“In the beginning was the word”

Robert Duncan Culver writes on the pre-existence of Christ “The deity of Christ is not necessary to his pre-existence but his pre-existence is necessary to his deity one of who’s attributes is eternity”. So before John can establish the fact that Jesus is God he first looks to establish that Jesus has always existed.

The verse writes Kostenberger acts as a means of “preparing for the later reference to a new “beginning”, the incarnation of the Word.” Just as what preceded the creation narrative was “in the beginning God so what proceed the new creation narrative is “in the beginning was the word.”

Jesus has always existed “there never was when he was not” Athansasius. He has been from all eternity outside time itself. These words echo the words of Genesis 1v1 which says “In the beginning God”, this verse sets out the fact that before creation God existed. This proposes three things. First that God was fine without creation. God did not need creation in order to exist he was able to exist outside of creation by his own accord. Secondly that God was not created if God existed before creation then he himself is not created but is rather uncreated. Thirdly that God existed before time or outside of time. Before creation their was no time as their was no sequence of events to create time therefore God existed outside of time. All these three are then attributable to Christ as “in the beginning was the word”.

“John contention is that at the point where we reach the boundary of all human conceptualising we have to begin our speaking about Jesus Christ; he shares Gods Eternity” Bruce Milne. When we see Jesus born that is not the start of his existence but he existed before he existed on earth. Jesus has always been around.

Jesus himself saw this as a fundamental truth in his ministry Robert Duncan Culver writes “about forty times in Johns gospel alone Jesus uses expressions though not claiming pre-existence do imply it”. Examples include John 3v13, 6v62 and 8v14. The apostle Paul also made the pre-existence of Christ an important point in Colossians 1v17.