When we think about God or about salvation, we usually think in terms of the present time.  Christians often don’t think about what is to come.  But neither do we consider what happened before the creation of the world.  In some ways, the latter is understandable because the Bible does not tell us a great deal about God’s eternity before creation.  However, there are some significant statements.  Here I have thought about what happened before creation.  It is obvious that the discussion cannot be complete, given the hiddenness of God’s being, but it is not insignificant or unimportant.

Both the first words of the Bible and those in the closing book testify that God alone preceded the creation.  “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1).  The Holy Spirit was present (Gen 1:2) and so was the Son (John 1:3).  The final book of the Bible, Revelation, again testifies that God existed before the world.  He is the one “who is, and who was, and who is to come” (Rev 1:4).  The one who sits on the throne says, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End” (Rev 21:6a; see also 1:8).  The same designation is given to Jesus in Rev 22:13.  There was nothing in existence before the creation of the world except the everlasting God who is called the creator (Isa 40:28).  Therefore, when I ask what happened before creation, this can only refer to what God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit was doing.

It is possible to consider this question only because Jesus has revealed to us something of his relationship with the Father in eternity.  Jesus is the man who came down from heaven (John 6:38, 51, 58).  He alone has been in heaven (John 3:13), or at least this was true prior to his incarnation.  Because of this, Jesus has a unique relationship with the Father.  “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son” (Matt 11:27).  He alone has seen God and is at the side of the Father (John 1:18).  Jesus is the eternal “I am” (John 8:58; compare Exod 3:14).  The relationship between the Son of God, who became incarnate as our Lord Jesus Christ, and God the Father has existed for all eternity.  The Bible is less explicit about the Holy Spirit, but we can say that the Holy Spirit was and is eternally part of the Godhead.

So what did Father, Son and Holy Spirit do before the creation of the world?  I will refrain from speculating and confine my discussion to what is stated in the biblical revelation.

In heaven before the world was created Jesus shared in the Father’s glory (John 17:5).  This glory was given by the Father because of his eternal love for his Son (17:24).  The glory of God belongs to him “before all ages, now and forevermore”.  Yet the glory of the Father exists “through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Jude 1:25).  There is, therefore, a mutuality in the Godhead.  The Father loves the Son and gives him glory and the Son reflects that glory back to the Father.  So when we look at Jesus we see the glory of God (John 1:14).  This mutual giving and reflecting of glory is eternal; it was true before the creation of the world.  But there is more.  Before the ages, before time began, before anything was ever created, God predestined or predetermined that we would also share in his glory (1 Cor 2:7).  This is a hidden mystery that has only been revealed in the gospel and made known to believers by the Holy Spirit (2:7-10).  This is a profound mystery since God has said, “I am the LORD; that is my name!  I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols” (Isa 42:8).  It is part of his overwhelming grace to share what is his alone with the creatures he has made.  No one can take that glory from God, but he is able to share it and the decision to do so was made before any human being ever existed.

Before the foundation of the world, Jesus Christ the Son was foreknown or foreordained by the Father to be the Saviour who redeemed people as the lamb without blemish (1 Pet 1:19-20).  The animal sacrifices of the Old Testament were required to be without blemish: the Passover lamb (Exod 12:5); the burnt offering (Lev 1:3, 10); the peace offering (Lev 3:1) etc.  Because Jesus was the true lamb without blemish, chosen before creation, these offerings did not precede his existence as Son of God but did point towards the time when he would be revealed for our sake.  And Jesus was revealed for the sake of God’s elect, chosen according to the foreknowledge of God (1 Pet 1:1-2).  The theme of God’s choice and foreknowledge pervades the first epistle of Peter.  Jesus was chosen by God as the living stone that would be the foundation of the church (1 Pet 2:4-5).  So tied up within God’s election and knowledge of Christ is the election and knowledge of the people of God.  This idea is similarly proclaimed in Eph 1:4, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”  The elect of God were chosen in Christ before creation.  They were chosen in the very choosing of the Son of God to be our Saviour.

God’s foreknowledge and choice had a purpose.  “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters” (Rom 8:29).  That God’s foreknowledge and predestination took place before creation is implied by Eph 1:4-5.  “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” (Eph 1:4-5).  Most likely God’s choice and predestination to adoption occurred at the same time (grammatically speaking, although the use of “time” here does not mean that these took place in time, for in fact this happened before time was created).  Indeed there is a purpose for God’s choice stated in Eph 1:4-5—those whom God chose were always destined to be holy and blameless and to be sons of God.  This passage, therefore, is in accord to Rom 8:29.  The eternal Son, Jesus Christ is holy and blameless, both as the eternal Son and in his incarnation as Jesus Christ.  The people who God foreknew and chose have been eternally chosen to be just like the Son.  But this means more than just character; it also includes the privilege of sonship, something which implies a relationship of intimacy as well as the responsibility of obedience and holiness.

