@brakelite ...
This is my third post of your original post above....one more to go and still no sign of a pre-existence and incarnate Jesus.
It is quite obvious that 1 Peter 1:20 has nothing to do with Jesus being pre-existent.
(1Pe 1:20) He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you (ESV)
God designed a plan of salvation before the earth was created. Jesus was its centerpiece and completion. Jesus was born a human being of God, a son of God, born at a pre-define time on earth. He never existed before this time of his earthly birth. And we know the rest of the story.
Hebrew 10:5-7 also as in Psalms 40:6-8
(Heb 10:5) Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;
(Heb 10:6) in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.
(Heb 10:7) Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’” (ALL ESV)
(Psa 40:4) Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!
(Psa 40:5) You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.
(Psa 40:6) In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.
(Psa 40:7) Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me:
(Psa 40:8) I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
(Psa 40:10) I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. (ALL ESV)
In a nutshell, Hebrew 10:5-7 says that Jesus knew he was born to do his Father’s will and purpose, to be the perfect human sacrifice for the atonement of mankind’s sin. The lamb of God, indeed. The practice of slaughtering animals was ‘dead and buried’ from now on.
The expression “a body you have prepared” means, first, to be born human – 100 percent, and secondly being mentally and spiritually prepared through the presence and power of God, and thirdly, in doing the will of God to the cross.
There are many that hang on to a concept of a pre-existence of Jesus solely based on the expressions in verse 5 where it says, ‘Christ came into the world’ and in verse 7 where it says, ‘I have come?’
If so, let me seriously address
these types of expressions used in both the OT and NT. In so doing I hope to deter anyone else from concluding that Jesus pre-existed and thus incarnated in many other verses based on these types of expression.
If it came or was from God, or the source was from God, it was expressed like ‘it came down from heaven.’ Example from scripture: The manna God gave was not baked in heaven, it was made by God on earth, it was born or created on earth.
If a being came from God, or heaven, or was born of God, or was in the service of God, it was expressed as in selected scripture as:
- he/I was sent from heaven, or God, or
- he/I came down from heaven, or
- he/I came from heaven, or from above, or
- he/I was sent by God, or
- he/I came or entered the world, or
- he/I have come, etc.
In John 1:6, John the Baptist was a man “sent from God.” John was not pre-existent or was incarnated.
(Joh 3:31) He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all.
In the same way, Jesus never was ever in heaven at that time nor did he pre-exist and came down literally from heaven to be incarnated.
None of these expressions ever mean or were meant to say that a person or being, came down from heaven, literally. Those that do not agree with my explanation above historically have no counter-explanation.
It is just a desperate effort to find a pre-extent and an incarnate Jesus when there is none in scripture.
Bless you bro,
APAK