Christ: His Eternal Sonship

by J. Miller | Category: The Lord Jesus Christ: His Person And Work | Feb 1953

Whilst we necessarily fasten on certain texts of scripture when the Godhead and Divine Sonship of our Lord arc assailed, the fact nevertheless is beyond question that the proofs that Jesus is the Son of God and God the Son lie scattered on the face of the Scriptures, as though God had strewn His jewels for the enrichment and comfort of His children with a lavish hand. We move across this spiritual land like prospectors picking up jewels and staking claims where we may dig and become more and more enriched. Think of Psalm 104., which begins with,Bless the LORD (Jehovah), 0 my soul.

0 LORD (Jehovah) my God (Elohim), Thou art very great;

Thou art clothed with honour and majesty.

Who coverest Thyself with light as with a garment

Who stretchest ... Who layeth ... Who maketh ... Who walketh

Who maketh His angels spirits

His ministers a flaming fire (Verses 1 4 A V)

Who is Jehovah, the God of the psalmist, that does this? We find the answer to our question in Hebrews 1 5 7 The Father is here speaking of the Son, and concerning the work of the Son in relation to angels He says

"Who maketh His angels spirits,

And His ministers aflame of fire." (Verse 7, A.V.)

If we had no other portion of the word than this it should confirm our faith that Jesus Christ is God the Son.

ONLY BEGOTTEN, BELOVED, FIRSTBORN.

The only begotten Son, as applied to the Lord, is used by John only of all the New Testament writers (John 1.14, 18; 3.16, 18; I John 4.9). The original word (Monogenes) is found in the New Testament elsewhere four times; of the only son of the widow of Nain, in Luke 7. 12; of the daughter of Jairus, called "an only daughter," in Luke 8.42; of the demon-possessed son of the man who said, "He is mine only child," in Luke 9.88; and in Hebrews 11 17 Isaac is called Abraham's "only begotten."

Whilst God has many sons both angelic (Job. 1.6; 2.1; 38. 7; Psalm 89.6) and human (Romans 8.19; Galatians 3. 20; 4.6; Hebrews 2.10), He has one only Son who is the Only Begotten, a Son within the Godhead who stands in a relationship to God the Father in a sense absolutely unique. All other sons are external to the Godhead, whether they be angels or men they are created sons. The Son of God in contrast to these is not of a created substance and nature. He, as the only begotten Son, is of one nature and essence with the Father

In Psalm 2.7 we have a statement by the Son of God which has been the subject of much discussion

"I will tell of the decree

The LORD (Jehovah) said unto He

Thou art My Son

This day have I begotten Thee"

It is clear enough from this verse that the only begotten Son of whom John writes is begotten of Jehovah, Jehovah the changeless and eternally existing God. This Son was neither created nor made, but begotten. But what does" this day "mean in which the Son was begotten? Is this a day in time or is it the ever-present day of eternity which the Eternal God inhabits (Isaiah 57.15)?

We have already seen, from Hebrews 1.12; 13.8, that the Son of God knows no change; He is for ever the same and His years fail not. But change marked that human existence which commenced in Bethlehem's stable. He grew, He advanced in wisdom and grace. Physically, mentally and spiritually the Boy Jesus developed, but as the Son of God no such changes or development ever could or did take place. Was Psalm 2.7 fulfilled when the Lord was born in Bethlehem, when He the Father of Eternity became the infant Child of Mary? Our answer is, definitely, No! the Lord did not become the Son of God by His birth according to the flesh. Did He take the nature and essence of God by that birth in Bethlehem, or did He take the nature and essence of man by that birth? The answer must be that He took the nature and essence of man, becoming Man by the substance of His human mother. As the Son of God He is of one substance with God, being the very character or image of God's substance, as Hebrews 1.8 declares.

In setting forth Christ, the Subject of the gospel which he preached, Paul clearly distinguishes between the Lord as being born of the seed of David, and His being the Son of God, when he writes of " the gospel of God, which He promised afore by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead: even Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 1.1-4). Jesus Christ as Man was born of the seed of David through Mary His mother; such a birth was according to the flesh. As Son of God His holiness is an equal holiness to that of God. Of the holiness of His Divine Being and nature the seraphim cried, "Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of Hosts" (Isaiah 6.8), and John in John 12.41 says that Isaiah, who saw His glory, spake of Him.

In the announcement of the Lord's birth by Gabriel to Mary we have the facts of the Lord's Divine Sonship and His Human Sonship interwoven: "Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High; and the LORD shall give unto Him the throne of His father David" (Luke 1.82). We should not confound what is said here and confuse the two distinct Sonships of the Lord, that He is the Son of the Most High, and also that He is the Son of His father David. His being the Son of the Most High, this is what He is as God, and as Man He is the Son of David. The Most High and David are seen in juxtaposition, and from these spring the divine and human natures of Christ.

