The Deity And Eternal Sonship Of Christ

by G. Prasher, Manchester, U.K. | Category: Topics Of Elderhood Discussion | Oct 1983

The Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil, so it is not surprising that Satan has relentlessly tried to cast doubt on Christ's Deity and Eternal Sonship. During the post-apostolic period subtle heresies give rise to much theological controversy on the subject. Through all the centuries since then the attack has been maintained, and it has been intensified in our own time.

Many of today's cults, such as Jehovah's Witnesses, have revived the ancient Arian heresy that the Lord Jesus is less than God, having Himself been created by the Father. Modernistic views of Scripture have caused many in the Protestant denominations to abandon the truth of Christ's Deity. Even the Roman Catholic Church, traditionally staunch on this doctrine, has been troubled by radical questionings on the subject within her own theological leadership. And many professors at University theological faculties have by their philosophies perverted scriptural evidence that Jesus is God.

We turn thankfully from erring human thought to the fountain of truth in Scripture, and seek the aid of the gracious Holy Spirit whose joy it is to reveal Christ to the believing heart.

Grappling with the Infinite!

Certain truths are revealed for faith's acceptance, but are beyond the full grasp of human thought. The Deity of Christ is a case in point. "There are boundless heights and depths, breadths and lengths in the Being of God, which are beyond our capacity to comprehend, and how much more so to define!"

(H. Elson). Some scriptural statements seem to us difficult to reconcile with our normal modes of thought. We must learn to accept all Scripture, reverently pondering statements which are beyond our full understanding, asking for the Holy Spirit's guidance in comparing one scripture with another. The wonder of truth revealed about Christ will then be deeply impressed on our spirit. In this attitude we shall find ourselves bowed in worship before Him, confessing with Thomas, "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28).

Christ as the Word (John 14:1 4)

The first verse of John's Gospel richly reveals the Lord Jesus as pre-existent to all creation, eternally God. "In the beginning" of this verse answers to "in the beginning" of Genesis 1:1. However remote that beginning, the Word is revealed as then with God the Father. Showing too the distinctiveness of His Person "the Word was with God". Nor was this merely alongside the Father. The Greek preposition pros is said to imply "a personal attitude towards and occupation with." So between the Lord Jesus as "the Word" and God the Father there flowed most intimate communion. In the same verse is added the tremendous fact "The Word was God:" the very essence and nature of God was His!

After reaffirming in verse 2 that "the same was in the beginning with ~ John continues: "All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that hath been made." How vast the claim! A truth which immediately relates to many Old Testament scriptures declaring creation to be the work of God:

O LORD, how manifold are They works! In wisdom hast Thou made them all: The earth is full of Thy riches (Psa. 104:24).

In such Old Testament references the unity of God was emphasized, but the deep mystery of one God in three Persons is unfolded in the New Testament. Many years before John penned his Gospel, Paul had by the Spirit passed on to the Colossians this same truth:

In Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through Him, and unto Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist (1:16,17).

"In Him" - He is the architect, the designer of creation. "Through Him" - by the spoken word of His power creation came into being. "Unto Him" - all creation exists for His glory. "And in Him all things consist" - He causes creation to subsist or "to stand together." Such words could only be true of One in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead, as has been ably expressed by one commentator:

In John 1, Col. I and Heb. I the special function of creating and upholding the universe, is ascribed to Christ under the titles of Word, Image and Son respectively. The kind of creatorship so predicated of Him is not that of a mere artifacer or instrument in formation of the world, but that of One by whom, in whom and for whom all things are made and through Him to subsist. This implies the assertion of His true and absolute Godhood(Hastings).

Christ as Firstborn of all Creation (Col. 1:15)

The Greek word prototokos, translated "Firstborn", here conveys the thought of preeminence, not of being born first. Other scriptures rule out, of course, any thought that Christ's existence ever had a beginning. As we have seen from John 1:1 He was God, and God is from everlasting to everlasting (Psa. 90:2). As "Firstborn" He was "distinct from and prior to all created things." The title expresses His supremacy in regard to all creation. The

grammatical construction of the clause, "Firstborn of all creation" demands in Greek the sense that the universe owes its existence to Him as Creator; a truth amply confirmed by the verses immediately following.

