Christ, His Eternal Sonship

by J. Miller | Category: The Lord Jesus Christ: His Person And Work | Jan 1953

There have appeared from time to time in this magazine articles on the Divine and Eternal Sonship of Christ, and it is our purpose in this and the following article next month to state our inflexible belief, that the Lord Jesus Christ was the Son of God and God the Son before all ages, and that His Divine Sonship does not date from His birth, in time, according to the flesh, in Bethlehem. That He is "the Seed of the woman" (Genesis 3. 15), "the Seed of Abraham (Genesis 22.17, 18; Galatians 3.16), and "the Seed of David" (Psalm

89.8,4, 29, 34-37), no enlightened believer will deny. Such promises and prophecies as to Christ being the Seed of the persons named have to do with the Lord's birth according to the flesh, when He, the Word, who is God, became flesh (John 1.1, 14). That the Lord was born of a woman (Galatians 4.4) is a fact that lies at the very beginning of the Gospel narrative; He became Man and the Son of Man by the substance of His mother, but this in no way touches that deeper and more profound truth, that the Son of God is the very Image of the substance of God (Hebrews 1.8). To confuse the substance of the Increate with that created substance which the Eternal Son of God took when He took the form of a servant, and became in the likeness of men (Philippians 2.7), is to open an avenue that will lead to most serious error in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, with all the pitiable evils that spring from false doctrine.

CHRIST WAS THE SON BEFORE ALL WORLDS.

"And now, 0 Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.

"For Thou lovest Me before the foundation of the world" (John 17.5,24).

"Who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love ... Who is the Image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation; for in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth ... all things hove been created through Him, and unto Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist" (Colossians 1.13-17).

"God... hath in these last days spoken unto us in His Son, whom,, He appointed Heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds " (Hebrews 1.1, 2).

In these scriptures we have both personal and relative pronouns used instead of using again and again the names of God the Father and God the Son. It seems so simple and so unnecessary to describe what a pronoun is: "A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun. It is, in fact, a substitute word"; yet in these days when error abounds, error which springs from the father of lies, it seems necessary to get back to the rules governing human language to set forth what the Scriptures reveal to us. Applying this simple grammatical rule to John 17., we have such nouns or substantives used by the Lord as "Father" and "Son." This chapter records the prayer of the Son to the Father on the night of His betrayal, and it abounds with such personal pronouns as I, Thou, He, Him, Me, etc, substitute words used instead of Father and Son. Such a fact seems altogether too elementary to require pointing out.

In verse 5 the Son addresses His Father, and speaks of having had a glory with (Greek Para, beside), that is, in fellowship with, the Father "before the world was." It would be quite beside the mark for anyone to say that it is not true that the Son, a8 the Son, had a glory with the Father, as the Father, before the world was, or to say that then the Father was not the Father nor yet was the Son the Son. It would reduce language to an inextricable tangle and make nonsense of the simple and sublime words of the Son when He spoke of having a glory with (beside) the Father before the world was. We have to remember that the Scriptures were not written for logicians and philosophers, but for simple believers who loved their Lord, as well also as a sincere and straightforward message to men, clear and understandable.

Such a relationship as Father and Son which existed in that remote past, before the world was, still existed on the night of the betrayal, a relationship which was unaffected by the fact of the incarnation, when He the Word became flesh that He might dwell with men. He who was nigh to the Father before the world was, had, when the words of John 17. were spoken, spent almost the whole of those weary, yet infinitely fruitful, years of His earthly life and ministry. For that day, ere night had returned again to cover the dark and fatal deeds of men's hearts and hands, the Son of God would have given Himself up into, the hands of men to become a sacrifice for their sins. He was still the Son as He had been before the world was. Change for that Divine Being, the Son of God, is clearly impossible, as we learn from Hebrews 1.12; 13.8:

"Thou art the same, and Thy years fail not."

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, yea and for ever."

Change was characteristic of Him in His manhood in consequence of His birth in Bethlehem. The Child of Mary grew from babyhood to boyhood, and from boyhood to manhood. He grew in wisdom also as His mind developed, but change is impossible to Him as the Son of God. Eternal sameness is characteristic of Him.

It is helpful and illuminative to connect John 17.5 with Philippians 2.7. In the latter scripture we have the self-emptying of the Lord: "Who, being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant." This was not emptying Himself of the form of God, that was impossible. Had that taken place He would have ceased to be God. It was not the emptying Himself of the glory which is inherent in His Being, as John 1.14 clearly shows: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld His glory, glory as of the Only Begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth." The glory of the Word was the glory of the Divine Being; yet though it was the glory of Deity, it was peculiar to the Person of the Word, for the glory was as the glory of One who is Only Begotten from One who is Father. It was an only Son's glory, and He could not have had the glory of an only Son if He had not been a Son. The Word is the Son of God and as it says in John 1.1, "The Word was God." This divine glory of the Word was veiled by the veil of His flesh from the eyes of many, but it was revealed to the faith of the few, of whom it was true, "We beheld His glory."

What the Lord emptied Himself of, I judge, was a glory that He had beside the Father a glory connected with the throne. The Lord has gone back to the' place "where He was before" (John 6.02). Paul asks the question in Hebrews 1.13,

"But to which of the angels hath He said at any time, Sit Thou on My right hand, Till I make Thins enemies the footstool of Thy feet?

