The Eternal Sonship of Christ (2)

Question: “Why is it so important that Jesus was God’s only Son? God could have had thousands of sons. Are not the angels His sons also? And what about Hebrews 2:10? ‘For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.’”

The point of the quotation from Hebrews 2 is that the people of God who are led to glory are called in the text “sons.”

In the last issue of the News, I pointed out that the absolute divinity of Christ is the foundation of all the truth of Scripture, the rock on which Christ builds His church, and a doctrine, therefore, of crucial importance to the church of all ages. I also pointed out that all Arminianism, Pelagianism and higher-critical denials of the miracles in Scripture, particularly those of the virgin birth and the bodily resurrection of our Lord from the grave, are incipient Modernism and the beginnings, at least, of a full denial of our Lord’s divinity.

The divinity of Christ has been confessed by the church from the beginning of its history. It was set down in creedal form by the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. The crucial part of that creed reads: “I believe ... in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God; Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made, being of one essence with the Father.”

This solemn truth was reaffirmed by the Council of Constantinople in 381, by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 and by the (so-called) Athanasian Creed. All the creeds of the Reformation hold to this doctrine and it is the precious confession of all believers.

The doctrine is taught throughout Scripture. We only mention a few places here, for the truth of our Lord’s divinity runs like a golden thread throughout the Bible. The Angel of Jehovah, the Old Testament manifestation of Christ, is God Himself (Gen. 32:24-30; esp. verse 30). Isaiah 9:6 calls Christ the “mighty God” and the “everlasting Father.”

In the New Testament, the divinity of Christ is written large on every page. Paul’s opening words to the Romans are, “... declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom. 1:4). In John 1:1, the Word is said to be with God, and to be God. In verse 18 of the same chapter, in a contested, but possibly correct, reading and one in keeping with the context, John says, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” In I Timothy 3:16, Paul writes, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.” All His life on earth, the Lord was challenged for claiming to be the Christ. The Jews challenged this because they knew that the one who was the Christ, the Messiah, had also to be divine. The Lord was finally condemned to death because He swore under oath that He was indeed the Christ, the Son of the living God. Repeatedly the Jews condemned Him for making Himself equal with God.

It is true that men and even angels are also called sons of God. Men and angels are called sons of God because they were created by God (cf. Luke 3:38). God’s people are called sons of God because of their adoption and regeneration (i.e., second birth from above). When man fell, he became a son of Satan according to the scathing words of Jesus in John 8:42-44.

Modernism denies the fall and its consequences. It prattles piously of all as God’s sons and daughters. It trumpets “the brotherhood of man” and God’s universal family. It speaks glowingly of our service to mankind in general and doing good to the brotherhood.

This is all very wicked and a denial of the terrible consequences of the fall. We are once again brought into the family of God as sons and daughters in His house by a wonder of grace. In that family, the constituency of which is determined by eternal election, the Triune God is our Father and Christ is the elder brother, the heir of the birthright and the head under God of the family. But He is such because He is first of all the eternal Son of God. Thus He accomplishes all His Father’s purpose in gathering this divine and elect family into His Father’s house of many mansions (John 14:1-3).

That leaves us with one question the reader asks: Why is this doctrine important?

Although I have really answered this question already, I can best sum it all up by telling you of an incident that took place at the Council of Nicea in 325.

The great defender of biblical truth at the council was a deacon from Alexandria. His staunch defence of the truth at Nicea and his willingness to suffer for the defence of the truth of the divinity of Christ (he was exiled from his church and home no less than five times) has made him a famous figure in the annuls of the church in her battle for the faith. His name was Athanasius and he was known as “Athansius contra mundi” (“Athansius against the world”). Few believed what Nicea had taught and yet fewer were willing to defend that truth that Nicea had set in creedal form. Athanasius stood alone.

In the course of the debate on the floor of the Council meeting, debate that at times became violent, Athanasius stood up and made something like the following remarks: “Jesus Christ has to be true God of true God. We are depraved sinners who can do nothing to save ourselves. Only God can save us. Our salvation is all through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore Christ is God.”

It was left to Athanasius to put the debate outside the limits of academic and “scholarly” debate and put it in the context of our salvation—where it rightly belongs. The issue is so important because it involves our salvation. We can be saved only by a work no man can perform, the full satisfaction of our sins and the meritorious obedience of the Son of God. This is why any attempt to ascribe salvation in whole or in part to man is utterly destructive of our only hope in life and in death. Jesus Christ is true God of true God. Therefore, I have confidence in this life and look to the future with hope, for my life is hid with Christ in God.