“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 NLT

The Adventist Biblical Research Institute agrees with the modern translations of “one and only” instead of  “only begotten.” Hebrews 1:1-14 make it clear that Jesus was God. He was not given life, He is the Life Giver.

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Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. John 11:25 NLT

Just as 1 John 4:8 does not tell us that God has love but rather is love, so Jesus does not say that He was given life, but rather that He is life. 

In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived. -Ellen White, Desire of Ages, Page 530.

While Hebrews 2:1-18 explains the complete humanity of the Son of God, Hebrews 1:1-14 explains the complete divinity of the Son of God. While Jesus is God the Son, who never originated but always existed as far back as eternity goes, Ty Gibson suggests in His book, The Sonship of Christ, that while He was always God the Son, that the term “Son of God’ explains His humanity more than His divinity. For example, Adam was the first one who was called the son of God.

Adam was the son of God. Luke 3:38 NLT 

Adam was created to be the son of God and to be the representative for this earth. Job 1:6 talks about when the “sons of God” came to present themselves before God. Adam was to be this earth’s representative as the son of God for this earth. However we read where Satan shows up at this meeting, as Adam surrendered this right to Satan when he sinned. So we see that Adam was the son of God, and there are other sons of God representing their worlds. By the way Hebrews 1:2 mentions that Christ made the worlds. The word “worlds” refers to inhabited planets, while uninhabited planets are simply called planets. In Job 1:6 the sons of God came from these other worlds. 

So in John 3:16 Where it says, “only begotten Son” or “one and only son” it is not referring to God the son ever being born. Neither is it saying that there are not other sons of God, because we have just seen that there are. So what does it mean by “one and only son?” Hebrews  11 gives us a clue.

Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, Hebrews 11:17 NLT 

Wait a minute? Was Isaac Abraham’s only son? No! So why is this saying that Isaac was Abraham’s only son? 

The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons, one from his slave wife and one from his freeborn wife. The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God’s own fulfillment of his promise. Galatians 4:22-23 NLT 

Isaac was called Abraham’s only son because Isaac was the promised son. Now we know why John 3:16 says He gave His only begotten or one and only son. It is not insinuating that God the Son was ever created or given life by the Father. Christ had life that came from being God Himself. His life was original, unborrowed and underived.  The term “Only begotten” or “one and only Son” means that Jesus Christ is the promised Son to redeem mankind and take the right that Adam surrendered in being the representative of the world. 

Adam was the original son of God, who because of sin surrendered the right to represent this world before God. Meanwhile Satan claimed that right and in Job 1:6-11 accused the inhabitants of the earth. But Jesus, the promised One, lived a perfect life and died our death on the cross, and has now won the right to represent us before the Father. Instead of accusing us, He is representing and defending us! 

 He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf. Hebrews 9:24 NLT 

Since Jesus Christ is the promised Son to replace Adam as our representative, not only is He representing us and defending us, saving and redeeming us, but we are also already seated in heaven with Him!

For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2:6 NLT 

Amen!(1)

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Hebrews 1:5 reports the following words of the Father to Jesus: “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You” (NKJV). What does it mean that Jesus was “begotten,” and when did this happen? Does not this show that Jesus was somehow created by God sometime way in the past, as many believe?

Read Hebrews 1:5; 2 Samuel 7:12-14; Psalm 2:7; and Luke 1:31-32. What promise to David did Paul in Hebrews apply to Jesus?

Jesus was begotten in the sense that He was installed, or “adopted,” by God as the promised ruler, the son of David. The concept of the divine adoption of the ruler was common in the Greco-Roman world and the east. It gave the ruler legitimacy and power over the land.

God promised to David, however, that his Son would be the true legitimate ruler of the nations. He would “adopt” David’s son as His own Son.

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Through this process the Davidic King would become God’s protégé and His heir. The covenant is fulfilled in Jesus as the Son of David. God would defeat His enemies and give Him the nations as His inheritance (Psalm 89:27; Psalm 2:7-8).

As we can read in Romans 1:3-4, and Acts 13:32-33, Jesus was publicly revealed as God’s Son. Jesus’ baptism and transfiguration were moments when God identified and announced Jesus as His Son (Matthew 3:17, Matthew 17:5).

Yet, according to the New Testament, Jesus became the “Son of God with power” when He was resurrected and seated at the right hand of God. It was at that moment that God fulfilled His promise to David that his son would be adopted as God’s own Son and His throne over the nations would be established forever (2 Samuel 7:12-14).

Thus, Caesar (symbol of Rome) was not the legitimate “son of god,” ruler of the nations. Instead, Jesus Christ was. The “begetting” of Jesus refers to the beginning of Jesus’ rule over the nations, and not to the beginning of His existence, because Jesus had always existed. There was never a time when Jesus did not exist, because He is God.

In fact, Hebrews 7:3 says that Jesus does not have “beginning of days nor end of life” (cf. Hebrews 13:8) because He is eternal. Thus, the idea of Jesus as God’s “only begotten son” is not dealing with the nature of Christ as deity but with His role in the plan of salvation. Through the incarnation, Christ fulfilled all the covenant promises.

<–Wednesday Friday–>

Amen!(1)

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