Barclay Daily Study Bible (NT)

Revelation 21:5-6

And he who is seated upon the throne said: "Behold, I make all things new." And he said: "Write, for these are words that are trustworthy and true." And he said to me: "It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Without price I will give to the thirsty of the fountain of the water of life."

For the first time God himself speaks; he is the God who is able to make all things new. Again we are back among the dreams of the ancient prophets. Isaiah heard God say: "Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing" (Isaiah 43:18-19). This is the witness of Paul: "If any one is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17). God can take a man and re-create him, and will some day create a new universe for the saints whose lives he has renewed.

It is not God but the Angel of the Presence who gives the command to write. These words must be taken down and remembered; they are true and absolutely to be relied upon.

"I am Alpha and Omega, says God to John, "the beginning and the end." We have already come upon this claim by the risen Christ in Revelation 1:8. Again John is hearing the voice that the great prophets had heard, "I am the first, and I am the last; besides me there is no God" (Isaiah 44:6). Alpha (G1) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet and omega (G5598) the last. John goes on to amplify this statement. God is the beginning and the end. The word for "beginning" is arche (G746), and does not simply mean first in point of time but first in the sense of the source of all things. The word for "end" is telos (G5056), and does not simply mean end in point of time but the goal. John is saying that all life begins in God and ends in God. Paul expressed the same thing when he said perhaps a little more philosophically: "For from him, and through him, and to him are all things" (Romans 11:36), and when he spoke of "one God and Father of us all, who is above all, and through all, and in all" (Ephesians 4:6).

It would be impossible to say anything more magnificent about God. At first sight it might seem to remove God to such a distance that we are no more to him than the flies on the windowpane. But what comes next? "To the thirsty I will give water without price from the fountain of the water of life." All God's greatness is at the disposal of man. "God so loved that he gave..." (John 3:16). The splendour of God is used to satisfy the thirst of the longing heart.

THE GLORY AND THE SHAME (Revelation 21:7-8)

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Barclay Daily Study Bible (NT)

Revelation 21:5-6

Old Testament

New Testament