The Deity And Eternal Sonship Of The Lord Jesus Christ

by R.B. Fullarton, Innerleithen. Scotland | Category: A Centenary Review Of Major Themes | Feb 1988

A building's stability is dependent upon the security and reliability of its foundation. The whole structure and fabric of the Faith which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3) rests upon the dignity and glory of the Person of the Son as set forth in the Scriptures where alone He is revealed.

The written Word reveals the living and incarnate Word, and to its testimony faith unhesitatingly submits. The divine and eternal Sonship of the Lord Jesus is beyond human reasoning, but gladly accepted and adored by faith, as a former writer in Needed Truth puts it:

However profound and inexplicable may be the truth of the Deity of Christ, and whatever (the) apparent difficulties... let us hold fast to the clear and complete testimony of the Scriptures that Jesus is God (J. Drain: 1956 p.140).

Deity Essential

The truth of the Lord's Deity is vital to salvation. A perfect Saviour could not be less than God. To be the Sin-bearer and true Mediator, comprehending the depths of God as well as the needs of man, and the revealer of the Father (John 14:9; 1:18), the Lord Jesus had to possess full Deity.

The Old Testament had foretold the coming of the Messiah, and the Jewish people eagerly awaited His arrival. As to human lineage He would come of the house of David as many scriptures declared clearly. That was only a partial belief though a correct one. "What think ye of the Christ, whose Son is He?" posed the Lord to Israel's leaders, to show that Messiah was not merely to be Man but also God. The One who was born in Bethlehem did not begin His existence there. His coming to the city of David was but a step from eternity; from movements and activities unseen and unknown to the world (Mic. 5:2; John 1:10). He was coming to link in His own Person true humanity with absolute Deity. At the incarnation He became Man; never at any time did He become God. He always was God (John 1:1). He always was Deity and could not cease to be so in becoming Man. He became what He had never before been and ceased not to be what He ever was. He is perfect God, perfect Man, one Christ. He who is David's son is also David's Lord. So the Son was already a DIVINE PERSON before coming to earth. He did not become two persons but still remained ONE, but now in the possession of two natures.

Deity Claimed

Frequently in His ministry the Lord Jesus asserted His pre-existence and equality with the Father: "I came forth and am come from God" (John 8:42); "I and the Father are One" (John 10:30). His claims aroused deep resentment in the hearts of His opponents. There is no stronger statement found in Scripture than John 1:18 as to the Lord's unique relationship to the Father: "the only-begotten... in the bosom of the Father". This reveals that the Son of God has His being timelessly in the Father's bosom. He is in the most complete fellowship and oneness with the Father in co-equality, coexistence and co-eternity - and was so even during His earthly life. In His possession of deity He has the very nature, essence and being of God. He is Immanuel, God blessed for ever, God manifest in flesh, the true God, the mighty God and Father of eternity and our great God and Saviour (Is. 7; Rom. 9; 1 Tim. 3; 1 John 5; Is. 9 and Titus 2:13). We quote from an earlier issue:

Certain Scriptures brilliantly illuminate this truth. Yet many less direct references glow with the same wondrous light ... the glory of Christ's Deity pervades all Scripture! (G. Prasher: 1983 p.154).

Deity Expressed

Mark commences his account of the work of the Lord Jesus by saying, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus

Christ, the Son of God". It is in the person of the Son that God is fully seen. The great truth of the Lord's Deity to the New Testament writers was not a question of debate but a statement of faith, and was the standpoint from which they wrote their Spirit inspired accounts. The name of Son declares what the Lord Jesus was to the Father before any creature or time existed. The apostle John introduces the central figure of his evangel as "The WORD" and demonstrates without any possibility of denial that Christ is God Himself.

All the radiant fulness of the excellencies 6f God, including all the splendour of His nature and character are found in Him - the Lord Jesus Christ described in Hebrews 1 as the effulgence of His glory and the very image of His substance - reproducing perfectly and exactly all that God is and does, just as the impression is made by a die. To see the Son is to see the Father. The term "substance" refers to that which "lies under", not outward appearance, but inward reality. In Colossians chapter 1 Christ is spoken of as the image of the invisible God, that is not mere similarity but identity of nature. God is for ever comprehended in Christ. The Lord Jesus is not a manifestation of God, but God manifest in flesh. When the Lord said, "The Father is greater than I" (John 14:28), it was in the sense of His self-emptying glory in His place on earth of submission and not subordination to the Father. All the exercises and activities of God are ascribed to the Son (see Col. 1:16-18; 1 Pet. 1:11; Luke 5:20; Acts 10:42 and Matt. 2:11; 8:2 etc.) So the statement of John 14:28 does not contradict John 10:30, where "I" and "the Father" exclude total identification of the Father with the Son in personality, but "One" being singular and neuter in the Greek affirms the unity of the Father and the Son in essential being.

