BY GREG CRUM
“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.” Revelation 1:8
Friends, the world has their opinion of Jesus (and if you haven’t noticed lately, it’s not a favorable one), and religion has painted a certain picture of him, but is that who he is? Is that the way Scripture describes him? The Bible declares that Jesus is the force that keeps all of God’s Creation held together (Colossians 1:17). It reveals that he said he was the Resurrection, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It claims he is Lord above all lords. It professes that he is the Bread of Life.
Is that the Jesus you know? Is that how you see him? I hope it is! I hope you see him as all this and everything else he and those early disciples proclaimed him to be. Because if you do then you are beginning to recognize him for who he is in all his glory!
For a few months now we have been rethinking what we’ve been told about Jesus. Jesus is much more than the world will ever acknowledge, and much different than religion makes him out to be. But the only way we are going to get an accurate view of our Savior is to look into the infallible Word of God and read those first-hand accounts and testimonies of Christ, most importantly, who Jesus himself said he was and is.
Last week we reviewed the significance of his claim that he was the Bread of Life and found that he is our daily sustenance. This week let’s think for a bit about his statement recorded in Revelation 1:8, where Jesus said he was Alpha and Omega.
“I am Alpha and Omega.” What a powerful proclamation! I can imagine the walls of the Universe shaking as Jesus says this! With that said, what is the deeper revelation in this declaration from Revelation? Well, to answer that question we need to ask and answer a few more.
First: What is “Alpha and Omega?”
In short, they are the names of the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, like our “A” and “Z.”
Okay, next question: What are alphabetical letters?
Glad you asked. They’re symbols that represent the sounds of speech. They are the most basic building blocks of our written language. Without letters (or symbols of some sort to represent sounds) you can’t have written language.
Third question: What’s the significance of written language? In other words, what’s its purpose?
To communicate of course! Written language gives us the ability to communicate ideas, values and faith with other people, even people from the past and in our future, and in this way helps us to transcend time and space limitations placed upon these current physical bodies.
With all that said, why is it significant that Jesus said he was Alpha and Omega, or in other words, our “A” to “Z,” the building blocks that allow us to communicate ideas, values, and faith through time and space? Among other things, this proclamation demonstrates that Jesus is the vehicle that carries our past, our true heritage, into our present, and that he is the one who will carry us to the good future we have ahead.
Let me explain. Jesus is Alpha and Omega. He is our beginning and our finish line. He is our Godly heritage and our Godly inheritance to come. In Romans 5:6-17 and Ephesians 2:11-18 the Bible tells us that Jesus is our Godly heritage and that our bloodline now runs through him. He was the last “Adam” and died for us to reverse the curse brought on by the first. He shed his blood for us and by that blood opened for us a new bloodline from which flows God’s blessings.
There’s no “bad blood” in our past once we say “Yes” to Jesus! What’s more, according to Ephesians 2:4-10 and I John 3:1-3, Jesus is our Godly inheritance as well. He’s the guarantee of our great future when we cross the finish line and this life is over! When he appears someday soon, the transfer of our inheritance will be complete. What a day that will be!
Brothers and sisters, Jesus is our Alpha and Omega, our past and our future. Let’s embrace him for all he is in our present time and enjoy a real relationship with him today.
Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.