Many
Christians believe that Jesus existed in heaven before his birth to Mary.
Some believe
that he is ‘God the Son’, the second person of the Trinity. They say that he
existed in heaven forever as a spirit being before his birth (they call this
his incarnation, a word which means that he came down from heaven, was given a
human body and appeared as a man on earth).
Other people
believe that Jesus is not God but that he is a mighty angel who was created by
God long ago. They too believe that Jesus lived in heaven for a very long time
before his birth.
If these
views are true then we should find evidence for them in the Bible. In
particular we should expect to find passages that tell us;
·
That
Jesus was present when the world was made.
·
That
he was already alive when David was promised a son who would sit on his throne
and rule forever.
·
That
Jesus had a spirit nature and lived in heaven with his Father throughout the
ages.
·
That
the place of honour and glory he now enjoys, seated at the right hand of the
throne in heaven, was one that he has always enjoyed.
We shall see
that these views cannot be found in the Bible. What we do find is the following
view of Jesus.
·
He
is the Son of God who came into existence when he was born to Mary.
·
He
lived and died in Israel 2000 years ago. In every aspect of his life he is
described as a man. He experienced joy and sadness. He ate and drank with his
friends, yet at other times he was hungry. He needed sleep but sometimes he
spent all night in prayer to his Father. Finally he died a terrible death on
the cross and the suffering and pain he felt are described for us as those
experienced by a man.
·
He
was raised from the dead by God and given immortal life. Only then did he
ascend to heaven to be with his Father and only then was he given a position of
power and authority above all the rest of creation. The Bible tells us that
even the angels are now subject to his authority and he shares the glory and
majesty of Almighty God himself.
·
Yet,
even though he is now in heaven and has been honoured in this way, the Bible
tells us he is still a man and subject to his Father who is still greater than
he is.
In the
remainder of this booklet we shall look at Bible passages which support these
statements.
The beginning
of the Bible gives us a clear picture of Almighty God as the powerful creator
of all things. Indeed it commences;
‘In the beginning
God created the heavens and the earth’
Throughout
Genesis chapter 1 we learn how God did this for, on a number of occasions we
are told;
‘And God said …
and it was so’
The world was
made through the Word of God, he spoke and his mighty spirit power carried out
his plan of creation perfectly so that he looked at all he had made and saw
that it was ‘very good’. The Psalmist tells us of this power and how we should
respond to it.
‘By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and
by the breath of his mouth all their host. He gathers the waters of the sea as
a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; let
all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came
to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.’ Psalm 33:6-9
Throughout
the whole of the Bible men acknowledged this great creative act of the Lord God
and saw it as proof that he alone was God – he alone created the world and
no-one else had the power to do this work; it is presented as proof that he is
the true God. Look at these words of King Hezekiah, a great king of
‘And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: "O LORD of
hosts, God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you
alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.” Isaiah 37:15-16
Nowhere in
the Bible do we find any mention of Jesus being present at creation and being
involved in this wonderful work. It is always presented as the work of God
himself, a testament to his unique power and authority.
However,
there is a passage in Genesis 1 that tells us that there were other beings
present with God when he made the earth.
‘Then God said, "Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and
over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in
his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created
them.’ Genesis
1:26-27
It is
sometimes assumed from this passage that God is speaking to Jesus and therefore
Jesus was present at creation. However, we have already seen that the Bible
tells us that God alone is the creator of heaven and earth. Furthermore Jesus
himself acknowledged this when he said;
‘He answered, "Have you not read that he who
created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore
a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they
shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What
therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." Matthew 19:4-6
Notice how
relevant this is to Genesis 1:26. Jesus was talking about the creation of Adam
and Eve and said that it was God who made them – he did not claim to be the one
who was there with God, indeed we should note that the passage in Genesis does
not mention Jesus by name. In fact his name is not mentioned at all in the
whole of the Old Testament, rather we are told that God only declared it at his
birth (Isaiah 49:1).
But if it
does not speak about Jesus who does the verse speak about? The book of Job has
some interesting things to say that help us. God challenges Job with the
question ‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the world?’ (Job 38:4) Job
cannot answer because he was not there. In fact no man was there but then God
tells us something else. He now asks Job;
“Who laid its
cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God
shouted for joy?” Job
38:6-7
The New
International Version gives this passage as:
‘Who laid its
cornerstone – while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted
for joy’
Here is a
picture of creation at which the angels were present. When God said ‘let us
make man in our image’ it was the angels who were there and who were involved.
They were working for God, bringing into existence the world in which we live
and it is their likeness that is referred to. No wonder then that when angels
appeared later in the Bible they looked like men: it is because we look like
angels!
However, some
NT passages do seem to suggest that Jesus was indeed the creator and present
when the world was made. One of these is Colossians 1:15-17;
“He is the image
of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were
created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or
dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and
for him. And he is before all things”
It is always
important to read around verses that are difficult to understand. In Colossians
1, Paul is writing to tell believers in the city of
1.
He
is the firstborn of all creation. But to be born, a man needs both a father and
a mother. Adam was created by God but was not the firstborn man – that was Cain
– born as the son of Adam and Eve. How could Jesus both exist before all the
rest of creation and also be the firstborn man? At the very least the language
used would not make any sense – and we know that God is always very precise in
what he tells us.
