Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
Pennsylvania Conference 2002. The Church of Smyrna. Part 2.
Wednesday, 28 August, 2002
1. It refers to Jesus Christ as the God-Man, the hypostatic union which started at the virgin birth or the incarnation of Christ.
As eternal and infinite God, Jesus Christ pre-existed history which He controls from the Divine Decrees.
Jesus Christ also concludes history as the last. He is the God-Man.
As the last Adam, He will personally conclude history with the destruction of the earth, the earth which He first created.
GEN 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity under the title "the first" is the creator of the universe.
He is the last Adam and He will conclude history by destroying what He first created and then creating the new heavens and the new earth and the New Jerusalem.
Two sources of judgments and disasters in history: The sovereign decisions of our Lord Jesus Christ and the erroneous decisions of mankind.
With His omniscience, fed into the Divine Decrees every decision, every thought, every motive, and every action of every person who ever lived.
The sovereignty of God, or the sovereign decisions of our Lord Jesus Christ and the erroneous decisions of mankind.
1. It refers to Jesus Christ as the God-Man, the hypostatic union which started at the virgin birth or the incarnation of Christ.
2. The second meaning of the first and the last has to do with the two great prophecies of history.
First advent, - virgin birth, hypostatic union, His impeccability, His work on the cross, His physical death, resurrection, ascension and session.
His resultant impeccability, His saving work, redemption, reconciliation, propitiation, His somatic death on the cross,
His resurrection, ascension, session, being awarded the third royal pattern (King of Kings and Lord of Lords).
3. The first and the last refers to the up and down trends of history related to the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The first and last emphasizes the importance of occupation with the person of Christ as well as the place of Christ in one's scale of values and daily priorities.
4. The first and last also refers to the source of both temporal and eternal blessings for the believer.
The fulfillment of the Christian way of life resulting in the imputation of both logistical and supergrace blessing in time plus the imputation of blessing and reward at the judgment seat of Christ.
The first two points are interpretation of our Lord's title. Â The last two points our application of our Lord's title.
Robert R. McLaughlin All Rights reserved 2002