Jesus’ Existence
Before He Came to Earth
Bible student often
wonder if Jesus existed before he
took human form, and if so, what His
activities were prior to His birth.
Jesus did exist before He was born as
Mary’s child, but organizing the
facts on this subject takes on
investigation. The Bible does teach
that Jesus has existed forever. Jesus
existed along with the Father and the
Holy Spirit as a separate and
distinct God before anything was
brought into existence.
Jesus Speaks about
Himself
Jesus gave the apostle
John a vision on the isle of Patmos.
Carefully consider what John heard
Jesus say about Himself: “When I
saw him, I fell at his feet as though
dead. Then he placed his right hand
on me and said: ‘Do not be
afraid, I am the First and the Last. I
am the Living One; I was dead, and
behold I am alive for ever and
ever!’” (Revelation 1: 17,
18, italics mine) later in the book
of Revelation, Jesus said, “I
am the Alpha and the Omega, the
First and the Last, the
Beginning and the End.” (Revelation
22:13, italics mine)
These two passages
provide three titles that belong to
Jesus. The phrases “the First
and Last,” “the Alpha and
the Omega,” and “the
Beginning and the End” all
describe Jesus. He existed in the
beginning before there was anything.
Notice what Jesus calls Himself God
in the book of Revelation: “He
said to me [John]: ‘It is
done. I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the Beginning and the End. To him who
is thirsty I will give to drink
without cost from the spring of the
water of life. He who overcomes will
inherit all this, and I will be his
God and he will be my
son.’” (Revelation 21:
6, 7, insertion mine) We learn from
this verse that Jesus, “the
Alpha and the Omega” and
“the Beginning and the
End,” declares Himself to be
God!
Now that we have
established that Jesus is God and
that Jesus is “the First and the
Last,” consider this verse from
Isaiah: “This is what the
Lord says – Israel’s King
and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty: I am
the first and I am the
last; apart from me there
is no other God….You are my
witnesses. Is there any God besides
me? No, there is no other Rock; I
know not one.” (Isaiah 44:
6, 8 italics mine) When these verses
from Isaiah are included with the
previous verses in Revelation, a very
interesting fact is revealed. Most of
the passages in the Old Testament
referring to God (about 95% of the
time) pertain to Jesus! In other
words, titles such as Jehovah, the
Almighty, Lord God Almighty, etc.
usually refer to the God we call
Jesus.
Jesus told Isaiah that
there is no other Rock (or God)
besides Himself. Of course, Jesus was
not talking about the Father or the
Holy Spirit (who are separate and
distinct Gods). When Jesus said there
is no other God, He affirmed there is
no other God overseeing Israel. He
was in charge. Paul supports this
conclusion in this verse: “For
I do not want you to be ignorant of
the fact, brothers, that our
forefathers were all under the cloud
and that they all passed through the
sea. They were all baptized into
Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
They all ate the same spiritual food
and drank the same spiritual drink;
for they drank from the spiritual
rock that accompanied them, and that
rock was Christ.” (1
Corinthians 10: 1-4, italics mine)
The Bible teaches that
Jesus is called God, the Lord
Almighty, Israel’s King and
Redeemer, the Rock, The First and
Last, the Alpha and the Omega, and
the Beginning and the end. These
passages should remove any doubt that
Jesus existed long before He was born
of Mary!
Did the Father
Create Jesus?
The Bible teaches that
Jesus is a separate and distinct God
who existed with the Father
before anything was created. The
Father did not create Jesus; in fact,
all three Gods have existed from
eternity. Carefully examine the
words of John: “That which
was from the beginning, which we have
heard, which we have seen with our
eyes, which we have looked at and our
hands have touched-this we proclaim
concerning the Word of life. The
Life appeared; we have
seen it and testify to it, and we
proclaim to you the eternal
life, which was
with the Father [in the
beginning] and has appeared to
us.” (1 John 1:1,2,
insertion mine, italics mine) As
eternal beings, the Father and Jesus
have no origin since Jesus was with
the Father before anything existed.
