Note 642 — Footnotes.

6. And he said unto me. That is, he that sat on the throne—the Messiah. ¶ It is done. It is finished, complete; or, still more expressively, it is—γέγονε. An expression remarkably similar to this occurs in John xix. 30, when the Saviour on the cross said, “It is finished.” The meaning in the passage before us evidently is, “The great work is accomplished; the arrangement of human affairs is complete. The redeemed are gathered in; the wicked are cut off; truth is triumphant, and all is now complete—prepared for the eternal state of things.” ¶ I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. This language makes it morally certain that the speaker here is the Lord Jesus, for it is the very language which he uses of himself in ch. i. 11. See its meaning explained in the Notes on ch. i. 8. If it is applied to him here, it proves that he is divine, for in the following verse (7) the speaker says that he would be a God to him who should “overcome.” The meaning of the language as here used, regarded as spoken by the Redeemer at the consummation of all things, and as his people are about entering into the abodes of blessedness, is, “I am now indeed the Alpha and the Omega—the first and the last. The attributes implied in this language which I claimed for myself are now verified in me, and it is seen that these properly belong to me. The scheme for setting up a kingdom in the lost world began in me, and it ends in me—the glorious and triumphant king.” ¶ I will give unto him that is athirst. See Notes on Mat. v. 6; Jn. iv. 14; vii. 37. ¶ Of the fountain of the water of life. An image often used in the Scriptures to represent salvation. It is compared with a fountain that flows in abundance, where all may freely slake their thirst. ¶ Freely. Without money and without price (Notes on Is. lv. 1; Jn. vii. 37); the common representation in the Scriptures. The meaning here is, not that he would do this in the future, but that he had shown that this was his character, as he had claimed, in the same way as he had shown that he was the Alpha and the Omega. The freeness and the fulness of salvation will be one of the most striking things made manifest when the immense hosts of the redeemed shall be welcomed to their eternal abodes.