If there ever was a doubt about man's pre-existence—his existence before his so-called human birth—our great Master, Christ Jesus, removed that doubt when he said, "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58). He voiced the same idea when he said, "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father" (John 16:28). In these two statements, Jesus clearly tells us that his spiritual identity did not begin with the virgin birth, but that he existed in God before then and that he would continue to exist in God after he left the world and went to his Father.
Thus God did not exist first and then proceed to create man. Man has existed with God as His reflection throughout eternity: he is coeternal with the deathless and birthless Life that is the Father of all. This pre-existent man is the image of God that we are told of in the first chapter of Genesis. He presents the only real manhood; and in his Godlikeness he is forever perfect, harmonious, and immortal.
He exists now and has forever existed wholly apart from the so-called imperfect and inharmonious mortal, subject to sin and death. The so-called mortal is nothing more than a myth, a false, fleeting concept of man. In the second chapter of Genesis he is presented as having been formed of the dust of the ground by the Lord God in contrast to man, made in God's likeness. The so-called mortal could not coexist with God or pre-exist with Him, for he has not in reality existed at all.