“He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.  This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim 1:9-10).  God’s grace was not so much a response to our sin as something inherent in his own nature.  Before any human beings ever existed, the grace of God was given to God’s people in Christ.  Grace is not a free-floating property as such but contained in Christ.  The purpose of God was eternally to see his creation through Christ and thus to be gracious to his creatures.  God cannot see Christ in any way other than with his eternal favour (grace).  God foreknew his people and chose them by grace (Rom 11:2-6).  This foreknowledge and choice was not based on anything that human beings have done or will do, but only on the grace of God that eternally existed in God’s being.  All this was intended to manifest in the present age in the salvation of the church but also in eternity future.  He will “show the incomparable riches of his grace” in the coming ages (Eph 2:7).  What happened before time has consequences forever.

“Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness—in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, and which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Saviour,” (Titus 1:1-3).  God promised eternal life for his elect before the beginning of time or before the ages began (1:2).  This promise has been made known in the gospel (1:3).  In eternity, before anything was made, God made a promise because he intended to give eternal life to creatures.  God cannot lie and so that promise is sure and reliable and will be fulfilled.  Who did God make this promise to in eternity?  It was not made to human beings, not even the apostle who wrote this letter.  Since the only ones who existed in eternity were Father, Son and Holy Spirit in their mutual love and glory, it must be that God the Father made this promise to the Son and the Spirit.[1]

Revelation contains an interesting verse that has been translated in two rather different ways.  “All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world” (Rev 13:8 NIV).  The translation in the NIV and the KJV say that it was the lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world.  On the other hand, the NRSV, ESV and NAS say that the names in the book of the lamb were written there from the creation of the world.  The latter translations of the verse harmonise with Rev 17:8, which also mentions the book of life and those whose names have been in it since the creation of the world.  It does not make literal sense to say that Jesus Christ was slain from the creation of the world.  The NIV and KJV translation can only be understood in the sense of the Son of God having made the decision to die before humans even sinned.  It has always been the heart of God to redeem humanity by the sacrifice of his Son.  On the other hand, if we take it as names written in the book from the foundation of the world, then we can understand that God chose people to belong to the slain lamb and they were chosen from the foundation of the world.  Either way, the decision to redeem people from sin by the death of Christ upon a cross was made from the creation of the world.  It was not a late response to sin but a choice made by God before sin entered the world.

The gospel is the declaration of a mystery that has been kept hidden since the creation of the world.  Matthew commented on the parables of Jesus in this way: “So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: ‘I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world’” (Matt 13:35).  It is unclear whether Adam and Eve understood these hidden things before they sinned.  The quotation is taken by Matthew from Ps 78:2, which is not so clear about how long these things have been hidden.  However, both Ephesians and Colossians speak of the mystery that has been hidden in God for ages past, but which is now disclosed in the gospel (Eph 3:9; Col 1:26).This mystery was hidden in God; only Father, Son and Holy Spirit knew and understood the “unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph 3:8).  But God’s eternal purpose was to make this known in the church (3:10-11).  God’s decision to reveal his Son to and through the church was eternal.  It did not happen because of our sin but the revealing of this mystery overcomes our sin.

And finally, the inheritance of the saints, that is, the kingdom of God was prepared from the foundation of the world (Matt 25:34).  Although this verse states that this happened from the foundation of the world and not before creation, this is not to say that it was not eternally part of God’s plan for humanity.  It only tells us that the kingdom of God requires the physical creation because it is populated by human beings.  The fact that the kingdom of God has been prepared from the foundation of the world implies that it began before humans existed and was part of God’s intention for us before humanity sinned.  Human beings were created with the kingdom of God in mind.  God’s desire to have a people for himself began in eternity, before he made anything.  His kingdom was intended for human beings because humans were created for God.

Having surveyed these passages, I can conclude that although there is much that we cannot know about what happened before creation there is much that has been revealed to us.  The love and grace of God toward human beings existed before there were any humans and before there was any sin.  Jesus was elected as the Saviour of the world, the one who would become the lamb of God without blemish for our sake.  God’s goal of having humans in the image of his Son was decided.  He determined to share his eternal glory with creatures and to make them sons like his eternal Son.  Consequently, God promised to the Son and the Spirit that the creatures he would make could live eternally with him.  And he prepared the inheritance of his human sons before he made humanity.  All this, the mystery of the gospel, was hidden in God until it was revealed in the incarnation.  Is it any wonder the writers of the New Testament continually burst into praise as they wrote.  The sheer wonder of God’s grace towards us is overwhelmingly wonderful.