Who Is Jesus?

To start getting a full look at Jesus’s identity, let’s first look at who he was, looking all the way back to before he was even born as a man on Earth. An important question to answer here would be, “Where did Jesus actually come from?” As I said earlier, many religions are actually divided over this very thing.

Christianity, for instance, believes that Jesus is God as part of the trinity of the Godhead, but other religions believe that Jesus was just a created being. Maybe he was just a man, or certain religions believe he was just a prophet. Some even just view him to be a good teacher. But it’s important to see what the Bible says about who he is and see where he truly came from.

One of the biggest distinctions here is the argument as to whether Jesus was created or begotten from God the Father. These are two very different things. Fortunately, the Bible actually has something really important to say on this topic in Colossians 1:15-17:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Now, some translations here actually say that Jesus was the firstborn of all creation.

And some might take that to say, “Oh, well, if Jesus was the firstborn of all creation, that must mean he is part of creation.” This comes from a misunderstanding of what the firstborn really means within the context of the biblical narrative and within the context of a first-century cultural outlook.

The word firstborn here, used in many translations, is actually talking about Jesus’ rank and supremacy above creation. In ancient times, there was a concept called primogeniture, which basically was the concept that the firstborn in a family had a rank above the rest of the family. This meant that if anything happened to the father, then the firstborn would be the one who would take leadership and authority over the rest of the family.

Being firstborn was a matter of rank, not a matter of origin. In fact, we can see this even more when we go through Paul’s writings in this passage. See that he says that everything, all created things, were made through Jesus and for Jesus. If Jesus was a created thing, he would have to be part of that category. All things should mean all things.

But if all things were made through him and for him, then he must not be part of the category of created things. In fact, this issue is such a hot topic issue that in the Jehovah’s Witness Bible, they actually changed their verse to not say everything or all things, but rather all other things to imply that Jesus is part of the category of created beings or created things.

We don’t have to change the Bible here. We can see what the Bible originally intended to say, which is that Jesus, as the firstborn of creation, in that concept of primogeniture, has a rank over all of creation. He is not part of the category of created beings. He is above that because he is God.

Not only was he not created, but rather begotten before all things. He’s also the person by which all things were created, through whom all things were created, and for whom all things were created. Everything in creation was created for Jesus, he is before all things, and in him, all things hold together.

We actually see John talk about this in his gospel in John 1:1-3:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

See, John is also calling upon this idea that Jesus was actually before all things. He was pre-Genesis 1:1 when it says that:

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Jesus was there before that. He was with God and he was and still is God as part of the Trinity along with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Here, we can see that John is actually mimicking Genesis 1:1 to make a point that Jesus was there in the very beginning. He has always existed with the Father and the Holy Spirit as part of the Trinity.

So now that we know who Jesus was in eternity past, the next question we need to answer is, “Who is Jesus in the context of human history?