By T. W. Parker

The Preexistence of Christ has been debated since the beginning of the Church. Scholars and Theologians have discussed in detail the significance of the idea that Jesus Christ is not only the Son of God but God who always co-existed with the Father in eternity past as God. Further, I will examine the question: Did Jesus always exist, or did He have a beginning and end? Moreover, according to Scripture, Jesus did claim He always existed. In addition, Jesus claimed that He and the Father are one. Indeed, the Bible teaches that Jesus is the “Word” of God. This blog will survey whether these statements hold up to the centuries of belief held by the early church fathers or simply folklore handed down by men and women who did not understand, nor could they comprehend what was going on after the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ as reported by His followers and many others. 

As a result, the (NT) begins with the genealogy of Christ in the Book of Matthew. Why is genealogy important? Matthew summarizes the Bible by naming critical figures in the Scriptures who pass the story along throughout the generations about Christ, the promised “Messiah,” such as Adam, Abraham, David, and Jesus Himself. Although Adam is not mentioned by name, he is a part of the genealogy because, without Adam and Eve, there would be no human origin, let alone a need for a preexisting Christ. In addition, the storyline from the genealogy gives a true history of humankind that can be traced and the promise God made with Abraham and David. Accordingly, in the (OT), Christ appears throughout Israel’s history and in the beginning when God says, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness” (Gen 1:26, New International Version).                         

The Preexistence of Christ:

The Gospel of John supports the idea that the early church, including the apostles, believed that Jesus pre-existed. Accordingly, as Christ was interceding for His disciples, He claimed always to have existed with the Father when He prayed. The apostle John pinned that Christ said, “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began” (John 17:5). As a result, Jesus is implying that His preexistence extends into eternity before the creation, with the Father in shared glory. The author of Christ’s Preexistence in Pauline Soteriology pinned, “The important role that Old Testament and postbiblical Jewish Wisdom motifs are likely to have played in providing the carriers for early Christological development, and specifically for the concept of preexistence, has long been acknowledged” (Byrne 1997, 313).     

However, other religions, such as the Muslims, believe that Christ was nothing more than a virgin-born prophet who came into existence.  Nevertheless, the Christ of the Bible is said to have always been with the Father and co-equal. The author of The Preexistent Son wrote, “If preexistence were a widespread idea before the gospel’s composition, and if the gospels otherwise present Christ as a heavenly figure, then finding evidence for the preexistence of Christ in the Synoptics might not seem so odd”² (Fout 2008, 9).   

Did Jesus exist eternally as God? 

Therefore, the aim is to focus on the Synoptic Gospels and what they say about Christ’s preexistence. Mark, in his letter, declared that in Jesus the Lord Himself was present, “I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way a voice of one calling in the wilderness, Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him” (Mark 1:2-3). Moreover, the author of Christology as Critique pinned, “According to the New Testament, God makes himself known among humans by becoming one of us, thus appearing within the realm of created reality as a personal union of the created and the uncreated” (Alfsvag 2018, 203).

In addition, the preexistence of Jesus is also proven because He is worshiped throughout the gospels (Matt 28:9, 17) and in (Luke 24:52) when Christ ascends into heaven. Jesus Christ also referred to Himself as the “Son of God” and God as His Father (Matt 11:27, Luke 22:29), implying He existed eternally. According to the book of Hebrews, the Son is the one through whom God created all things (Heb 1:2). The author of Pre-Existence, Wisdom, and the Son of Man wrote, “Christ is pre-existent because he is, like Melchizedek, an eternal priest; but he is higher in dignity than Melchizedek; Melchizedek is an angel, but Christ, according to Ch. I, is the Son” (Hamerton 1973, 256).

Jesus followship with the Father throughout eternity:

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul discussed the Supremacy of the Son of God. Indeed, the apostle writes, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (Col 1:15). Paul acclaims Jesus as the preexistent agent and regent of creation and is the very reflection that shares the reality it reveals with God. Moreover, in the Journal What Christ Does, God Does, the author pinned, “Baucham’s approach differs from Hurtado’s, with its emphasis on Jesus’ inclusion in the divine identity—that is, YHWH’s unique role as creator and ruler” (Smith 2019, 125-230). Christ is the self-existent, acknowledged Head of creation who has always been with the Father and shares fellowship with the Father throughout eternity.

