LECTURE II. CHRIST THE ALPHA AND OMEGA. REV. i. 8. 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. THE Come, thou dear, all-lovely Jesus, Come thou lovely Chief among ten thousand be. Revelations of this book were made by Jesus Christ to his servant John, concerning the future events which should take place in the world, and in the church, through successive ages, until the consummation of all things: of course it was highly necessary that Christ should assert his own character, for by him such events were to be produced. What epithets could more charmingly convey to St. John, or to us, the knowledge of Christ, as the author and finisher of these great things, than the words of our text? Who could control nations, demolish kingdoms, subdue satan, raise the dead, and produce a new state of things in the moral world, but he who is the Almighty God? Such things have been in operation for many ages, and they shall be completed by that Jesus who is God over all blessed for evermore! It is worthy of note, that as the style of the book of Revelations is symbolical, so the figurative expressions in the text are perfectly consonant. By this passage you may learn what Christ is in himself, and what he is to his people. Alpha and Omega are the first and the last letters in the Greek alphabet; the nature of which is explained in the next clause. The same is mentioned in the 11th and 17th verses, as the first and the last. They are also pertinently introduced in the last chapter and 13th verse of this book, which exhibits the time when all the promises and the prophecies relating to the kingdom of Christ will be finished, and God himself be all in all. 1. By the aid of our text let us attempt to learn what CHRIST IS IN HIMSELF. ? By Alpha Jesus is known in his DIVINE NATURE as the first cause, the uncreated, self-existent JEHOVAH. The Supreme Being claimed this very title, in the revelation of himself to the prophet Isaiah, "I am the Lord, the first, and with the last I am he.” "Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts, I am the first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no God." "Hearken unto me, O Jacob, and Israel, my called, I am he, I am the first, and I am the last. Mine hand also hath laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together." These sublime passages, compared with our text, are sufficient to convince us of the just claim of Jesus to divinity. The Godhead of Christ is the first and the grand principle of our religion. If Jesus be not the self-existent God, the first and the last, there can be no confidence placed in his promises-no virtue in his grace-no perfection in his salvation-nor can there be any accomplishment of those purposes which are recorded in the Bible. We confess, "Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh." Yet the fact is revealed, and this is the Saviour by whom alone sinful man can be restored to God in peace, be influenced to the practice of virtue, and rejoice in hope of the enjoyment of happiness for ever! Alpha, the first letter in the alphabet, must be understood before we can proceed to the next; and without which all the rest will be of no use: equally so we must first understand Jesus as "the true God and eternal life," before we can derive any special benefit from the other truths of the Gospel. Indeed, on the first letter, alpha, all the rest depend, and, if that be omitted, the alphabet is incomplete; so, in the Gospel, without the belief of Christ in his self-existent, underived Godhead, all the doctrines, promises, institutions, and hopes which are revealed, vanish as an empty dream, and leave us in our sins. Alpha, the first letter, is a necessary introduction to the rest; and the knowledge of Jesus Christ, as the ever blessed God, leads to an easy acquaintance with every other revealed truth. Necessity obliges me to say, there are many who profess Christianity, and yet deny Jesus in his essential underived Godhead. Erring in this first and most important point, their other sentiments are evidently wrong; their system is obscure and perplexing, as would be an alphabet without its first and primary letter. Let us then be thankful, if we have been taught the divinity of Jesus-may its influence be ever operative on our hearts and lives. By this first letter, alpha, we may also learn the MEDIATORIAL CHARACTER OF JESUS. He is the first and the head of all the family of grace. He is declared to be "the first-born of every creature;" as Jesus, God with us, he is the author of all angelic and human existence; he is particularly so as the author of the new cre ation; for, if any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature. And for the same reason Christ is called the beginning of the creation of God; the first born among many brethren; and to his image all, eventually, shall be conformed. After the conquest of Jesus upon the cross, he arose from the dead, and became the first fruit of them that slept; or, as it is more strongly expressed in Col. i. 18, He is the head of the body, the Church; who is the beginning, the first born from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence. Thus we learn the completeness and the glory of Jesus as Mediator; the Alpha, the head, the fountain, the forerunner, the first fruit, able and mighty to redeem; the first in love, the first in power, the first in grace, and the first in glory! Our text informs us Jesus is not only Alpha but Omega, the last as well as the first-the end as well as the beginning. This instructs us that Jesus, as MEDIATOR, is the end, the completor of all the purposes, counsels, and promises of grace; that as Jesus began them, and is carrying them on, so he will assuredly bring them to a glorious issue; not one thing shall fail of which the Lord our God hath spoken. In no instance does Jesus, our Mediator, appear in the character of Omega, as in our law fulfiller. He is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. He was made under the law; he came to fulfil the law, that neither jot nor tittle should fail; the law was in his heart, and honoured in his most holy life; he sustained its awful penalties for his people, redeeming them from the curse of the law; he being made a curse for them. May I not repeat that Jesus, our Mediator and Law-fulfiller, having honoured the precepts we have violated, and borne the curse we C had merited, appears to us in the most interesting and important character. Here is complete redemption, an all-sufficient justification, the highest display of divine attributes in the salvation of men, and the crown of glory produced for ever to shine upon the head of Immanuel! By this last letter in the Greek alphabet, Omega, we likewise learn the HUMILIATION OF JESUS. As Alpha, he was the first, the highest, and the most glorious; yet, to obtain eternal redemption for us, he became the lowest and most abased upon earth. He was made lower than the Angels; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs; a worm, and no man. This subject ought sensibly to affect us. Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye, through his poverty, might be rich. Though he was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. O for an heart to adore the Saviour in whom such extremes of light and darkness, riches and poverty, honour and debasement, have been experienced! The Alpha, the highest in glory; the Omega, the lowest in sorrow; both absolutely necessary to constitute Jesus a complete Saviour for sinners. May I not add, that Jesus, Omega, reminds us of the last scene of human things, and himself as JUDGE of all mankind. The solemn scene of retribution makes a very material part of the Holy Bible. As Alpha, the first, the beginning, the Almighty, manifest in our nature, Jesus bears the most august character, as that supreme Judge, |