Jesus Christ is God (03) – Revelation 1:4-8

Revelation 1:4-5 ‘John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne;’ 5 ‘And from Jesus Christ, Who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood,’

The first thing to notice from this section of the Word of God, all three persons of the Godhead are brought before us in these two verses. Verse 4 shows us God and the Spirit, whereas, verse 5 speaks of Jesus Christ. Notice what is stated of God in verse 4, ‘Him which is, and which was, and which is to come‘, let’s take that expression apart and discover its meaning.

The first phrase, ‘which is‘ in our English Bible is translated from the Greek expression ‘the_which is’. ‘the_which’ is one word in the Greek, it is the definite article and its grammatical form, nominative/singular/masculine, often shown as T-NSM. It could be translated as ‘the One’. As for the verb ‘is’, its grammatical form is present/participle/nominative/singular/masculine , often shown as V-PXP-NSM. (the X tells us that no voice is stated) The present tells us of something that is presently existing and the participle tells us of something that has been ongoing. Simply put, ‘always is’, therefore, putting the whole phrase together, we have, ‘the One always is’.

The second part, ‘which was‘, in our English Bible is translated from the Greek expression ‘the_which was’. Once again we have the definite article and its grammatical form is the same as the first, T-NSM, therefore in English, ‘the One’. The verb, ‘was’, is in the grammatical form of imperfect/indicative/third person singular, often shown as V-IXI-3S. (the X tells us that no voice is stated) The imperfect tells of of an active that is not complete as of yet and the indicative is indicating a fact. Simply put, ‘always was’, therefore, putting the whole phrase together, we have, ‘the One always was’.

The third part, ‘which is to come‘ in our English Bible is translated from the Greek expression ‘the_which is_to_come’. The phrase, ‘the_which’ is one word in the Greek, it is the definite article and its grammatical form, nominative/singular/masculine, often shown as T-NSM. It could be translated as ‘the One’. As for the verb, ‘is_to_come’, its grammatical form is present/active/participle/nominative/singular/masculine , often shown as V-PNP-NSM. (the N tells us of one acting by and of oneself) The present tells us of something that is presently existing and the participle tells us of something that has been ongoing. Simply put, ‘always is coming’, therefore, putting the whole phrase together, we have, ‘the One always is coming’.

What does all that mean? The whole phrase taken together, ‘from Him, the One always is, the One always was and the One always is coming‘, shows us, the only One (God) who is eternal, outside of time, over time, before time, etc. Simply put, God is eternal!

Now, notice what is stated in verse 8 by the Lord Jesus, ‘I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.‘ The context is the Lord Jesus, we know this from verse 5-6 and He states that He is, ‘which is, and which was, and which is to come‘. You will notice that the same three verbs and definite articles are uses and all are in the same grammatical form as verses 4-5, that we looked at above, with regard to God. Simply stated, the Lord Jesus Christ is God!

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