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The Self-Existent Son of God, January 3
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I
am.
John 8:58
.
“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.
Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen
Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was,
I am.”
Here Christ shows them that, although they might reckon His life to be less than
50 years, yet His divine life could not be reckoned by human computation. The
existence of Christ before His incarnation is not measured by figures (
The Signs of
the Times, May 3, 1899
).
“Before Abraham was, I am.” Christ is the preexistent, self-existent Son of God.
The message He gave to Moses to give to the children of Israel was, “Thus shalt
thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”
The prophet Micah writes of Him, “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou
be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto
me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from
everlasting.”
Through Solomon Christ declared: “The Lord possessed me in the beginning
of his way, before his works of old.... When he gave to the sea his decree, that the
waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the
earth: then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing always before him.”
In speaking of His preexistence, Christ carries the mind back through dateless
ages. He assures us that there never was a time when He was not in close fellowship
with the eternal God. He to whose voice the Jews were then listening had been with
God as one brought up with Him.
Christ’s words were spoken with a quiet dignity and with an assurance and
power that sent conviction to the hearts of the scribes and Pharisees. They felt the
power of the message sent from heaven. God was knocking at the door of their
hearts, entreating entrance (
The Signs of the Times, August 29, 1900
).
He was equal with God, infinite and omnipotent.... He is the eternal, self-existent
Son (
Manuscript101, 1897
).
In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived. “He that hath the Son hath
life” (
1 John 5:12
). The divinity of Christ is the believer’s assurance of eternal life.
“He that believeth in me,” said Jesus, “though he were dead, yet shall he live: and
whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die”.... Christ here looks forward
to the time of His second coming (
The Desire of Ages, 530
).
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