As the Alpha and the Omega, He is the start and the completion. At the end of the Bible He declares Himself to be not only the Alpha but also the Omega, meaning that once He begins something, He will complete it regardless of all the frustrations. We should not, therefore, be disappointed. When we look at the condition of the church today, we may say that it is a mess. How can God accomplish His purpose with such a situation? However, we must remember that Christ is the Alpha and the Omega. He will complete what He has begun. All that is unveiled in Revelation 21 and 22 will eventually come to pass, because Christ is the Alpha and the Omega.
Christ is the first letter, the last letter, and all the letters in between. This means that He is able and qualified to accomplish all that is spoken concerning Him in Revelation. We should not excuse ourselves, thinking that the visions in this book are too high for us and that we cannot attain them. The Lord is the Alpha and the Omega to back up and to carry out His word. We must exercise our entire being to believe in His word. We should not look at, reckon, or consider ourselves. We are nothing. If we look at ourselves, we will not be able to do anything. Therefore, we must turn our eyes to Him, set our eyes upon Him, and believe in His word. No matter how far beyond us His word is, we must say Amen to whatever He says. Whenever we say Amen to His word, we are strengthened, and we have living faith. Faith is not derived from us; it originates with Him. If we look away from all things unto Him (Heb. 12:2), we will enjoy Him as our Alpha, our Omega, and our everything. He will certainly accomplish everything He has promised in Revelation. We only need to exercise faith in Him.
The Lord speaks something about the church in the first book of the New Testament, and then in the last book, as a consummation of the whole Bible, He speaks to the churches about the church. The book of Revelation is not written to individuals but to the local churches (1:11). The Lord Jesus never forgets what He begins. We may forget, but He never forgets. In the first book of the New Testament, He spoke about the building of the church (Matt. 16:18), and what He has begun, He will accomplish. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, to accomplish the building up of the church.
As the Alpha and the Omega, Christ is the Author and Perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2). Faith is the way to enjoy God, but we do not have faith in ourselves. Our faith can last only a short time. But Christ is the Author, the Originator, and the Perfecter of our faith. This means that He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, of our faith. In other words, He is our faith, and this faith lasts forever. If we feel that our faith is weak, we should call on the Lord’s name. After calling upon His name, we will have faith within us. Faith is nothing less than Christ Himself. When we have Him, we have faith, and this faith is for God to dispense Himself into us for our enjoyment.
Christ, the Son of God, is the First and the Last (Rev. 1:17; 2:8; 22:13), the Beginning and the End (v. 13), and the Alpha and the Omega (v. 13). Being the first simply means that prior to us there was nothing. However, for us to be the beginning means not only that we are the first but also that we have begun something. What then is the difference between the Alpha and the Beginning? A certain thing may be the beginning, but it may have neither the content nor the continuation. To be the Alpha and the Omega is to be the complete content and continuation. In order to be the beginning and the ending, we must take a certain action. Christ is not only the First but also the Beginning, the beginning of God’s economy and God’s operation. God’s operation began and will end with Christ. This Christ is also the content and continuation of God’s operation, because He is not only the Beginning and the End but also the Alpha and the Omega. In other words, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is everything. He is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End of God’s operation, and the content and continuation of whatever God is doing. Christ is all-inclusive, and Christ is everything.
Revelation 22:13 also tells us that Christ is the First and the Last. As the Alpha, He is the First, and as the Omega, He is the Last. As to the First, Christ is the foremost; as to the Last, Christ is the hindmost. He is always the First; no one precedes Him. He is also the Last; no one is behind Him.
The Lord told the church in Smyrna, the suffering church, that He is the First and the Last (2:8). This means that no matter how great the sufferings through which He passed were, those sufferings could not terminate or damage Him. He is the First, and eventually He is also the Last. In suffering, the church must know that the Lord is the First and the Last, the ever-existing, unchanging One. Whatever the environment may be, He remains the same. Nothing can precede Him nor can anything exist after Him. All things are within the limit of His control.
When the Lord told the church in Smyrna that He is the First and the Last, He was also indicating that the church had to be victorious. The church should not be frustrated by any kind of suffering. She must pass through all the sufferings and come to the end, because the Lord, who is the life and Head of the church, is the First and the Last.
In the apostle John’s writings, he touches the divine things. With the divine things there is no beginning and no ending because whatever is divine is eternal, having no beginning and no ending. John had an intention to show us that whatever he ministered to us is eternal, with no beginning and no ending. In Revelation John told us that Christ is the eternal One, the First and the Last (2:8; 22:13b). Because He is the First, no one and nothing is before Him. Because He is the Last, no one and nothing is after Him. This indicates that He is everything. Christ as the eternal One may be illustrated by a circle, which has no beginning and no ending. Christ occupies everything and every place. He does not give us any position. We are nothing, and He is everything. He is the First and the Last for the dispensing of the divine life into us.
The Lord Jesus is not only the First but also the Beginning; He is not only the Last but also the End. The First indicates that none is before Christ, and the Last that none is after Him; whereas the Beginning indicates that He is the origination of all things, and the End that He is the consummation of all things. Hence, the indication here is not only that there is nothing before or after the Lord Jesus but also that there is no origination or consummation without Him. This assures us that the Lord is strong to promise, encourage, and strengthen us. He will accomplish whatever He has spoken in Revelation.
As the Beginning, nothing precedes Christ, and as the End, nothing succeeds Him. This means that before Christ and after Christ there is no other. Christ is everything. We must experience such a Christ in a full way, all the way from Alpha to Omega. Before Alpha there is no letter, and after Omega there is also no letter. The Alpha is the beginning, and the Omega is the end.
We can be the first, but we may not be the originator. We can also be the last, but we may not be the finisher. Christ is not only the First but also the Originator; He is not only the Last but also the Finisher. In other words, in this universe from beginning to end, all is Christ. We may be the first but not the origination; we may be the last but not the completion. The Lord Jesus is not only the First but also the Beginning, the origination; He is not only the Last but also the End, the completion, leaving nothing to anyone. He occupies the entire universe. In time, in space, and in everything He is everything. He is the Beginning and the End, the origination and the completion.
The fact that Christ is not only the First and the Last but also the Beginning and the End assures us that, having started the church life, He will surely accomplish it. He will never leave His work unfinished. All those in the local churches must believe that the Lord Jesus is the Beginning and the End. He will accomplish what He has begun in His recovery.
Because the Lord is everything to us and because He is so strong, we should not excuse ourselves by saying that we are weak and that our environment is too difficult. The more difficult our environment, the richer the Lord will be to us. The more trying our circumstances, the stronger the Lord will be to us. We must exercise our faith in this all-inclusive One, the One who is the Alpha, the Omega, the First, the Last, the Beginning, and the End. With Him, there are no problems. Thus, we need to be immersed into Him, believe in Him, and rest in Him.