2.
He
is the creator of all things in heaven and earth. But if this refers to the
creation in Genesis 1 then Jesus created God himself – for God is in heaven and
it says that Jesus created all things in heaven!
3.
He
is before all things. Again, if this refers to Genesis 1 then Jesus existed
before God, yet we are told that;
‘I charge you in the presence of God, who gives
life to all things… he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings
and Lord of lords, who alone has
immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or
can see. To him be honour and eternal dominion. Amen.’ 1 Timothy 6:13-16
4.
Rulers
and authorities are made subject to him, yet it was only after his resurrection
that Jesus claimed this position.
‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been
given to me.’ Matthew 28:18
Notice
that, yet again, this is something given to Jesus. It is not his automatically;
it is given to him by his Father who is a being superior to Jesus.
It is very
important to read the Bible carefully and to test any ideas we may have against
what the Bible actually says. Just by looking at the phrases discussed above we
can see that it is impossible for the passage in Colossians 1 to refer to Jesus
as the creator of the world as described in Genesis 1. He cannot be the creator
of God himself, he cannot be greater than the Almighty; such ideas are
blasphemous and have no part in our thinking about the Bible.
The answer to
this difficult passage (Col. 1:15-17) is found later in the chapter.
‘And he is the head of the body, the church. He is
the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be
pre-eminent. For in him all the fullness
of God was pleased to dwell” Colossians
1:18-19
The apostle Paul is writing about the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the exalted position given to him by his Father at
that time.
‘…Concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the
flesh and was declared to be the Son of
God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the
dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,’ Romans 1:3-4
‘This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are
witnesses. Being therefore exalted at
the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the
Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and
hearing. For David did not ascend into
the heavens, but he himself says, "' The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my
right hand, until I make your enemies
your footstool.' Let all the house of
Jesus is
described as the firstborn from the dead because he was the first man to be
resurrected by the power of God and then given eternal life. He now lives
forever. Furthermore, he has been given power and authority by God over all
that God created, he is the pre-eminent man; hence he is described as ‘being
before all things’. This phrase does not mean that he existed before everything
else but that, after his resurrection, he was made more important than everyone
else. In Philippians 2 we read these words;
‘Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed
on him the name that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on
earth and under the earth, and every
tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ Philippians 2:9-11
Note
carefully what this passage tells us.
1.
‘Therefore…’
this links this verse with what was written previously, Jesus was exalted
because of his obedience to his Father, even though it meant dying a horrible
death on the cross.
2.
It
is God who exalted him, God who gave him a name above every name. This did not
belong automatically to Jesus; he could not take this for himself. It was given
to him after he had been raised from the dead.
3.
When
men acknowledge this great position of the immortal Jesus, they give glory to
God for it is he who has brought about salvation through his Son. Note how it
is God who is the supreme being and who is superior at all times to Jesus in
this passage.
Before his
death Jesus was described as the ‘only Son’ of the Father; this was a unique
position he occupied. However, after his resurrection he is never again described
as being the only son but as ‘the first born from the dead’ or ‘the firstborn
amongst many brethren’. Being a firstborn son implies that there are other sons
in the same family with the same father and this is the wonderful point that
Colossians is making. Jesus is the first man to be raised from the dead and
given immortality – hence he is the firstborn and so he is described as the
beginning of a new creation. When he returns to the earth, faithful disciples
from all ages will be raised from the dead and be made immortal – just like
Jesus (read 1 Corinthians 15:20-23) and will share the kingdom of God with him.
This
wonderful promise – that through the death and resurrection of the ‘first born’
son many would be reconciled to God and would be able to call Him their Father
– is shown in the way God is described in the Bible.
Although
there are many names given for God only very rarely does the term Father occur
in the Old Testament. However, when we
turn to the New Testament, we find that the Gospels often use the term ‘Father’
to refer to Almighty God.
For example,
The well known prayer which Jesus taught his disciples begins with “Our
Father”, but the prayer of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 1:5-11) begins with “O Lord God
of heaven” and this is typical of the way God is addressed in Old Testament
times. By freely using this new term, ‘Father’, the New Testament indicates to
us that a change has taken place. Through Jesus, our relationship with the God
of Heaven can change and we can freely address Him as Father.
Why does the
Bible use such language? The Apostle Paul wrote in this way to draw a contrast
between the first creation (described in Genesis 1&2) and this new creation
which starts with Jesus Christ. The first creation was made very good but was
spoiled by the sin of Adam and all who are descended from him. It is now so
ruined by the wickedness and sinfulness of mankind that it is described as
groaning to be delivered from the bondage of sin.
“For we know that the whole creation has been
groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” Romans 8:22
How will it be delivered? Through childbirth! Once
again we see language which leads us to the Jesus Christ, the man who was the
first born from the dead and through whom a new creation can be formed. This
will be a world not governed by sin but by righteousness.