He is one with the Father in being and essence, and therefore one in purpose and work (J. Miller: 1939 p.70).

Eternal Sonship in the title

"Only-Begotten"

When the Lord Jesus is called God, for instance in Hebrews 1:8, it is unnecessary to say that He is eternal, for God is essentially eternal. Likewise when He is spoken of as Son of God it is not necessary to say He is the eternal Son because He is that in His Deity and in His being. Isaac was Abraham's only-begotten (Heb. 11:17), the only one, the darling without rival in the affections of his father. So "only-begotten" is a term of unoriginated relationship (Needed Truth 1983 p.153). He was always Son and did not come into sonship. His eternal sonship is the sphere proper to Him by virtue of His place in Deity, indicating that He ever has and ever will occupy that special place in the Father's thoughts and affections in the eternal intimacy and union between the Persons of the Godhead. The splendour of God's benevolence to the world is seen in John 3:16; the extreme of human guilt and sin is seen in John 3:18, where we have occurrences of the expression "only-begotten". A similar expression used in Scripture is "His own Son", e.g. Romans 8:3 and 32, where in the first occasion we have indicated an equality of nature and relationship and in the second that of ownership, i.e. the Son of no-one else.

In the contemplation of this Divine and Only Begotten Son human wisdom fails to conceive what is meant, but over the heart in which faith is working by love there steals an illumination, as the rays of dawn

(J. Miller: 1953 p.5).

Sonship related to Creation and Incarnation

Whatever were the activities of the Godhead before creation the eternal Son had His part in them, for He was with God and He was God, His equal and His Fellow (Zech. 13:7), in His existence eternal, in His nature divine, in His person distinct. His Sonship is eternal and is the Lord's title within the Godhead. The title of Son implies equality, being an expression of dignity, not of subjection, and still less of inferiority. In Him there was subjection (voluntary) which bears out the greatness of His humility - "though He was a Son, yet ..." (Heb. 5:8); "though He was rich (i.e. eternally as Son), yet . . "(2 Cor. 8:9). This teaches that the earthly path of suffering was set in such sharp contrast to His nature and glory as Son eternal. It is in the context of His Sonship (Col. 1:13) that the Lord is referred to as "He who is before all things" (v.17). Not, He was before all, but is. The present tense is used of that which is before all time, in His eternity before and above all creation. Sonship and First-born are linked together in this letter by Paul to the church of God in the small decadent town of Colossae in Asia Minor. They are found in combination relating to Israel in Exodus 4:22. The latter title ascribes to the Lord Jesus the preeminence of absolute heirship and transcends all thought of time, a title indicating dignity and priority where relationships with men or things is concerned. It does not mean he was born-first. It is a title of rank, not of birth. Therefore this title of dignity looks back to the Lord's eternal Sonship and forward to ownership, expressing the sovereignty of the Son over all creation. All things exist for, and belong to, the eternal Son of God. He is the "glory" of and from the Father (John 1:14), possessing in Himself the sum total of all divine attributes and having eternity in His Sonship. His glory as the eternal Son is the source of all his relationships to His creatures and is related to all God's dealings in creation and redemption.

Majesty of Eternal Sonship

The eternal majesty of the Son was not only spoken of, but seen by Isaiah the prophet (John 12:41). In that vista of the Son's glory the prophet was constrained to write "a Son is given" (Is. 9:6). This Son is the Father of Eternity. In the Old Testament, "father" denotes the author of anything, its nourisher and preserver and also one who excels in a particular quality. As applied here, it expresses the creative majesty of the Son as author of the ages and His upholding power as sustainer of its history. The title reveals One who is peculiarly marked by the possession in Himself of eternity. He dwells in eternity (Is. 57:15) and eternity dwells in Him (9:6).

The Lord identified Himself with the One who spoke to Moses from the bush: "Before Abraham was I AM" (John 8:58). The Jews had no doubt as to what He claimed. Far more than existence before Abraham is here, otherwise He could have said, "I WAS". But "I AM" is independent of time; no past, no future, but an eternal present. God then has finally and fully spoken in the eternal Son. The force of "Son" mentioned in Hebrews 1 is such a one as Son, greater by far than prophets or angels: "who maketh His angels winds". But the Son eternally is. "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee (v.5) "proclaims the eternal generation of the Son by which He is eternally the Son" (Needed Truth 1939 p.83).

The Son is true God, seated on a throne of eternal Deity, maintaining a moral government of perfect order in the universe, being Himself immutable and eternal.

R.B. Fullarton, Innerleithen. Scotland | Feb 1988
A Centenary Review Of Major Themes