Christ in the Premortal Existence

It’s common in the Church for us to explain with a very nice diagram the different parts of the plan of salvation.  We cover the pre-mortal existence, our life here on earth, the spirit world, the resurrection, the judgment, and the three kingdoms of glory.  The plan as explained in this way is meant to help us gain perspective about this life, where we came from, and where we are going, and we are so blessed to have the Restoration to teach us many of the details of God’s plan.  I think at times in our haste to explain these steps of our journey, though, we can fail to give much attention to the role of Jesus Christ and His atonement.  But the scriptures never forget this—the Savior is always at the center of every part of the plan that is described there.  Christ is not just important to the plan; there simply is no plan at all without Him.  We can see this even by looking only at the very first stage of the plan. 

                We don’t have many scriptures that speak of the premortal existence, but those that do place nearly all their emphasis on the Savior’s actions there.  In the vision that Abraham saw, we learn that “there stood one among them that was like unto God….  And the Lord said: Whom shall I send? And one answered like unto the Son of Man: Here am I, send me” (Abraham 3:24, 27).  From this we see the preeminence of Christ as well as the centrality of His role from the Father’s perspective.  While we know little about ourselves in that existence, we know that Christ was “in the beginning with the Father, and [was] the Firstborn” (D&C 93:21).  Paul similarly taught that Christ was “the firstborn of every creature; for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth” (Colossians 1:15-16).  The Father described Him as “mine Only Begotten, which was with me from the beginning” and Jehovah told the brother of Jared, “I am he who was prepared from the foundation of the world to redeem my people….  All men were created in the beginning after mine own image” (Moses 2:26, Ether 3:14-15).  To the Jews Christ also testified of His premortal stature saying, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). In John we also have this testimony of the Savior’s status even before coming to earth: “In the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son. And the gospel was the word, and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made which was made” (JST John 1:1-3).  Christ was the central figure besides the Father in the premortal existence, and we looked to Him then as we do now.   John’s revelation tells us that there we “overcame [the dragon] by the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 12:11).  Alma’s teachings inform us that those who exercised faith there were given a “holy calling… being in and through the atonement of the Only Begotten Son” (Alma 13:5).

We simply cannot speak of the premortal world without speaking of Christ.  There he was the Firstborn, the center of the plan of salvation, the creator of the earth, the object of our faith even then.  Everything in the plan hinged upon Him being able to create the heavens and the earth, perform the atonement, and ultimately provide our way of escape from death and hell.