What does it mean that Jesus is the alpha and the omega?

As the "Alpha and Omega" he would assure us that He is the expression of all that God has to say to us; as the "beginning and the end" He would assure us that He is the embodiment of all that God is doing, whilst the "first and the last" would convey to us that He is also the expression of all that God is in His nature, character and disposition.

Taking the three titles together as they appear in Revelation 22, we gather that every divine communication, every divine work, and every divine characteristic centre in the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.

He Himself tells us that He is "the Alpha and the Omega" of all divine revelation, the First and the Last of all that is divinely numbered, and "the Beginning and the End" of all the creation of God. In communication you never cease to use the alphabet, in number you cannot go further back than the first nor go past the last, and in all being you cannot go beyond the beginning and the end. We reach finality and eternal rest in Christ.

He is the One who was before anything had its existence, who will be after all created things in this scene shall have passed away, and who exists through all time and all eternity, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of all existence, the eternally self-existent One, who comprehends all being in Himself, for it is in Him that all live and move and have their being. ... No terms therefore could more distinctly convey the truth of the Person of our blessed Lord, or more clearly assert His true and proper Deity.

He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. There could hardly be a stronger affirmation of His essential Deity than this. Obviously no created being, however exalted, could speak thus.

The first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, followed by the explanatory phrase, "the beginning and the end," intimates that all testimony on earth had its origin in God, as its end is His glory. Creation, providence, promise, history, prediction, prophecy, testimony, love, and grace have each their source in God and in Him their end. Nothing really on the divine side ends in failure. God is seen to triumph at the end.

In Rev. 1:8 Jehovah, the Almighty, is "The Alpha and the Omega," in Rev. 21:6 it is God simply as such, no dispensational reference as in the earlier quotation, while in Rev. 22:13 it is Christ Who is "The Alpha and the Omega." In each case the divine Being uses the title of Himself.

The Lord Jesus, beside what is peculiar to Himself, takes the same title here that God Himself did in Rev. 21:6. As God was the sum and substance of all revelation, being, or action, so was Christ.

At the close of the book (Rev. 22:13) the Lord takes similar titles; for if He were the exalted man and is to come and to judge as such, He was much more, and no designation of the Eternal God could exceed the dignity of His person.

It has been said that "Christ had the first word, and He will have the last." This is true in relation to all things, but shall we not be wise to see that this is also true in relation to ourselves? He who in many a places in the word says to His own "this do," will also say at the end to those who have obeyed His word, "well done."