Pre-existence of Jesus Christ
The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ was God and He was eternally pre-existent. Some of the heresies like Arianism and Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus Christ had a beginning and He was created. They consider Him divine but not a deity. They also teach that Jesus was pre-existent only in the sense of being the first of all created beings. Let us study what the Bible teaches on the pre-existence and eternity of Jesus Christ.
1. Son was given: Jesus was divine and human. He had human beginning. While predicting about His birth, Isaiah 9:6 says, “For unto us a Child is born, unto us born, unto us a Son is given.” This verse state that Jesus was born as a man and was ‘given’ because He was divine and existed before.
2. Son was sent: Jesus Christ was the Son of God forever and was begotten to save mankind. About the incarnation of Jesus, Paul wrote, “When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman” (Gal. 4:4). Hence the word ‘sent is used to denote the pre-existence of Jesus Christ. Jesus also claimed that He ‘proceeded forth and came from God’ and God ‘sent’ Him (John 8:42) implying His pre-existence. His pre-existence is also implied in the fact that He was worshipped as God (John 20:28; Acts 7:59,60; Heb.1:6).
3. Existed as I AM even before Abraham: Jesus Christ openly said to the Jews, “Most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was “I AM”. (John 8:58). Here, Jesus Christ not only equated Him with the covenant God I AM, but also boldly stated that He existed even before Abraham. The appearance of the Angel of Lord in the Old Testament is accepted as Lord Jesus Christ by scholars.
4. Present with God before the creation of the world: In the High priestly prayer, Jesus prayed that He was with the Father ‘before the world was’ (John 17:5). The Bible says that Jesus created the world (John 1:3; Col.1:16; Heb.1:10). So He must be pre-existent before creation.
5. Proclaimed by the apostles: Paul wrote that Jesus Christ existed before all things (Col. 1:17).
6. Jesus Christ was from the old times: Micah prophesied that Jesus will be born in Bethlehem, ‘whose goings forth has been from of old, from everlasting’ (Micah 5:2). Jesus was from everlasting. So the Child was called as the ‘everlasting God’ in Isaiah 9:6. He was from ‘everlasting’ and was before the earth was created (Prov. 8:22,23).
7. Eternal existence of Jesus: The gospel of John starts with the phrases, ‘In the beginning was the Word.’ This means that the Word, Jesus Christ was from the very beginning of everything and eternally existent. Then John states that ‘the Word was with God’ meaning a distinct divine relationship with the Father from the beginning. Further John wrote, ‘the Word was God’ stating that Jesus was God and He was in the beginning with God. Then he finally wrote that ‘the Word became flesh’ (John 1:14), stating that the eternally existent Son became a Man. Various titles like, ‘the First and the Last,’ ‘the Alpha and the Omega,’ ‘the Father of eternity,’ the Christ,’ ‘God blessed forever,’ indicate His eternal existence.
8. Jesus was in the form of God before incarnation: Philippians 2:6,7 states that Jesus Christ was ’in the form of God’ before His birth in the world.
9. Jesus Christ is God manifested in the flesh: 1 Timothy 3:16 states that in Jesus Christ, ‘God was manifested in the flesh.’ Again Hebrews 1:2,3 and 13:8, affirm His eternal existence. Jesus Christ also had all the attributes of God like self-existence (John 5:26), immutability (Heb. 13:8), eternity (Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:11), omnipresence (Matt. 28:20), omniscience (l Cor. 4:5; Col. 2:3) and omnipotence (Matt. 28: 18). So it is implied that Jesus is the Son of God like God from the beginning.
The understanding of the clear teaching in the Bible on the pre-existence and eternity of Jesus Christ helps us not only to avoid heresies concerning Jesus Christ, but also to affirm the truth that Jesus Christ was co-equal with the other Persons of the Godhead.
(Dr. C Barnabas, Translated from True Discipleship Dec. 1998)