WHO IS JESUS?

Is Jesus simply the greatest of God's children—or is He something more?

Almost everyone who calls himself a Christian agrees that Jesus is important.

Latter-day Saints speak frequently and reverently about Jesus Christ.

They call Him Savior.

Redeemer.

Creator.

Son of God.

They pray in His name.

So this study should not begin by saying:

“Mormons don't believe in Jesus.”

They certainly do.

The question is more precise:

WHO DO THE SCRIPTURES SAY JESUS IS?

That is where we need to begin.

1. BEFORE BETHLEHEM, JESUS ALREADY EXISTED

Jesus did not begin His existence when Mary gave birth to Him.

John begins his Gospel:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
— John 1:1

Three statements.

The Word already was.

The Word was with God.

The Word was God.

Then John tells us:

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”
— John 1:14

Jesus did not begin at Bethlehem.

The One who already existed became flesh.

2. HOW FAR BACK DOES JESUS GO?

John deliberately begins:

“In the beginning...”

Those words take us back to Genesis 1:1:

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

What was the Word doing when everything began?

John tells us:

“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
— John 1:3

Read that last part carefully.

Without Him was not anything made that was made.

John divides reality into two categories:

things that were made

and

the One through whom they were made.

And John places Jesus on the Creator side of that line.

3. PAUL SAYS THE SAME THING

Colossians 1 says of Christ:

“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible...”
— Colossians 1:16

Then Paul adds:

“All things were created by him, and for him.”

And:

“He is before all things, and by him all things consist.”
— Colossians 1:17

Not:

He existed before most things.

Paul says:

HE IS BEFORE ALL THINGS.

That deserves careful attention.

4. BUT DOESN'T PAUL CALL JESUS “THE FIRSTBORN”?

Yes.

Immediately before those words Paul calls Jesus:

“the firstborn of every creature.”
— Colossians 1:15

What does firstborn mean?

If we simply import our modern use of the word, we might conclude:

Jesus was the first being God created.

But let Paul explain himself.

The very next verse begins:

“For by him were all things created...”

Then verse 18 calls Jesus:

“the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.”

“Firstborn” in Scripture can describe rank, inheritance and supremacy, not merely the first individual born chronologically.

Psalm 89:27 even says of David:

“Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.”

David wasn't Jesse's first son.

God was describing his position.

So we shouldn't pull “firstborn” out of Colossians 1 and make it contradict Paul's explanation in the very next sentence:

Jesus created all things.

5. WHAT DOES LATTER-DAY SAINT TEACHING SAY?

Here we should allow Latter-day Saints to speak for themselves.

Current official LDS material teaches that Jesus Christ is the Firstborn Son of Heavenly Father and that in premortal existence He was the Firstborn among Heavenly Father's spirit children. Church of Jesus Christ

Official LDS teaching also says that human beings lived with Heavenly Father as His spirit children before mortal birth. Church of Jesus Christ

That creates an important question for our study.

When the New Testament calls Jesus “firstborn,” does it mean:

the first spirit child born to Heavenly Father?

Or does Scripture itself use “firstborn” to describe Christ's supremacy and inheritance?

Don't answer from either tradition.

Read Colossians 1.

6. IS JESUS OUR BROTHER?

There is a biblical sense in which Jesus calls His people brethren.

Hebrews 2:11 says:

“He is not ashamed to call them brethren.”

Romans 8:29 calls Jesus:

“the firstborn among many brethren.”

So we shouldn't be frightened by biblical language simply because another religious group uses similar words.

But again:

What does the text mean?

Hebrews does not say Jesus and humanity are the same kind of premortal spirit beings, with Jesus simply being the eldest member of the family.

Instead, Hebrews begins by saying God made the worlds through the Son and that the Son is:

“the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person.”
— Hebrews 1:3

Then Hebrews distinguishes the Son from the angels.

The biblical picture is much larger than simply:

Jesus is our older brother.

7. WHAT ABOUT JESUS AND SATAN?

This deserves special care because it is easy to caricature LDS belief.

Official LDS teaching describes Jesus as Heavenly Father's Firstborn spirit child. It also describes Lucifer as another spirit son who rebelled against Heavenly Father's plan and became Satan. Church of Jesus Christ

From that framework comes the often-heard statement that Jesus and Lucifer were spirit brothers.

But our question isn't whether that sounds strange to traditional Christianity.

Our question is:

DOES THE BIBLE PUT JESUS AND SATAN IN THE SAME CREATED FAMILY?

Let's look.

8. WHO CREATED THE INVISIBLE WORLD?

Return to Colossians 1:16:

“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible...”

