thing, the whole of the salvationthe beginning, the ending and everything in between. So, when our Lord Jesus tells John that He is the Alpha and Omega "which is, and which was, and which is to come", He is declaring that He is the everlasting God, the Lamb of God that came to sacrifice for His people, and the Savior who will return on the last day to complete their salvation.

I wondered why should there be any one at all that is ěleastî in the kingdom of heaven.

Christ loved us in the beginning, He redeemed us in time, and He is coming for us in the end. He is the author and finisher of our faith. He is the Alpha and the Omega.

VI. In His glory and humiliation

The apostle Paul writes in II Corinthians 8:9: "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." Without question, therefore, the statement "I am Alpha and Omega" has reference to the glorious dignity of our Savior's person and the depth of his willing humiliation as the God-man.

When Christ Jesus calls himself the Alpha, He is saying that He is the Supreme King who rules over all of God's creation, for He is the preeminent God. On the other hand, by Omega, the Lord is referring to His humiliation. To be our sin substitute, He became by his voluntary condescension and humiliation the lowest, the last, and the least of all things.

I used to puzzle over the meaning of Matthew 11:11. Speaking of John the Baptist, Jesus says there, "Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." I wondered why should there be any one at all that is "least" in the kingdom of heaven.

One day God gave me understanding. That Scripture is describing the Lord Himself! He who became least in the kingdom of heaven is the greatest of all. In his humiliation, our Savior took the lowest place and became the least.

Psalm 22 gives us some insight into this truth. This messianic psalm starts with that which the Lord uttered while He was hanging on the cross, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Verse 1 continues, "Why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?" Then, He said in verse 6, "But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people."

Yes, Jesus is Omega in His humiliation as well as Alpha in His glory.

VII. In heaven's eternal glory

It is in Revelation 22:13 that the Lord says "I am Alpha and Omega" the fourth time. In the verse just before that, He says, "And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be."

In other words, when all the promises and prophesies of Holy Scripture are fulfilled, when all the mystery of God's eternal purpose is completed, when judgment is over, when the damned are forever cast into hell and the righteous are forever with the Lord, when the new heaven and the new earth have been created, and time shall be no more, when eternal glory has begun, Christ shall be Alpha and Omega, he is the door by which we enter into glory.

When we all get to heaven, the first thing we will behold is Jesus Christ. He is the fullness of glory. We will behold him first; we will behold him fully. More than that, all that He isthe consummation and glory of heaven's eternal joywill be there to behold forever into the future.

Yes, Christ is the eternal one; He is from eternity past to eternity future. He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, and yet with Him, there is neither beginning nor end, all things are comprehended by Him, all things come from Him, and all things shall redound to him. Amen! o

Rev. Donald S. Fortner is pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Danville, 2734 Old Stanford Road, Danville, KY 40422.

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