54
Jesus Christ: The Real Story
John in language that is unmistakable (Ephesians 3:9), adding, “He is before all things and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:16-17). (See “Jesus Christ’s Apostles Understood Him to Be the Creator,” page 10.) Paul makes the logical point that since Christ was the agent by whom all things were created, then He must have necessarily existed before the creation. Jesus also referred to His existing before the creation when, in praying to the Father, He spoke of “the glory I had with you before the world began” (John 17:5, NIV). Jesus speaks of the relationship between Himself and the Father “before the foundation of the world” (verse 24), a phrase echoed by Paul in Ephesians 1:4. The Word
The preexistent Jesus is characterized by the name or title “the Word.” Perhaps one of the reasons the Greek word logos, translated “Word,” is used is that this best describes one of the major roles of Christ—He was to reveal the Father. Logos means “the expression of thought” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, “Word”). Logos is used in the New Testament of a saying or statement of God, the word of God, the revealed will of God and direct revelation given by Christ, and could be spoken and delivered (ibid.). John applied this word as a personal title to the One who “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). What John is saying is that a personal Being, whom he calls the logos or “the Word,” became incarnate—became a flesh-and-blood human being—in the person of Jesus Christ. The fact that the Word became a flesh-and-blood person implies that the Word was a specific individual being prior to His becoming a physical human baby born to Mary. John also tells us that the Word is personally distinct from the Father, though He is at the same time one with the Father. They are the same, eternal, and are of the same nature and essence. The Word is God as truly as is the One with whom He exists in the closest union of being and life. As Jesus said, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30). The oneness between the Father and the Word has to do with their complete harmony and agreement in working together—not that they constitute only one Being as the Trinitarian theory mistakenly teaches. Who and what is God?
John’s simple but clear statements give us an understanding of God that was now made plain by the appearance of Jesus Christ. The language used expresses to us that there are two Beings, coexisting and
Much More Than a Man
55
called God—God and the Word who is also God. If they existed in some other form than two self-existing beings, both the Greek and the English language are capable of describing something altogether different. But the language does not do this. It speaks clearly of two, together, both of whom are God. If there was only one, alone, then John wouldn’t have said, “the Word was with God.” The question arises: If Jesus was the Word, and thus God, how could God who is infinite become finite? What happened to the Word at the moment He became an ovum begotten with life from the Father in the womb of Mary? We don’t know exactly how God performed this miracle, but it’s evident from Scripture that God could become a physical human being and therefore become subject to a finite, physical existence—limited to time
J
Was Jesus a Created Being?
ohn 1:3 contains two direct statements that tell us that it was the preexistent Jesus who created all things. “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” Notice that John is not content to say only that all things were made through Him, but John adds the fact that “without Him nothing was made.” Paul confirms exactly what John wrote: “For by Him all things were created.” Paul goes on to make sure that we understand what he means by all things—“that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16). Since Jesus created all things, He could not have been one of the “created things.” Paul then adds, so there can be no mistake, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (verse 17, NIV). Dr. Norman Geisler comments: “The context of this passage makes it clear that there are no exceptions; Christ is the Creator of all things including angels and everything visible or invisible. Nowhere is
this made more clear that Christ is not a creature—angelic or otherwise—than in the relation of angels to Him. Since Christ could not be both the Creator of everything and at the same time a creature Himself, it is necessary to conclude that He is Himself the uncreated Creator of all creation” (Christian Apologetics, 1988, p. 338). He adds a footnote: “In view of the clear teaching that Christ is Creator and not a creature, the Arian misinterpretations of phrases like Christ is ‘firstborn’ (Colossians 1:15) or ‘beginning of creation’ (Revelation 3:14) are wrong. Christ is ‘firstborn’ in the sense of being the unique (not created) Son of God. Christ is first over creation, not first in it” (ibid.). Micah 5:2 stated that the messianic King to come was “from everlasting.” Jesus had appeared in His divine life before His human birth as the priest-king Melchizedek (see Hebrews 7), “having neither beginning of days nor end of life” (verse 3). (Download or request our free booklet Who Is God? to learn more.) Jesus was not created. He existed from eternity along with God the Father.