“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,”
says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Revelation 1:8
A long time ago, I was a senior in high school. Expectations and standards were much higher back then. This was probably never clearer than in gym class. For twelfth-grade boys, P.E. was every day and was called “commando class.” To just pass, everyone had to do 100 sit-ups, 100 push-ups, and 30 chin-ups. If you couldn’t do these, you’d have to try again the next day, and every day until the requirement could be checked off. But this was not the worst part. Everyone had to run one mile in six minutes or less!
Everyone hated the days scheduled for the mile run. That is, everyone but Jamal. He was on the school’s track and cross country teams and always went to the state championships. He ran a mile in 4 minutes 25 seconds and ran “for fun.” Every time they made us nerd students try to get our one-mile running requirement checked off, he would be there too. We would always get lapped by Jamal and were then really pushed to get our one mile done before he would do two. No one wanted that humiliation, so Jamal always became the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
As the firstborn over all creation, Christ is the Beginning of all things. “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:16-17).
As Consuming Fire, Jesus will judge the living and the dead and bring human history to an end. This rebellious planet will melt away with a fervent heat and new heavens and a new earth will have to be created (2 Peter 3:10).
If we look back at the very Beginning of time, the Lord Jesus is there, and when we, through the lens of prophecy, see the consummation of time, Christ is still creating at the very End.
January 1
