Kelli Trujillo Supporter Loving Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Teacher, Musician

The short answer is no, Jesus--as the second Person of the Trinity--did not have a beginning. This can be confusing because for 33 years He took on the form of a human and therefore His mortal body had a beginning and an end; however, since He was at the same time fully God and fully man, His "God-part" was--as it is now and always has been--eternal, having neither beginning nor end. 

Jesus Himself said He existed before His arrival in a human body on earth. Here is one example in John 8: 56-59, in which He is trying to reason with His opponents about Who He is:

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." Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.

It was hard for these people to understand how Jesus couldn't fit into their boxes, and it's still hard for some now. Jesus breaks all boundaries of our human understanding; for this reason, to truly understand Who He is (as much as we're able to while we're on this earth), it takes faith.

I love the passage the questioner referred to in John 1! It's kind of a review of the beginning of time as we know it, and a reminder of the Genesis account; yet it's also looking forward to the newness of the gospel and the life of Christ, which was a "new beginning" in many ways. I recommend taking time to study this passage; there is a lot of spiritual meat in it.

In this first chapter of the gospel of John, it seems that John is laying a foundation of the significance of Who Jesus is, or he's presenting evidence to establish the authority of Jesus before writing his version of the gospel. More than once he states that the Word was with God in the beginning, that nothing was made apart from Him, etc... Then he goes on to speak of the Word being Light and Life to all men, with powers that dispel darkness. 

These statements about the identity and characteristics of Christ are written proof of the importance of Who He is and what is important for us to believe about Him. Those of us who are Christians were once blind, but passages such as this one contain the power and truth that helped to open our eyes to Who Jesus is. 

Let's look again at the first verses in John 1:

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Like I said, there is a lot to study here, but here is what's pertinent to the question. First of all, this confirms Jesus' deity and His place in the Trinity. If He was a part of the creation process and nothing was made without Him, then Jesus is surely God. And the same statement is made several times in different ways: "Through Him all things were made...apart from Him nothing was made that has been made," etc... John wanted to be sure that his readers know Jesus was present at the inception of the universe. 

These verses also confirm that Jesus is timeless and that He has always been present with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Some might view Jesus as coming to exist for just the time that He was born to humans and walked the earth to spread the gospel. But this account indicates that He always made His abode with the other two Persons of the Trinity and is infinite, although He chose to offer up His fleshly body to die. His "infiniteness" made it so that He couldn't permanently die; the fact that He has always been God made it possible for Him to be the substitution for our sins.

December 27 2014 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Vincent Mercado Supporter Skeptic turned believer, Catholic, father of 3

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.

"Beginning" is a time word. For someone who has existed eternally and was not made, he has no beginning nor end.

December 26 2014 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

JD Abshire Supporter

John 1:14 "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth".

The phrase "was made" is the Greek gē'-no-mī which suggests a change of condition, an altered state. As Vincent stated, the Son is eternal as the Father and Holy Spirit are eternal. 

As Christ told the Samaritan woman in John 4:24 "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." The Lord Jesus' natural state (if I can use the word natural) prior to his incarnation was spirit. 

On the mount of transfiguration he gave Peter, James, and John a glimpse of his true, divine essence. It is 100% GOD! (Matthew 17:2, Mark 9:2).

If you have access to an online concordance look up "Lord of hosts" and "the angel of the Lord". Yahweh was very active in the Old Testament, matter of fact he is the God of the Bible. After the resurrection He stated to the disciples: "And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, (Luke 24:44-45).

As He told the Pharisees in John 8:24 " I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins."

Knowing and believing that The Lord Jesus Christ is the God who made us is essential to salvation.

December 27 2014 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report