Jesus and the Father experienced an unbroken fellowship in eternity until Calvary. Likewise, as the second person of the Trinity, Jesus and the Father have always been perfectly united. Above all, fellowship with the Father is Christ’s most prized possession. The author of God from God put it this way, “And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father as only begotten, that is, from the essence of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of the same essence as the Father.’^” (Makin 2018, 377-394).

Jesus in eternity past:

According to Scripture, Jesus did exist in eternity past, with God the Father being fully God Himself. Also, in the gospel of John, God became human (Jesus) and took on flesh (incarnation) without ceasing to be God (John. 1:14), proving He was always with the Father. Moreover, before the incarnation, Christ was divine, preexistent, and shared equity with God the Father. Hence, in the book Is Jesus Truly God? The author writes, “One of the prerequisites for a full doctrine of divinity of Jesus Christ is that he exists forever in the past. God is, by definition, uncreated. God cannot come into being; he exists, from eternity past to eternity future” (Lanier 2020, 16). As a result, Christ did not cease to be God in the incarnation. He is the God who clothed Himself in human flesh (1 Tim 3:16).                              

In addition, the presence of the Son, as the second person of the Trinity, is revealed throughout the Scriptures. Likewise, the Father’s granting the Son “Life in himself” (John 5:26) must be part of the eternal Father-Son relationship; therefore, many theologians tie this to what they call the eternal generation of the Son, meaning He always did and always will exist. The author of He Came Down from Heaven pinned, “Douglas McCready introduces his own study of the doctrine of Christ’s preexistence, as he enters the on-going cross-tradition dialogue on Christology by defending the real, personal, and ontological preexistence of Christ” (Myatt 2006, 342-343). Indeed, the Bible teaches Christ’s preexistence and how Jesus is the very essence of God.     

Jesus in the Creation:

According to the Gospel of John, Jesus spoke during creation. When God says, “Let there be light” (Gen 1:3), Christ was the Godhead agent who uttered the words. Also, in Genesis, the Godhead is deliberating among themselves when God says, “Let us make mankind in our image” (Gen 1:26). When speaking of Irenaeus’s work on the Pauline corpus, the author of Christ, Creation, and the Cosmic Goal of Redemption said, “His approach provides possibilities for Paul to contribute to ecotheology, not as a set of unconnected proofs text, but by way of a theological vision where the whole of reality in relationship to Christ and creation and, by extension, to soteriology and ecclesiology are central components of Paul’s theology” (Johnson 2018, 2).      

Furthermore, Christ was not only at the beginning of creation when things were created, but He also reigns at the end as the goal of creation. Christ is the key to unlocking the meaning and purpose of the universe and what God has done, is doing, and will do. Likewise, Christ is the supreme ruler of the cosmos, and the angels in heaven even worship Him as the Creator. The author of Calvin, Classical Trinitarianism, and the Aseity of the Son wrote, “I emphasize throughout the discussion below the importance both of a positive, descriptive, content for the doctrine of the Triune God’s aseity, as well as a solid grasp of the relationship between this aseity both in himself and the economy of creation and redemption” (Ellis 2012, 200).

Jesus in the (OT):

In the (OT) the writers of Scripture refer to Jesus when they use the words “the angel of the Lord or God,” whereas an angel of the Lord depicts a created angel. For example, (1) the angel of the Lord appeared as a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night as the children of Israel traveled through the desert (Ex 13:21). (2) The angel of the Lord speaks to Moses at the burning bush (Ex 3:2), and (3) the angel of the Lord stops Abraham from slaying Isaac (Gen 22:11). According to the writer of Is Jesus in the Old Testament? “The Lord who had attached his name irrevocably to this people at Mount Sinai ultimately would himself do whatever was necessary to bring to fruition his covenant goal of having a holy people for himself (Duguid 2013, 18).” For this reason, Christ entered the world so that humanity could be reconciled back to God through Christ.                    

