Perhaps the Saviour Himself made the clearest statement of His pre-existence. Speaking with a group of unbelieving Jewish religious leaders, He said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad" (
John 8:56). These Jews were startled by these words, understanding Him to be saying that He and Abraham existed on this earth at the same time: "Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?" (
John 8:57). They knew that Jesus was not even half a century old and that Abraham had lived and died on this earth approximately 2000 years earlier! How could this Man claim to be 2000 years old? They were shocked and angered by the Lord's final words: "Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am" (
John 8:58). They considered this to be ultimate blasphemy and they "took up stones to cast at Him" (
John 8:59).
Only the eternal God could make such a claim. Indeed, Jesus could have said, "Before Adam was, I am!" He even could have said, "Before the universe was, I am!" In fact, in John chapter 17 He did make such a statement: "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was...for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world" (
John 17:5,24). God the Son basked in the sunlight of the Father's love before the world ever was! From everlasting to everlasting, He is the Son of the Father's love. The eternal Son is worthy of all glory and praise and adoration!
The Defense of Eternal Sonship
(Biblical Evidence Showing That Christ Was the Son of God Even Prior to Bethlehem):
a) The Bible clearly teaches that it was “the Son” who created all things, thus strongly implying that Christ was the Son of God at the time of creation (
Col. 1:13,16;
Heb. 1:2).
b) The Bible teaches that the Son has eternally existed in the bosom of the Father.
John 1:18 translated literally from the Greek says this: “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, THE ONE EVER BEING (existing) IN THE BOSOM OF THE FATHER, He hath declared Him.”
c) The many passages which speak of the Father SENDING the Son all imply that Christ existed as the Son prior to His mission (
1 John 4:10,14;
John 20:21;
Gal. 4:4; etc.).
d) The parable of the vineyard owner (
Mark 12:1-12) points to Christ as being the Son prior to His coming into the world. In the parable, the son of the vineyard owner was the son long before he was sent on his mission.
e) God gave His Son (
John 3:16), implying that Christ was God's Son before He was given. God the Father did not give One who would become His Son, but He gave One who already was His Son.
f) Christ had a relationship to the Father prior to the incarnation.
John 16:28 teaches that Christ came forth from the Father, strongly implying that there was a Father/Son relationship before He came into this world.
John 17:5,24 also indicates that there was a Father/Son relationship in the Godhead even before the creation of the world.
g) The One who existed as the Son of God became the Son of David at the time of the incarnation (
Rom. 1:3-4). The incarnation is when God became a man, it is not when God became the Son. He was God's Son from all eternity.
h) Even in the Old Testament period we find evidence that God indeed had a Son, such as
Proverbs 30:4 and
Psalm 2:7-12 (compare also
Daniel 3:25;
Isaiah 9:6).
i) Melchisedec was a type of the Son of God because He was “without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life” (
Heb. 7:3). As to His humanity Christ did have a mother, a genealogy, beginning of days, an end of His life (He died!), etc. His divine Sonship, however, has nothing to do with human parents, human lineage, human birth, or time measurements. It is an eternal Sonship.
4) The Meaning of the Term “Son of God.”
The important significance of this word is basically threefold:
a) A son is a separate person from his father (see the clear distinction between the Father and Son as seen in
John 5:19-22 and
John 6:38-39).
b) A son is the heir, not the servant, of his father. In contrast to his father’s servants, a son is his father's heir (see
Matthew 21:33-39;
Luke 15:11-32;
Gal. 4:7;
Heb. 3:5-6) In
Hebrews 1:2-14 Christ is set forth as Son and Heir, whereas the angels are called servants (ministers). Thus subservience to one’s father is not associated with the Biblical idea of Sonship, and the term “Son of God” does not mean “subservient to God.”
c) A son has the same nature as his father. To say that the Son of God has the same nature as God the Father is to say that Son is God (absolute deity). He is God (absolute deity) just as the Father is. The Jews knew that when Jesus said he was the Son of God He was claiming to have the same nature as God and to be equal with God (see
John 5:17-18;
John 10:33,36;
Matthew 26:63-66). Since the expression “Son of God” indicates absolute deity and since Christ has always been deity, we can conclude that Christ has always been the Son of God. A person who claims that Christ became the Son of God at the incarnation and therefore was not the Son of God before His incarnation, should also deny the pre-incarnate deity of Christ in order to be consistent.
5) The Meaning of
Psalm 2:7.
Psalm 2:7 does not militate against the eternal Sonship of Jesus Christ. It does not refer to a time when Christ became the Son of God through a begetting act of God. Instead it refers to the day of Jesus’ resurrection when God brought Him forth from the womb of the earth and thereby publicly decreed that He is who He always was—the Son of God (see
Acts 13:33 and
Romans 1:3-4). The declaring of God's decree in
Psalm 2:7 will take place at the close of the great tribulation and will be Jesus’ way of asserting that He is the legitimate ruler of the world who has the right and authority to take over the earth.
more of this at
middletownbiblechurch
Linear Mode
