“I am Alpha and Omega”

After about a month or so of a very profitable sabbatical from blogging (spiritually profitable that is), and after the busy summer months filled with family, church and travel, I am happy to say that the time has come for me to get back to something I love doing: talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and all that He has done for us and continues to do for us; which is what this blog is all about really.

For me specifically, besides being an outlet for me to testify of His goodness toward us, it is also about practicing the Christian disciplines of bible study and prayer – a lot of both! The subject of the day's blog is often discovered in my morning prayer time. As is today's subject.

So, if you've read your Bibles well, especially the book of Revelation, you know whose quote it is that titles today's posting. It's Jesus Christ, of course:

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last."
Revelation 22:13

I have found that many folks today have different versions of who Jesus was (and is). Some believe He was a teacher (in Jewish terminology, a Rabbi). Some believe He was a prophet sent by God, similar to Elijah, or John the Baptist. One person recently told me that God "chose" Jesus to be His son; implying that God chose one of us humans to claim as His son, to elevate him in a sense, to a higher place of regard or stature among the rest of us humans, and then to go about teaching us about God, the Father. But that isn't at all correct scripturally. In fact, it would be considered heretical in that it denies that Jesus is "everlasting God," as well as denying that He was without sin, and therefore denying that He was the perfect sacrifice, "the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world." John 1:29

The Word of God tells us so much about Jesus. In the scripture above, from Revelation, we are told that He is the Alpha (the first letter of the Greek alphabet) and the Omega (the last letter of the Greek alphabet). I believe there is deep meaning in His analogous usage of the Greek alphabet. In fact, I think it is one of those "mysteries" about the person of Jesus that we might not have full understanding of until we are with Him in person. But I believe He does give us some "revelation" of what this descriptive means by comparing it to other statements made about Jesus in the Word.

For example, one of my favorite passages in the Bible – John 1:1 – describes Jesus this way:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

There is much emphasis here on Jesus being "the Word," meaning specifically "the Word of God." And it seems to tie in with His own use of the terms "Alpha" and "Omega" – the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet - indicating that He is the first and the last, and by implication, everything in between, as well, for it takes all the letters of the alphabet to make words, not just the first and last letters. And He is THE WORD!

I think this speaks of how all-encompassing Jesus is; something far beyond what any mortal man could possibly be. And John goes on to confirm this for us in John
chapter 1, verses 2 and 3:

"The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made."

Putting it all in simple terms then, Jesus (the Word of God) was in the beginning with God and was in fact God. He is the beginning and also the ending, so that even as the ending arrives, so also arrives the beginning again. A full circle is created that is infinite; and everything that is found between the beginning and the ending is Jesus as well, for He is the Word of God and God is infinite and all-encompassing.

Now, none of that sounds very "human" to me. Even though Jesus was born of Mary, who was a human, and even though He walked in the flesh and with all the emotions and natural senses that we each possess, He is actually "the Word of God incarnate" or "the Word of God made flesh." John 1:14

The prophet Isaiah prophesied about Jesus: "Hear ye now O house of Daivd: Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel." (Isiaiah 7:13-14) (Immanuel means 'God with us'.)

It is not possible for a virgin to bear a child, for once intercourse has taken place, she is no longer a virgin. But with God all things are possible. And it was because it was by the Holy Spirit of God that she did conceive and bear this son who was both human and God, that she was able, just as Isaiah prophesied to be a virgin bearing a son. This prophecy was only one of so many biblical prophecies of the birth of Jesus.

All of which makes His death on the cross for us so amazingly awesome, for it was God Himself who became the sacrifice for our sins, to save us from the penalty of our own sin, to save us from the punishment we rightly deserve: everlasting torment in a place known as hell. And all we have to do is believe that He is God and that He does love us enough to do such a thing for us. All we have to do is believe that Jesus Christ is not merely a human being, but in fact, the Son of God, the Word of God made flesh for us.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever would believe in Him, would not perish, but would have life everlasting." John 3:16

Not everyone knows that our God is an awesome God! Not everyone knows that Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega, infinite God! Some who are reading this blog may not have known it….but now they do.

And that's what this blog is all about….