Jesus Christ also appeared as the angel of the Lord to Sarah’s maidservant Hagar. On the contrary, while the expression “angel of the Lord” may denote a creature other than the Lord, it seems more likely in this instance, as sometimes elsewhere (Ex 3:2-4), that this is God Himself. Additionally, not only does the angel speak with divine authority, but afterward, Hagar refers to her experience in terms of having seen God (Gen 16:13). Moreover, about Psalm 110 and Mark 12:36, the author of The Birth of the Trinity pinned, “Here Jesus is portrayed as questioning his enemies about the manner in which Psalm 109:1 LXX pertains to his very self” (Bates 2015, 47). 

Jesus claimed that He always existed:

The debate over whether Jesus was created, or He always existed is one that Scholars and Theologians have disguised over the centuries. Likewise, Christ claimed Himself in the Gospel of John: “Before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58). Christ is from eternity and is the great “I AM” of (Ex 3:14). According to the author of The Victory of Jesus in Barth’s Conception of Eternity, “Karl Barth has developed the Boethian concept of eternity as simultaneity by placing the person of Jesus Christ at the center of God’s eternity” (Hoon 2018, 182). Subsequently, Moses had several questions for God at the burning bush, and one was what name should be given when the people asked him what God’s name is (Ex 3:13). Indeed, God replied, “I AM THAT I AM” (Ex 3:14).          

Further, in Deuteronomy 6:4-9, the children of Israel were given decrees and laws identified as the Shema. In those laws, they were to understand that first, “The LORD OUR GOD, the LORD IS ONE” (Deut 6:4). However, both the unity and the Trinity of the Godhead are taught in the Old Testament (Gen 1:26-27, Ps 2:7, Isa 48:16). Jesus is part of the Godhead and, therefore, always exited. The author of the book I Am Pinned, “When John wrote his gospel, he said his desired intent was for his readers to believe that Jesus was exactly who He said He was, the great I Am” (Connelly 2018, 23).

Jesus claimed that He and the Father are one:

Throughout the gospels, Jesus claims that He and the Father are one. For example, in John, Christ said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). In addition, Jesus is saying the Father sends the Son, and the Son prays to the Father, but they are perfectly unified in essence, will, and action so that what Jesus does, the Father does, and vice versa. Likewise, the irony is that Jesus is not a man who makes Himself God but is God who became a man. In the journal Born Before All Time, the author pinned, “Positively, statements of pre-existence in the New Testament seek to make comprehensible the historical depth and universal significance of the event of Jesus and to assure that God determines himself to be present to us in this Son” (Krasovac 1994, 701).     

Also, Jesus said, “The Father is in me, and I in the Father” (John 10:38). Jesus is teaching the principle of the Godhead or the trinitarian doctrine that states there is only one God who exists as three equally divine persons Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Further, each is God, the essence of God, God from God, sharing an unyielding unity without beginning or end. Consequently, the author of God With Us and God Without Us wrote, “The Old Testament portrays distinctive features of the attributes of God regarding their continuity as well as their relationship to one another. This applies to the eternal activity of his attributes outside creation, that is, without us, as well as to the temporal activity of his attributes within creation, that is without us” (Shehadeh 2020, 191).  

Scripture claims that Jesus is the “Word” of God:

In the gospel of John, the “Word” became Flesh; it summarizes how the “Word” became a human being to disclose God’s glory and grace to a falling humanity. John starts his letter by stating, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning” (John 1:1-2). Likewise, God’s “Word” in the (OT) is His powerful self-expression in creation, revelation, and salvation. In the Journal Jesus as God’s Word, the author pinned that “Christ is called the Word of God in the Qur’ān and by the Muslims… and by this name, it is shown that he is not apart from God, as an action external to Him, but rather, he is a life-giving action from within Him.” (Kynaston 2018, 69).

