Chapter 11 — Preexistence in Paul and Hebrews
The Incarnate Christ and His Critics (Komoszewski & Bowman, 2024)
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When did Jesus begin to exist?
That question might seem like a theological puzzle reserved for seminaries, but it has enormous practical implications. If Jesus began to exist at his birth, he is a uniquely gifted human being, perhaps the most spiritually attuned person in history — but he is still, in the end, one of us. If he existed before his birth as the divine Son of God, then his entire life, death, and resurrection are something categorically different: God himself entering his own creation to redeem it.
Paul's letters are the earliest Christian writings we have — written within fifteen to twenty-five years of Jesus' crucifixion. And they are filled with evidence that the first Christians believed Christ had existed before he became a man.
Galatians: God Sent Forth His Son
Galatians is among Paul's earliest letters. In it, we read: "But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons" (Gal. 4:4-5 NKJV).
The phrase "sent forth his Son" carries a strong implication of prior existence. Paul uses a specific Greek verb (exapostellō) that typically describes sending someone who already exists, from one location to another. God didn't create the Son at the moment of sending — he sent him. The Son had to exist in order to be sent.
Interestingly, Paul says this same Son was then "born of a woman" and "born under the law" — fully entering human existence, subject to all the conditions of human life. The preexistent divine Son and the human Jesus are one and the same person. This is the incarnation in a single sentence.
Philippians 2: the Mind of Christ
Perhaps the most moving passage about Christ's preexistence in all of Paul's letters is Philippians 2:5-8:
"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men."
Before the incarnation, Christ existed "in the form of God." This is not a statement about Jesus' role or function; it's a statement about his nature — what he was. He was in the divine form. He had equality with God. Yet he chose not to hold tightly to that status. Instead, he "emptied himself" by adding humanity to his divinity.
This is a remarkable portrait. The eternal Son, clothed in divine glory, makes the staggering descent: from the heights of deity to a human womb, from a manger to a workshop, from a workshop to a cross. The direction of the movement matters: he comes down. He gives up the visible exercise of divine splendor in order to become one of us.
Paul introduces this passage not as an abstract theological proof but as a motivation for humility: "Have this mind." The self-giving, downward-moving love of the eternal Son is the model for how Christians are to treat one another. Doctrine and devotion are inseparable.
2 Corinthians 8:9: for Your Sake He Became Poor
In a brief but loaded line in 2 Corinthians, Paul writes: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich" (2 Cor. 8:9).
Paul is motivating the Corinthians to give generously to a relief fund. His argument is: look at what Christ gave up. Before the incarnation, he was rich — in glory, in divine status, in the fullness of what it means to be God. He became poor — taking on human limitations, weakness, suffering, and death. And through that self-impoverishment, he made us spiritually rich.
This is not the language you would use to describe a great man who rose from humble beginnings to spiritual heights. It describes someone who voluntarily descended from heights that were already his.
Hebrews: the Son Who Made the Worlds
The letter to the Hebrews begins with one of the Bible's most majestic openings: "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world" (Heb. 1:1-2).
The Son through whom God created the world is identified with Jesus (Heb. 2:9). The one who wears flesh and blood and tasted death for us is the same one through whom the universe was made. And Hebrews 2:14-17 goes out of its way to stress the reality and depth of his humanity: he shared our flesh and blood "that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death."
The eternal Creator became a mortal creature — so that mortal creatures could share in eternal life.
What This Means
Paul's letters were written to communities of believers facing real challenges: persecution, false teaching, internal conflict, social marginalization. Into those struggles, Paul repeatedly points to Christ — not just as an example, but as the eternal Son who had already made the ultimate descent for their sake.
This is the gospel's power. We are not following the teachings of a great man who happened to die nobly. We are following the eternal God who entered our story at its darkest point and changed its ending.
That's worth everything.
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