What Jesus Said Before He Was Born (Part 1)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

The Trinity and the Eternal Son Before Creation

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth and I am back in the studio today and I am glad to talk about a topic that thrills my soul. Sometimes we have to critique things, and I guess that�s alright.

Sometimes we laugh, that�s certainly alright. Sometimes we cry. I don�t know if I�ve ever cried on the show, maybe that would probably bring ratings in. We could probably hire Arbitron ratings for that day.

I could cry and emote and all that kind of stuff and our ratings would probably go up. By the way, I have nothing wrong with crying, it�s got to be in the appropriate spot. I used to tell my son if he�d fall down and hurt his knee, you know, don�t cry, shake it off.

But when grandma died, you can cry all you want to. Well, today we want to talk about a topic that should blow the proverbial mind of every listener. If you are a Christian, today is going to be a mind-blowing discussion.

Why? Because we�re talking about the Trinity. I�ve got a question for you. What did Jesus say before he was born? What did Jesus say, you�ve heard me right, before he was born? And if you consider that, I think that will blow your mind.

I could ask you the question, what did you say before you were born? Well, I could ask you, what did you say when you were born? And you probably screamed, screeched, cried, yelled, a translation of your scream, it�s cold, let me get back in my mother�s womb.

What did you say when you were born? Well, you didn�t say anything. What did you say before you were born? Well, you didn�t say anything. Why? Because you were not created then. You are a created being and your existence had a starting point.

And with God, he has a different nature. He has the nature of eternity. He is an eternal God and he never started. He has always been. I am who I am. God simply exists. And so, before Jesus was born, that is to say before he cloaked himself with humanity, he was alive.

He existed. The second person of the Trinity, the eternal Son, has always existed. There never was a time he was not. And so, people like philosophers will say everything has a cause and so who caused God?

He was not caused. Everything does not have a cause. God is the creator. We are the creation. And so, God has said things before he cloaked himself, God the Son, before he cloaked himself with humanity.

My question is, do we know what he said? Now, you could say, yes, everything the angel of the Lord said in the Old Testament was the second person of the Trinity speaking. That's good. I like that. But that's not the show today.

And after all, it's my show. So I think you're thinking along the right lines. What did Jesus say before he was born when the angel of the Lord shows up in the Old Testament, a theophany, technically a Christophany, that is the second person of the Trinity?

And you can work through that and find that is actually true. But how about before Genesis 1 -1? What did Jesus say before Genesis 1 -1? Jesus was alive. He again is the eternal Son. And what did he say?

I find it quite fascinating to contemplate God. I find it quite mind-blowing and mind-expanding to contemplate what God said before Genesis 1 -1. Before in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, God the Eternal One never started his existence.

Yes, the Son cloaked himself with humanity and was born of a virgin. That's true. But that's a lot different than Jesus is the created Son. He's not the created Son. He's the eternal Son. And so today I want to talk about the triune pact before the world began.

In other words, there was an agreement before the world began in the Trinity, Father, Son and Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Spirit, one God. And they had an arrangement. They had a covenant. They decided to do something that would affect all eternity.

And I want you today to contemplate this relationship between the Eternal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Eternal Spirit. And I think if you do, you're going to say, wow, I thought it was amazing when my wife said she would marry me before she was my wife.

That was amazing. I thought it was amazing to watch my four children as they were birthed, as they were born. That was amazing. I thought it was amazing when I jumped out of an airplane skydiving. That was amazing.

I thought it was amazing when I walked around the Sea of Galilee and contemplated that Jesus Christ was walking around the same sea, in the same general area. I thought it was amazing that God would save me from my sins.

I think it's amazing that God would use me on the radio. God would use me as a pastor after my unregenerate life. That's amazing. But what's more amazing than all those put together is that the God of the universe, to receive the maximum amount of glory for Himself, after all, He is a jealous God.

Jealous is His name. That God would get the most glory by deciding in eternity past, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, that the Father, Son, and the Spirit would go rescue some people. And here's how He would rescue them.

