Christ Existed Before His Birth in the Manger
By H. F. Phelps
The Scriptures Abundantly Affirm the Divine Anomaly—He Created Universes of Worlds Before Dying on Calvary—His Eternal Sacrifice in Giving Himself to the Human Race
WHEN the historian tells us of the deeds of any of the mighty men of earth, without telling us of their birth and boyhood days, no one ever stops to question the previous existence of these men. That they had lived for years, and had been trained in the school of experience, is a foregone conclusion. This is not a parallel, but it is a feeble illustration of our theme. It seems not a little strange that any person at all conversant with the teachings of the Bible should claim that our blessed Lord and Saviour, who is the Creator of all things, Creator of universes of worlds, of angels and men, never had an existence before He was born of the virgin Mary. Because they can not understand the mystery of the transformation that took place in the conception and birth of Christ, they would have us believe that the existence of Him upon whom our hopes depend for salvation is many years subsequent to the existence of sin. EXPLAIN, IF WE CAN, THE MYSTERIES OF NATURE
But before we stumble over the "mystery of godliness," we had better explain the mystery of nature, as to the how and the wherefore of the growth of hair on the horse, and wool on the sheep, and feathers on the back of the goose, when all these creatures eat the same food. The first mystery is no greater than the last. And both are brought about by the infinite creative power of God. CHRIST CREATED ALL THINGS
That Christ is the Creator of all things is evident from the testimony of the Holy Spirit. See John 1:3, 10: "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. . . . He was in the world, and the world was made by Him." "For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, . . . all things were created by Him, and for Him." Col. 1:16. Read Eph. 3:9 and Heb. 1:2. It is therefore true that Christ, who created all things, had an existence before the existence of anything that was created. To the truth of this proposition the Holy Spirit also bears testimony as follows: "Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature. . . . And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." Col. 1:15, 17. When Christ was here among men, He bore witness on this very question. And His testimony is just as applicable now as it was when He addressed the unbelieving Pharisees, who also questioned His divinity. "Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am." John 8:58. This statement identifies Christ as the "I Am" of the Old Testament. Hence He was in existence as the leader of His people during the centuries before His birth as a babe. The Holy Spirit has also given us another testimony upon this point. In Proverbs 8 Christ is represented by wisdom—which is quite appropriate, for we read that He has been made wisdom to us. "The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. . . . I was by Him, as one brought up with Him." Prov. 8:22, 23, 30. The American Revised Version gives the following as the rendering of verse 30: "Then I was by Him, as a master workman." And thus it becomes evident that this testimony refers not to wisdom in the abstract, but to Christ, who is the very personification of wisdom, and was the Master Workman by whom all things were created. And so, in the eternity of the past, when by the "breath of His mouth" the universes of worlds were brought into existence, He did nothing out of harmony with the establishment of a sign of His creative power in every world that He beautified for the abode of the "sons of God." And the establishment, in Eden, of the Sabbath, which is that sign, was also in perfect accord with the act of the creation of all the worlds. In this case, as the Master Workman, He established the annual revolution, the yearly cycle, of all the worlds at one and the same moment. Reasoning from analogy, we may conclude that every world has a Sabbath of its own. And this Sabbath depends, in each world, upon the revolution of each particular world. And when the Lord of the Sabbath of one and all the worlds, beautified each world in six days, resting on the seventh, He established the weekly cycle. And when the weekly cycle was established, the Sabbath day itself was established, and that to all eternity; for as long as the cycle of weeks shall roll, so long the Sabbath will come and go to the inhabitants of any and every world. "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith Jehovah." Isa. 66:22, 23. PERSONIFIED THE FATHER, YET AN UNRESERVED GIFT TO MAN
The testimony of the Holy Spirit, as recorded in Phil. 2:5-11 and Heb. 1:3, upon a careful analysis will be found most convincing. In brief, Christ was the very personification of the Father, in person and in glory. He did not esteem this a thing to be accounted22so precious as to be grasped when a world could be saved by its sacrifice. And so He emptied Himself of that which He was, made a most complete sacrifice of all that He was, and took the form of sinful man, sinful flesh, the form of a servant. So complete was this change, that He never will be again what He was with the Father before He became flesh. What wonderful condescension! Wonderful change! Wonderful love! OUR CHOICE AND THE MIND OF SACRIFICE
And so the admonition, "Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus"—the mind of sacrifice, the mind of self-abnegation, the mind to become servant of all, in order to cooperate with Christ in the salvation of the lost. And this change should be so inwrought in the sinner, so full and complete, that he never again can be what he was before. It must be the total annihilation of the old man of sin. This change is dependent upon our choice in the matter, as it was with Christ. And when we make the choice, the same infinite, creative power of God that produced the change in Christ, will make the change in and for us. May the Lord give us the power and the willingness to make the choice, and submission to the process.