Chapter 4
Christ, the man out of Heaven

" The second man, out of heaven " (1 Corinthians 15 : 47)

Scripture does not tell us much as to the nature of Christ's existence before He was born into this world. No doubt, this is because:-

(a) We are incapable of comprehending what is beyond our normal experience in this world.

(Similarly, we are not told much as to the nature of our existence when time has ceased to be)

(b) Information as to the nature of Christ's existence would not be useful to us. Scripture tells us what is to affect us in some way - it is not a game of trivial pursuit.

However, Scripture does tell us something, and it is proposed to consider what it does say in this article. First of all, however, let us consider Christ's earthly origin:-

Christ's earthly parentage

As to his earthly parentage Christ was born of Mary, the husband of Joseph who was of the lineage of David. This gave Christ the legal title to the throne of David and also to the Abrahamic promises, as Abraham was, of course, the father of David (Matthew 1:1-17). Mary herself was found to be "with child of [the] Holy Spirit" (Matthew 1:18). This was confirmed to Joseph in a dream; the angel of the Lord saying to him " that which is begotten in her is of [the] Holy Spirit " (Matthew 1:20). Christ when born was Mary's firstborn (verse 25), which confirmed that he would be the heir to the throne of David. (Note: Joseph was addressed by the angel as "Joseph, son of David" (verse 20) ). It may be mentioned that Christ did not enter on his public ministry until Joseph had disappeared from view (presumably died), so that the claim to the throne of David had passed to Christ.

There was nothing exceptional about the birth of Christ save that Mary was a virgin (Luke 1:27) and her conception was of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). (Note: Christ was Son of God, not Son of the Holy Spirit, though the Spirit was instrumental in bringing about her conception). The actual divine working that was involved in Mary begetting a son whilst still a virgin was that of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the power of the Highest (see the parallel use of these expressions in Luke 1:35), and this power is great enough to bring about a virgin birth. There is really no justification for being sceptical on this matter as it is known that the Brahminy Blind Snake always gives birth without the intervention of a male, for there are no males in this species, only females ! God has the power to do everything (see Job 42:2). Some sceptics say that virgin (Almah) in Isaiah 7:14 means simply " young woman " as there is another word for virgin. As a matter of fact " Almah " is only used seven times in the Old Testament and is sometimes translated damsel or maid (see Youngs Concordance). Where there is any clue given (e.g. in Genesis 24:43 Rebecca is called a damsel before she was married to Isaac) it is clear the word refers to someone who is unmarried. In any case what sort of sign would it have been to Ahaz if a married woman had given birth to a son. It is commonplace for married women to do so. God was going to do something out of theordinary ! Just as damsel denotes a virgin in the Old Testament, similarly woman often denotes a married woman in the New (See for examples, Matthew 5:28; 1 Corinthians 14:34/35 - in the first case adultery is referred to, which only applies to persons already married; and in the second their husband, so clearly they were married). Scripture often speaks of what is usual; thus damsels would normally be virgins and women normally married.

It may be noted that Christ when born of Mary was called Son of God (Luke 1:35); Christ as coming down from heaven is called Son of man (John 3:13). Both these relationships relate to him as a person. This is the same with any human child. He is the child of both parents; father and mother. The term of relationship " son of " can be applied to either parent, as it was in the case of Christ. He is called son of Joseph (Luke 4:22) and son of Mary (Mark 6:3).

What we have considered so far relates to Christ's origins here below - what is finite as given in Micah 5:2: "And thou Bethlehem Ephratah, little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall he come forth unto me [who is] to be Ruler in Israel". (Note: the singular is used for come forth, pointing to what is finite (measurable), while the rest of the verse is in the plural, pointing to what is infinite (unmeasurable): "Whose goings forth are from of old, from the days of eternity". Only the first section is quoted in Matthew 2:6; the second section not at all, though it is really John's teaching as we shall see.

Christ's heavenly origin

(Note: Some may object to the use of the word origin as implying a beginning. However, all that is referred to here is the place (heaven) where Christ came from)

The matters we need to consider are as follows:-

(1) (i) What scriptural proof have we that Christ existed before He came into this world ? There are many passages that could be quoted, but the following selection will suffice for our present purpose:-

(a) " In the beginning was the Word " (John 1:1). If He existed in the beginning He Himself cannot have had a beginning. He must have always existed.