The Father would choose them. The Son would redeem them. And the Spirit of God would regenerate them. And so they were all one in essence and in nature, purpose, and mind, and decree. Yet they all had what we call the economy of the Trinity.

We had the Father as the originator. We had the Son as the executor. And we had the Spirit as the applier. And the God of the universe decided to save some. Do you know in eternity past, the Father, Son, and the Spirit could have said, let's treat fallen mankind like the angels.

And the fallen angels have no plan of redemption. They have no way of atonement. They have no substitution. There's no way they can have their sins forgiven. They will always be fallen angels, damned angels.

Angels deserve to be punished, create hell for these kind of angels. And that would have been completely righteous, just, legitimate, fair. God also could have said, let's redeem everyone. Everyone who's ever been born from the worst to the best, relatively speaking, judging people on the human scale, on the human bell curve, let's save them all.

Let's universally save people. That would have been right. Jesus' blood certainly was sufficient and adequate and great enough to save an infinite amount of people and all those who would ever be on this planet.

And if there were humans on other planets, which there aren't, it would save all those too. God's Son's death was having so much merit because He was not just human. He was divine. He is divine. He is human, that there's an infinite amount of merit to be applied to people.

So He could have decided to save everyone. But in the counsel of God, what glorified God the most in eternity past, in the covenant of redemption, in this promise, this agreement, we're going to look at some scriptures here just momentarily.

It pleased God the most to just save some, to save some, not all. And so the Father chose the sum, His Son went to die for the sum, and in time the Spirit regenerates those sum. And so we say today with Paul in Romans 11, oh, the depths of the riches, you know, that's a Bible word, OH, oh, an interjection, oh, the depths, the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways.

This topic today, what God said in eternity past within the covenant of redemption, the promise, the arrangement, the pact, will make you stand in awe of God more. It will make you praise Him more. It will give you a greater assurance of your salvation.

It will help you with evangelism. It will help you think more rightly about the atonement, election. It will help you be more orthodox in your theology. It will show you just how great this God is. Listen to Spurgeon, the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead, the highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the intention of a child of God is the name, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God who He calls His Father.

There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the divinity. It is a subject so vast that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity, so deep that our pride is drowned in its infinity.

And so if you're longing for something more today and you need your soul thirst quenched, ever drink Gatorade, just play basketball for hours, and then I'd have a Gatorade and it would just, it had the big mouth to the bottle and you could just drink that thing so fast and some of the green juice would just flow down the side of your mouth or down your arm, dripping off your elbow.

Now that was a good thirst quenching moment. Some of our souls are parched and we need some nest heat plunge into the water of the Godhead. And so this is something that will fulfill your wildest dreams, understanding the Trinity before time began.

And I don't think we study it that much. We want to know how our relationships can be better, how to be financially secure, how to get our wives to like us better. This is where it all starts. But I have to warn you with C .S. Lewis, he wasn't the best theologian, but when he was right, he was really right.

The pantheist God does not demand, the pantheist God does nothing, demands nothing. He is there if you wish for him, like a book on a shelf, but he will not pursue you. On the contrary, this eternal God who within the triune God himself made this covenant is a God who will demand everything, a God who will force you to say, I must give allegiance to this God.

It's all or nothing. And when we study this great God, I'll tell you what a no-compromise radio ministry as we're thinking today about the eternal God and what did he say and do before time began, before Genesis 1 .1.

What happened then? You're going to say, this is humbling. The Puritan John Flavel said, they that know God will be humble, and they that know themselves cannot be proud. We live in a day and age of self-exaltation, self-righteousness, selfishness, and we all, if we think about it, would be prone to be like Charles Haffey, who in 2002 tried to change his name legally to God.

And the judge, interestingly enough, said, no, and it's kind of an interesting judge that they pretty much let everything go now. And so he said, okay, I'll change my name to I am who I am. And the judge said, well, I am who I am.

