His Only Begotten Son

John 3:16a “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”

Having just returned from an 18-day cruise to South America with my father to celebrate his 90^th birthday and then celebrating my brother’s 68^th and my son’s 38^th birthdays with the family, we settle in today on Christmas Eve to celebrate the birth of our blessed savior and Lord Jesus Christ with the world.

I remember reciting the words “begotten, not made” in the Nicene Creed at our church to described the relationship God the Father and God the Son Jesus Christ. That word “begotten” was not really clear to me in the beginning, but learned the important distinction and details involved. Jesus is the Son of God. Those that make up the Christian church are sons and daughters of God … the children of God and brothers and sisters with Christ, in Christ. What was the difference? The clues for me and the answers were in the definition of the word “begotten” and in beginning of John’s gospel of Jesus Christ and Paul’s Epistles within the Holy Bible.

Apostle John writes in John 1:10-13 “He (Jesus) was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” The word “begotten” is defined in the 1828 Webster’s dictionary as: Procreated; generated. I read that to beget is to sire, to be parent to, as by a father. 

The Apostle Paul explains further in Ephesians 1:3-5 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.”

Professor Dr. Scott Swain states that the words “only begotten Son” describes Jesus’ filial relationship to the Father as the second person of the Trinity. The word “filial” is defined as: having or assuming the relation of a child or offspring. What is the nature of this relationship? The Apostle John explains in John 1:1-4 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” The only begotten Son’s relationship to the Father is eternal. The only begotten Son’s relationship to the Father is a relationship of equality. The only begotten Son’s relationship of the father is unique: though God wills to draw many children into His family through adoption, the only begotten Son does not belong in a class with God’s creaturely sons and daughters. Jesus Christ dwells eternally at the Father’s side, set apart from all the rest ... God the Son.

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Though God created the world very good, the world through sin made itself subject to God’s eternal wrath and condemnation. But, out of the astonishing nature of God’s “agape” love for unworthy sinners, Father God sends and gives “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”; not only redeeming us by bearing our condemnation but also to bestow “eternal life”. The Apostle Paul explains in Ephesians 2:1-6 “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

1 John 5:11-13 “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.”

Father God gave His beloved Son on Christmas as a sacrificial gift for sinners, displaying His loving purpose for us by uniting us to His only begotten Son, giving us “the right to become children of God”. Jesus Christ is the gift of God and the reason for the season of Christmas. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.” May we remember this gift, this Savior of the world, as we rejoice and give enthusiastic praise to God today.

Merry Christmas, in Christ, Brian