The Pre-Existence of Christ in Christian Theology

Introduction

For centuries humankind has debated the origins of life. Christianity, however, has supported the notion that life stems from Christ, and that Christ comes from God as the only manifest Son of God. Christ confirms this in the Gospel of John, where he says, "And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." Christ is the substantive reality — the Divine essence from which the world was formed — according to the doctrine of the Trinity, which holds that Christ is the Logos, the Word, existing before His actual conception in the flesh. The biblical passages of John 1:1–18 clearly establish that Christ is the pre-existent Logos, the Word, according to what some refer to as the Trinitarian vantage.

The pre-existence of Christ is the central tenet of Christianity. This paper reviews that doctrine, including supporting views and arguments against it, in order to demonstrate that Christ did exist before His incarnation. Christ existed before the dawn of ages; He was not an afterthought in the mind of God, but rather always was and ever will be, as stated in the scriptures. To think otherwise would be heretical and counter to every doctrine ever derived from the Gospels.

The Trinity is the belief that the Godhead exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It lays the foundation for the pre-existence of Christ by asserting that Christ existed before the world was formed. In God's omnipotence and all-knowing nature, which laid the foundation for all things, God pre-formed Christ and knew that He was, even before He was. This is clearly stated in the scriptures and is described in terms of Christ being the Word — the Logos of all there is. The Trinitarian view, as some call it, states:

The Trinity and Pre-Existence

"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. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."

Other scriptures supporting this belief include Genesis 3:13–15. There are many places in scripture that speak of Christ as Lord. He reflects the word and wishes of the Father because He is from the Father, created by the Father, and came from the Father from the beginning of ages. This is reflected in other theology as well, including the Nicene Creed. There are some religious traditions that have broken from the mainstream to suggest that the man Christ was a man alone — divinely inspired, but no more. These traditions, however, lose the central tenets of truth, which a close examination of scripture reveals: that Christ is God, comes from God, and pre-existed within and from God, possessing all of the powers of God to fulfill the covenant He made with His people out of love.

Without this belief, Christianity cannot exist, and the authority of Christ in God would have no power. The authority of Christ would be essentially defunct — usurped by untruths and mythological beliefs, much like any other false or impure religious belief. This is why pre-existence is such an important tenet of the Christian faith, and is much more than a belief or idea to be upheld. Without it, Christianity would fail. Without it, atonement would not exist, salvation would not come, and the Logos and the Word would not exist.

The pre-existence of Christ is the central foundation of Christianity — the foundation on which the church stands. Without this belief, the atoning work of the cross comes into question. The pre-existence of Christ has been taught since the early Church, since approximately A.D. 33, the time of the earliest churches. It has been reaffirmed throughout the New Testament, and acceptance of this premise affects all of Christology and the understanding of central Christian premises. The traditional teaching of Christianity rests on the notion that Christ existed before He incarnated into the man Jesus Christ. God the Son is the second person of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Trinity.

Without the pre-existence of Christ, the incarnation of God into Christ Jesus could not occur, nor could the salvation of humankind. The covenant created in the Old Testament could not have occurred, nor could salvation have come into full force. God knew of the pre-existence of Christ well before Christ incarnated. Christ was formed in the mind of God before Jesus became the deity Jesus Christ. This is clearly established in both Old and New Testament scriptures. To argue otherwise would be heretical and counter to all that is written in scripture. This is one of the primary reasons the pre-existence of Christ is so critical and central to scripture and Christology.

Pre-Existence in the New Testament

The most-cited scholarly affirmation of this point comes from Bernard Ramm (1993): "It has been standard teaching in historic Christology that the Logos, the Son, existed before the incarnation" (p. 47). Among the texts and scriptures used to support this thesis are John 14, John 8:58, 1 Corinthians 8:6, and Hebrews 1:2. According to Ramm, the expression of the pre-existence of Christ refers to the idea that Jesus was never an afterthought in the mind of God; He was something God planned for the eternity of humanity (Ramm, p. 47). This is an important concept because it affirms that Jesus is not a mythological creature or leader — much like many heroes of times past. Rather, Jesus is God; He came into the world by choice and as planned from the beginning of creation. He was not introduced because of a cultural influence or a particular historical situation, but because He is God and the Almighty, and because of His love for humanity (Elert, 1960, 2003; Ramm, 1993).

There was no question in Jesus' own mind regarding His pre-existence. There are many instances in the New Testament where Paul, John, and other authors affirmed the pre-existence of Christ. These writers understood the importance of this doctrine. In the Gospel of John, Jewish leaders argue with Jesus and interrogate him regarding his authority and identity. He states, "Before Abraham, I am" — thereby asserting his own divinity and placing himself on equal footing with God, using the same terms God used when speaking with Moses in Exodus 3:14, when God tells Moses to say to the sons of Israel, "I AM hath sent him" (McCready, 1997). Jesus thus acknowledged His own pre-existence, as did those around him — whether or not they accepted it. The Jewish leaders, feeling threatened, demanded he be stoned.

There are many passages in John affirming Jesus' pre-existence, as well as in Paul, including statements such as "All things came into being through Him" and "For by Him all things were created." It is clear that nothing in the world existed before Christ, or was without Christ. Much of the Bible clearly states that God offered His own Son as atonement — as a sin offering for humanity's sins. Looking back to the Old Testament, one can see God metaphorically asking whether humankind would do the same as a token of loyalty. Consider Abraham, for example, when asked to offer his own son Isaac to God as a sign of his loyalty. At the last moment, an angel stays his hand. Because Abraham was willing, all of his descendants receive the gifts of Christ. This divine act is a momentous occasion, linked to God's love for His people, and shares many common themes with God's grace and justification — attributes that find their fullest expression in Christ.

Conclusion

Christ pre-existed with God; He is the Word, the Logos that was and is in the beginning, in the end, and in the everlasting. There is no valid belief contrary to this; the only alternatives are mythological beliefs that usurp the power of the Almighty God. Any belief contrary to the Trinitarian position is either heretical or mistaken. The affirmation of the pre-existence of Christ affirms that Christianity is the truth — that Christ is the Logos, the Word, who existed in the beginning with God. It is the one true faith founded by the Father, as stated in the Bible, in Genesis, and in the Gospels of Christ. This is one reason it is so critical to understand the pre-existence of Christ, especially for those who wish to evangelize or to understand the foundation of the Christian faith. If one cannot affirm the pre-existence of Christ, one cannot affirm the basic tenets of the Christian faith.