What part of that would be your first name? Well, I am, of course, that was granted. And sadly, Charles committed suicide a short time after that. But we're arrogant like he is. We're prideful like he is.

And we need to have our eyes on God, 2 Chronicles 20, 12, and we need to have the right view of God. And we need to fix our eyes on Christ Jesus. So we don't think that God is like us. We need to know what the Bible teaches about God.

So we don't think that God is like ourselves, Psalm 50, verse 20, where Erasmus, too human centered in his thinking, was rebuked by Luther, when Luther said to Erasmus, your thoughts of God are too human.

This topic, the eternal pact of God before time, the covenant of redemption will blow your mind. It will motivate you. It will help you. And so today, let's look at Hebrews chapter 10. What did God say before time began?

Hebrews? Did I say Hebrews chapter 12? I was just getting a phone call and I had to turn my phone off. So Hebrews chapter 10, what God says before time began. And so there's something here that it talks about that very thing.

Let's take a look at it. Hebrews chapter 10, verse one, for since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

So far, what we're seeing here in Hebrews 10 is something that is repeated on a regular basis is not adequate. If it was adequate, you'd have to do one sacrifice and then it'd be it. So by repetition, there shows a deficiency or an inadequacy.

Verse two of Hebrews 10, otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers having once been cleansed would no longer have any consciousness of sins. But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins each year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

So this ongoing repetitious sacrifice here, contextually, looking at the day of atonement Yom Kippur, it does show us that the wages of sin is death. We're reminded of sins every year, but these sins cannot be taken away.

And so, day in, day out, year in, year out, there's some deficiency. And we see this turn right here with the author in Hebrews chapter 10. What did Jesus say before he was born? Let's take a peek into the triune discussion right here, Hebrews 10 .5.

Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, here's what he said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. Listen to the Son talk to the Father. By the way, if you don't believe in the Trinity, I don't know what you do with this verse.

You say, well, he said to the angels, well, he said to the Thetans, L. Ron Hubbard, well, he said to himself, he was talking to himself, he's throwing his voice. No, this is the Son talking to the Father.

Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. The Father has fashioned a body for Christ. In burn offerings, in sin offerings, you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, the Son said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.

So here, right from Psalm chapter 40, the author of Hebrews is going to clinch his argument by quoting the Old Testament. And he says, you know, there was one sacrifice after another, after another, year after year, after year, it didn't work.

So God in his great wisdom had a plan and there was going to be a body that was going to be sacrificed, but it wasn't going to be the body of an unwilling animal. It was going to be the body of a willing human being, the divine human being, Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, who will come to do the will of God as it is written in the book.

And so here we have great insight into the triune decision to agree within the Godhead that they were going to save some sinners. And so the Father says to the Son, by appointment, through the power of the Spirit of God, go redeem the elect, go die for the elect, go die on a death that will satisfy my justice and my wrath and my righteousness, to show my love towards sinners, be raised from the dead, and you are going to be the great Savior of those people.

That is pretty amazing to think of this. That is amazing thought that Jesus's body is the gracious sacrifice that was planned in eternity past. It was not an animal. It was Christ's body that God had fashioned.

That is the living sacrifice, Jesus Christ Himself. Why is a body needed? Because someone had to fulfill all the laws as an obedient man. Adam, the first man, fell. So we needed another Adam. There are no other Adams after Jesus, so he's called the last Adam in 1 Corinthians 15.

So the last Adam, Jesus Christ, fully obeyed, as Adam should have. Jesus now does. And Jesus comes specifically to die for the sins of His people. And He needed to die for the sins of His people as a human, as a person, as a homo sapien.

And He was God, so He had enough righteousness to apply that to all those who would ever believe. Jesus could atone for the sins of His people. And this was planned when? Jesus kind of got caught up in this whole thing, and He had a Messiah complex, and the Romans were going to kill Him, and He had to just quick decide to die on the cross for sinners.

