The Pre-Existence of Christ and the Anointing of Jesus: The Logos, Divine Manifestation, and the Withdrawal of the Spirit I

The Pre-Existence of Christ and the Anointing of Jesus: The Logos, Divine Manifestation, and the Withdrawal of the Spirit

Introduction: Christ Before Jesus

The relationship between the pre-existent Christ, the Logos, and the historical person Jesus presents an important distinction in understanding divine manifestation. The central argument developed here is that Christ pre-existed as the Logos, the divine Word and outflowing power of God, whereas Jesus, as a human being, came into existence through birth and became the full manifestation of the Logos at his baptism in the Jordan. The distinction between the pre-existent divine power and the human body through which it was manifested provides a framework for understanding the anointing, miracles, crucifixion, and glorification of Jesus.

This interpretation does not require the conclusion that Jesus personally existed before his birth. Rather, it distinguishes between the pre-existent Logos and the human being in whom the Logos was subsequently manifested. The Logos was with God in the beginning, expressing the divine purpose, wisdom, and power. Jesus became the living embodiment of that Word when the Spirit descended upon him and remained with him during his ministry.

Second Clement provides a particularly significant statement:

2 Clement 9:5: “If Christ the Lord who saved us, being first spirit, then became flesh, and so called us, in like manner also shall we in this flesh receive our reward.”

This passage presents a movement from spirit to flesh. Christ is described as existing first in spirit and subsequently becoming flesh. The same movement provides the pattern for those who follow him: their present existence in flesh is not the final condition of their lives, but the stage in which they develop the character appropriate to their ultimate transformation.

The question, therefore, is not simply whether Christ existed before Jesus' birth. It is how the pre-existent Logos became manifest in a human being, why the anointing occurred at the Jordan, and what the withdrawal of the Spirit at the crucifixion reveals about the relationship between divine power and mortal human nature.

1. The Logos Was in the Beginning

The opening of John's Gospel establishes the foundation for distinguishing the Logos from the human existence of Jesus.

“In the beginning was the LOGOS - (the outward manifestation of the inward thought)

the LOGOS WAS with God. (Yahweh and His Divine Plan could not be separated)

the LOGOS was God - (God and the Logos are one).”

The Logos can be understood as the outward expression of God's inward thought: divine intention becoming intelligible and active. It is not necessary to imagine the Logos as a second, independently existing God. The Word belongs to the divine identity because it expresses God's own mind, purpose, and power.

The statement that the Logos was with God identifies a distinction without requiring separation. God's purpose and its expression can be distinguished conceptually while remaining inseparable in operation. The Word is God's self-expression, not an independent source of divine authority.

John 1:14 then declares:

“The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.”

This is the decisive transition. The Word that existed in the beginning became manifest in flesh. The statement does not, by itself, require the conclusion that the human person Jesus personally existed before his birth. It establishes the pre-existence of the Word and its subsequent manifestation in human life.

The distinction is comparable to the difference between a divine purpose and the historical person through whom that purpose is realised. The purpose precedes its embodiment, but the human embodiment need not have existed alongside that purpose from eternity.

Accordingly, Jesus can be called the Word because God's Word was expressed completely through his teaching, actions, character, and mission. He was not merely a messenger repeating written information. He embodied the divine message in a living human existence.

This understanding also illuminates Colossians 2:9:

“For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”

The fullness of Deity dwelling bodily in Christ describes the completeness of divine manifestation. It does not necessarily establish that Jesus possessed an independent, co-equal existence before his birth. Rather, it identifies him as the one in whom the divine presence was fully expressed.

2. The Body Prepared Before the Anointing

The distinction between the pre-existent Logos and the human body of Jesus becomes especially important when considering the expression the body prepared.

Hebrews 10:5 states:

“A body hast thou prepared me.”

The body prepared for the divine mission belonged to the human history of Jesus. Its preparation began through the divine action associated with Mary's conception and continued throughout his development.

An interpretation of this passage explains the distinction in the following terms:

“Christ, the Word, who ‘in the beginning laid the foundations of the earth,’ therefore pre-existed before the birth of ‘the body prepared’ of the substance of Mary, and which lay dead in the tomb. That body named Jesus, had no existence until developed by the Christ-Power. Federally, indeed, it pre-existed in the loins of Abraham and in Adam, as Levi was in Abraham, and we in Adam, before birth; but not otherwise.” — On the Nature of Christ, February 22, 1867, by Eusebia J. Lasius

The essential distinction is between pre-existence in divine purpose and personal existence as a human being. The Logos existed before the body of Jesus, whereas Jesus belonged to the historical development of humanity.

