Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End; He has begun our Christian life, He will take it to consummation, and no matter how many hardships we go through and how much we fail, He will accomplish what He has spoken, for He is able to do it.
Lord Jesus, we love You and we open to You. We want to know You as the Alpha and Omega. Unveil us to see who You are to us. May we see that You are both the beginning and the end. May we realise what it means that You are the First and the Last. We take You as our life and our everything! Amen, Lord, You are the One in control. You are the One who does all things. We trust in You and we give ourselves to You! Amen!
This week, we come to a very precious aspect of Christ in the book of Revelation, something that we all need to know and experience in our Christian life and church life, Christ having the Keys of Death and Hades.
Wow, Christ has the keys of death and of Hades! May we open to the Lord to be enlightened by Him so that we may understand and enter into the experience of what Christ is to us.
We may understand mentally that Christ went through death, overcame death, and came out of death, and we may believe that He has the keys of death and of Hades.
But what does this mean in our Christian experience? What does this mean in our daily living? Do we know Christ in a personal and intimate way as the One who has the keys of death and Hades?
What does this mean in our daily experience? We need to take the word of God in the Bible and internalise it.
We need to pray over this word, make it our own, eat it with much prayerful consideration, and have our being open to the Lord for Him to shine in us and on us, even as we go through many things, for us to experience Him as such a One.
We don’t want to focus on doctrine or even the mental understanding of Christ having the keys of death and Hades. We want to see what this means in our Christian life and also in our church life.
This can be done only by the Lord’s shining in us and by His shepherding.
We open to His shepherding, we allow Him to lead us personally and corporately, and we will know Him, experience Him, and enjoy Him as the One having the keys of death and Hades.
We need to enter into a deeper and higher realisation of this matter; this is like climbing a mountain until we are fully into the heart of God, touching Him and being one with Him in this matter.
Christ is the First and the Last and the Living One: He is the Alpha and the Omega!
In Revelations 1:17-18 we see that the Lord Jesus is the First and the Last and the living One; He is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. Wow, what a Christ we have!
It is easy, however, to read this, agree with this, be encouraged by this, and then move on.
May we come to the Lord in His word and allow Him to shine on us and in us so that we may enter into the reality of what Christ is as the First and the Last and the living One.
Christ’s being the First and the Last implies that He will accomplish what He has begun.
He started something; He started our Christian life, for He drew us to Himself and captivated us by His beauty. What He has started, He will also finish.
He is the First, which means that there is none before Him; He is the Last, which implies that there’s no one after Him.
He is the Beginning, which means that He is the origination of all things and also the Originator. He is the End, which means that He is the consummation of all things.
Not only is there nothing and no one before the Lord or after Him, but there is also no origination or consummation without Him. He is strong to promise, encourage, and strengthen us.
In Revelation 2:8 the Lord Jesus said that He is the First and the Last, who became dead and lived again. Wow! He is the First and He is the Last; even more, He became dead, but then He lived again!
This means that, even as He went through death and came out living in resurrection, so He in us and with us takes us through death and will bring us through in resurrection.
This word was spoken to the church in Smyrna, the suffering church. As the church was suffering under persecution, the Lord introduced Himself as the One who became dead and lived again, even the First and the Last.
Nothing and no one could kill Him, damage Him, or terminate Him; He went through death, He tasted death, but He came out of death, and now He is living again.
We may not be under persecution as the church in Smyrna was, but we may suffer. As we suffer, as we pass through sufferings, we need to know that Christ is the First and the Last, the One who is ever-existing and unchanging. Everything is under His control.
Even our suffering is under His control, and He will take us through in resurrection. Whatever our environment is, He is in control. Our environment is under the Lord’s sovereignty, and He is within us to take us through.
He is the First and the Last; this means that we as the church will be victorious, for He will take us through and He will bring us all the way into God.
He is the First and also He is the Originator; He is the Last and He is also the Finisher. In other words, in this universe from beginning to end, all is Christ.
This One has become our life and our everything. We need to enjoy Him and experience Him as our life, our supply, our peace, our joy, and our everything.
He is the origination of our Christian life, and He is also the Finisher, the end; He will complete our Christian life. He leaves nothing to anyone; He is the first the last, and everything in between.
Christ occupies the whole universe. He is everything in time, in space, and in everything. Hallelujah! There is no one before Him, there is no one after Him, and He is the origination of all things.
He is also the consummation of all things; what He originates, He also consummates. May we open to Him and allow Him to do everything in us and for us. How we praise Him!
Lord Jesus, we praise You as the One who is the First and the Last! Hallelujah, Christ is the First and there’s no One before Him! Praise the Lord, Christ is the Last, and there is no one after Him! Amen, Lord, we praise You as the One who became dead and lived again! We open to You. Thank You for originating everything in our Christian life and church life. Thank You for making sure the Christian life will go to consummation, and You will take us all the way to the end! Amen, Lord, we trust in You. We believe Your promising, Your encouraging, and Your strengthening us. We believe that, whatever You promised us, You will also do it! Praise the Lord! Christ went through sufferings, He went through death, and He came out in resurrection! Amen, Lord, may we know You as the First and the Last, the ever-existing, unchanging One! Hallelujah, whatever the environment may be, Christ remains the same! Amen, Lord, we trust that You will finish what You have begun in us! Praise the Lord!