No, in eternity past, in this eternal covenant. Now, I'm not fully on board with all covenant theology, and I'm certainly not on board with dispensational theology in all respects. I do believe there's a future for literal Israel.

That's how I interpret the Old Testament. But I'm not afraid of the word covenant, because a covenant is simply, as Robertson says, a bond in blood, sovereignly administered. In other words, did Jesus Himself ever talk about salvation and redemption in a covenantal way?

Well, I think He did. Luke 22, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. And so, to some degree, you can think about salvation and redemption as covenantally conceived, federally conceived, representatively perceived.

Paul quoted Jesus in 1 Corinthians 11. This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Hebrews 13, verse 20, by the blood of the eternal covenant. It is certainly okay to think about this in covenantal terms.

For those of you that like to study more, and maybe you're a full dispensationalist, even John MacArthur, in his sermon on Titus 1, verses 1, 2, and 3, says covenant of redemption. And so, call it a promise, call it a pact, call it an arrangement.

You can call it whatever you'd like. But we have the Father, Son, and the Spirit designing this great, wonderful salvation, where the Father wants a perfect sacrifice. And the only perfect sacrifice is going to be the perfect Son.

And to make it sacrificial, He had to have a body. And so, we have great forgiveness because Jesus Christ has earned that. But it all started before Jesus was even born. No Compromise Radio today, we're talking about the eternal covenant of redemption.

Think about it this way. Now, when the Old Testament people sacrificed, what if they gave a sacrifice, a bloody sacrifice, but their heart attitude was disobedient? In other words, you say, well, you know what?

I'm not really going to be godly and righteous, but I am going to give this sacrifice. Would God be pleased with that? No. Yet, Jesus says, I've come to do your will. He's preoccupied with always doing the Father's will.

And when the Father says to Jesus, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well-pleased, Son says to the Father, I always do what's pleasing to the Father. We see, even in 1 Samuel 15, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

And so you have Jesus fully obedient, fully serving, fully in submission to God and His will. Sacrifice was important, but obedient sacrifice was mandatory. That's why there's the incarnation. Why was the incarnation?

Why did Jesus have to be born into the world? Because he needed a body as Jesus would fully live in that body obediently, and he would earn and merit perfect righteousness to apply to all those who would ever believe.

So, we have what theologians call the active obedience of Christ. He lived a perfect life. He obeyed the Father. And we have the passive obedience, that is to say, the death of Jesus on behalf of sinners, penal substitutionary atonement.

And so we have the words of the covenant, some of the words of the covenant. Here we have the incarnation of Christ, because God the Father has prepared a body, and he has thought of this in eternity past with the Son and the Eternal Spirit, to decide to save sinners.

And this is how you save sinners. You cloak yourself with humanity, and certainly not any tendency to sin, but just with frail, weak humanity, so he could be tempted as we are yet without sin. And then he's going to live a perfect life where Adam did not, Israel did not, we did not, Adam could not, because of the plan of God, Israel could not because of their sin, and Jesus could not do anything but obey.

He had to. And so we have what we call a great covenant of redemption, where we are the recipients of this great prime mover, the initiator, the author of our salvation. When was our salvation authored?

In eternity past by the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. So today on No Compromise Radio, I try to get you to think of something that has nothing to do with your life. I want you to apply these things to your life, of course, by praise, awe, adoration, everything else.

But we're talking about the Eternal Trinity. Wasn't that fun? That was so much fun. I think we're going to have to do part two on the show to continue to talk about what God, the Father, Son, and the Spirit said before time began.

That is fascinating. That is awesome. By the way, if they are going to secure salvation for the elect, every elect person has to believe. Every elect person will believe all the way to the end. This is going to affect our assurance.

It's going to affect our eternal security. This is going to affect perseverance of the saints, preservation of the saints. This is awesome. The eternal covenant pact promise of God in eternity past. Salvation conceived in a covenantal, our federal form.

This is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. God bless you.