God's
Only Begotten Son
by Henry M. Morris, Ph.D.
"For
God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life" (John 3:16).
One
of our favorite Christmas Scripture verses is I John 4:9: "In
this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent
His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through
Him." The marvelous incarnation in human flesh of the only
begotten Son of God is not the end of the story, of course. The next
verse explains that we have life through Him because God "sent
His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (I John 4:10). Our
heavenly Father gives us eternal life instead of the eternal hell
that we deserve because His only begotten Son died in our place for
our sins. "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no
sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (II
Corinthians 5:21).
The
Only Begotten of the Father
Consider, though, the
significance of this revelation that Jesus
Christ is the Father's "only begotten" Son. This unique
phrase is used with reference to the Lord Jesus just four other
times, and all five verses contain vitally important truths
concerning Christ. These verses are as follows:
"And
the Word was made 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" (John 1:14).
This
is the key verse of the Incarnation, assuring us that the man Jesus,
who dwelt among us for a time, was also the eternal Word who was "in
the beginning with God" and that He "was God" and that
"all things were made by Him" (John 1:1-3). He was God the
Creator manifest in the flesh.
"No
man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the
bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him" (John 1:18).
The
Father is omnipresent, and therefore invisible to mortal eyes, but as
Jesus said: "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father"
(John 14:9). Men have seen and heard the Father in the person of His
only begotten Son. Whenever God has been seen by men, it has been
through the Son who has revealed Him.
"For
God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life" (John 3:16).
This verse, of course, is the
most magnificent of all gospel verses; many would call it the
greatest verse in the Bible. It assures us that, if we simply put our
trust in our great Creator who has become man in order
to die for our sins, and then to defeat death and become our Savior,
our sins will be forgiven, and we shall live forever with Him.
"He
that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the
only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18).
Other than the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, "there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). In view of all
that our Creator/Savior has done for us, this verse gives clear
warning that those who refuse or neglect to believe on the person and
work of God's only begotten Son, will die in their sins, condemned
forever by the Father whose Son they have spurned.
"God
sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through
Him" (I John 4:9).
This
great Christmas verse was discussed above and is a wonderful summary
verse on salvation that Christians now often write on their Christmas
cards.
The
Only Begotten Son
But
why was it important for the Holy Spirit who inspired these five
great verses to stress that the Lord Jesus was the incarnate only
begotten Son of God?
Many modern English translations of the New Testament apparently do
not consider it important, for they render the phrase merely as "only
son." It is so rendered in the Living Bible, the Revised
Standard Version, the God's Word translation, the Twentieth Century
New Testament, the New Living Translation, the Moffatt, Goodspeed,
and Williams translations, and many others. The New International
Version renders it "one and only son." There are still a
few, however--the best-known being the New American Standard and the
New King James--that render it correctly (as in the King James
Version) as "only begotten Son."
The
Greek word for "only begotten" is monogenes,
the very form of which clearly denotes "only generated." As
monotheism connotes only one God and monosyllable means a word of
only one syllable, so monogenes means only one genesis or only one
generated--or, more simply, only
begotten. It does
not mean "one," or even "one and only." It is
worth noting that, although Christ is called the Son, or Son of God,
frequently in the New Testament, He is never (in the Greek original)
called the "only" son of God.
The
fact is, that to call Him the only Son of God would make the Bible
contradict itself, for He is not the only Son of God, and certainly
not the "one and only" Son of God. Angels are several times
called the sons of God (e.g., Job 38:7) since they had no fathers,
being directly created by God. Likewise, Adam was called the son of
God (Luke 3:38), because he was directly created. The same applies
even to fallen angels (Genesis 6:2), and even to Satan (Job 1:6),
because they also were created beings. The term is also used in a
spiritual sense, of course, for those who have become "new
creations" in Christ Jesus by faith (II Corinthians 5:17;
Ephesians 2:10; etc.). In this sense, we also are "sons of God"
(e.g., I John 3:2) by special creation?not physically but
spiritually.
