First and Last

Aah, cool waters on a warm day.  As nice as central air is on a hot summer day, I still like the outside air under the backyard trees.  So here I sit on the deck remembering that winter lasted into May this year.  And thankful that I can always go indoors. 

Look what I found in Isaiah which repeats itself in Revelation:  Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts:  "I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god." (44:6)   

And again in Revelation 1:17,18:  When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.  But he laid his right hand on me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one.  I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades." 

Again we see His sure promise of the Redeemer, His description of His eternality and kingship, and then His fulfillment after the resurrection, beckoning us on to glory.  The perfect "before and after" that we love so much in décor magazines and on Wheel of Fortune.  Only the two pictures of Christ are no different, except in accomplishment.  Christ the Redeemer promised, and Christ the Redeemer finished in His great task of salvation for the nations. 

Always the first and last, He comes in Revelation to remind us that He is the living One now, firstborn from the dead, that He might bring many sons to glory.  Those sons are us.  

There is no one like Him, always the Redeemer, now reigning in glory, holding the keys to our futures in His bloodied hands.  Let us not fear, but rejoice that we stand before the Lord of glory washed in the shower of His blood, clothed in the robes of His righteousness.  There is no other god like Him.