Christology Through Imagery
By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist
One of the earliest tasks most of us faced in our education was memorizing from A to Z the 26 letters of the English alphabet.
Had our education been in Greek rather than English we would have had to memorize only the 24 letters from alpha to omega.
Interestingly the New Testament refers to Christ in terms of the Greek alphabet, recording in the opening chapter of Revelation that He introduced Himself as both the first and the last letter of that alphabet, saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, says the Lord” (1:8).
In the last chapter of Revelation Christ referred to Himself the same way, saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End” (22:13).
When we look closely at these passages we discern several truths about the person of Christ. Along with His omnipotence as “the Almighty” we discern His eternal nature “having neither beginning of days nor end of life” (Heb. 7:3).
Had Christ been speaking in English instead of Greek, He might have said “I am the A and the Z, the first and the last.” To this claim we could add that He is not only A and Z but also everything in between. Since we are English-speaking rather than Greek-speaking we might think of Christ in terms of being the first and the last and every letter in between.
Taking this as a pattern for thinking about Christ in this last installment of our theme of Christology through imagery, we might come up with something like the following.
Christ is our:
Atoning Sacrifice and our Advocate;
Builder of His Church;
Captain of our salvation;
Deliverer;
Eternal Son of God;
Firstborn from the dead;
Good Shepherd;
Holy One of God;
Image of the invisible God;
Just One;
King of kings;
Lord of glory;
Master;
Narrow Gate;
Only-Begotten of the Father;
Prince of peace;
Quickening Spirit;
Redeemer;
Savior of the world;
Teacher of truth;
Ultimate Sacrifice for sin;
Victor;
Way, Truth and Life;
eXpress image of God’s Person;
Yes and Amen to God’s promises;
Zealot for God’s house.
When we have exhausted the alphabet Christ is still the incomparable and inexpressible fullness of the godhead with infinitely more qualities than these.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Jerry Batson is a retired Alabama Baptist pastor who also has served as associate dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University and professor of several schools of religion during his career.
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