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.