"This day have I begotten Thee "does not describe a day in time; "this day" is the ever-present day in which the Eternal "I am" dwells. In such a day the Son of God was begotten. But we must not, we who are time-dwellers, begin to cavil over such a statement and topple into the dark abyss of Arianism which states that the only begotten Son was "the first brought forth of every creature," which means that" He was not before He was begotten," and that " He was made of things that are not." Arianism has for its Christ a created being, whose substance is a created substance. Such a Christ is not the Christ of the Scriptures, for the Christ of the Scriptures is Jehovah, an eternal and changeless Being.

Care should be taken by those that love the Lord that they do not fall into false doctrine which bears kinship to that Romish error in the statement- " Holy Mary, mother of God, " and say that the Lord became the Son of God by being born of Mary. Rome professes to hold the doctrine of the Trinity, three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, yet at the same time proclaiming Mary to be the mother of God. She was the mother of Christ, according to the flesh. To confuse His Divine Sonship with His Human Sonship is fatal error. Christ as the only begotten Son has a Father but no mother, and as to His human birth He had a mother but no father. The Spirit of God through Luke explains to us His work in connexion with the incarnation of the Lord, how by His power the Christ was born. Elizabeth said by the Holy Spirit, "Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come unto me." She fully recognized by the enlightening power of the Spirit, that Jesus who was yet to be born of Mary was already her Lord, not that He would become that. The Lord of Elizabeth was the Lord of David, yet was He David's Son. See Psalm 110.1 and Matthew 22.41-45.

The deep mystery of the Lord's Divine Sonship is a fact to be received by faith ; it is the great central fact of the gospel, as we learn from John 3.16 and other scriptures; it is a fact beyond human reason. Human sonship bears but a shadowy resemblance to it. There is nothing comparable in human sonship with such a statement of the Lord when He said, "Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works' sake" (John 14.11). "Though ye believe not Me, believe the works r that ye may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father" (John 10.88). Where in any human sonship is such a thing true, that a son is in his father and the father is in his son? Such things do not exist. So that human sonship is but a shadow of the divine and we cannot and must not reason from the human to the divine. The Lord's birth according to the flesh was a miracle wrought by power of the Holy Spirit. The divine and human natures of Christ are ever distinct; He is of one substance with the Father, and He took at incarnation a body of the human race, a race which He Himself had created, and of this He said, "A body hast Thou prepared for Me" (Hebrews 10.5).

Psalm 2.7 is quoted in Acts 13.32; it is there associated with the Lord having been raised up in fulfilment of God's promise to the fathers, showing that the Messiah was not merely the Seed of David, but was a Divine Person, even the Son of God.

In Hebrews 1.4, 5 it is associated with the Lord's rising from the dead and becoming better than angels, He who in His incarnation was made lower than the angels. He became better in resurrection because He was ever better than they prior to the self-humbling of Himself. He eternally was the Son of the Father. Son was His name by inheritance, and inheritance springs from His relationship to the Father.

In Hebrews 5.5, 6 it is quoted in association with the Lord's priesthood, showing that our High Priest is not a mere man, as were the priests of the house of Aaron. They were men compassed with infirmity who needed to offer sacrifices for their own sins as well as for the sins of the people. Jesus the Son of God was not as they; He knew no infirmity, moral or physical.

"The Beloved," such is the name given by Paul to the Son of God in Ephesians 1 - 6. It is equivalent to his description of the Lord in Colossians 1.18, where he calls Him " the Son of His (God's) love." The Beloved is He who said to His Father, in John 17.24, "Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world." His eternal dwelling place was and is and ever shall be the bosom of the Father" the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father " (John 1.18). The Hebrew word Yachiyd = only, in Genesis 22.2, 16; Jeremiah 6. 26, etc. is rendered in the LXX by Agapetos (beloved), but in Judges 11.34, Yachiyd is rendered by Monogenes (only begotten). Gesenius shows that Yachiyd means "only, only begotten, only child," but it can hardly be claimed that Agapetos signifies only or only begotten. In the New Testament even a cursory examination of the application of the word will show that it is used of several brethren, such as Timothy, Gaius, etc., and it is applied to saints in general. It is of frequent use.

The word beloved (Agapetos) appears to me to convey the thought of endearing love, and in the Lord's case shows the unique and ineffable love eternally bestowed by God upon His only begotten Son. Twice the Father used it of His Son, at His baptism in Jordan, and on the Mount of Transfiguration. He said, "This is My Beloved (Agapetos) Son, in whom I am well pleased."

