Jesus Is the Only Begotten Son of God

Day 4: Jesus is the only begotten Son of God

Prayer:Our Father in heaven, thank You for sending us Your most priceless treasure, the gift of Your Son. Teach us to value Him as You do. Give us understanding.  Amen.

Primary Scriptures: John 1:14, 18: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

How can One who was eternally in the beginning with God be begotten and have a beginning? How can the Creator be the “firstborn over all creation”? (Colossians 1:15) This is the unfathomable mystery of the incarnation. God has become Man. The Eternal has a birthday.

The name “Son of God” did not just begin in the New Testament; it is mentioned several times in the Old Testament. In Isaiah 9:6-7, God promises a Son would be born, and two of His names are Mighty God and Everlasting Father. A small, helpless infant called Mighty God? A Son called Everlasting Father? This is the incomprehensible mystery of the Trinity. Distinct, yet fully one, there is no difference. "I and the Father are one," Jesus proclaimed, much to the consternation of the religious leaders. And to Philip’s request to “show us the Father” the night before He died, Jesus, grieved that His disciples still did not understand, stated plainly, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father." He goes on to say, “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me” (John 14:9-11, emphasis added).

Isaiah 7:14 prophesied that a virgin would conceive and bear a Son. He would be called Immanuel, which means “God with us.” How could a virgin bear a Son? Only through the direct intervention of the Hand of God. The Spirit of the Most High would overshadow her, the angel told Mary; and He would be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). The Trinity was working together at the incarnation of Jesus.

Another reference to the Son of God is found in Proverbs 30:4. The writer asks four questions which can only be answered with “God the Creator.” But the verse concludes with this question: “And what is His Son’s name?” God has a Son. And the Son’s name can also answer all those questions about creative power—works only God can do. This is why Jesus referred to the works that He did as proof that He came from the Father. To the religious leaders who sought to kill Him, He said, “I have a greater witness than John’s: for the works which the Father has given Me to finish—the very works that I do—bear witness of Me, that the Father has sent Me” (John 5:36). And when He responded to Philip as mentioned above, He said, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works…believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.” Jesus and the Father are One.

Psalm 2:6-8 gives a very clear statement about this Father-Son relationship. God is declaring Christ’s kingship (vs.6), His sonship (vs. 7), and His inheritance rights (vs. 8). When God declares in verse 7, “Today I have begotten You,” He is speaking prophetically about the incarnation. There would come a day when the eternal Son who was with the Father from the beginning, God of very God, would be begotten. Paul quotes this verse, saying it finds its complete fulfillment at Jesus’ resurrection (Acts 13:33). Romans 1:3 states that the humanity of Jesus is proven by the fact that He was born of the seed of David; verse 4 goes on to say that the deity of Jesus is proven by His resurrection. The resurrection was the declaration and proof positive that Jesus is the Son of God!

Sonship in the Old Testament is used in various ways. “Firstborn son” was used to show a favored position, to declare who would receive the father’s inheritance. Several younger sons, such as Jacob, were given firstborn status. “Only begotten Son” is used to convey exclusive legal rights to the Father’s inheritance. Isaac was not Abraham’s only son, yet God Himself called Isaac that. It revealed Isaac’s exclusive rights to his father’s inheritance (Genesis 22:2). The statement in Psalm 2:7, “Today I have begotten You,” does not refer to a beginning and from the context, it is far more than a prophecy about the Jesus’ birth; rather it is a legal declaration by God of the Messiah’s exclusive rights to the Father’s inheritance—the inheritance of the nations (vs. 8). The Son of God, whose sonship has been publicly declared by means of the resurrection, is the proper heir to the nations of this world.