John amplifies Jesus’ eternal
life with the following verses:
“In the
beginning was the Word [this
title describes Jesus], and the
Word [Jesus] was with God [the
Father and the Holy Spirit], and
the Word [Jesus] was God
[having the same substance as the
Father and the Holy Spirit].
He [Jesus] was with God [the
Father and the Holy Spirit] in the
beginning [when eternity began].
Through Him [Jesus] all things
were made [Jesus is the Creator
of all life and substance];
without Him nothing was made that has
been made…The Word [Jesus] became
flesh and made his dwelling among us.
We [Peter, James and John] have
seen his glory [on the Mount of
transfiguration], the glory of the
One and Only, who came from the
Father, full of grace and
truth.” (John 1: 1-3, 14)
There is no evidence
in the Bible that the Father created
Jesus or that Jesus is “a lesser
God” than the Father. The Bible
does reveal that from eternity, Jesus
has the same substance, powers,
glory, and authority as the Father
and the Holy Spirit! All three Gods
are equals in every way. The
difference between them is found in
their service. Now, please consider
two passages. The first passage shows
that the Jews would not accept the
idea that Jesus was equal to the
Father and this made them very angry.
“For this reason the Jews
tried all the harder to kill him; not
only for breaking the Sabbath, but he
was even calling God His own Father,
making himself equal with God.” (John
5:18) The second passage affirms that
Jesus considered Himself equal with
the Father. Paul wrote: “Your
attitude should be the same as that
of Christ Jesus: Who, being in the
very nature God, did not consider
equality with God something to be
grasped, but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.” (Philippians
2: 5-7) Equality with the Father was
not something that Jesus sought
because He was “in very
nature” God.
Jesus Is the
Creator of Everything in heaven and
on Earth
Jesus created the
universe, including the angels in
Heaven. He also created Earth and
mankind in six days. (Exodus 20:
8-11) “For by him [Jesus]
all things were created: Things in
Heaven and on Earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or powers
or rulers or authorities; all things
were created by Him and for Him. He
is before all things, and in him all
things hold together.” (Colossians
1: 16,17) This passage affirms again
that Jesus existed before anything
was created. This is why He is called
“the First” and “the
Alpha” and “the
Beginning.”
Our Father is
Invisible
Jesus is a visible
representative of the Father. “He
is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all
creation.” (Colossians
1:15) This verse summarizes three
elements about Jesus that many people
have not considered. First, Jesus is
the image of the invisible
Father because the Father is
always invisible. He lives in
‘unapproachable light” (1
Timothy 6:16) and no one but Jesus
(and the Holy Spirit) has actually
seen Him! (John 6:46). The
angels cannot see the Father and the
saints will not see the Father at or
after the Second Coming. The angels
have seen His glorious form, and the
saints and those who killed Jesus
will see the Father’s glorious
form at the Second Coming (Matthew
26:64; Revelation 6: 16,17),
but no one can actually see the
Father because His infinite glory and
boundless powers keep Him in
unapproachable light. Twice in the
Bible Paul affirms that the Father is
invisible (1 Timothy 6:16; 1:17), and
Jesus plainly said (John 6:46) that
“no one has seen the
Father” except Himself. This
fact brings us to another interesting
point.
Jesus said, “Anyone
who has seen me, has seen the
Father…” (John 14:9)
This does not mean that Jesus is the
Father, but what Jesus means is that
His character is a perfect mirror of
the character of the Father.
(Colossians 1:19) This invisible
Father/visible Jesus arrangement may
sound confusing at first, but
consider this: I understand the Bible
to teach there are three co-eternal,
separate, and distinct equals-the
Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
(Matthew 28: 19,20) This makes
Jesus’ resurrection very simple
to understand. The Father (a
living God) resurrected a dead God
(Jesus). (See Acts 2:32 and
Revelation 1:18.) Also, the presence
of three distinct Gods explains why
the unpardonable sin is uniquely
defined as blasphemy against the Holy
Spirit and not the other two Gods.
