We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2014
Christian dogmatics has traditionally distinguished, as two doctrinal topics, the person of Christ and the work of Christ. Although the two are, of course, closely connected, we shall make use of the distinction, in order to study, in the present chapter, Revelation's identification of Jesus Christ with God, and in the next chapter, its understanding of Jesus Christ's work of establishing God's kingdom on earth.
THE FIRST AND THE LAST
John's vision begins with a Christophany. The risen Christ appears as a glorious heavenly being (1:12-16), and declares his identity thus:
I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and Hades.
In the last chapter we have already noticed that the self-declaration, ‘I am the first and the last’, corresponds to the divine self-declaration, ‘I am the Alpha and Omega’, and that in Revelation as a whole there is the following pattern of two self-declarations by God and two by Christ:
God: I am the Alpha and the Omega.
Christ: I am the first and the last.
God: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
Christ: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.
A close study of this pattern can reveal the remarkable extent to which Revelation identifies Jesus Christ with God.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
