“I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.”
Revelation 1:8 NLT http://bible.com/116/rev.1.8.NLT
We all know that people don’t last forever in this world. Death is real. Birth is real. There are beginnings and endings. It is also true that the created world lives longer than any one person. Many of the things that are built by us do last far beyond our lifetime.
We are used to beginnings and endings. We know that we don’t last forever.
Along comes God through Jesus Christ. He makes the profound statement “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come.” It is hard to get our head around the idea of God never beginning, never ending, and always being. Always!
No one or nothing else can make that statement and stand by it! He is not an option among options. He really is the almighty one.
Contrast that to another aspect of God, He wants to be in relationship with us. In fact, God has gone “all in” to make this work through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He invites us into a life that transitions after physical death. He tells us that this life is only the beginning in a life that lasts forever. There is teaching about a new heaven and a new earth. There is teaching about new bodies that are not subject to the deterioration we currently experience.
Images of “no more sorrow and no more tears” are part of what Jesus communicates. There is this relationship with God that is alive and does last forever. There is also a critical choice God has given to us:
Do we want to spend all of life with Him or do we want to be separated from Him in isolation and torment forever?
This is not philosophical or abstract. This is a real choice in real time. Our best understanding of this choice to be with God is that it must be made while we live in the bodies we have now, this physical life.
I have made my choice in this life. I am living with the one who was, is and always will be.
I am living with the Almighty One who seeks to know me. I now seek to know Him.