But according to his promise we are waiting for new
heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” 2 Peter 3:22
Another NT
passage to consider is Revelation 3:14
“And to the angel of the church in
These words
refer to Jesus but what do they mean? The discussion of the Colossian verses
leads us towards the answer but again let’s use another verse to help us. Revelation
1:5 describes Jesus as:
“And from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the
firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and
has freed us from our sins by his blood.”
We can put
these two verses side by side like this.
|
Rev 1:5 |
Rev 3:15 |
|
Jesus Christ |
the Amen |
|
the faithful witness |
the
faithful and true witness |
|
the firstborn of the dead |
the
beginning of God’s creation |
Once again we
are being shown that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead began a new
creation. The book of Revelation was written to give encouragement to those who
believe in the return of Jesus Christ and the setting up of God’s Kingdom on
earth. At that time they too will share immortality; they will be made like the
Lord Jesus and so will become part of that new creation.
We have seen
already that the name ‘Jesus’ does not appear in the Old Testament and was not
revealed by God until the birth of his Son. Yet this does not mean that the OT
is ignorant of Jesus, indeed the opposite is true. If we were to take away the
parts of the Old Testament where reference is made to Jesus there would be many
holes in the books of Moses, the Psalms and the prophets. It is possible to go
further and claim that the very structure of the Old Testament would collapse
if Jesus were taken out of it.
However,
without exception every Old Testament passage that speaks of Jesus looks
forward to his coming. He is referred to as the coming Jewish Messiah; he will
be the deliverer of his people; he will come as a saviour. Not once is he
spoken of as already being in existence, but as someone who would exist one
day, at God’s appointed time. Many of the men who wrote about these things
hoped they would see him but they were all disappointed. Indeed even the angels
themselves were ignorant of the true work of Jesus that his Father had planned
for him.
“Concerning this salvation, the prophets who
prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired
carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was
indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent
glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you,
in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached
the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which
angels long to look.” 1 Peter 1:10-12
Once again we
see the illogicality of believing in the pre-existence of Christ. If he really
was there in the beginning, and was the creator of the world, why did the
angels not know about him? Why, when they were sent with God’s words about the
coming of a Messiah to the prophets did they long to look into them, to find
out more? When the prophets received God’s words, they understood something of
the plan of God’s salvation and wanted to find out more. But God told them that
it was not for their time but for the future.
Let us look
more closely at some of the things they wrote.
The Promise of Genesis 3:15
We find the
first prophecy in the Bible in Genesis 3:15. These are words spoken by God to
the serpent after Adam and Eve had sinned by eating of the fruit of the Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
‘And I will put
enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will
crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’
Genesis 3:15
After God had
finished his creative work, he described it as very good. He then gave to Adam
one law to obey and keep. He was forbidden to eat fruit from one tree in the
Garden of Eden. By obeying God in this way, Adam would acknowledge the
authority of God to rule over him. However, the temptation proved too great for
them. Eve took fruit from the tree and ate it before giving some to Adam who
ate also. In this way they disobeyed the commandment and committed the first
sin. Their punishment was death for ‘the wages of sin is death’. Also, as a
result death came upon all mankind.
“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through
one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all
sinned” Romans
5:12
So God spoke
the words we need to consider to the serpent about its relationship with Eve.
We can summarise what was said like this.
1.
Eve
realised that the serpent had deceived her for it had changed the truth of
God’s words into a lie.
2.
The
serpent becomes a type, a representation, of the great power of sin throughout
the rest of the Bible. It stands for all that is opposed to God, that tries to
change his words, to suggest they are lies and take people away from his truth.
The offspring of the serpent are those who are totally motivated by evil, they
act as the serpent did and they oppose God’s laws. Jesus called the men who
opposed him and who put him to death ‘serpent’s seed’. They were ruled by sin
in their lives and they became his enemies.
3.
The
offspring, or child, of the woman is Jesus. Only one child is mentioned here. He
is called the seed of the woman because he is the only person who had a human
mother, Mary, and no human father. He is the Son of God.
4.
Those
who opposed Jesus (the serpent’s seed) killed him. This is what is meant by
‘strike his heel’. It was a small wound, one with no lasting effect because God
raised Jesus from the dead. By his death Jesus crushed for ever the power of
sin in the lives of men and women who believe in him. This was a mortal wound.
It is described as ‘crush your head’. In the Bible, the idea of ‘the head’ is
one of power and authority. Through his death Jesus would overcome, destroy
this power and open up the way to eternal life. Through his death he ‘put away
sin by his sacrifice’.
5.
The
Bible tells us that ‘the sting of death is sin’. Sin is likened to a snake or
serpent waiting to bite someone (on the heel). In Genesis 3:15, the descendant
of the woman (Jesus) is likened to a man who sees this and prevents the bite of
the serpent by crushing the head of the snake with his foot. So great is the
blow he gives it as he stamps on it that his foot is bruised by the act.
This passage
has been dealt with in some detail to show the remarkable prophecy it gives
about the birth, life and death of Jesus, and what he accomplished. Yet, if he
already existed at this time, why did God not mention it? None of the points in
this verse make any sense unless they pointed forwards to a special man who
would come into existence as the Son of God at his birth.
The Promise to David
In the book
of 2 Samuel we find another remarkable OT prophecy about Jesus.
“When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with
your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from
your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of
his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.