But
it is never applied in this sense to Christ, for He is not a created
son of God (as the Jehovah's Witnesses and other cultists teach), but
a begotten
Son of God--in fact, the only
begotten Son of God.
He never had a beginning, for He was there in the beginning (John
1:1). In His prayer to the Father in the upper room, He spoke of "the
glory which I had with thee before the world was" (John 17:5).
In
that wonderful Old Testament Christmas prophecy about His coming
human birth in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), we are told that His "goings
forth have been from of old, from everlasting." His human body
was, indeed, "brought forth" from "she which
travaileth" (Micah 5:3). But long before that, He had been
everlastingly going forth from "the bosom of the Father."
As noted in John 1:18, He was still "in the bosom of the
Father," even while He was on Earth manifesting the Father.
These
truths are beyond our full comprehension, of course, for they are all
part of the great mystery of the Tri-une Godhead. Christ is "the
image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15), for as He said:
"I and my Father are one" (John 10:30).
Eternally
Begotten
He
is not just the only begotten Son of the Father, for He is also the
eternally begotten
Son of the Father. He is eternally "in His bosom," yet
always "going forth" to "declare" the
Father--once as the creating Word, occasionally in pre-incarnate
theophanies, also through the Holy Spirit conveying God's written
Word (which had been "eternally settled in heaven" [Psalm
119:89]) down to man through divinely chosen prophets, then
ultimately appearing as the incarnate Word to live forever as the
God/man.
The
doctrine of "eternal generation" was what the older
theologians called this great truth. He did not become
the only Son by His virgin birth. He was the only begotten Son from
eternity, "set up from everlasting" (Proverbs 8:23).
The
First Begotten from the Dead
But
that is not all. He was not just the only begotten Son in the
beginning, He soon also became the "first begotten of the dead"
in time (Revelation 1:5). He was "declared to be the Son of God
with power, by the resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4).
When Paul at Antioch preached on the resurrection, he declared that
God "hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the
second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee"
(Acts 13:33).
He
is the only begotten Son eternally and now the first begotten Son by
resurrection, "the first fruits of them that slept" (I
Corinthians 15:20). What a wonderful Savior is Jesus Christ, our
Lord!
The
Lord Jesus is not only the unique Son of God by eternal generation
and by resurrection, but also by divine inheritance. God has "spoken
unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things"
(Hebrews 1:2).
The
Uniquely Incarnate Son
His
unique human birth, miraculously conceived with a divinely created
body in a virgin's womb, had also marked Him as the incarnate Son of
God. To Mary, the angel had said: "Fear not . . . that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God"
(Luke 1:30,35).
His
unique righteousness, in both character and action, still further
marks Him as Son of God, for He alone possessed the divine nature
from the beginning. He said on one occasion: "The Son can do
nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things
soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise" (John 5:19).
He
was even identified as God's Son by heavenly proclamation. "There
came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased" (Mark 1:11).
The
Lord Jesus Christ is thus Son of God by miraculous conception and
virgin birth, by heavenly proclamation, by His uniquely perfect human
nature, by divine inheritance, and by triumphant resurrection.
But,
most of all and first of all, He is Son of God by eternal
generation--the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the only begotten
Son of God!
The
Son Given
There
is another great Christmas verse. "For unto us a child is born,"
known and beloved by every born-again Christian. That child was the
infant Jesus, born of the virgin as prophesied hundreds of years in
advance (Isaiah 7:14) in the little town of Bethlehem, as also
prophesied (Micah 5:2). At the same time, "Unto us a son is
given." That Son was the only begotten, eternally begotten Son
of God. "And the government shall be upon His shoulder,"
for He holds the whole wide world in His hand! "And His name
shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The
everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).
As
one with the everlasting Father in the Tri-une Godhead, He is also
the mighty God. He is our Creator, our Redeemer, our Resurrected
Savior, our King of kings and Lord of lords. "Wherefore He is
able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him"
(Hebrews 7:25).
