Abraham, perhaps around 1800 BC, could “see” the day of Jesus the Christ of God, and rejoice. Jesus could therefore say, “Before Abraham was born, I am.” The day of Jesus was already knowable, foreseeable, and a matter of rejoicing before Abraham was born.
Indeed, there is a much earlier trajectory of prophecy concerning this day. The Book of Enoch presents itself as reaching back to the patriarchal generations before Abraham, with portions attributed to Noah and to his ancestors Enoch and Methuselah. If its own claims about its antiquity are taken seriously, this places the prophetic expectation of the Christ and his day remarkably far back in human history — perhaps three thousand years before Jesus.
So the point can be made without going beyond what Jesus himself actually says. Before Abraham was born, and even before Noah was born, Jesus “is.” His day could already be present to those who, through the spirit, were able to “see” it and rejoice in it. The phrase “I am” can therefore be understood in relation to this extraordinary continuity across the ages: the Christ whom Abraham could see in advance was already affecting the lives and hopes of people thousands of years before his manifestation in biological flesh.
We should be cautious, however, about going further than this when considering Jesus' words in John 8. There are later apostolic writings which say considerably more about what many call the preexistence of Christ — John 1, 1 Corinthians 8, Philippians 2, and Colossians 1 among them. Those passages deserve their own consideration. But it is possible to push the idea further than the texts themselves require, and thereby distort what is spiritually important.
Peter is particularly instructive in this respect. When he speaks of the prophets who foretold the sufferings and glory of Christ, he says that the Spirit of Christ was in them, testifying beforehand to what was to come. He then speaks of Jesus as being manifested in the flesh. In 1 Peter 1:10–20, where this subject is treated most directly, Peter is remarkably restrained about what that existence of Christ before his manifestation actually entails. He concentrates instead upon the prophetic work of the Spirit and upon the manifestation, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
That restraint is worth respecting. Peter was one of those whose hearts Jesus opened, after his resurrection, to understand the Scriptures concerning himself. We therefore need not construct a doctrine beyond what the apostolic witness itself requires.
Yet there is another trajectory of truth in Jesus' teaching which needs to be held alongside this understanding of John 8. It is especially evident in John 10.
Here the subject is not simply the existence of Christ before Abraham. It is sonship: what it means to be regarded by God as His son, and what kind of life leads to that status.
A sonship relationship with God comes through believing in Jesus, but belief does not remain merely intellectual assent. It develops into learning and holding to his teachings. As the disciple learns from Jesus, the disciple comes to know something of the Father whom Jesus knows, and of the Son whom the Father knows. The purpose of this knowledge is transformative: to become the kind of person whom God can regard as a true son, a chosen one, one in whom He is pleased.
This becomes particularly striking when Jesus invokes Psalm 82.
The psalm speaks of those whom God has called “gods” and “sons of the Most High.” They stand in God's council under the authority of the Most High, yet they fail in the very matters that ought to characterize those who represent Him: justice, mercy, and concern for the poor. Because of their failure, they are warned that they will die like mortal men.
Jesus takes up this passage in John 10 and places his own sonship against this background. He speaks of himself as one whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world. He is not merely another figure among those called gods or sons of God. He is the one whom God has chosen and sent, the beloved Son in whom God is well pleased.
The contrast is therefore important.
There are those who stand in a position of sonship and yet fail to live according to God's ways. Jesus, by contrast, has learned from God and perfectly represents the way of faithful sonship. He too would undergo mortal death, but God would vindicate him by raising him from the dead. His resurrection becomes God's declaration that this Son has truly walked the way that leads to life.
The risen Jesus therefore knows, by experience, the way of true sonship. He knows the way that pleases God. And he has been sent by God to teach this way to the world.
This is part of what it means for Jesus to be the Christ sent by God as light for the world.
In practical terms, following this way begins with belief in Jesus. That belief comes through the grace he extends through those whom he sends — through hearing and receiving the teaching of those who proclaim him in faithful service to his teachings.
But belief then develops into learning.
The disciple who believes Jesus begins to learn what Jesus taught. As love for Jesus grows, obedience follows. His commands are not merely propositions to be admired; where they can be lived out, they are to be put into practice. Where circumstances prevent a teaching from being lived out immediately, it can nevertheless be remembered, understood, and held ready for the opportunity to put it into practice.
Such obedience is itself an expression of love. To keep Jesus' teachings is to show practical love for him, and therefore love for the Father who sent him and whose ways Jesus knows.
And there is a remarkable promise attached to this faithful adherence.
Jesus works together with the Father to give the faithful disciple an experienced knowledge of himself, while the Father likewise gives knowledge of Himself. The disciple therefore comes to know both Father and Son — not merely as theological concepts, but through a lived relationship arising from faithfulness to their teaching.
This is knowledge leading to eternal life.
It is also the opposite of the fate warned about in Psalm 82. Those who were called gods and sons of the Most High nevertheless faced death because they failed to embody the justice and righteousness expected of them. The disciple of Jesus is shown another way: belief, learning, love, obedience, continued faithfulness, and ultimately life.
But the teaching also contains a warning. The fruit of discipleship depends upon continuing in the teaching. If the teachings are abandoned, the fruitful outcome is lost. The disciple must therefore remain with Jesus' words, continuing in belief in Jesus and in the God who sent him.
This brings us back to the tension between John 8 and John 10.
John 8 gives us Jesus speaking of his relationship to Abraham and of a reality that reaches back beyond Abraham's lifetime. Abraham could see the day of Christ and rejoice in it. The prophets could foresee it through the Spirit of Christ. The Christ could therefore speak of himself across those ages in the continuous present: “I am.”
John 10 gives us another dimension. It presents Jesus within the biblical language of God's sons and God's council, and it shows him as the one sanctified, chosen, sent, obedient, vindicated, and raised to life by God. He knows the Father and is able to teach others the way of sonship because he himself has perfectly walked that way.
It is not necessary, therefore, to force John 10 into a detailed theory about the precise nature of Jesus' existence before his earthly manifestation. One may refrain from constructing conclusions which John 8 itself does not require. Yet at the same time, John 10 seems to leave open — perhaps even to invite — the most natural conclusion that Jesus belongs within the heavenly sonship framework of Psalm 82, while being uniquely distinguished within it as God's chosen and beloved Son.
The important point is not to press either passage beyond its purpose.
Jesus' words in John 8 tell us that the day of Christ could be seen and rejoiced in long before his manifestation in flesh. His words in John 10 tell us what kind of Son he is and what kind of sonship he came to teach: a sonship grounded in knowing God, receiving His teaching, loving Him, obeying Him, remaining faithful, and ultimately being vindicated with life.
The two truths can therefore be held together without allowing either to overwhelm the other.
Before Abraham was, Jesus says, “I am.”
And the Son who could be seen in advance is also the Son who came into the world to show humanity the way to become sons who truly please God.
[Acknowledgement that the wording has been greatly helped here by use of ChatGPT, September 2026 - https://chatgpt.com/share/6aa5b6f1-9e60-83ed-b4af-e1f21e447028 ]
