The pre-existence of the Christ
Nowhere in scripture does Jesus claim to have existed as a
‘personal hypostases’, ‘spirit being’ or any other form before he was born.
He makes several statements which people take to mean that he is implying
such.
This interpretation is the result of people superimposing their own
pre existent theological beliefs upon the word of God as opposed to using
scripture to interpret scripture.
Remember, Jesus was a Jew and he ministered to people who were of a
Jewish mindset.
The concepts of pre-existent spirit beings adopting human form and
intermediary co-creators alongside God have their roots in Pagan, Gnostic and
Platonic philosophy, not the Old Testament revelation.
Because of this Paul warned us:
Colossians
2:8
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit,
after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after
Christ.
The Son of God is not an eternal being. He did not live in eternity
before being born on earth.
Instead he was a mortal man who subsequent to his death was raised
from the dead by God and given immortality.
The Athanasian creed claims that he was:
The first statement is self-contradictory
And the second makes 2 words seem contradictory, which are not.
1. Christ was not
eternally begotten:
Psalms 2:7
¶I
will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me,
Thou art my Son; this day have I
begotten thee.
Hebrews
1:5
For
unto which of the angels said he at any time,
Thou art my Son, this day have I
begotten thee?
And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?
The expression ‘this day’ narrows the Christ’s being begotten to a
fixed point in time subsequent to the creation:
Genesis
1:5
And
God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and
the morning were the first day.
Before Genesis 1.5, there was no such thing as a day!
So then, if the Christ was begotten in time and not in eternity,
and if that point in time was subsequent to the first day,
what day could it be other than the day of his conception when he was ‘made of
a woman’?
This leads me on to my next point.
Christ was not ‘begotten not made’ as though being one should
cancel out his being the other.
The Bible teaches us that he was both:
Galatians
4:4
But
when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son,
made of a woman,
made under the law,
Hebrews 2:17
Wherefore
in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining
to God,
to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
Furthermore, Christ had to have come after Adam.
The Bible makes this very clear:
1 Corinthians
15:45
And
so it is written,
The first man Adam was made a living
soul;
the last Adam was made a quickening
spirit.
46 Howbeit that was not
first which is spiritual, but that which is natural;
and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
For Jesus to be both ‘the last Adam’ and the ‘second man’ he cannot
have existed before Adam
without making a nonsense out of this scripture.
So much for the Gnostic idea that human beings are pre-existent
spirits imprisoned in bodies.
The rule of scripture for human beings sets forth the following
order:
1 Corinthians
15:46
Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural;
and afterward that which is spiritual.
47 The first man is of
the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
48 As is the earthy, such
are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that
are heavenly.
49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy,
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
Just as Jesus first bore the image of the earthly, natural human
body and then at his resurrection was given a spiritual, incorruptible and
glorified human body- so shall we!
This is what Jesus meant when he said:
Matthew 22:30
For
in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as
the angels of God in heaven.
So did Jesus pre-exist?
Only in the plan of God. In his counsel and foreknowledge.
God knew Jesus before he was born because:
Acts 15:18
Known
unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.
So, to return to the original question: Did Christ claim to have
pre-existed?
To gain a more balanced view, let us look at some of these
expressions used by the Christ and see how they are used in other passages of
scripture.
What Jesus meant
by…
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Jesus |
The same way we
are |
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Not of this world |
John 8:23
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John 17:14
John 17:16
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Sent into the world |
John 10:36
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John 17:18
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Sent from God |
John 8:42
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John 1:6
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Loved from the foundation of the world |
John 17:24
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Ephesians 1:4
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An excellent example of God’s dealing with a man according to his
foreknowledge is that of Jeremiah. God said to him:
Jeremiah 1:5
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee;
and
before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee,
and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Jeremiah was known, sanctified and ordained for ministry not just
before being born, but before he was formed!
In the same way Jesus had glory laid up with God from before the foundation
of the world.
John 17:5
And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory
which I had with thee before the world was.
God had laid up glory for Christ before the foundation of the world
In the same way that a parent might set up a trust fund for their
child to enter into upon completing their exams.
We too have a treasure laid up 'with God'
1 Peter 1:4
To
an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you,
It wasn't just Jesus' glory which was ordained from before the
foundation of the world,
But also the suffering he would pass through in order to enter into
it.
Revelation 13:8
And
all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in
the book of life of the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world.
This is the glory that all the prophets prophesied Christ would
receive
That he would be raised from the dead, that by him God would
justify many.
That he would be exalted to the right hand of God.
Some of which he is yet to enter into:
That he would reign on David's throne forever and that his enemies
would be made a footstool.
Any message of Jesus having pre-existed before his conception in
Mary's womb.
would be a concept so alien to Bible-believing Jews that it would
certainly have been accompanied by more explanation, by both Jesus and the
Apostles than we are offered.
Instead it was that he was:
1.
Heaven sent
2.
Not born from beneath (of 'flesh and blood') alone, but also from
'above'
by the overshadowing of Mary by ‘the power of the Most High’
this is what he meant by ‘proceeding forth from God’.
3.
Foreordained.
(His mission was not an afterthought in the mind of God, but rather, God's
motive in creating both the universe and spiritual principalities and powers Ephesians 2.7
& 3.10-11).
I will leave it to Peter to sum up:
1 Peter 1
… Christ…
20
Who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world,
but was manifest in these last times
for you,
21 Who by him do believe in
God, that raised him up from the dead,
and gave him glory;
that your faith and hope might be in
God.
See link: Did Jesus create the world?
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1. Introduction |
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10. Seen! |
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17. Jesus- a
Godsend |
18. 1
Creator |
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20. The
firstborn |
21. The name
of God |
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