When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the
stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as
I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made
sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever." 2 Samuel
7:12-16
This clearly
applies to the Lord Jesus Christ for God told David that ‘I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son’. But note that all
that God says lies in the future. David lived about 1000 years before Jesus and
none of this would happen in his lifetime, only after he was dead. Everything God
says about his Son and his relationship with him is in the future at this time.
· I will raise up your offspring after you,
· Who shall come from your body,
· I will establish his kingdom.
· He shall build a house for my name,
· I will be to him a father, and he shall be
to me a son.
· I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
· My steadfast love will not
depart from him,
· Your house and your kingdom shall be
made sure forever before me.
·
Your throne shall be
established forever."
Old
Testament Prophecy
Furthermore, David himself was also a writer and a
prophet who wrote many
things about the coming of Jesus. A very good example is Psalm 22, which uses
phrases that point forward with great accuracy to the crucifixion. For example,
“they have pierced my hands and my feet” (Psalm 22:16) and “they divide my
garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” (Psalm 22:18).
The opening
verse of the Psalm was spoken by Jesus whilst he was on the cross. He
understood that David, living 1000 years before had written about this time of
his suffering. For Jesus this was a source of encouragement and comfort. His
Father had revealed details about the death of his son many years before he was
born. It was all part of a great plan and purpose.
The prophecy
of Isaiah contains many pointers that look forward to Jesus. Amongst them is
one of the best known prophecies of the Old Testament.
Isaiah met
king Ahaz on a particular occasion and gave him this message: “Behold, the
virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah
7:14). When writing his record of the gospel Matthew made a direct reference to
this verse when describing how Joseph should come to terms with the birth of
Jesus Matt 1:22-23.
“All this took
place to fulfil what the Lord has spoken by the prophet : ‘Behold, the virgin
shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel”.
Isaiah lived
approximately 700 years before Jesus’ birth and very clearly did not think of
Jesus in any other way than a child who would be born in a miraculous way some
time in the future. He had no knowledge or belief in a Jesus existing in heaven
in his own day.
Another Old
Testament prophet, Micah, predicted that a ruler would come from the town of
“But you, O
Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from
you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is
from of old, from ancient days” (Micah
5:2).
This ruler
had been known about in ancient times, indeed we have seen that this started in
Genesis 3 yet Micah looked forward
to his coming from
Zechariah
predicted the entry of Jesus into
“Rejoice greatly,
O daughter of
Note how
Matthew makes reference to this (Matthew 22:4-5)
None of the
prophets who wrote these things met Jesus! They did not hear his voice; they
did not see the crowds gathering round him. They were not present when he was
crucified and they did not know anybody who was. They all expected him to
appear in a time future to their own, a time to be decided by God himself.
The birth of
the Lord Jesus Christ is recorded for us in the Gospel records of Matthew and
Luke. It is the second of these that we shall look at as it is the more
detailed of the two. Luke tells us of the remarkable words of Gabriel. The
angel sent from God, to Mary, telling her about the conception and birth of
Jesus.
"Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found
favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a
son, and you shall call his name
Jesus. He will
be great and will be called the
Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will
give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom
there will be no end." And Mary said to the angel, "How will
this be, since I am a virgin?" And the angel answered her, "The
Holy Spirit will come upon you, and
the power of the Most High will
overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy- the Son of God.” Luke
1:30-35
Notice how
everything the angel tells Mary is future, none of it has yet happened at this
time. Just, for the sake of argument, suppose that Jesus did exist in heaven as
a spirit being at this time, then…
·
He
was not yet called Jesus.
·
He
was not yet great.
·
He
was not yet called the Son of God.
·
He
was not yet holy.
·
He did
not yet have any authority, he was not a king
We are left
wondering what exactly this spirit being was! Of course it did not exist; here
Gabriel is telling Mary of the coming into existence of a Son of God for whom
she had been chosen as mother. Furthermore, the previous occasion on which we
have met Gabriel in the Bible was in Daniel 9. At that time he had been sent by
God to Daniel with a prophecy about the time of the coming of Messiah. Although
it is very difficult to understand, it tells us of the time when the Saviour
would come – at this time when he has appeared to Mary. But Gabriel does not
say that the time has come for Jesus to come down from heaven and to change
from a spirit being to a human from. He tells Mary that it is time for the very
existence of Jesus to commence – he will be conceived in her womb and born as
any child is born.
Many of the
difficult passages about the existence of Jesus are found in John’s Gospel and
we need to look at some of them in detail. We should start by remembering why
this Gospel was written – John himself tells us.
“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of
the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so
that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by
believing you may have life in his name.” John 20:30-31
Note
carefully what he said – his gospel is to help us understand and believe that
Jesus is the Son of God. Not part of the trinity or a spirit being but the Son
who was born to Mary, begotten by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is John who
records more of the speeches of Jesus than the other Gospel writers and in
particular, words spoken to the Jewish leaders who doubted him. To them Jesus
explains his relationship with the Father and where his authority comes from.
