The majestic Prologue of John’s Gospel teaches the preexistence of Christ. It begins by stating that in the beginning, the Word (the Logos) existed as a divine being distinct from God the Father (John 1:1–3). “He was in the beginning with God” (v. 2). In fact, he was with God prior to creation (v. 3). The Prologue then moves forward to the incarnation, stating that “the Word became flesh and dwelled among us” (John 1:14). The preexistence-incarnation motif is found throughout the Gospel of John. Jesus repeatedly speaks of his mission as one who “came or descended from heaven” (John 3:13, 31; 6:38, 42, 62). He says that the Jews do not know the Father who sent him, but “I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me” (John 7:29). “I came from God and I am here,” and “before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:42, 58). Jesus even speaks of a divine action of “consecration” that took place prior to his coming to earth: he is the one “whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world” and therefore he has the right to say, “I am the Son of God” (John 10:36).
In addition, there are several passages where Jesus speaks of three phases of his existence: the time before he came into the world, his earthly ministry, and the time when he goes back to the Father. For example, he says, “I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father” (John 16:28). Jesus expands on his three-stage career in his high priestly prayer just before he goes to the cross:
“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you . . . . I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed . . . . Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:1, 4–5, 24).
There is only one center of consciousness, one “I” of the Son, as he speaks of his relationship with the Father as a man and as he looks back upon his preincarnate life with the Father “before the foundation of the world.” It strains credulity to interpret these straightforward vignettes of the pretemporal, interpersonal relationship between the Father and the Son as mere poetic hyperbole of a personified divine attribute.
The Epistles of John also imply preexistence when they speak of Jesus’ incarnation. The apostolic truth is set in contrast with error. Only prophetic spirits that confess that “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” are to be recognized as from God (1 John 4:2; 2 John 7). The coming of Christ in the flesh, that is, his incarnation, presupposes his preexistence.
Preexistence in Paul
Some would set aside the Johannine preexistence texts as late, but there is one text in Paul that places this belief much earlier. I am referring, of course, to Phil 2:5–11. The first half of this early Christian hymn or creed speaks of Jesus’ decision not to regard equality with God as something to be used for his own advantage. It goes on to say that he emptied himself and took the form of a servant, being found in the likeness of men. There are many technical exegetical questions that would need to be examined to do justice to this passage, but for my purpose, I will simply observe that New Testament scholarship has reached a firm consensus that real, personal preexistence is predicated of Jesus in this text. James D. G. Dunn has attempted to argue for ideal or metaphorical preexistence by appealing to a so-called “Adam Christology,” but his exegesis is not persuasive.20 Specific dispositions of mind and acts of will are predicated of the preexistent one, a self-conscious decision not to use his equality with God as something for his own advantage, and his voluntary act of humbling himself by becoming a man, viewed as the starting point of his obedience. These actions imply a real center of consciousness and will in Christ that cannot be explained away as mere poetic hyperbole or metaphor. If they were mere metaphor, how could they be used as an example for believers? “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (v. 5 KJV). The fact that this is stated so clearly in a pre-Pauline hymn pushes the origin of belief in Christ’s preexistence back to the earliest period of the primitive church, within the first decade after Jesus’ resurrection.21
There are several other important passages that some scholars accept as teaching the preexistence of Christ, such as the “I have come” texts and the “sending” texts, particularly the ones which speak of Christ’s being “sent into the world,” which are even more explicit.22 Last but not least, the Epistle to the Hebrews is acknowledged by most scholars as having a very high Christology, including a preexistence-incarnation motif.23
Two Tests of Ontological Deity
There may still be some apprehension at this point. Jesus may be the Son of God in a unique sense that transcends the categories Judaism had for its messianic expectation. He may even have existed as a glorious “divine” being (in some sense) prior to his becoming a man. But does divine Sonship mean ontological deity in the sense of being eternally part of the divine being? Surely this is a “noxious exaggeration” if there ever was one! But that is precisely what I believe the New Testament teaches. I proceed now in the next stage of my argument to show that Jesus as God’s eternal Son belongs within the being of the one God by showing that he passes two critical tests of ontological deity according to biblical monotheism.
Creation
The first quality that sets ontological deity apart from all else is creation, the opus proprium Dei.24 Only the true God is the Creator of all things. The false gods are those who “did not make the heavens and the earth” (Jer 10:11; cp. Ps 96:5). YHWH is not like the worthless idols, precisely because he is the one who formed all things (Jer 10:16; 51:19). By definition, no creature can be the Creator of all things. With that presupposition in place, we must reckon with the astonishing implications of the New Testament’s identification of the preincarnate Son as the one through whom God created all things:
“All things (panta) were made through him (dia + gen.), and without him was not any thing made that was made . . . . He was in the world, and the world (ho kosmos) was made through him (dia + gen.), yet the world did not know him” (John 1:3, 10).
“Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things (ta panta) and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom (dia + gen.) are all things (ta panta) and through whom we exist” (1 Cor 8:6).
“For by him (en + dat.) all things (ta panta) were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things (ta panta) were created through him (dia + gen.) and for him” (Col 1:16).
“. . . in these last days [God] has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom (dia + gen.) also he created the world (hoi aiōnes)” (Heb 1:2).25
The phrase “all things” (panta or ta panta) is a comprehensive term that embraces all of created reality in distinction from God the Creator. Paul defines “all things” as “things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible” (Col 1:16). The invisible things include angelic beings, as is made clear by the next phrase, “whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.” Other terms that comprehend all of creation are the singular ho kosmos (John 1:10) and the plural hoi aiōnes (lit. “the ages,” Heb 1:2), both rendered “the world.” John 1:3 is even more emphatic: “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing (oude hen) made that was made.” Both Paul and John go out of their way to eliminate any exceptions. All created things, without exception, received their existence and came into being through Christ. These passages do not state that “the Son created the rest of creation, but that he created all that was created. This excludes the Son from the created order.”26