The Bible Study:
By James Jordan
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JOHN 1:2-3

2 He was with God in the beginning.

3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

Just as God has no beginning or end, so it is with Jesus. He was born in Bethlehem 2000 years ago, but as God, he has always existed.

When God created the heavens and earth, he said “Let Us” create… The US there refers to God the father and Jesus the son. If you want to be a strict trinity believer it would also include the Holy Spirit.

It may be difficult for us to grasp how there can be only one God, yet three parts to the trinity with each having its own part. I won’t argue that it doesn’t make sense, but it is what the bible teaches.

Jesus was there when God created.

Often in the Old Testament, there is the phrase “THE angel of the Lord,” as opposed to AN angel of the Lord. The phrase never appears in the New Testament. Some theologians believe that THE angel of the Lord was Jesus. The scriptures do not specifically say so, but the implication is certainly there.

In Genesis 16, THE angel and two other angels appear to Sara and Abraham. That angel is specifically referred to as the Lord. This is also true in Genesis chapters 12, 17 and 18.

In Exodus Three The angel of the Lord appears to Moses in a burning bush.

In Judges Chapter six The Angel of the Lord visits Gideon. Gideon fears he might die because he has seen the Lord, which would not have been true had he seen just an ordinary angel.

The passage, however, that really clinches this remarkable identification is Exodus 23:20–23. There God promises to send his angel ahead of the children of Israel as they go through the desert. The Israelites were warned that they must obey and not rebel against this angel. The reason was a stunning one: “Since my Name is in him.” God would never share his memorial name with anyone else, for Isaiah 42:8 advised that he would never share his glory with another. Thus the name of God stands for himself. And when a person is said to have the name of God in him, that person is God!

J.I. Packer says:

“It is clear from this abundance of evidence that the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament was a preincarnate form of our Lord Jesus Christ, who would later permanently take on flesh when he came as a babe in Bethlehem. But mark it well: the one who came after John had already been before—he was that angel of the Lord.”

In the New Testament, in a conflict with the Jews, in John 8:58, Jesus says “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” The Jews recognized that he was claiming to be God because they picked up stones to stone him. It was the same phrase that God used to Moses when he said to tell them I AM had sent him.

This is an important piece of theology as it sets the stage for the story of Jesus as recorded in John’s gospel. It also gives us a firm footing to believe that the Lord Jesus we worship is God himself, and that he is totally reliable because he has existed with and been part of God through all eternity.