The Word Made
Flesh
John begins
with the statement ‘In the beginning was the word’ and goes on to tell us that
the word was God and made all things, later in verse 14 John wrote that ‘the
word was made flesh’. We are also told in Revelation 19:13 that ‘The Word of
God’ is a title of the Lord Jesus Christ. From these verses many deduce that
Jesus existed in heaven from the very beginning and made the heavens and the
earth.
We need to
compare the opening words of John’s Gospel with the opening words of the Book
of Genesis.
|
Genesis 1:1-4 |
John 1:1-5 |
|
In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth. |
In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The
same was in the beginning with God. |
|
And the
earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. |
|
|
And the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. |
All things
were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made |
|
And God
said, Let there be light: and there was light |
In him was
life; and the life was the light of men |
|
And God saw
the light, that it was
good: and God divided the light from the darkness |
And the light
shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. |
Notice the
similarities between the two. Each speaks of;
·
The
beginning of the world
·
The
work of God in creation
·
The
way in which God made light to shine in darkness
·
The
way in which God brought life into the world
And each
tells us that God did these things through his word.
Genesis I
tells us that on each of the six days ‘God said and it was so’. Right at the
beginning of the Bible we are introduced to the power of the Word of God. God
spoke and the world was created. His word is powerful and mighty and through it
God will do all that he has promised. Look at these two passages for example:
“You have magnified Your word above all Your name.” Psalm
138:2
“By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out
in righteousness a word that shall not return: 'To me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear allegiance.” Isaiah 45:23
God’s word is
the most important thing to Him. Through it he created the earth. It will
always be true, no-one will be able to prevent it being accomplished. Through his word,
the day will come when everyone on earth will acknowledge that He alone is God.
But the
Genesis record is speaking of the physical creation that God made in the
beginning. When we turn to John I, we find John speaking in similar language of
the spiritual aspect of creation. He tells us of the plan and purpose of God
for salvation and righteousness to fill the earth. He says that this was with
God, in his mind, part of him, from the very beginning. He describes this as
the ‘word’.
We need to
understand what the Bible means by ‘word’. It is a Greek word ‘logos’. It means
the innermost thoughts and purpose of God. Look at some other scriptures about
God and his word.
Read Proverbs
8:12-30. This passage shows how God speaks of wisdom as something which lives.
He describes it as ‘she’. It was there with him in the beginning. It is another
way of speaking of his word - his wisdom. But no-one believes that there was a
living creature or being called ‘wisdom’ with God at creation. We know that
this is personification, a way of describing something which is abstract as a
living being to give the reader an understanding of its importance and
existence.
God is
all-wise, this wisdom is part of him, indeed all wisdom comes from him and so
Solomon, whose wisdom came from God, wrote these proverbs in this way. So it
was when John began to write his Gospel. He did not write of a living being
called ‘word’ who was there with God. He wrote that everything God did, he did
through his word, his ‘logos’, his divine plan and purpose. What John is really
telling us is that God worked to a plan from the beginning. The word that was
there with him was his divine plan for the salvation of mankind.
Read Proverbs
2:22-31. When we read these verses it seems to suggest that Jesus was
with God when he created the world but closer attention to the whole chapter
tells us that it is not about Jesus but about wisdom, (see verse 3). Nowhere in
the chapter is Jesus mentioned. It is telling us that God is wisdom and
everything he has done has been with a purpose, according to this wisdom,
according to his plan.
So important
was this plan to God, it is
described as being with him, part of him, ‘the word was God’.
In fact, when
John says; ‘all things were made by him and without him was not anything made
that was made,’ he takes his teaching a stage further. He tells us that God has
done nothing that is not part of his ‘logos’, his word. How important it
is therefore to learn about this ‘logos’, this word. It will tell us everything
we need to know about God and about his plan and purpose for this earth.
This is the
way in which John will reveal the Good News about salvation in his Gospel. He
is going to tell us about the ‘word’, and he will do it in a particular way.
Once we see this, we can also see that it is absolutely
essential for our salvation that
we read and accept those things John will tell us because ‘In him (the ‘logos’,
the word) was life, and the life was the light of men.
We read in
Genesis that God formed the dust of the earth into the shape of a man and then
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life so that it became a living
creature called Adam. So we find in the Bible that God gives life through his
word. It is described as ‘inspired’ and the word means ‘God breathed’.
So now we can
contrast the opening of Genesis and the opening of John further.
|
Genesis 1 |
John 1 |
|
God worked through his word - (‘God said… and it was so). |
God worked through his word (his ‘logos’). Everything he did was
part of this word. |
|
God made light first. |
All life came from God. This was the light of men |
|
He breathed into the clay and made Adam a living creature. |
He gave his word to men, it was inspired, God breathed. To those who accepted it, it brought the hope of
life in the kingdom. |
|
God set the sun and moon in place to bring light to the earth. |
It illuminated the way to the kingdom for those who accepted it. |
But John
tells us this light shone in darkness. In a sense, this verse sums up all of
the OT and the reaction of men and women to the word of God, spoken by the
prophets and sent to them from the very beginning. God gave them his word to
illuminate their lives and to guide them to his kingdom. But first Adam, and
then all who came after him rejected God’s word.
Now, at the
beginning of God’s new creation, he has chosen to speak to people by a
different method.