Then Paul specifically mentions:

thrones

dominions

principalities

powers.

Whatever spiritual beings exist, Paul places the invisible created order under Christ's creative work.

John says the same thing even more broadly:

“Without him was not any thing made that was made.”

So if Satan is a created spiritual being, and Jesus created all created things, then Scripture does not place Jesus and Satan together as two beings of the same created order.

One is creature.

The other is Creator.

9. ISAIAH SAID GOD CREATED ALONE

This connects directly with our previous study.

God says:

“I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself.”
— Isaiah 44:24

Now compare that with John:

“All things were made by him.”

And Paul:

“By him were all things created.”

This creates an extraordinary conclusion.

The New Testament writers are assigning to Jesus the creative work that the Old Testament attributes to God.

We should not rush past that.

10. DID JESUS CLAIM TO EXIST BEFORE ABRAHAM?

Jesus told His opponents:

“Before Abraham was, I am.”
— John 8:58

He doesn't merely say:

“Before Abraham was, I was.”

John records:

“I am.”

And His opponents immediately picked up stones.

Why?

At the very least, they understood Jesus to be making an extraordinary claim about Himself.

And throughout John's Gospel, that claim becomes clearer.

11. THOMAS CALLED JESUS GOD

After the resurrection, Thomas sees Jesus and says:

“My Lord and my God.”
— John 20:28

Jesus does not correct him.

John then immediately explains why he wrote his Gospel:

“That ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God...”
— John 20:31

For John, calling Jesus God and calling Him the Son of God are not contradictions.

Both belong to the identity of Jesus.

12. THE FATHER IS NOT THE SON

But we must not run to the opposite error.

Jesus prayed to the Father.

The Father sent the Son.

At Jesus' baptism the Father spoke from heaven while the Son was in the water and the Spirit descended.

Jesus says:

“Not my will, but thine, be done.”
— Luke 22:42

So Scripture doesn't teach that Jesus is the Father.

The Father and Son are personally distinguishable.

Yet John says:

“The Word was God.”

And Scripture insists:

There is one God.

We have to preserve everything the text says, even when putting it together is difficult.

13. “THE FATHER IS GREATER THAN I”

Jesus says:

“My Father is greater than I.”
— John 14:28

Does that prove Jesus is a lesser kind of being than God?

We need the whole New Testament picture.

Philippians 2 says Christ existed:

“in the form of God”

but humbled Himself,

“took upon him the form of a servant,”

and became obedient unto death.

The incarnation involves genuine humiliation.

The One who possessed divine glory took the servant's place.

So a passage describing Jesus' humble earthly mission cannot simply erase the passages describing His eternal identity.

14. JESUS SHARED THE FATHER'S GLORY BEFORE THE WORLD EXISTED

On the night before His death Jesus prayed:

“And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”
— John 17:5

Jesus existed before the world.

He was with the Father.

And He possessed glory with the Father before creation.

That takes us directly back to John 1:

“In the beginning was the Word.”

15. WHY DOES THIS MATTER?

Because the identity of Jesus isn't a minor theological detail.

Jesus Himself asked:

“Whom say ye that I am?”
— Matthew 16:15

Peter answered:

“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Christian faith is built around the identity of Jesus.

If we misunderstand who Jesus is, eventually we will misunderstand what He did.

16. LET'S PUT THE PASSAGES TOGETHER

What have we found?

Jesus existed before Bethlehem.

Jesus existed before Abraham.

Jesus existed before the world.

Jesus possessed glory with the Father before creation.

Everything created came into existence through Him.

He created things visible and invisible.

He is before all things.

He sustains all things.

He is called God.

Yet He is personally distinguishable from the Father.

He became flesh.

He died.

He rose again.

He is Lord.

That's the biblical evidence we must explain.

17. NOW APPLY THE SAME TEST

In our earlier study we asked:

How should we test a new revelation?

The answer was:

Compare it with what God has already revealed.

So let's do exactly that.

If a later revelation tells us that Jesus is one member of a larger family of premortal spirit children, put that teaching beside:

John 1:1–3.

John 8:58.

John 17:5.

John 20:28.

Colossians 1:15–17.

Hebrews 1.

Isaiah 44:24.

Then ask one question:

WHO DOES THE TEXT SAY JESUS IS?

Don't decide because a Mormon tells you.

Don't decide because a Protestant tells you.

Don't decide because a Catholic or Orthodox Christian tells you.

And don't decide because TEXT B4 TRADITION tells you.

Read the passages.

Then decide whether the later teaching fits the text.

TEXT B4 TRADITION

Read First. Conclude Later.

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