How Old Is Jesus Christ?

Christology is the study of the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 9:6
“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”

Micah 5:2
“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
Too little to be among the clans of Judah,
From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago,
From the days of eternity.”

John 1:1–3
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

John 8:56–58
“‘Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.’ So the Jews said to Him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.’”

Galatians 4:4
“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law.”

Colossians 1:17
“He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

Philippians 2:5–7
“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”

The preexistence of Christ is a teaching that is woven into the scriptural revelation about Christ. That is, it is not a truth about Christ that is asserted separate from other truths about Him but is integral to the revelation of His person and His work. The fact that He is the Messiah affirms His preexistence, for the Messiah is called “Eternal Father,” and “His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.” Virtually every affirmation of His deity also obviously affirms His preexistence; thus, every phrase in John 1:1 assumes His preexistence as does His own self-declaration to be “I AM.” The very fact of His incarnation as such assumes his preexistence, for He was already the Son who was “sent forth” and then “born of a woman”. The assertions in Paul’s two Christological hymns affirm He was “before all things,” and that “He existed” before He was “made in the likeness of men.”

It has been said that without belief in the preexistence of Christ, Christianity would no longer be recognizable. “The doctrine of Christ’s preexistence did not result from theological curiosity or speculation. As early as the first decade of the church, Christians saw preexistence as necessary for understanding Christ’s person and significance in human salvation.”[1]

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[1] Douglas McCready, He Came Down from Heaven: The Preexistence of Christ and The Christian Faith (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005), 9.