How Did Jesus Come Down From Heaven If He Was Not Already in Heaven?
John 6:38
By Simon Brown
Quick Facts
Many Christians believe that when Jesus said,
"For I have come down from heaven..." (John 6:38)
He was teaching that He personally existed in heaven before His birth.
But is that really what Jesus meant?
Before reaching that conclusion, let us first consider several important biblical facts.
Quick Facts
Jesus is called the Last Adam, the Second Adam, and the final Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45–49; Romans 5:12–19).
The first Adam did not exist before he became a man.
To truly be the Second Adam, Jesus also had to be a genuine human being, sharing our nature and our temptations (Hebrews 2:14–17; Hebrews 4:15).
Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, the promised Messiah, and the Christ—not God Himself, not Michael the Archangel, and not a pre-existent angelic being.
Scripture repeatedly teaches that God gave His Son (John 3:16). It never says that God gave Himself.
Jesus continually referred to the Father as His God and acknowledged that the Father is greater than He is.
The Father alone is described by Jesus as "the only true God" (John 17:3).
The New Testament repeatedly distinguishes one God, the Father, from one Lord, Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 8:6).
Jesus perfectly fulfilled the role of the Second Adam because He remained faithful where the first Adam failed.
If Jesus had literally lived as another being before becoming human, many important comparisons between Adam and Christ would require careful re-examination.
So how should we understand Jesus' words:
"I have come down from heaven"?
Did Jesus mean He was literally alive in heaven before His birth?
Or was He speaking in the figurative language that He so often used throughout His ministry?
Let us examine the Scriptures.
Part 1 – Did Jesus Often Speak Figuratively?
One of the most important principles for understanding the words of Jesus is remembering how He taught.
Matthew tells us:
"Jesus spoke all these things to the crowds in parables."(Matthew 13:34–35)
Later Jesus told His disciples:
"I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech..."(John 16:25)
Throughout His ministry Jesus frequently used metaphors, illustrations, idioms, and symbolic language.
For example:
"I am the door."
"I am the vine."
"Eat My flesh."
"Drink My blood."
"Destroy this temple."
"Move this mountain."
No one believes these expressions were always intended to be understood literally.
Therefore, before concluding that "came down from heaven" describes Jesus' personal existence in heaven before His birth, we should first ask whether Jesus could also have been speaking figuratively while expressing a literal truth about His divine origin.
That is exactly what we will now examine.
