A number, read soberly
The First and the Last
Not a number of counting but of claim, First and Last is a title Christ takes for himself in Revelation. With Alpha and Omega and Beginning and End, it declares that he encompasses all things.
“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.”Revelation 22:13
The pattern Scripture draws
The pattern Scripture draws. The title reaches back to Isaiah, where the LORD alone claims it: "I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God" (Isaiah 44:6; also 41:4; 48:12). It is a claim only God can make, that he stands before all things and after all things, sovereign over the whole of history. In Revelation the risen Christ takes this very title on his own lips: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord" (Revelation 1:8), and to the frightened John, "Fear not; I am the first and the last" (Revelation 1:17). It gathers to a climax at the book's close: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last" (Revelation 22:13). The pattern is not arithmetic but comprehensiveness, the whole alphabet from first letter to last, the whole of time from origin to goal, all of it held in one who is God.
The myth to clear up
The myth to clear up. Because Alpha and Omega uses the Greek alphabet, some try to build gematria or hidden-letter systems on it, as though the title were a puzzle. But its meaning is openly stated, not concealed. First and Last, Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End are a way of saying all-encompassing and eternal, spanning everything as the alphabet spans from A to Z. To mine the letters for secret codes is to miss the plain and towering claim in front of us. There is also no warrant to soften the title into mere metaphor that empties it of deity; in both Isaiah and Revelation it is a divine self-designation. The honest reading neither decodes it nor dilutes it. It receives it as it stands: the confession that Christ is Lord over the whole of reality, from its first word to its last.
How it points to Christ
How it points to Christ. The astonishing thing is that a title God reserves for himself alone in Isaiah is spoken by Jesus as his own. This places Christ squarely within the identity of the one God, the eternal One who was before creation and will bring it to its appointed end. "In the beginning was the Word ... and the Word was God" (John 1:1), and "by him were all things created" (Colossians 1:16). He is the Beginning as the source of all things and the Last as the goal toward which all things move, "that in all things he might have the preeminence" (Colossians 1:18). To the fearful he says, "Fear not," for the One who holds the beginning also holds the end, and "have the keys of hell and of death" (Revelation 1:18). All history is bracketed by Christ, and therefore it is safe.
Questions people ask
What does 'Alpha and Omega' mean?
Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, a way of saying the beginning and the end, the all-encompassing One. In Revelation it is a claim of eternal deity that Christ makes for himself.
Why is it significant that Jesus calls himself the First and the Last?
In Isaiah the LORD reserves that title for himself alone as the only God (Isaiah 44:6). When the risen Christ takes it in Revelation, he places himself within the identity of the one true God, affirming his full deity.