I AM
REVELATION Number 21
I AM
Revelation 1:8 (NASB 2020)
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
The Lord God IS.
The Lord God WAS.
The Lord God IS TO COME.
We must be excused for considering these radical statements in temporal ways with temporal minds. Knowing only a life confined within time, we have no solid footing upon which to build any theory of understanding of the infinite. We cannot knowledgably grasp what it means to exist above, beyond, or outside time.
Consequently, our first way of thinking of what is here revealed about God is to view it through the lens of our own experience and existence. Each of us could say that we are, were, and will be. Within the context of our mortal existence, that is true.
God does not exist in this way, however. He has always been. There was never a time when He was not. In fact, before time was, He IS. In the same way, there will never be a time when He is not. This is the reason that from the earliest days, He has revealed Himself as I AM.
Our minds might be drawn to the first passage in which we are introduced to this name of God Exodus 3:13–14.
“Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “This is what you shall say to the sons of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (NASB 2020)
Jesus referred to Himself in the same way, as we might recall from John 8:56–59.
“Your father Abraham was overjoyed that he would see My day, and he saw it and rejoiced.” So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and You have seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and left the temple grounds.” (NASB 2020)
That Jesus claimed that He existed before Abraham was made clear to the Jews that He was claiming to be God. Only God can truthfully claim eternal existence.
Thinking about this is useful. Whatever similes, metaphors, or allegories we employ to model the idea of eternity, remembering that time does not constrain God in any way is key to untangling many theological puzzles.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 helps us see that the temporal and the eternal both exist and that there is a reason we contemplate the eternal. The verse reads, “He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, without the possibility that mankind will find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.” (NASB 2020)
God has placed eternity into our hearts. This is the reason we think about it. This is the reason we innately believe that physical death cannot be the end.
I find it useful to think of God as above time. Imagine yourself standing at a train crossing. A long train is slowly traversing the road where you stand. You can see neither its beginning nor its end. This allegory represents our temporal human perspective.
Now imagine that you are hovering in a helicopter 3,280 feet (1 kilometer) above the earth. Now you can see both the beginning and the end of the train. Every car on the train is visible to you. In this metaphor, the train is time. This allegory represents God’s eternal perspective.
God is present before the beginning and after the end of time. God is present “during” time. God is not limited by time. He is outside it, above it. This is the reason He can say, “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done’” Isaiah 46:9b–10a (NASB 2020).
From God’s perspective, which is perfectly accurate and complete, what He does takes place outside time. It simply IS. From our perspective, what God does takes place at a particular point in time. It was in the past, is now, or will be in the future. A wonderful example of this is seen at the cross. Scripture tells us that Christ died for us at just the right time (see Romans 5:6). The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ made salvation available for everyone across all of time. We read this in Hebrews 11:39–40 “And all these, [the people of faith who died before Jesus] having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect.” (NASB 2020)
In other words, both we who live 2000 years after Christ died and those who lived 2000 years before He died are save by the grace of God through faith (see also Ephesians 2:8-9).
Revelation 1:8 (NASB 2020)
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
The Lord God IS.
The Lord God WAS.
The Lord God IS TO COME.
This is the wonderful truth laid out for us to see in The Revelation. The Lord Jesus triumphantly revealed as He IS!
