Before is a word that describes a period of time preceding a sequence of events. We have no problem using before or after in our vocabulary because we always have a reference point. We are accustomed to everything having a beginning and an ending. However, with God, there isn’t a before or an after. He was, is, and always will be an eternal being. This is beyond our comprehension. Like so many attributes of God, we must accept this one by faith.
When teaching children about creation, there is an age-old question that comes to light. You quote Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” They have no problem believing God created everything, but there is always one kid who asks, “Who made God?” You try to explain that no one created God, he always was and is. In understanding this truth, we are just like little children, it is unexplainable.
In Genesis 1:1, the first three words of the Bible are “In the beginning.” This is not speaking about the beginning of God, but the beginning of the world. The heavens and earth were created by God. It teaches us of the beginning of animals, fish, birds, the sun, moon, stars, water, and eventually about God’s crowning creation, mankind. Why is it the crowning creation? Because it is the only creature God created in His own image.
In John 1:1, we see that Jesus, the Word, was with God from the beginning. He created all things. Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1 clearly mean before creation, the Word, the Son of God, Jesus, existed with God the Father. We have a description of God the Son before He took on the cloak of flesh. He was not Jesus the Godman before He came to earth. John 1:14 states that Jesus became a man. He became incarnate when He became a man. Before God’s Son became a man, He was with God, equal, and operating as a spiritual being. As a man, He had a beginning, but not as God the Son.
John 1:1-5 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
John 1:14 “And 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.”
Why would God the Son choose to take on a robe of flesh to go from the complete and perfect state with His Father to become human? It was His way of redeeming us to our original state of being without sin. Because of the holiness of God, sin could not enter Heaven. Because of our sins, we could not pay the debt. Once Adam sinned, there was no longer a perfect man. All mankind was doomed to eternal Hell without a sacrifice for their sin.
Before Jesus’ sacrificial death, we were without hope. It was His love for us that allowed Him to become flesh. He experienced every temptation we could ever experience, yet He did not sin. One day, we will see Him, not as a spirit as He was before creation, but as Jesus the Godman. Before Jesus became flesh, He had never suffered anything: no rejection, no physical pain, no emotional distress from the denial of friends, no thirst or hunger, no weariness of the physical body, and no temptation of the Devil himself.
He chose to lower himself to be a servant, to suffer, to become obedient to the Father unto death, and to be made to be like His own creation. The Son of God changed from His state of being an eternal spirit to a man.
Philippians 2:7-8 “But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
When I meditate on what Jesus was before He came to earth, I am humbled beyond words. To think anyone would subject themselves to what Jesus did for me gives a completely different meaning to the word love. We can’t understand this kind of love, but we can receive it and follow Him in appreciation by obedience.