(Matthew 12: 31, 32) If the Holy
Spirit cannot live in our heart and
communicate with us because of
rebellion, fellowship with Jesus and
the Father becomes impossible and the
therefore unforgivable!
Long ago, three divine
equals decided to create a family and
expand the universe so in love, they
willingly surrendered many powers and
prerogatives to each other. They
became one in purpose, plan, and
action. For example, consider the
possibility: I believe the Godhead
decided one God would sit on the
throne of the universe and He would
display the awesome powers and
infinite glory that belonged to each
of the three Gods. This required the
other two Gods to surrender their
display of power and infinite glory
so that the universe might have one
supreme ruler over all. This God was
called “the Father.” In
return the Father agreed to live in
unapproachable light and infinite
glory so that all creation might
recognize the infinite powers of
deity. The God who came to be called
Jesus agreed to become the
“voice” of God, or
“the Word of God,” because
He would speak verbally for the other
two Gods. In other words, three Gods
would speak through one mouth. This
explains why John saw a double-edged
sword coming from Jesus’ mouth.
He is the Word of God. When He
speaks, things appear or disappear.
(Psalm 33:9)
The relationship
between the Father, Jesus, and the
Holy Spirit defines what love is. For
example, when Jesus came to Earth, He
came to do the will of the Father who
sent Him (John 6:38), but do not
overlook the larger point. Jesus
surrendered Himself to the will of
the Father long before He came to
Earth. Why would coeternal members of
deity surrender their wills to one
another? The simple answer is that
their love for each other produces a
universe without conflict or
competition. The Father, Jesus, and
the Holy Spirit determined their
created beings needed three Gods, but
the Godhead decided the creation
would need one God (the Father) to be
the highest focus of adoration and
worship. They also knew that
God’s family would need one God
(Jesus) to live among created beings
as a created being showing everyone
what the Father would do if He walked
in their shoes. Finally, the three
Gods knew that creation would need on
God (the Holy Spirit) to live within
each heart so that all creation could
have instant and simultaneous
communication with the Father. This
arrangement puts God above, beside,
and within every living being within
the universe! Their desire was that
God would be present in every place
or heart in the universe (this
explains why the Holy Spirit is
omnipresent, but the Father and Jesus
are not).
To accomplish their
goals, three equal Gods surrendered
prerogatives to each other and this
amazing union is called love. This is
why the Bible says that God is love.
This declaration means that the
Godhead dynamically demonstrates and
defines every aspect of love “in
real time.” It is amazing that
three infinitely powerful and
glorious Gods are constrained by
noting but love and humility to live
and work together for the happiness
and welfare of their family. The
only thing holding the government of
the universe together is
righteousness is love and humility!
Jesus is the perfect
reflection of the Father. The Father
is also a perfect reflection of
Jesus. In other words, the Father
would have died for us if that had
been necessary. Moreover, the Holy
Spirit is a perfect reflection of
Jesus and the Father, and He is
willing to remain invisible for
eternity so that the glorious Father
might be glorified as the supreme
Ruler of the Universe. The
mutual surrender between equals is
mentioned by Jesus several times: “Don’t
you believe that I am in the Father,
and that the Father is in
me?....Believe me when I say that I
am in the Father and the Father is in
me; or at least believe [my
testimony] on the evidence of the
miracles themselves.” (John
14: 10, 11, insertion mine)
Finally, remember that
Colossians 1:15 calls Jesus “the
firstborn over all creation.”
People misapply this title to teach
that Jesus is a “created”
being or that Jesus was born before
Cain. The title, “the firstborn
over all creation,” means that
Jesus is preeminent among created
beings. Ponder this verse for a
moment: “For by him [Jesus]
all things were created: things in
heaven and on Earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or powers
or rulers or authorities; all things
were created by him and for him. He
is before all things, and in him all
things hold together.” (Colossians
1: 16, 17)
Larry Wilson
