When we think about the people in our lives, whom we admire, honor, respect, & pay homage — they could be in the history books, a personality of our family heritage, or someone so dear to us & yet so far from us due to distance.
Sometimes we wish they could speak to us in the moment of crisis — we could beckon unto them & they would appear giving to us those soothing & touching words of wisdom; nuggets of comfort at the moment of contention. But, alas, they cannot, as they are either physically incapable or emotionally distant from our time of discontent. How often we so long for their presence, to converse in person, & to share our fellowship with them.
Underneath it all, is the knowledge of the bluntest of truth — the human is at all times, a most physical & present being. There is a beginning & an end to its life; limitations to both time & space. We, humans, cannot be everywhere at the same time inhabiting the physical space of many different people who long for the presence of the same person.
And so, there exists a dichotomy — that which pertains to humans & that which pertains to God :
Revelation 3:14
The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.
Revelation 22:13
13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
Isaiah 43:10
10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD,
“and my servant whom I have chosen,
that you may know and believe me
and understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
nor shall there be any after me.
Isaiah 44:6
6 Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel
and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts:
“I am the first and I am the last;
besides me there is no god.
On the surface, God is altogether different & contrary to the physical & material world humans inhabit. Before anything else in all creation, God was the first; after there will be anything in all creation, which is another way of saying that after everything & anything in all creation meets their end, God is the last. Which raises two very obvious questions : If God is the First, how did He appear & what made Him? And, if God is the Last, who or what will end God or how will God meet His end if everything in the material world ceases to exist?
To understand these questions is to understand that they are connected in some way to the nature of God. Alpha & Omega, the beginning & the end, in the English language, presents us with a set of problems that do not exist in the original text of these words. This is due to the fact that the average person would fail to recognize that Alpha & Omega are references to the two Greek letters of the Ancient Greek alphabet. The Greek letter Alpha is the first letter, whereas the Greek letter Omega is the last letter. In other words, to reference oneself as Alpha & Omega, the individual is proclaiming that he/she is the both the starting point & the ending point of all the letters in between. Every letter between Alpha & Omega is encompassed by the personality who is proclaiming this quality.
What is both unique & startling about this attribution is that in the Ancient Near Eastern religion, all the gods that were worshipped had a beginning & were essentially birth by some cosmic chaos surrounding it. God on the other hand, is ascribing to Himself an attribute that proclaim God as essential to everything & anything that came after Him. And at the same time, attributes to Himself that He will be the last of all things that will take place — in other words, Alpha & Omega is another way of proclaiming the infinite & eternal nature of God. He is neither Born nor does He experience Death; He is the sustainer of all life because all life derive their existence from Him; He cannot die because by definition, if He is the sustainer of life & all life derive their life from Him, then He is the very meaning & essence of life — life & death cannot cohabit God’s nature. Contrary distinctions do not inhabit His personality & quality.
Where is our sense of humanity? In this picture of an infinite & eternal God there exists only transcendence; He is very much unknowable — matter of fact, God in His being & nature & quality is the most absolute unknowable being in the universe. How can any human be able to cohabit His presence & entertain even the thought of sharing fellowship with Him? It is the most impossible undertaking.
And yet, there exists this wonderous thought — He is the very reason all life came into existence in the first place — Life from lifelessness; ex nihilo — literally, life from nothing. Thus, God when He created humans, He created the most marvelous piece of Divine craftsmanship that He could ever devise. And so desired their Fellowship from the beginning. Not because, human Fellowship was necessary for God; not because, human Fellowship gives to God value & worth & love. Rather, God inhabits in His character & nature all that is required & necessary already within the Fellowship of the Trinity — there is nothing more that He needs nor requires.
The Words of the Amen, the faithful & true Witness — references Jesus Christ. Everything that took place in creation including the Fall, where sin was introduced into this material universe & the cosmic effects of sin that reduced His creation into chaos & disorder, were all under the glare & exacting stare of God. Thus Jesus Christ, shares that infinite divine character & nature of God; He shares the Fellowship of the Trinity; He is fully in communion & unity & accord with God the Father. As a result, His entrance into our known world as a human being, God assigned unto Himself the role of Immanuel — the divine immanence — God with Us. He is now NOT unknowable but fully knowable — Jesus Christ makes this possible.
How? Because of His Spirit that dwells in the hearts of believers. His presence surrounds & engulfs His people; His presence lives inside & takes a home within the hearts of His people. Furthermore, the promises of God have their exclamation point in the presence & life of Jesus through the power & presence of the Holy Spirit. We are never left alone & left to our devises — no, we now share & commune & have fellowship with the divine.
Jesus Christ makes this possible. How? Because He was with God from the beginning — He is the eternal word in the flesh to dwell among us. This dichotomy between the eternal & finite; between the material & spiritual have collapsed unto the person of Christ our Messiah. Mortality is clothed in immortality through the finished work of Jesus upon the Cross. And upon that Cross, upon Jesus, we, humans, throw off our sinful nature. His Spirit dwells with us & allows us to conform into His image both in the mind & in the actions of our physical bodies. Our transformation into His likeness is necessary so that we would be made more & more infinite as He so desires. All through the Yes, our Amen, our True Witness — Jesus Christ our Savior & Lord — The Alpha & Omega, who belongs all glory & honor & power & praise & worship, forever & ever, Amen!