The language of being present in Abraham or Adam illustrates a different kind of pre-existence: ancestral or representative existence. A descendant can be spoken of as existing in an ancestor's line without having personally lived before birth. In the same way, the pre-existent divine purpose can be realised in a future human being without requiring that the individual already existed as a conscious person.

This interpretation places the beginning of Jesus' human life in his birth, while reserving pre-existence for the Logos and the divine purpose embodied in him.

It also makes the baptism significant. If the Logos already existed, and the human body had been prepared for its manifestation, the baptism marks the decisive transition into the public mission of Christ.

3. The Jordan: The Descent of the Anointing Spirit

The baptism of Jesus is central to the argument that the title Christ refers to the anointed one and that the anointing constituted the decisive beginning of his ministry.

Matthew records:

Matthew 3:16: “Having been baptized, Jesus immediately rose up from the water and look! The heavens were opened up and he saw the spirit of God descending as if a dove coming upon him.”

The dove represents the visible sign of the divine Spirit descending upon Jesus. In this interpretation, the event is more than a symbolic approval of a mission that was already fully operative. It marks the arrival of the anointing power through which Jesus would carry out his work.

Acts 10:38 supplies an explicit explanation:

“How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”

The wording is important. God anointed Jesus; Jesus received the Spirit and power. His ministry was the consequence of divine empowerment.

John 3:34 adds:

“God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him.”

The statement describes the extraordinary fullness of the Spirit given to Jesus. His authority and miraculous works were not independent achievements of unaided human power. They were the result of the divine presence operating through him.

One interpretation of Christ's manifestation expresses the point as follows:

“The spirit descended upon him in bodily shape at his baptism in the Jordan, and took possession of him. This was the anointing which constituted him Christ (or the anointed), and which gave him the superhuman powers of which he showed himself possessed.”

Under this reading, Jesus did not become the Christ merely by being born. The designation Christ identifies the anointed manifestation of the Logos through the human being Jesus.

This distinction is associated with Valentinian interpretations preserved by ancient heresiologists. Irenaeus, in Against Heresies 1.7.2, 1.15.3, 3.16.1, and 3.10.3, describes views that distinguished the heavenly Christ from Jesus and associated their union with the baptism. Related material appears in the Excerpts of Theodotus and Hippolytus' Refutation of All Heresies 6.35.3.

The Excerpts of Theodotus 22.6 expresses the idea in particularly direct language:

“The Name which came down upon Jesus in the dove and redeemed him.”

The descending Name represents the divine power and identity manifested in Jesus. The baptism is consequently understood as the moment at which the heavenly reality became operative in the prepared human being.

It is important, however, to distinguish this particular theological interpretation from a universally accepted account of Valentinian belief. Ancient sources describe several related but differing ways of understanding the relationship between Jesus and the heavenly Christ.

4. Christ as the Full Manifestation of God

The distinction between Jesus' human existence and the divine manifestation through him also explains why the Logos can be called Deity without requiring the claim that the human being Jesus personally existed before birth.

One theological formulation states:

“The pre-existent Christ, or Deity, was not the less Deity because he veiled himself in flesh, in our ‘sinful flesh,’ or ‘sin's flesh,’ and styled himself JESUS, or he who shall be Saviour.”

The point is that divine identity is not necessarily lost when divine power is manifested through human nature. The Logos remains the expression of God even when operating through a mortal body.

The same principle appears in the following statement:

“Jesus Christ in the day of his weakness, had two sides—the one, DEITY; the other, MAN—the Eternal Christ-Power or the anointing spirit veiled in, and manifested through the flesh created from the ground; which flesh had Willfully transgressed the Divine Law, the penalty of which sent it back into the dust from whence it came. This is Jesus Christ the true Deity, whom to know is life eternal.”

Here, the two aspects are the divine power and the mortal human condition. They are distinguishable, but their relationship is essential to the manifestation of Christ.