“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God
spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to
us by his Son,” Hebrews
1:1-2
His Son will
reveal to people exactly what God is like. He will do this not just through
words, which will always be God’s words and not his own, but through the way he
lives. He will show the character of God, his mercy and compassion but also his
righteousness, hating sin and anything which is contrary to the will of God. In
order to help us understand how special this man, the Son of God, will be John
describes him in this way.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full
of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the
Father. (John bore witness to him, and cried, "This was he of
whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, for he was before me.’)
And from his fulness have we all received, grace upon grace. For
the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the
Father, he has made him known.” John 1:14-18
So we see
that the description of Jesus as the ‘Word made Flesh’ has nothing to do with
an incarnation of a spirit being, rather it is a phrase used to tell us of the
way in which all of God’s plans, held since before the beginning of the world,
will now be realised in the life and sacrifice of his only son.
I came down from
Heaven
In John 6 we
read of a debate Jesus held with the Jews in which he said;
“For the bread of God is he
who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." They
said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." Jesus said
to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger,
and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you
that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father
gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For
I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who
sent me.” John 6:33-38
These words
are often used to support the idea that Jesus physically came down from heaven
where he had existed with God. A number of times in the chapter he says that
God had sent him. The whole passage is difficult to understand – indeed, even
his disciples found it hard (John 6:60).
Once again we
need to read around the verses we are looking at to see the context. Jesus had
just performed a great miracle by feeding 5000 men plus women and children with
a handful of bread and fish. The people compared this with the feeding of
“Our fathers ate the manna in
the wilderness; as it is written, 'He gave them bread (the manna) from heaven
to eat." John 6:31
Obviously the
manna did not physically originate in heaven with God. But it was God’s word
which sent it. It was ‘bread from heaven’ that God had given (Exodus 16:15) and
they were expected to see the glory of the Lord in its provision (Exodus 16:7).
But this is
not the only thing that comes from God. He sends the rain from heaven (Genesis
8:2, Acts 14:17). Likewise he sends the snow (Isaiah 55:10). Yet we know that these
things do not physically come from God but are created upon the earth by his
power.
In James
chapter 1:17 we read;
“Every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of
lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
There is a famous hymn, based
on this verse, which is sung in some churches at harvest time. It contains the
words, ‘all good gifts around us are sent from heaven above’. When singing
these words no-one believes that their crops come literally from heaven. The
hymn is simply an expression of thanks to God for giving a harvest.
John Baptist
was a man sent from God (John 1:6) as were all the prophets (2 Chronicles
36:15-16).
We do not
believe that all these men physically came down from heaven; rather we
understand that the word of God came to them and they were moved by the power
of the Holy Spirit to speak his words. Indeed, the prophet Jeremiah was told
that God’s words would be a fire in his mouth; such would be the force and power
of them. So it was with Jesus, he said that the spirit of God was upon him to
preach the Gospel (Luke 4:18) and he had to do this thing, this was the reason
why he was sent (Mark 1:38).
Furthermore,
in John 6 he is careful, as ever, to show his subordinate position to the
Father. He is ‘The Son of Man’ (v53), he only has life because of the Father
(v57), the Father gives him his disciples (v37), he does his Father’s will
(v38, 39).
Jesus before
Abraham
‘Your father
Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Then the Jews said
to (Jesus), “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus
said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” John
8:56-58
There are
many other references to Abraham in John 8. It is a record of a dialogue Jesus had
with the Pharisees. In verse 33 they boasted of their descent from Abraham. In
verse 39 Jesus said that they should follow the ways of Abraham if they were
truly his descendants. Because of this they asked an important question in
verse 53. “Are you greater than our Father Abraham, who is dead?”
We have an
advantage when considering this question because we know what happened to Jesus
after this and that his death and resurrection established him as much greater
than Abraham. But when the question was asked the Pharisees did not know what
was to follow and Jesus sought to convince them that he really was their
Messiah. There seems to be hostility in their question in verse 53 “Who do you
make yourself?”
We need to
think about the answer Jesus gave in verse 56 - “Abraham rejoiced to see my
day: and he saw it and was glad”. How can this be? The Pharisees were
dismissive, “You are not yet 50 years old, have you seen Abraham?” Note the way
in which they changed the words of Jesus. He did not claim to have seen
Abraham, but that Abraham saw his day. What could this mean?
In the Letter
to the Galatians we are told that God could see in advance the way things would
work out for the nations:
‘The scripture,
foreseeing that God would justify the nations by faith, preached the gospel to
Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all nations shall be blessed” Galatians 3:8
God knew that
Jesus would be born and that, through faith in him, all nations would then have
the opportunity to be saved. This plan was given to Abraham through one of the
major promises of God: “In you shall all nations be blessed” (Genesis 12:3)
and, Paul says, this was the gospel preached to Abraham (Galatians 3:8). Note
carefully the fact that this development was foreseen by God and was told to
Abraham as something yet in the future, Paul adds that it happened “In the
fulness of time”. (Galatians 4:4)
In John 8
therefore we are told that Abraham sees Jesus’ day – he looked forward to it as
something that would happen in the future and, because he was given an
understanding of the work of Jesus, he rejoiced in the knowledge that he would
be there to see the purpose of God fulfilled when he would be raised from the
dead and given his inheritance of the land of Israel for ever.