Exercise our Faith in Christ as the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, who will Accomplish what He has begun
Christ is not only the First and the Last but also the Beginning and the End; this assures us that, having started the Christian life, He will surely accomplish it (see 2 Tim. 4:5).
He started the Christian life and the church life, and He will surely accomplish it. Christ will never leave His work unfinished. On our side, we may be full of anxiety regarding our Christian life and church life, for we see our failures, we look at our condition, and we realise how low we are.
But the Lord started our Christian life and church life, and He will take it to consummation. He has started His recovery, for He wants to recover us back to His original intention and purpose, and He will take it to consummation.
We all in the local churches must believe that the Lord Jesus is the Beginning and the End; He will accomplish what He has begun in His recovery.
We need to look not at our situation or even at our failures; we need to look away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:1).
We only need to cooperate with Him by exercising our spirit of faith, and He will do what He needs to do in us. It is God who operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure.
This means that we always need to look to Him. Christ is everything to us. He does everything in us. He is strong.
We are weak, but He is strong. Even though we are weak, we should not excuse ourselves by saying that we’re weak and that our environment is too difficult.
Instead of looking at our failures or paying attention to our difficult environment, we should exercise our spirit of faith.
We need to exercise our faith in Christ as the all-inclusive One, the One who is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
When we go through difficult situations, when we have problems, and when we think there is no way out, we should simply exercise our spirit of faith to believe into Christ.
He went through death and entered into resurrection, and when we go through death situations, we can trust in Him and exercise our faith in Him.
We may have problems, but with Him there are no problems. We may suffer much, we may have many difficulties, but in Him we have peace, for He has overcome the world.
We simply need to exercise our spirit of faith to believe into Him, remain in the organic union with Him, and enjoy Him.
As long as we are immersed into Him, believe in Him, and rest in Him, we will arrive at the end, and He will take us to consummation.
It is God who made the original design, and it is Christ who carries out God’s design and purpose.
Christ will bring His own economy to its final completion. Yes, the enemy is working, he is frustrating, and he is operating to cause so many problems, but it is Christ who takes us through.
We thank God that Christ is the Alpha, the initiator of all things, and He is also the Omega, the end of all things.
We as men fail – we can fail, we will fail, and we fail all the time; however, Christ is the Omega, and He will bring us through.
This is not positive thinking or self-motivation to inspire ourselves or encourage ourselves to go on. We have a spirit of faith, we are joined to the Lord as one spirit, and we exercise our spirit of faith to be one with the Lord!
We exercise our spirit to enjoy Him, be immersed into Him, and rest in Him. Though we fail, we turn to Him. Though we suffer and our soul needs rest, we come to Him, and we believe into Him.
We believe that Christ will bring God’s plan to fulfilment. We believe that He will reach His goal, and He will accomplish what He has begun.
He who has begun in us this good work, He will also bring it to completion. He who has begun the church life to obtain a corporate expression for Christ, He will also take this to its consummation.
May we exercise our spirit of faith to believe into the Lord, being assured that He will never leave His work unfinished (Rev. 10:7; 15:1, 8).
All the local churches must believe that the Lord Jesus is the Beginning and the End. What He has begun in His recovery, He will take to consummation; He will accomplish what He has begun (Phil. 2:13; 1:6).
Regardless of the present condition of the church, regardless of our low condition and lack of experience of Christ, we believe that Christ is working to obtain a church who is perfect, glorious, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
He will gain a glorious church to present to Himself for our marriage together for eternity! Praise the Lord!
Lord Jesus, we believe into You today. We believe that You will accomplish what You have begun in us. Hallelujah, Christ is the Alpha and the Omega! Praise the Lord, Christ is the Beginning and the End! Amen, Lord, we look away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. We exercise our faith in You as the all-inclusive One! Even though we have problems and we fail so much, we look to You, we believe into You, and we enjoy You! We believe that there are no problems with You, for You have overcome everything! Amen, Lord, we want to be immersed into You today. We believe into You and we rest in You! We believe that, the more trying our circumstances are, the stronger the Lord Jesus is to us! Amen, Lord, we praise You for Your eternal economy, which You are accomplishing today! Hallelujah, faithful is He who called us, who will also do it! Praise the Lord, He who has begun in us this good work will also accomplish it! Hallelujah, regardless of the church’s condition in her present experience, she will have no spot, no wrinkle and no such thing in God’s goal! Praise the Lord!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas on this topic, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 24 and 344, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (4) (2025 December Training), week 38 (msg. 2), Christ Having the Keys of Death and Hades – day 1.
- Hymns on this topic:
– O Lord, Thou art the Alpha / And the Omega too; / Thou art the First, before all, / And art the Last so true. / Thou art the sole Beginning, / The only End of all; / In Thee all is included, / Creations great and small. (Hymns #202 stanza 1)
– Thou art the life that ever lasts, / From age to age Thou endest not! / More lasting than all that which lasts, / Beyond the ultimate Thou art! / Thou art the Alpha as the first, / Omega, as the last Thou art! / From start to end Thou hast no lack, / Complete and perfect, wanting not! (Hymns #10 stanzas 4-5)
– Thus in life we’re built together, / Then in love we’re knit as one; / God is now His plan fulfilling, / Finishing what He’s begun. / Lord, increase Thyself within us / That we might be built by Thee / Into that great corporate vessel / Filled with God exclusively. (Hymns #1325 stanza 5)