This framework is not the same as simply identifying two independent persons occupying one body. Its emphasis is on divine power expressed through a human life. The Logos supplies the divine revelation and authority, while the prepared body provides the human means through which that revelation becomes visible in history.

John 7:16 supports the dependence of Jesus' teaching upon the Father:

“My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.”

John 14:10 similarly records:

“The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”

These statements direct attention away from autonomous human power and towards the divine source of Jesus' teaching and works.

The Logos was manifested in Jesus because God's own Word and power operated through him. His words expressed the Father's purpose, and his actions demonstrated that purpose in practice.

5. Mortal Flesh and the Purpose of Condemnation

The nature of the flesh is another important element of this interpretation. The argument is that Jesus shared the mortal human condition rather than appearing in a body fundamentally unrelated to the humanity he came to save.

One formulation states:

“This flesh which inhabited Paradise, like all the beasts. Was ‘very good’ of its sort, is described as ‘sin’ and ‘sin's flesh,’ because it sinned or transgressed the Eden law. Our flesh is the same as Adam's before he sinned, only the worse for wear: for Paul says that we sinned in him, and he was sinless before he sinned; and we were as much in his loins when he was sinless, as in the act of sinning. His flesh undefiled by sin is constitutionally the same as the flesh of his posterity defiled legally thereby. The Christ-Deity veiled himself in the Adamic nature defiled by sin, in order that he might condemn sin in the flesh and to condemn sin to death in the nature which, although created ‘very good,’ had legally defiled itself by transgression of the Eden law. This purpose would have been defeated if he had veiled himself in a clean nature.”

This passage distinguishes the original goodness of human nature from the consequences of transgression. Flesh is not necessarily evil by its original constitution; rather, it is mortal and subject to the consequences associated with humanity's condition.

The expression sin's flesh is used to describe human nature under the conditions of sin and mortality. The central claim is that the Logos was manifested in the very kind of human existence in which sin and death operate.

This gives significance to Romans 8:3, which speaks of God sending his Son “in the likeness of sinful flesh” and condemning sin in the flesh.

The purpose is not merely to demonstrate divine power from a distance. It is to confront the human condition from within it. The mortal nature that experiences weakness, suffering, and death becomes the place in which the divine purpose is carried out.

The same interpretation is expressed in another passage:

“To say that the Man, Jesus, was corporeally clean, or pure, holy, spotless, and undefiled, is in effect to say that he was not ‘made of a woman;’ for Scripture teaches, that nothing born of woman can possibly be clean: but it is testified that he was ‘born of a woman;’ he must therefore necessarily have been born corporeally unclean. Hence, it is written of him in Psalm 51:5, ‘I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.’ He therefore prays, ‘Purge me with sop and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.’ This prayer has been answered, and he has been ‘Washed thoroughly from his (corporeal) iniquity, and cleansed from his sin;’ so that now he has a clean nature, which is spirit and divine—‘the Lord the Spirit’—once dead as to flesh, but now alive as Spirit for evermore.—(Rev. 1:18.)”

This is a particular theological reading of human nature, Psalm 51, and the glorification of Christ; it should not be confused with the only possible interpretation of those passages. Its purpose within the present argument is to connect mortality, the cleansing or transformation of human nature, and the final victory over death.

The emphasis falls upon the transformation of the mortal condition rather than the assumption that the human body of Jesus was merely an appearance.

6. The Bread of Life and the Logos

The relationship between the Logos and the human body is also illuminated by the language of bread in John 6.

“The bread I give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6).

An exposition of this passage explains:

“For the bread of the Deity is He, who descending out of the heaven, and giveth life to the world.”

It continues:

“In him”—the Logos, “was Life,” says John “and the Life, was the light of men.”

And it connects this language with the words of Jesus:

“I am the Way and the Truth; the Resurrection and the Life”: “I am the Bread of Life,” or the manna: “I came down from heaven”: this is the bread which descendeth from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die”.

The exposition concludes:

“If any man eat of this bread he shall live in the age: and the bread that I (the Logos) will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

— Eureka, Volume 1, Chapter 2, Section 3, “The Hidden Manna.”

The interpretation identifies the life-giving bread with the divine Word operating through Jesus. The manna becomes a figure of the heavenly provision through which life is communicated to humanity.