Christ as the Image of God

Another facet of truth implying His Deity!

Let us first note the Greek word eikon, translated "image" in both the following texts:

"Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Cor.4:4)

"Who is the image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15)

Eikon contains "the two ideas of representation and manifestation." So Christ is the perfect representation of all that God is. Moreover He is the visible manifestation to mankind of the Father, whom no man has seen. A truth clearly expressed to Philip when the Lord said to him, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." And who could so express the Father but One who fully shared both the nature and attributes of Deity?

A different Greek word is translated "image" in Heb. 1:3:

Who being the effulgence of his glory, and the very image of His substance.

It is the word charakter, meaning the exact impression made by a seal on wax or die on metal. Moreover the Son is stated to be the very image of God's sub~ stance, of His essential nature; a thought which goes deeper than the ideas of representation or manifestation. It reveals that "the Son is both personally distinct from, and yet literally equal to, Him of whose essence He is the adequate imprint" (Liddon).

Christ from Everlasting the Son of God

The thought of Christ as Son of God immediately raises difficulties to the natural mind. For we think of a father as pre-existent to His son. But this Sonship is revealed in Scripture as an "unoriginated relationship". He is Son of God in a sense absolutely unique. Five times He is referred to in John's writings as "only begotten," and of this expression Handly Moule has written:

The begetting is not an event of time, however remote, but a fact irrespective of time, The Christ did not become, but necessarily is, the Son. He, a Person, possesses every attribute of pure Godhood. This necessitates eternity, absolute Being; in this respect He is not 'after' the Father.

We may profitably take special note of the profound words of John 1:18:

No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.

It has been pointed out that the grammatical construction of this verse points to a "condition and relationship characteristic, essential and unoriginated." The English translation "which is" represents in Greek "the (One) being in the bosom of the Father." If it had been intended to convey the thought of One at present in the Father's bosom, by contrast with a past time when He was not there, a different construction would have been used. "In the bosom of the Father" expresses a relationship of deep intimacy and love, as implied by the use of the preposition eis, which strengthens the thought of the Son's absolute competence to respond to the Father's infinite love.

It is this glorious Person, "the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the

Father," who has declared Him! God has in these last days spoken to us in His

Son, a revelation far transcending all that was formerly given. He who "shared

in unoriginated substance the Father's nature" is also the revealer of the

Father's character.

Someone has asked, "Did the Father have no bosom before Bethlehem?" Yes, indeed! From everlasting this relationship of Father and Son obtained within the Godhead. The Lord Jesus shared the Father's glory and was loved by Him before the foundation of the world (John 17:5,24); as "Son of His love" He created all things (Col. 1:13-17). It was the Son whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world (John 10:35,36), while Gal. 4:4,6 reminds us that God sent forth His Son to be born of a woman, and later sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. Just as the Holy Spirit was such before He was sent, so it was the Son of God who was sent from heaven to be born of Mary.

Christ's Deity pervading Scripture

We have caught but glimpses of the glory of Christ's Deity and Sonship from a few facets of the subject. Certain scriptures brilliantly illuminate this truth. Yet many less direct references glow with the same wondrous light. Take for instance the mighty declaration of Isa. 45:22-23:

Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. By Myself have I sworn, the word is gone forth from My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.

Salvation and worship are here declared to be the prerogatives of Deity. Yet

Acts 4:12 states that salvation is vested in the Lord Jesus, and the very words of Isa. 45:23 are applied to Him in Phil. 2:10,11. Just one example of the fact that the glory of Christ's Deity pervades all Scripture!

G. Prasher, Manchester, U.K. | Oct 1983
Topics Of Elderhood Discussion