Indeed, the Word is distinct from God the Father and enjoys a personal relationship with Him. In comparison, the Word is God’s peer and God’s self, Jesus Christ is the Word and fully God (note- John 1:18, 20:28, Rom 9:5, Titus 2:13, Heb 1:8, 2 Peter 1:1, 1 John 5:20). For this reason, the author of the book The Word made flesh pinned, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory” (John 1:14). So, the Gospel of John declares” (Mcfarland 2019, 64). Also, after the heavenly warrior defeats the best in Revelation 19, John pinned, “He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God” (Rev 19:13). He is none other than Jesus Christ the Lamb of God. 

Conclusion 

The preexistence of Jesus Christ is again alluded to in the book of Revelation. Christ states, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the Last, the beginning and the End” (Rev 22:13). Further, these divine titles are applied to Jesus, who is sovereign over history and has authority to reward the faithful and punish the wicked and speak of His eternal character. Hence, in John’s Gospel, the apostle pinned, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him” (John 1:10). Christ is the Godhead agent who created the heavens and the earth. The authors of The Son of God wrote, “Jesus’s identity as the Son of God implies his full ontological equality with the Father. Jesus did not become the Son; he always was the Son” (Irons et al. 2015, xiii). 

Christ is the true genuine light of the world, He is also, the subject of creation and not the object of creation. He is the Creator, not the created, the authors of Systematic Theology pinned, “Historically, the Church formulated its doctrine of the Trinity following great debate concerning the Christological problem of the relationship of Jesus of Nazareth to the Father. Three distinct Persons the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are manifest in Scripture as God” (Horton and Horton 2011, 42). Therefore, the Biblical argument for the preexistence of Jesus Christ in addition to Christ own actions and claim statements reveal that Jesus is indeed the Son of God who has always existed with the Father in eternity past as well as in the future.    

Bibliography 

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BYRNE, Brendan. “Christ’s Pre-Existence in Pauline Soteriology.” Theological Studies (Baltimore) 58, no. 2 (1997): 308-330. 

Connelly, Douglas. I Am: Discovering Who Jesus is. 1st ed. Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2007; 2012. 

Duguid, Iain M. Is Jesus in the Old Testament?1st ed. Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Pub, 2013. 

Ellis, Brannon. Calvin, Classical Trinitarianism, and the Aseity of the Son. First edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. 

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Hoon Sang L. “The Victory of Jesus in Barth’s Conception of Eternity.” Theology Today (Ephrata, Pa.) 75, no. 2 (2018): 182-192. 

Horton, Stanley, and Stanley M. Horton. Systematic Theology: Revised Edition. Ashland: Logion Press, 2012. 

Irons, Charles Lee, Danny André Dixon, Dustin R. Smith, and James F. McGrath. The Son of God: Three Views of the Identity of Jesus. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2015. 

Johnson Leese, J. J. Christ, Creation, and the Cosmic Goal of Redemption: A Study of Pauline Creation Theology as Read by Irenaeus and Applied to Ecotheology. 1 [edition]. New York: T & T Clark UK Colophon, 2018. 

Krasevac, Edward L. “Born before all Time: The Dispute Over Christ’s Origin by Karl-Josef Kuschel (Review).” The Thomist 58, no. 4 (1994): 699-703. 

Kynaston, Grant. “Jesus as God’s Word: A Comparative Study in Islamic and Christian Theologies.” Australian Journal of Islamic Studies 3, no. 2 (2018): 68-85. 

Lanier, Gregory R. Is Jesus Truly God? How the Bible Teaches the Divinity of Christ. Wheaton: Crossway, 2020. 

MAKIN, MARK. “God from God: The Essential Dependence Model of Eternal Generation.” Religious Studies 54, no. 3 (2018): 377-394. 

McFarland, Ian A. The Word made Flesh: A Theology of the Incarnation. First ed. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2019. 

Myatt, William. “He Came Down from Heaven: The Preexistence of Christ and the Christian Faith.” Trinity Journal 27, no. 2 (Fall, 2006): 342-3, 

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