Before or After?

The facts of Christ's eternity and incarnation give rise to any number of paradoxes.  From a historical viewpoint, this Christ that John is writing about is the "Son of David" -- and yet He antedates David.  This is the marvelous inconsistency we find when we look into the person of Jesus Christ.  How can a son born of a father go back prior to the birth of that father?  Oh, the delightful incongruities we stumble over as God tries to deal with man's limited understanding!  Only by faith can we wrap ourselves around this marvelous truth.

Then He is referred to as the "Seed of Abraham" -- but he was before Abraham as well.  Jesus said to the religious leaders, when they questioned Him, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58).  Imagine those old Pharisees, experts in the religious law, scratching their heads as they tried to figure out what Jesus had just said.

Christ is also referred to as the last Adam, but He dates back to before the first Adam.  Trying to pin Christ down with a time sequence is impossible, because He existed prior to time.  He rises above and beyond time.  It was time that flowed from the mouth of this One who is referred to as the Ancient of Days.

Christ derives no glory from David or Abraham or Adam.  All their glory comes from Him -- and in giving them glory, He does not deplete any of His own glory.  What He has, He has in unlimited supply.  What He gives does not in any way lessen what He has.  "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty" (Rev.1:8).

Christ is often likened to Aaron -- but this parallel breaks down rather quickly.

Aaron had a beginning,

   but Christ was "in the beginning."

Aaron offered a sacrifice for his own sins,

   while Christ offered Himself for the sins of the world.

Aaron took his glory from the priesthood,

   but Christ gave of His glory to others, such as Aaron.

Aaron's priesthood came to an end,

   but Christ has a priesthood that is forever and ever -- a priesthood that extends far into the unsearchable aspects of eternity, up in the rarefied atmosphere where time has no effect.

Whenever we tell a story, it always has three elements: the beginning, the middle and the end.  When we come to the story of Christ, it is impossible to start from the beginning.  John uses the word "beginning in order to communicate to his readers some idea of what he is trying to say.  Jesus Christ was from the beginning in the sense that He was before anything else began.

[excerpts from A.W. Tozer's God's Power For Your Life: How the Holy Spirit Transforms You Through God's Word]