The Pharisees
did not understand this so Jesus had to make it as clear as he could to them.
When he said “Before Abraham was I am”, Jesus was gently explaining to them
that he is more important than Abraham in the purpose of God. God built his
whole plan of salvation around Jesus long before explaining any of it to
Abraham. It was a matter of pre-eminence not of who physically existed first.
Note that
John used this same idea earlier when speaking of John Baptist.
“John bore witness of him, and cried out,
‘This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me, because he
was before me’”.
I am from Above
John 8 should
also be understood in a similar figurative way. Verse 23 Jesus states;
"You are from below; I am
from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
Notice the
comparison Jesus made between himself and the Jews who refused to believe in
him as their saviour. Jesus knows God and keeps his word (v55). The Jews say
they know God but are liars. They say they are free because they are descended
from Abraham, however they are really slaves to sin and death because they
reject the freedom Christ brings (v32-36). All these sayings are clearly about
spiritual values. A man who loves this world is described as ‘from beneath’, or
‘earthly’ – he is ‘of this world’; he is ‘from below’. A man who has the love
of God in his life and who keeps his commandments is ‘from above’ (1 John
2:15). Indeed, when we are baptised, and come out of the water, it is described
as ‘being risen with Christ’ and, if we set our minds on heavenly, spiritual
values then our life is ‘hid with Christ in God’ (Col 3:1-3). Obviously we are
not there in heaven physically, but this is a way of describing our new lives
in which we try to follow the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Once again we
see that John describes Jesus as speaking profound spiritual truths in a way
which tests his listeners and makes them stop and think about their lives and
relationship with God. Jesus is indeed from above in the sense that his life
was absolutely about Godly values, everything he said and did was ‘from above’,
he could do nothing but what the Father showed him (John 5:19). So he could say
‘I am from above’.
When we come
to the New Testament and look at the real Jesus who is described for us there,
we see a man with whom we can identify. We are told that, ‘he had to be made
like his brothers in every respect’ (Hebrews 2:17). So we read of…
·
A
boy who increased in wisdom as he grew and studied the Word of God.
·
A
man who was hungry.
·
A
man who was tired and exhausted by his work.
·
A
man who felt emotions, compassion, anger, sadness; who wept at the death of a
dear friend.
·
A
man who was tempted in everyway as we are tempted and whose will was not always
that of his Father.
·
A
man who felt pain – and suffered the excruciating pain of his sacrifice on the
cross.
·
A
man who was hurt by the way he was despised and rejected.
·
A
man who learned obedience through the things he suffered.
We are told
that,
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to
sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted
as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15
Every
description of Jesus is one we can understand, he was like us, with our human
nature; he was a man! Nowhere do we read about him being a spirit being who
descended from heaven and took human form. In fact we can go further than this.
Although he
is now in heaven and has been crowned with glory, majesty and immortality, he
is still a man.
“For there is one God, and there is one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all,” 1
Timothy 2:5-6
When he
returns from heaven in power and great glory to judge the earth and establish
the
“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he
commands all people everywhere to repent,
because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in
righteousness by a man whom he has
appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from
the dead." Acts 17:30-31
Even at the
end of his 1000 year rule, when he hands over a perfect earth to Almighty God,
Jesus will still be a man – and subordinate to his Father.
“For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of
the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who
belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the
Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must
reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be
destroyed is death. For "God has put all things in subjection under his
feet." But when it says, "all things are put in subjection," it
is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected
to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in
all. 1 Corinthians 15:21-28
But there is
a more important reason for understanding the humanity of Jesus. It concerns
the central purpose of his life – bringing salvation into the world. As we have
seen, the curse of sin and death came into the world when Adam and Eve sinned.
This curse could only be taken away if another human being was able to obey God
perfectly, overcoming every temptation and avoiding sin. This was the challenge
set before Jesus.
If his
obedience was to be genuine and really happen then it had to be possible for
Jesus to be tempted as other men and it had to be possible for him to disobey. He
was therefore born into our world in exactly the same way as we are; he was
flesh and blood just like us. (see Galatians 4:4) He was subjected to the same
trials as we are. He felt pain, he experienced the appeal of fleshly things. His
temptations are recorded for us early in the gospel records. They are
absolutely genuine but we see him triumph over each one in turn by using his
knowledge of the word of God.
These
temptations intensify through the three years of his ministry until finally in
the
If he was a
spirit being who came down from heaven and simply acted the part of a man, then
this makes a travesty of his life and sacrifice – if this was the case he was
not tempted as we are and his victory over sin was not the great achievement
that is portrayed. Alternatively we would have to believe that the spirit
Jesus, who came down from heaven and took the part of a man, lost all memory of
his former existence with God so that it did not help him in any way and that,
in heaven he was not perfect for he was only made perfect through the things he
suffered. This seems absurd. Indeed, the man Jesus knew he was the Son of God
and found great comfort and help from the guidance and love of his Father, yet
this did not take away from his human nature, inherited from Mary, which made
him prone to temptation.