Sonship is also used to explain a person’s character or nature. The Old Testament refers to "sons of fools" (Job 30:8). The New Testament tells us that Barnabas means “son of encouragement” (Acts 4:36). Jesus called James and John “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17). And Paul speaks of “sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 5:6) and “sons of light and sons of the day” (I Thessalonians 5:5). Sonship tells something about the person's character. More than once when Jesus spoke of Himself as the Son of the Father, the Jewish religious leaders interpreted that to mean that He has declaring Himself to be the same in character and nature as God. Jesus was claiming the qualities of God. By explaining where He had come from, who He was, and what relationship He had with the Father, Jesus was expressing His origin—not the origin of beginning, but the origin of Source. Calling Himself the Son of God was the same as calling Himself God. The Jewish leaders understood that very clearly, and they sought to kill Jesus for this. Their main accusation, which led to His crucifixion, was blasphemy—that He, by calling God His Father, was making Himself out to be God (John 10:59, 19:7).

C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity explains it in this way:

To beget is to become the father of, [whereas] to create is to make. And the difference is this: When you beget, you beget something of the same kind as yourself. A man begets human babies, a beaver begets little beavers and a bird begets eggs which turn into little birds. But when you make, you make something of a different kind from yourself. A bird makes a nest, a beaver builds a dam, a man makes a wireless set—or he may make something more like himself than a wireless set: say, a statue. If he is a clever enough carver, he may make a statue which is very like a man indeed. But, of course, it is not a real man; it only looks like one. It cannot breathe or think. It is not alive.

Now that is the first thing to get clear. What God begets is God; just as what man begets is man. What God creates is not God, just as what man creates is not man.

It is only because Jesus is the only begotten Son of God that He could atone for the sins of the whole world. Adam is called the son of God in the genealogy of Luke (Luke 3:38) because he was created by God in God’s own image, just as Seth was a son in Adam’s image (Genesis 5:3). Adam was fashioned by God, but Jesus was begotten of God. The virgin birth was absolutely essential for Christ’s life mission of saving mankind from sin. Had He been born in Adam’s line, through natural birth, He would have had a sin nature as we all have. But He was uniquely born of God, separate from sin. Only a sinless, spotless sacrifice could atone for sin (Hebrews 4:15 and 7:26-27).

In the book of I John, John wants us to be confident in our relationship with God; he wants us to know that we have eternal life (I John 5:13). One of those assurances of faith is believing that Jesus Christ, who came in the flesh, is the Son of God, one with the Father in essence and character, the only perfect One capable of securing our salvation. If you want to know God and understand His character and will, study Jesus. If you want to know the One to whom all the nations will one day belong, get to know Jesus.

Family Worship: Discuss the character qualities Jesus had that reveal the character of God. The book of John includes only 7 miracles that Jesus performed though John admits that Jesus did many other miracles (20:30 & 21:25). Why do you think John selected these particular miracles? What does each one reveal about Jesus’ supernatural power? Here are the references for each of the miracles: 2:1-12, 4:46-54, 5:1-15, 6:1-14, 6:15-21, 9:1-7, 11:1-44. (Notice the details given in each one and see if you can come up with 7 different aspects Jesus is Lord over.)

Repeat (and learn) this part of the Nicene Creed:

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,

  the only Son of God,

  eternally begotten of the Father,

  God from God, Light from Light,

  true God from true God,

  begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father.

Take time to worship Jesus in prayer for these things.

Jesus Christ: the Son of God, begotten of the Father; God of very God; one with God in character, will, and essence; perfect in holiness; the firstborn who will receive the nations as His inheritance from the Father.

Other Related Scriptures:Luke 1:30-35: Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.”

John 1:32-34: And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”

John 1:49a: Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God!”

John 3:16-18: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

John 3:35-36: The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

John 20:30-31: And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

I John 2:23: Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

I John 4:9-10, 15: In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

I John 5:5: Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

I John 5:9-13: If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

I John 5:20: And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.

For a fuller explanation of the usage of the name “Son of God,” read this web article by S. Herbert Bess: http://www.middletownbiblechurch.org/sonship/sonshpa1.pdf