Do we just assume that the Lord Jesus Christ was eternal or do the Scriptures present Him as such? The latter certainly is true. Isaiah wrote of the Messiah, “Unto us a child is born [the humanity of Christ] unto us a Son is given [the deity of Christ]: and the government shall be upon His shoulder and His name shall be called: Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6). What a revelation of His attributes!
“The everlasting Father” is variously translated. In the Vulgate it is rendered “Father of the future age.” Elsewhere it is given as, “The Father of the everlasting age” and “The Father of eternity.” Obviously the Son of God is the paternal source of eternity. How forceful is this appellation! If it were possible to conceive the origin of eternity, the Lord Jesus is that origin.
Micah makes a very important prediction. “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephratah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel; His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity” (Micah 5:2, nasv). Concerning this, Dr. Fredk A. Tatford says in his little volume, The Prophet of Messiah’s Advent:
No new personality came into existence at Bethlehem when Jesus was born. The Eternal had become incarnate. God had taken manhood unto Himself and the child of Mary was—and always will be—the God-Man. What He had ever been in the ages of the past, He continued to be in incarnation.
There are several similar assertions in the NT: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn. 1:1). The question naturally arises, to what does John make reference by “the beginning”? Is it the beginning of creation? Is it the beginning of Christ’s life here on earth? Or is it that the word is used in an abstract way, John implying that whenever the beginning was, the Word preexisted it and was already manifest? Here, then, we have the preexistence of an individual. That point is quite clear.
“And the Word was with God.” This preexistent One was “with” God. The preposition “with” suggests association. “The same was in the beginning with God.” Furthermore it is also stated, “And the Word was [continuously] God.” What dogmatism! What a declaration of deity! How shall we then regard the Word? Indubitably this preexistent individual who associated with God and who bears the descriptive title “the Word,” is deity Himself, God manifest in flesh. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn. 1:14). The word “dwelt” (tabernacled) suggests the sanctuary in the wilderness, with the pillar cloud of glory arising from its inner room. There was such a glory cloud about the Saviour when He was here, figuratively speaking.
It is said that the ancient Chinese divided their words into two general categories: dead words and living words. Nouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, etc., were dead words. You might have a long list of words that do not make a statement. Verbs are living words, words of action; they fit into the second category. In the Spanish translation of John’s Gospel (1569 ad, the most recent revision 1960), verse 1 reads, “En el principio era el Verbo,” “In the beginning was the Verb.” In Christ we have therefore the full expression of the Father’s love, power, and purpose.
John also records for us some of the claims of the Lord Jesus; for example, “Before Abraham was I am.” Some modern translations read, “Before Abraham was born, I am,” but that does not change the meaning. The contrast between Abraham and Jesus is a contrast between one whose existence had a beginning and One who always existed. This blessed One has a continuous, present existence.
The Jews understood immediately the claims of Christ. Just as they did when the Lord Jesus spoke the parable of the Good Shepherd and said, “I and My Father are one.” Then the Jews took up stones to cast at Him and said, “For a good work we stone Thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God“ (Jn. 10:32-33).
In the fourth century of the Christian era there arose a heresy named Arianism. Arius, the propagator of this error, overemphasized the word “begotten” with reference to our Lord. Arius contended that since the Father begat the Son, the Son must have a beginning of existence, and was therefore inferior to the Father. The heresy was refuted and Arius was expelled from the church at the Council of Nicea (325 ad).
Part of the doctrine of the so-called Jehovah Witnesses is merely a revival of the Arianism of the fourth century. This modern cult has placed an unholy import on the words of the Apostle Paul, “the firstborn of every creature” (Col. 1:15). They contend that the Father created the Son, that the Son might create all else. In so doing they ignore the remainder or this great Christological passage: “By Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist” (Col. 1:16-17). He is not one of the created elements. He predates them all. Furthermore, “It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.” In chapter 2 there is a related statement which is more explicit, “In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9).
The perversion of this same cult relative to the meaning in Scripture of the appellation “firstborn” is very subtle. That this title may be used literally of the first of a woman’s offspring there is no doubt. The final plague to fall on the Egyptians at the time of Israel’s deliverance from their slavery was the death of all the firstborn. The Lord had declared, “All the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die” (Ex. 11:5).
Notwithstanding, the title is also used figuratively in the Word of God. Its use implies a superlative, something of the greatest possible degree. The Lord uses it to describe Israel: “Thus saith the Lord, Israel is My son, even My firstborn” (Ex. 4:22). This cannot mean that Israel was the first original nation. There were nations and even empires before she came into existence. That nation had the pre-eminent place in God’s thoughts. This is evident in the affirmation: “I will make him My firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth” (Ps. 89:27). None would be greater than Israel.
Bildad, as he answers some of Job’s remarks, speaks of a destructive disease which he calls the “firstborn of death.” He distinguishes this fatal illness as worse than others, as if it were the culmination of all deaths.
Isaiah also uses the term firstborn in a figurative sense: “The firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety” (Isa. 14:30). The prediction was to the effect that after the enemy had been destroyed, the poorest of the poor would be well fed.
It is surely not difficult to see that in the figurative use of the word, Christ is superlatively greater than all; He transcends everyone. He is “the firstborn of all creation” because He is far above and beyond creation. He is before all things and supreme over them.
The Lord Jesus is, in like manner, “the firstborn from the dead” (Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5). “Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Cor. 15:20). Both “firstfruits” and “firstborn” are used synonymously. “That in all things He might have the preeminence” (Col. 1:18). In resurrection as in all else, Christ has the priority.
Under the law, the firstborn received the inheritance and the special patriarchal blessing. The firstborn had authority over his brethren. He also received a double portion, as well as a place in the early priesthood. What a foreshadowing of the perfect Firstborn!
The writer to the Hebrews identifies the Church as “the general assembly and church of the firstborn” (Heb. 12:23). The members of the Church universal are honored in splendor and glory. Grace has distinguished them and has given them a first place in the purposes of God. How wonderful the divine family must be! “For whom He [God the Father] did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29). All believers are destined to bear the image of God’s Son that He might be transcendent among many brethren.
Man was created in the image of God but that image was marred in the fall. We read that Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image (Gen. 5:3). Through the redemptive work of Christ, God is restoring the divine image to all believers (Rom. 8:29). All in that family will soon resemble the Lord Jesus!
Written by James Gunn