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Read 1 Peter 1:19-20. Peter does not say that Christ actually existed before the foundation of the world, which surely ought to have been said in this place if it was true; but he says that Christ was foreknown of God before the foundation of the

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world, that is, known before he existed.

Therefore he was in the mind and purpose of God, and was known and loved by God as if he already actually existed.

At this point the words of the apostle John may be referred to: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God". He shows how it was in the beginning: in what way life -- that is, the promise of eternal life -- was with the Father before it was manifested and exhibited in reality. For those things which are not yet exhibited in reality are said to be with God, to be exhibited in their own time. He goes on "And the Word became flesh": he who had been only in the mind and decree of God at last became man, similar to other men in the condition of his mortal nature, so that through death he might destroy the devil and free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

Of how great a pre-eminence then was it needful for Christ to have, Christ who was born so many ages after the world was founded, but who nevertheless existed in the divine mind before the world was formed, indeed for whose sake the world was founded and all things created.

Thus the life, which was with the Father, that is in the mind and determination of the Father, was manifested to us (1 John 1:2). 249