The Logos is the source of the life-giving message, while the flesh of Jesus becomes the historical means through which that message is given. His death is not incidental to his mission: the body through which the Logos was manifested is surrendered for the life of the world.

This connection reinforces the distinction between the Word that pre-exists and the flesh through which the Word becomes effective in human history.

7. The Withdrawal of the Spirit at the Crucifixion

If the anointing Spirit descended upon Jesus at the Jordan, an important question follows: what happened to that divine power at his death?

The Excerpts of Theodotus 61.6 states:

“And he died at the departure of the Spirit which had descended upon him in the Jordan, not that it became separate but was withdrawn in order that death might also operate on him, since how did the body die when life was present in him?”

This passage directly connects the baptism and the crucifixion. The Spirit descends upon Jesus at the Jordan, but its withdrawal permits death to operate upon his mortal body.

The wording is significant because it does not necessarily describe the Spirit as an independently existing person who departs to another location. Instead, it describes the withdrawal of the divine presence or power that had sustained Jesus' ministry.

A related interpretation states:

“The effluent spirit (out-flowing spirit) forsook Jesus when he exclaimed upon the cross, ‘My AIL (EL), my AIL (EL), why hast Thou forsaken me?’ The effluent power by which he had taught and worked was withdrawn from him for some time before he died. The Spirit no longer rested upon the Cherub, yet that Cherub continued to live as other men. In process of time he expired.”

— Phanerosis.

The word effluent means flowing outward. The effluent Spirit is therefore understood as the outflowing divine power through which the Logos was manifested in Jesus.

The reference to the Cherub describes Jesus as the vehicle or bearer through whom that power operated. The withdrawal of the Spirit did not immediately destroy his bodily life. Rather, Jesus continued to live as a mortal human being and subsequently died.

The same argument can be expressed without the metaphor:

“The out-flowing power by which he had taught and worked was withdrawn from him for some time before he died. The Spirit no longer rested upon Jesus, yet Jesus continued to live as other men. In process of time he expired.”

The crucifixion thus demonstrates the distinction between the divine power that operated through Jesus and the mortal body that experienced suffering and death.

Matthew 27:46 records his cry:

“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Within this interpretation, the cry expresses the experience of abandonment associated with the withdrawal of the Spirit. The human being Jesus undergoes the full reality of mortal suffering rather than being insulated from it by an uninterrupted operation of divine power.

The argument is that death had to operate upon the mortal body. If the life-giving power remained operative in precisely the same manner as during the ministry, the question raised by Theodotus would remain: how could the body die while life was present in it?

The withdrawal therefore belongs to the logic of the crucifixion. The Logos had been manifested through Jesus, but the mortal body still had to undergo death.

8. The Anointing, Miracles, and the Father's Power

The Gospel accounts repeatedly attribute Jesus' works to the Father. This reinforces the interpretation that his miraculous powers were derived from the divine presence rather than exercised as independent human abilities.

One exposition states:

“This statement alone is sufficient to disprove the popular view of Jesus been co-equal and co-eternal. If he were ‘very God’ in his character and nature as Son, why was it necessary he should be ‘anointed’ with spirit and power?”

It continues:

“Jesus did no miracles before his anointing. He had no power of himself. This is his own declaration: ‘I can of mine own self do nothing’ (John 5:30). ‘The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works’ (John 14:10). At his death Jesus was left to the utter helplessness of his own humanity, he felt the severe mental and physical pain of his suffering that hour and cried out, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ (Matt. 27:46).”

— Christendom Astray, Chapter 6.

The argument rests upon the relationship between anointing and ability. Jesus' ministry followed the descent of the Spirit, and his works were attributed to the Father who dwelt in him.

The conclusion drawn here is that divine manifestation must be distinguished from independent divine self-sufficiency. Jesus could manifest the fullness of God's power without the human being having possessed that power autonomously from birth.

The same exposition describes the period before the baptism in these terms:

“Before his anointing, he was simply the ‘body prepared’ for the divine manifestation that was to take place through him. The preparation of this body commenced with the Spirit's action on Mary, and concluded when Jesus, being thirty years of age, stood approved in the perfection of a sinless and mature character.”

After the descent of the Spirit, the relationship changes:

“After the Spirit's descent upon him, he was the full manifestation of God in the flesh. The Father, by the Spirit, tabernacled in Christ among men. ‘God was in Christ,’ says Paul, ‘Reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.’”

