In later years, Jesus was always making some "outrageous" statement, the way the Pharisees looked at it. If something was true, He said it. If something was false, He called it so. For example, Jesus once said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad." What Jesus meant by this was that He, Jesus, in His divine form was the very person who physically (through spiritual transformation) had visited Abraham (Genesis 18) and had related to him the reality of the coming of God's Kingdom; that Abraham, because he had proved obedient and faithful, would have a part in that Kingdom; that Abraham had known of the necessity of a Savior to come ("rejoiced to see my day") and had been glad. The religious leaders didn't get it. Jesus was thinking in "another dimension" — the full knowledge and awareness of who He was, of what He was, of His spiritual background and timelessness, His great mission on earth, and His need to continually preach that great truth. The religious leaders answered Him by a sarcastic, "You are not fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?", implying He was crazy. Jesus then made another of those "outrageously" strange statements. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am"! When Moses wanted to know what to say to the Israelites upon returning to Egypt on his mission of leading them in the Exodus, he asked God, "When I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they say to me, What is his name: What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: And he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you" (Exodus 3:13-14). "I am that I am" can also be taken to mean "I will be what I will be" or "I continue to be that which I continue to be." I am the self-determined one, the life self-inherent, the One who is, and who always will be: the Eternal." (God is also called the "Amen," meaning, the "So be it," or "So it shall be.") The Pharisees were familiar with Exodus 3:14, you can be sure. Thus, when Jesus plainly said He was that one who had said those words to Abraham, it just about snapped their minds. Forgetting all legality, propriety, or due process, they flew into a blind rage, and "... took up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by" (John 8:56-59). There are two other important scriptures relative to Christ's preexistence. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1) "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." (John 1:1) In Genesis 1:1, the Hebrew word for God is Elohim. It is an interesting word with a plural form (the im ending.) A little research demonstrates that Elohim can indicate more than one person; and can be taken to mean a family of persons. Through many portions of the Bible, Jesus reveals a family relationship in both the family of God and the family of man. While Jesus is called the Son of God, He is also called the Son of man, the Creator and Author of human life, the first-begotten from all humankind, the "firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29), the Captain and Author of our salvation, and the soon-coming King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Notice that there is duality everywhere evidenced, not only in God's creation, but throughout the Bible when members of the Godhead are revealed. Elohim means more than one, and, while not necessarily limiting the number, many other texts prove there was the Father (who no man has ever seen at any time) and the Son. Therefore, in our modern English language, the beginning text of the Bible would be more understandable if it were written thus: "In the beginning, the family of God, consisting of the Father and the Son, created the heaven and the earth." John 1:1 is the second significant place in the Bible where the phrase "In the beginning... " is used. "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made" (John 1:1-3). Here, the Greek word, logos (word) is used in reference to Christ. None of the other disciples who wrote of Jesus' life (Matthew, Mark and Luke) utilized "logos" in reference to Christ. The Greek word seems to have a double meaning, referring to both "reason" and "speech." However, the idea John obviously had in mind is to convey the clearest meaning of those many long talks he and Jesus had privately, wherein Jesus conveyed to him the deepest secrets and mysteries of Jesus' own preexistent state. You have the feeling, in reading the first chapter of John, that John is speaking from a great deal of experience, trying to recall words which Jesus Himself very likely used. John's first chapter closely corroborates the fact that the Hebrew word elohim in Genesis 1:1 means that there was more than one member of the God family involved in the creating! The "Word" was, then, the executive member of the Godhead, One of whom the Bible says "all things were made by him"! Perhaps the clearest scripture absolutely proving that the Jesus Christ of the New Testament was the same Being who was the Eternal Creator of the Old Testament, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, is Colossians 1:16: "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him." These verses very plainly show that this same Being who made all things, "was in the world and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born [begotten] not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:10-13) This unmistakable reference to Jesus Christ of Nazareth clearly shows, without any interpretation or exegesis, that the creator being who is called "God" (Elohim or YHWH) in the Old Testament is the same individual who became the Jesus Christ of the New Testament! Notice the next words, "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). The Word did the creating, and the Word "became flesh." What could be simpler than that? The New Testament is rife with scriptures concerning Jesus' attempts to convey the message which the Father gave Him. He said He spoke only as the Father inspired Him, spoke only what the Father gave Him. Jesus continually said He came to reveal the Father: He prayed to His Father, said He was returning to His Father, and showed, continually, a Father-Son relationship! There is a great deal of further proof throughout the Bible on the prehuman origins of Jesus Christ! For example, He is called that "Rock" which followed the children of Israel in the wilderness ("And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ" I Cor. 10:4); and is referred to as that "Rock" in Deuteronomy: "He is the Rock, his work is perfect" (Deut. 32:4). The personage who "emptied himself' and "became of no repute," and "was made flesh," born of the virgin Mary to become the baby Jesus in Bethlehem, was the same individual who created Adam, who saved Noah, who appeared to Abraham, who wrestled in the dust of the earth with Jacob, who called and spoke to Moses out of a fiery bush and a cloud, who parted the Red Sea and who spoke directly to His prophets, from the patriarchs prior to the flood on down to Elijah and others. Jesus Christ of Nazareth was the same personality of the Godhead or God family who wrote with His own finger the Ten Commandments and who ruled Israel. The Bible absolutely proves the fact that Jesus Christ of the New Testament is the same person as the God of the Old Testament!
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