Hi,

Can you please answer these questions?

Why did Jesus say in John 16:33 that he had overcome the world when he hadn’t been crucified and risen yet?

Jesus said that he would raise himself from the dead (Joh 2:19), but the Bible also says that God raised him from the dead (Eph. 1:20). So which one is it?

Regards,

L____

Hi L____,

Thank you for your question.

You ask:

“Why did Jesus say in John 16:33 that he had overcome the world when he hadn’t been crucified and risen yet?”

Here is:

Joh 16:33: These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Yours is an easy question to answer because this is how Christ always speaks. He has always spoken of things that be not as though they were:

Rom 4:17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

Here is only one Old Testament example of how Christ has always spoken in this manner:

Num 21:33 And they turned and went up by the way of Bashan: and Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he, and all his people, to the battle at Edrei.
Num 21:34 And the LORD said unto Moses, Fear him not: for I have delivered him into thy hand, and all his people, and his land; and thou shalt do to him as thou didst unto Sihon king of the Amorites, which dwelt at Heshbon.
Num 21:35 So they smote him, and his sons, and all his people, until there was none left him alive: and they possessed his land.

The Israelites had not even begun to fight with Og, the king of Bashan, yet the Lord said “I have delivered him into your hand”, and so it was.

Christ is the Yahweh of the Old Testament who had talked with Adam and Eve, had walked with Enoch and talked with Noah and sat down and ate a meal with and talked with Abraham just before He sent His two angels to rescue Lot and destroy Sodom. It was Christ who talked with Isaac and had wrestled with Jacob and had appeared to Samson’s parents and many others in the Old Testament.

This same Christ was the pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night who led Israel out of Egypt under Moses. We are told Christ “[is] the Word”], and when we read or hear a word, it is from the Father, but it is always through the Son, the Word. So it was actually Christ who spoke with Moses and showed him his “back parts”:

Exo 33:17 And the LORD [Hebrew, Yahweh] said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken: for thou hast found grace in my sight, and I know thee by name.
Exo 33:18 And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory.
Exo 33:19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.
Exo 33:20 And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.
Exo 33:21 And the LORD [Yahweh] said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock:
Exo 33:22 And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by:
Exo 33:23 And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen.

Moses saw Christ, but not in “[His] glory”. All Israel “heard Yahweh’s voice”:

Deu 5:22 These words the LORD [Hebrew, Yahweh] spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.

This same Yahweh, Christ, tells us this about His Father:

Joh 1:18 No man hath seen God [the Father] at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

Joh 5:37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.

I say all of this to explain that He is the same in the New Testament as He was in the Old Testament, “call[ing] those things that be not as though they were:

Joh 16:33: These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Rom 4:17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

I hope this helps you to understand how Christ, the Son of God, can do this.

Your brother in Christ,

Mike