In Revelation 22:12-13 Christ is revealed as the Alpha and the Omega. In Revelation 22:13 the Lord Jesus says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” This is the Lord’s declaration at the close of this book; it corresponds with what God declared in the opening of this book. Revelation 1:8 says that the Lord God is the Alpha and the Omega. This indicates that the Lord Jesus is God. This also shows that God and the Lord Jesus are one and that the Son and the Father can never be separated.
The eternal and almighty God is the Alpha, the beginning for the origination, and the Omega, the ending for the completion of His eternal purpose. In the book of Genesis He was the Alpha, and now in the book of Revelation He is the Omega. Whatever He has originated He will complete. Governmentally, He continues His universal operation which He originated from eternity and will bring to completion (21:6). Although man fell, God still intends to accomplish His economy. He is the God with whom is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. Once He begins something, He will never give it up. As the Alpha, God is the beginning; He originated all things of the universe. He will be the Omega, the ending for the completion of His eternal purpose; He will finalize and finish what He has initiated.
In 1 Corinthians 1:8 Paul says that God will confirm us “until the end unreprovable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This indicates that a genuine church needs to grow in life (3:6) after its initial receiving of grace and that it will be unreprovable in the day of Christ’s coming. After receiving grace as our base, we need to grow in grace so that we will be unreprovable in the day of Christ’s coming. Who in 1:8 refers not to Christ but to God in verse 4. God has given us grace, and this God will also confirm us to the end. He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the Giver of grace at the beginning and the Completer of our growth in life at the end. He will confirm us until the end unreprovable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord whom we serve is the Alpha and the Omega. This does not mean, however, that Christ is only these two letters and not all the letters in between. Because He is the first letter, He is also all the other letters. The principle is the same with respect to the slaughter of the firstborn in the book of Exodus (12:12). The firstborn of the Egyptians represented all the Egyptians. Likewise, when the Bible says that Christ is the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15), it implies that Christ includes every item of the creation.
The twelve precious stones in the breastplate mentioned in Exodus 28 typify the believers, the components of the church, inscribed with Christ as the letters of the spiritual alphabet. Christ is the alphabet used to compose words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters, and books. The letters inscribed on the twelve stones in the breastplate typify Christ as the letters in the heavenly alphabet.
As the Alpha and the Omega, Christ is the basic factor in the composition of the Bible. We can truly say, therefore, that the Bible is written with Christ. Christ is the letters that compose every verse of the Bible. The entire Godhead, embodied in Christ, is the divine alphabet. Actually, the New Testament is not composed of the letters of the Greek alphabet; instead, it is composed of the letters in the divine and heavenly alphabet, letters which are actually the Triune God Himself.
In our human living, Christ should be the entire alphabet. If He is our alphabet, He will automatically become every word, sentence, paragraph, and chapter, and ultimately the whole book. God’s economy is that our entire human living be written, composed, with Christ as the unique factor. Christ is all-extensive; He comes in to fill every part of our living. Therefore, the dictionary of our Christian life should have just one word: Christ.
The church is the masterpiece, the poem, of God (Eph. 2:10). The church as God’s poem is composed with the Triune God as letters of the alphabet. The Triune God Himself is the alphabet used in writing this poem; He is the letters used to make up the words that compose this poem. Just as all poetry is composed of words written with letters of the alphabet, so also the church as God’s poem is composed of God Himself as the letters.
The apostle Paul tells us that we are the letters of Christ (2 Cor. 3:3). As one who was a pattern for living Christ for the church, Paul was competent to write living letters of Christ as the heavenly, spiritual alphabet. He was qualified, and he had a mastery of the skill necessary for this.
We are not letters in ourselves; rather, we are letters in Christ. As He is an Alpha, so we are an alpha. As He is an Omega, so we are an omega. He is every letter of the alphabet for the dispensing of life. He is inexhaustible, and His dispensing of life is inexhaustible.
Anyone who lives Christ for the church knows Christ as alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and every other letter of the heavenly alphabet. An English-language typewriter has twenty-six letters. With these letters we can compose any word, sentence, paragraph, or book. Christ is the real typewriter containing all the letters from alpha to omega. Whenever we want to say something, we simply need to type Christ. Day by day we must practice and become adept at typing with Christ as the letters.
We should learn to compose something with the Triune God as letters, and we should become accustomed to using these heavenly letters. We need to learn to write with these letters, realizing that the New Testament actually is composed of God Himself. The Triune God is every letter of the alphabet used in writing the New Testament. In ministering the Word of God, we need to apply the Triune God as the letters of the spiritual alphabet. Every aspect of the church as God’s poem is composed with the Triune God as the alphabet.