In the
previous section we have seen how careful the Bible is to describe Jesus as a
man – and one who is like us – prone to temptation to sin. But he is not an
ordinary man and we must get the balance right. He is the unique Son of God and
took from his Father characteristics just as we take them from ours. People
marvelled at his wisdom, he knew how to handle every situation he found himself
in; he was full of grace and truth. Because of his overwhelming love for God,
he was willing to die on the cross (John 14:31). In his life he showed people
what the character of God was like, by the way he lived and God sent him
saying, ‘they will reverence my son’. (Mark 12:6).
Because of
his faithfulness to the Father, God has exalted Jesus and given him honour and
glory above everything else in creation.
“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed
on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11
The name
Jesus means ‘Yahweh is salvation’ and Paul tells us that in honouring the Son
in this way, men will give glory to God (cf John 5:22) because through the Son
they will be honouring and worshipping the Almighty.
In Revelation
5 we read how this honouring of the Son commenced on his ascension into heaven.
“Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and
the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads
of myriads and thousands of thousands,
saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to
receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and
blessing!" And I heard every
creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all
that is in them, saying, "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be
blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" And the four living creatures said,
"Amen!" and the elders fell down and worshiped. Revelation 5:11-14
But we must
go further than this. When Jesus was born he was called ‘Emmanuel’ which means
‘God with us’. As we have seen, his character was that of God himself and in
his perfect life he showed us God’s laws and ways completely. However, when he
returns, he will come not just with the moral glory of his Father but with the
full weight of his power and majesty so that Isaiah described him as,
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and
the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the
increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of
David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and
with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD
of hosts will do this.” Isaiah 9:6-7
In the
Kingdom Age he will still be the Son of God, the man Christ Jesus yet, in a way
which is difficult for us to understand, he will fully be Emmanuel, ‘God with
us’ and will show the glory of the Almighty to the world so perfectly that he
will at that time be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty
God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
But why did
God inspire passages that seem to suggest that Jesus did exist from the
beginning of the world? We need to try and understand one aspect of his being. He
knows the end of things before they begin and from time to time the Bible shows
this to us.
“Known to God are
all his works from the beginning of the world” Acts
15:18
Examples of
this are found when God speaks in advance about specific individuals who would
perform particular acts:
In the kings
period of the Old Testament after the death of Solomon 10 tribes broke away
from the remaining 2 tribes and formed a separate kingdom. They also developed
a separate way of worship under king Jeroboam. At this time a prophecy was
given that a future king, called Josiah, would overthrow this false worship.
“And the man cried against the altar by the word of
the LORD and said, "O altar, altar, thus says the LORD: 'Behold, a son
shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on
you the priests of the high places who make offerings on you, and human bones
shall be burned on you." 1 Kings 13:2
This happened
nearly 400 years later yet God spelled out in detail what his name would be and
what he would do.
The work of
Jeremiah the prophet was also spoken about before he was born.
“Now the word of
the Lord came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and
before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the
nations” Jeremiah 1:4-5
God knew
about and planned the lives of such men well in advance. The same is true of
Jesus Christ, but to a much greater degree. One New Testament passage in
particular shows us this principle at work. In the last book of the Bible, Revelation, the
apostle John recorded the visions and signs given to him by the Lord Jesus Christ.
One of the symbols used was that of a great beast who has power over the
nations until his final downfall. We read of his dominance in Revelation 13:8
“All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose
names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world.”
This passage
speaks of those who are under the power of the beast and of those who are not. The
ones who are not are described as having their names written in the book of
life of the Lamb that was slain. It is the description of the Lamb that we need
to notice especially. He is said to have been slain from the foundation of the
world.
What does
this mean? It cannot be that he was slain at
the foundation of the world. We know when the crucifixion of Jesus took
place. We also know that God was able to predict to Adam and Eve, to David, to
Isaiah and to many others that Jesus would come to die and bring salvation. The
only way we can understand this verse in Revelation is to recognise that God
knew from the very beginning that his Son would give his life as a sacrifice in
a most painful way and this was part of his plan.
The great
truth that arises from this is that God loved the world from the very beginning
and put his plan in place at the very start of the creation. This plan was
centred on Jesus Christ yet he would not appear immediately. He would only
begin his existence when the time was right. That time was known to God from
the beginning but it was only revealed when the angel appeared to Mary to tell
her of the son that would be born to her.
“But when the
fulness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under
the law, to redeem those that are under the law, so that we might receive
adoption as sons.” Galatians 4:4-5
Andrew
E. Walker
Christadelphian
Bible
Includes
material from a Glad Tidings article by John Shemeld
The
pre-existence of Jesus is often linked to the idea that he is part of the
trinity as God the Son. If the pre-existence of Jesus is false then the idea of
the trinity is also false. This aspect is considered in more depth by the
following titles:
1.
Is
God a Trinity? (CBM Basic Bible Truth leaflet)
2.
Jesus
– God the Son, or Son of God? (Fred Pearce, CMPA booklet)
3.
CBM
Bible Postal Course – Lesson 16 – Father and Son
4.
Did
Jesus really come down from heaven? (Alan Hayward, CALS booklet)
All
quotations are taken from the English Standard Version, 2001