The anointing is consequently the turning point between preparation and public manifestation. The human being had been prepared for the mission; the divine power then operated through him in its fullness.

9. Glorification: From Mortal Flesh to Spirit

The movement from spirit to flesh in Second Clement also points towards the final transformation of Christ.

The same exposition describes his glorification as follows:

“When raised from the dead and glorified, he was exalted to ‘all power in heaven and earth’; his human nature was swallowed up in the divine; the flesh changed to spirit. Hence, as he now exists, ‘In him dwelleth all the fullness of the God-head bodily’ (Col. 2:9). He is now the corporealisation of life-spirit as it exists in the Deity.”

The language of corporealisation is significant. Divine manifestation is not treated as necessarily opposed to bodily existence. Instead, the body itself is transformed into a condition in which divine life is fully expressed.

The resurrection is therefore more than the restoration of Jesus to his former mortal condition. It represents the overcoming of the condition that made suffering and death possible.

The sequence is coherent within this framework: the Logos pre-exists; Jesus is born as a human being; the Spirit descends upon him at baptism; divine power operates through him during his ministry; the Spirit is withdrawn so that death can occur; and, through resurrection and glorification, Christ enters a transformed mode of existence.

This interpretation also gives meaning to the promise that those who follow Christ may receive a similar transformation. Second Clement 9:5 declares that, just as Christ moved from spirit to flesh and accomplished his saving work, those who are called through him will receive their reward in the flesh.

The exhortation is therefore practical as well as theological. Human beings must develop the character appropriate to divine life while they remain mortal. Their present conduct is the arena in which that transformation begins.

10. Divine Manifestation and the Future of Humanity

The broader principle is that divine power can be manifested through created beings without making those beings identical in every respect to the ultimate source of that power.

Angels, Christ, and the saints can be understood within a framework of divine manifestation: the Spirit becomes active through particular forms, each according to its role and capacity.

Jesus' unique position lies in the completeness of the divine manifestation through him. The Logos was not merely spoken by Jesus; it was embodied in his life and mission.

This also provides a way of understanding the biblical language in John 10:34:

“Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?”

The statement invites reflection upon the relationship between divine authority and those who receive or express it. It need not mean that every recipient becomes the ultimate source of divinity. Rather, it indicates that the language of divinity can be applied within a framework of participation, representation, or manifestation.

The final exhortation is that the character appropriate to the future must be developed now. The removal of mortal flesh cannot, by itself, create a character that has never been formed. The present human life is therefore the period in which understanding, conduct, and disposition must be cultivated.

The manifestation of God in Christ provides the pattern: the divine purpose is expressed through a life devoted to the Father's will. Those who seek to follow that pattern must likewise allow their lives to be shaped by the divine Word rather than by destructive impulses.

Conclusion

The distinction between the pre-existent Logos and the human existence of Jesus provides a framework for understanding the baptism, ministry, crucifixion, and glorification of Christ.

The Logos existed in the beginning as the divine expression of God's purpose and power. Jesus, however, came into existence as a human being through birth. The body prepared for the divine mission did not need to have existed personally before its birth merely because the Logos that would be manifested through it pre-existed.

At the Jordan, the Spirit descended upon Jesus, marking the decisive beginning of his public ministry as the anointed Christ. Acts 10:38 identifies God as the one who anointed him with the Holy Spirit and power. His teaching and miracles were manifestations of the Father operating through him.

The withdrawal of the Spirit at the crucifixion explains, within this interpretation, how the mortal body could undergo death. The Excerpts of Theodotus 61.6 explicitly connects the departure of the Spirit with the necessity that death operate upon Jesus. Phanerosis similarly describes the withdrawal of the outflowing power while Jesus continued to live as a mortal human being until his eventual death.

The resurrection and glorification then represent the triumph of divine life over the mortal condition. The Logos is manifested in Christ, and Christ becomes the pattern for the transformation promised to those who follow him.

The central distinction can therefore be stated simply: the Logos pre-existed; Jesus was born; the Spirit descended upon Jesus at the Jordan; the divine power was manifested through him; that power was withdrawn so that death could operate; and, through resurrection and glorification, Christ became the embodiment of divine life in its perfected form.