The Alpha and the Omega
The meaning of this title as applied to Christ in the Apocalypse is evident. It is equivalent to saying in English, “I am the A and the Z,” for alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. It is exemplified in the words which follow: “I am the beginning and the ending” (Apoc. i., 8), “the first and the last” (verse 11). The expressions are repeated in chapters xxi. 6, xxii. 13. The difficulty of the expression lies in the application of the terms to Christ. In the writings of the prophets “the first and the last” is applied to Yahweh, Who says in connection with it, “beside Me there is no El” (Isa. xli. 4 and xliv. 6). How then can the title be understood in relation to Jesus Christ?
The answer takes us back to a phase of the truth referred to under the name Jesus, which it will be remembered in the Hebrew contains the name of Yahweh. God was in Christ (2 Cor. v. 19), Christ was “the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim. iii. 16). He could say “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” In the ultimate sense of the words the Alpha and the Omega must apply to God Himself. He as the originator of all things, out of Whom are all things (1 Cor. viii. 6), must be the Alpha. As in the end He is to be “all in all” (1 Cor. xv. 28), He must likewise be the Omega. The Bible is His revelation to the human race, from which is to be developed a race of immortals who will have attained unto the Divine nature. Of them Jesus is the first, “the beginning of the (new) creation of God” (Rev. iii. 14), the first-born from the dead (Col. i. 18), the first fruits of them that slept (1 Cor. xv. 20). All who attain to that end will do so by reason of the salvation which centres in him as Jesus, “the Saviour.” Indeed, they must be in him. They therefore cannot be viewed in this connection apart from him, for his name is named upon them. He is thus the Omega, for the last saint incorporated into the Divine unity will be as much of him as will any other, and in the Omega state they will all be in him. Together they will constitute what has been aptly spoken of as “the multitudinous Christ.”
It will be observed again in relation to this title that very much is comprehended in it. It involves the relationship of Christ to God and to his saints, and links the whole into one great and glorious purpose, leading from “In the beginning God” to “the end God all in all.”