The Alpha and Omega
Jas. Hamilton. Revelation 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, said the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. I. The Lord Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, because HE IS THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD. The use of the various letters is just to articulate your truest self — to render intelligible to others your thoughts and wishes, your feelings and your purposes. And in this sense Immanuel is the Alpha and Omega of the ever-blessed Godhead. He is the articulation of Jehovah's mind. He is the Word of God. He is the visible embodiment of all that is in the invisible Three-One. Whatever the mind of the Lord Jesus is, the same is the mind of God; whatever the dispositions of the Lord Jesus are known to be, the same are the dispositions of Him whom no man can see; and whatever perfections were seen in the person of Christ, the same perfections reside in the great I AM. II. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, because of His ALL-SUFFICIENCY. Like the literal Alpha and Omega, He includes everything within Himself. He is the beginning and the ending, which is, and was, and is to come — the Almighty — the All-sufficient. There is nothing which a believer needs but he will find it in the Lord Jesus. 1. A sufficient Saviour. His name was called "Jesus," because He saves His people from their sins. You can do nothing which more truly honours Him, than to trust your salvation entirely to Him. 2. A most attractive and assimilating pattern of all moral excellence. In His direct operations on the mind, the Holy Spirit is the immediate sanctifier of God's people; but it is by revealing the great model of all excellence in the person of the Lord Jesus, that the Holy Spirit changes them into the same likeness. 2. A wise Counsellor and unerring Guide. He knows the end from the beginning; He sees the issue of every undertaking, not only in time, but in eternity. His counsel is wonderful, for it meets the very case; and — what cannot be said of much good advice — He can not only give the best counsel, but He can make you willing to take it. In His ever-living Word, He has left principles available in all the casuistry which ever can occur in your experience — formulae which only need to be filled up with your particular case, and the doubt is at once dispelled — the path is at once made plain. III. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, because ALL THINGS THAT CONCERN THE CHURCH ARE IN HIM SUMMED UP OR "RECAPITULATED." In His person the Church on earth finds its access to God, and the earnest of its everlasting life; and in that same person the Church of the glorified finds the guarantee of permanent joy — the stability of its bliss secured. All that belong to Him are safe within the circle of the changeless love and all-embracing might of Him who filleth all in all. IV. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, because HE IS THE FIRST AND THE LAST, the beginning and the ending — He that liveth and is alive for evermore. There is a power which bade Lebanon rise, and a power which can bid Lebanon and his continental roots subside in fiat chaos again. The day will come when that hoary deep must die — when old Ocean will lift up his waves and clap his cymbal hands no more. Yes, old apparatus of the universe, obsolete version of a system fast verging to decay, ye soon must vanish, and make room for a world where there is no more sea, and for cities which don't need the sun. But when ye are gone the Fountain of Life will still include in His all-encircling fulness everything that lives. (Jas. Hamilton.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. WEB: "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."