"The Firstborn": the Lord is called "the Firstborn" (Hebrews

1. 6), " The Firstborn of all creation " (Colossians 1. 15), "the Firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8.29), "the Firstborn from (Ek, out of) the dead" (Colossians 1.18), "the Firstborn of the dead" (Revelation 1.5). Firstborn is used twice of the Lord in incarnation as being the Firstborn Son of Mary (Matthew 1.25 (A.V.); Luke 2.7). The word is twice used in the plural, of the firstborns which were slain on the Passover night in Egypt (Hebrews 11.28),

and the church of firstborns who are enrolled in heaven (Hebrews 12.23). These are all the passages where the word firstborn is used in the New Testament. All the singular uses of the word refer to the Lord in various senses.

The word " firstborn " has two uses, it signifies the first to be born, which is its use in Hebrews 11.28; compare Exodus 11.5; 12.12. "Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn. whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel both of man and beast: it is Mine" (Exodus 13.2) The Hebrew word for firstborn is derived from the word Baka7~, which means to burst the womb. It is used in this sense of the Lord when He became the firstborn Son of the virgin Mary (Matthew 1.25; Luke 2.7).

Firstborn has a secondary meaning, which arises from the fact that the firstborn son was the chief son of the family, and this secondary meaning means that the person indicated is the chief, one occupying the premier position. In such a sense the idea of birth disappears, as the following scriptures prove. "Job 18.13 ... ' the firstborn of death,' i.e. 'the greatest of maladies.' Isaiah 14.30, 'the firstborn of the poor,' the poorest."

In Psalm 89.27 David is called God's firstborn.

"I also will make him my firstborn,

The highest of the kings of the earth."

David was clearly not the first of a number of kings to be born in one family; indeed no relationship whatever existed between him and the kings of the earth. The meaning of firstborn in this psalm is that David was chief or highest of the kings of the earth.

God said of Israel, "Israel is My son, My firstborn" (Exodus 4.22), which means that Israel was the chief or premier nation among the nations of the earth. Between Israel and the nations there existed no idea of birth and no relationship.

In Jeremiah 31 9 God says, "I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My firstborn" Ephraim was the second son of Joseph. The birthright of Jacob passed to Joseph and his sons, though Reuben was Jacob's eldest son and Joseph was the eleventh (1 Chronicles 5 1 2). Jacob when he crossed his hands laid his right hand on Ephraim's head and conferred on him the firstborn's blessing. See Genesis 48. It will be seen from these scriptures that to be chief and to have the pre-eminence is a principle idea in the word firstborn.

There is no thought of birth, far less is there any thought of creation, in the Lord being either the Firstborn from the dead or the Firstborn of the dead, but He is the Chief and the efficient Cause of the resurrection, as is clearly seen in the words of Paul. For since by man came death, by Man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15.21, 22).

Adam who was chief and head of the human race was the cause of death being passed to all his posterity, so also is Christ the Cause of all resurrection; hence He is the Chief or Firstborn of the dead.

In such a sense the word firstborn is used of the Lord in Colossians

1.15.The Son of God's love is the Image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation. He is the perfect Image of One who is invisible. He Himself said to Philip, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John 14.8). This of course does not mean that all who saw the incarnate Christ, Jesus the Carpenter, the Teacher and Healer, saw the Father, but those who saw His glory, as in John 1.14, saw the Father, for He is the very Image of God's substance.

He is "the Firstborn of all creation; for in Him were all things created." These words clearly indicate that as Firstborn He forms no part of created things, and also that He had a prior existence to all creation, for all created things were created in Him. This is the more evident from verse 17 where it says, "He is before all things, and in Him all things consist," or hold together (R.V.M.). Verse 18 gives the meaning of what is involved in Christ the Firstborn, "that in all things He might have the pre-eminence."

The Lord the Firstborn is the Head of all principality and power (Colossians 2.10); He is the Cause, Lord and Heir of all creation, for all was created" in Him," "through Him," as the efficient Cause of all being brought into being, and" unto Him," as the Divine Objective towards which all creation moves. As He is "the Beginning of the creation of God" (Revelation 3.14), 50 He is the End. But He Himself has neither beginning of days nor end of life (Hebrews 7.3). As God is the Beginning and the End (Revelation 1.8), so also is the Son (Revelation 22. 18), but neither God nor His Son has either beginning or end. Some have said that God created His Son and the Son created all the rest of creation. Nothing can be further from the meaning of Colossians 1.15-18 than this. The eternal Being of the Son was clearly stated by Himself when He said, "Before Abraham was, I AM" (John 8.58).

J. Miller | Feb 1953
The Lord Jesus Christ: His Person And Work