Jesus is important to both Latter-day Saints and traditional Christians. Both groups agree on much about Jesus’ earthly life, because both groups take their data from the Bible’s four gospels. But when you consider Jesus before his earthly life, our views diverge in a major way.
Is Jesus God’s greatest spirit child?
The LDS church teaces that Jesus is Jehovah of the Old Testament. He was the first-born child of our Heavenly Father and Mother. In the Mormon idea of the pre-existence, all of us are seen as spirit children of God the Father. That also includes Jesus. He is the most pre-eminent of all. But Lucifer (later known as Satan) is also one of God’s spirit children. Jesus rose up to maturity as a spirit in this pre-existent life before this earth. In that world, there was a dispute in the council of the gods about who would be the Savior – Jesus or Lucifer. Jesus was chosen.
Jesus is fully God
By contrast, Chistians believe Jesus is and always has been fully God.
Matthew 1:23 “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”
Jesus’ title “Immanuel” means that he is literally God with us – God who became present, in Jesus’ birth, in humanity. He shares all the attirbuges of God. He has always been deity. He did not go through some process of rising up to become god.
John 1:1-2 In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God.
John 1:14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
From the beginning of anything, Jesus (called “the Word”) was God. There was never a time when he was not God. He never became divine.
Colossians 1:15-16 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.
Everything that was ever created was created by Jesus. That makes it impossible for Jesus to be just one of many spirit children of God, or the brother of Satan in the spirit world. He was Satan’s creator and the creator of all humanity.
[Related Topic: Who Is Jesus?]
Older brother or divine Savior?
If all human beings were one big family in the pre-existence, it’s easy to see where Latter-day Saints get the idea of Jesus as our elder brother. But the Bible casts Jesus less as an older brother and more as Lord, Master, our high priest and Savior. There is a major difference between an older bother who paves the way and sets an example, compared to our God who save us. Yes, we try to model our lives after Jesus’ life, but we can never rise to his level in this life or the afterlife. He is God. He is totally worthy of our praise and worship because everything God the Father is, Jesus also.
Hebrews 1:3 The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God, and he sustains everything by the mighty power of his command.
[Related Topic: Make Sure You Get Jesus Right]