The answer is, to none. No angel was ever so addressed.

No angel could sit on the throne of Deity at God's right hand. That throne He left and of the glory proper to it He emptied Himself.

"My Father's home of Light, My rainbow-circled throne I left, for earthly night, For wanderings sad and lone, I left it all for thee!"

But while this was so the bosom of the Father was ever the eternal abode of the only begotten Son. This was true when as the Child Jesus He lay in the bosom of Mary, His mother according to the flesh.

"No one hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him" (John i. 18).

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 spread themselves over the earth, entering holes and crannies which were pitch black before. So the once dark hearts of men who turn to the Son, the Light of the world, understand what is hidden from the wise and prudent, yet is revealed to babes. See Matthew 11.25-27.

The Son ever dwells in the bosom of the Father, but He left the throne, having emptied Himself of the glory proper to the throne, and came to earth on that wonderful mission and pilgrimage, a pilgrimage from glory to glory, from the throne to the throne, through the dark and dangerous valley of humiliation. He will leave the throne again, but then there will be no self-emptying; He will come even as He is on the Father's throne, for it is plainly stated by John, in 1 John 3.2 that we are destined to see Him even as He is, and we shall also be like Him on that glad day. He first descends into the air for His Church, His Bride, and then He will come to earth in the glory of His Father with power and great glory (Matthew 16.27; 24.80). There will' be no hiding of His power and glory, no self-emptying then He will come to claim what are His by right, by right of Creatorship, and by right of being the Son of Man and Son of David.

Not only did He share a glory beside His Father before the world was, but then He enjoyed His Father's love. In His prayer the Son says,

"Father... Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world"

(John 17. 24).

By no process of reasoning whatever can we avoid the plain truth of these words, that One who is a Father loved Him who describes Himself as Son. The simple sentence, "Thou lovedst Me," in which are the personal pronouns "Thou" and "Me", find their antecedents in the proper names of Father and Son; the Lover was the Father and His Beloved was the Son. When did such an act of love take place? The answer the Son gives is - " before the foundation of the world." The fact that these words were spoken in time does not affect the issue, for the Son is speaking of what took place before time began. What a revelation by One who alone of all who lived on earth could speak of that experience, the sweetest of all experiences, that of being loved, and being loved by a Divine Father!

In Colossians 1. 18-16 "the Son of His (God's) love" is described as being "the Image of the Invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation." Note how verses 14, 15 and 16 begin, in reference to the Son of His love; verse 14," In whom we have our redemption"; verse 15, "Who is the Image of the invisible God"; verse 10, "For in Him were all things created." The relative pronouns" whom" and "who" and the personal pronoun "Him" each refer to the same Person, even the Son of His love. Thus we are told in clear and exact words that it was in the Son of His love that all things were created. This takes us back beyond time, for if all things were created in the Son of God's love, then this Son was in being before all creation. It is like that statement with which the Gospel according to John begins, "In the beginning was the Word... ". The same was in the beginning with God. Ml things were made by Him" (John 1.1, 2). Though there was a beginning to creation there is no beginning to the Word who is the Son. He was in being at such a point as is described as "beginning."

Arianism describes Him thus

"One Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, God of God, Light of Light, Life of Life, only begotten Son, the first brought forth of every creature, begotten of the Father before all ages."

It matters little whether we place the begetting of this only begotten Son before all ages or in time, if He is" the first brought forth of every creature," for then this Son could be only a creature and not God. A God who had a beginning is no co-equal God with Him who repeatedly in Scripture is called the Eternal God.

Arianism was condemned in the early centuries of this era, though it carried on an unholy war against the doctrine of the full Deity of the Son of God, and, alas, continues to raise its horrid head in many places still. Some say that He was before all things, but He was not then the Son of God's love that He was then a Divine Person, nameless, unknown and unknowable, save that He might be called Jehovah; might be, but not altogether certain This is pure, unadulterated perversion of the sacred text If all things were created "in", "through", and " unto " the Son of His love, then it must be that His Sonship is before all creation. This is just what verse 17 says, "And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist."

The Son is called "the Son of His love." "God is love," is one of the truest and sweetest descriptions of the Divine Being. Love is His essence and nature and of like nature and essence is His Son, one only begotten Son 'and there exists no other such Son in all the universe, one who is Love of Love, Light of Light, and God of God. How blessed it is to contemplate that it was in the Son of His love that all things were created! What a binding relationship was to hold together all created intelligences both angelic and human! The love of Him who created all things for His own pleasure, "whose every act pure blessing is " was to encompass all creation through Him, the Son of His love and to hold all together in Him. Creation with a God of almighty power without infinite love would be an intolerable thought, but, blessed be God, it was in the Son of His love that all was created for the loving enjoyment of God in His creation and for the enjoyment of all created intelligences in the love of God for them.

Hebrews 1. 1, 2 repeats the same facts as John 1. and Colossians 1., when it says " God hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son whom He appointed Heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds (or ages). Here we have contrasted the former speakings of God in the prophets to the fathers, in the Old Testament days with the speaking of God in the Son in New Testament times. This Son is God's appointed Heir, Heir of all things. As truly as these facts are so that it was in One who is Son that God spoke and such a Son is His Heir, so is it a fact, that through this Son God made the worlds This clearly declares that the Son is before all worlds. It matters little for our present purpose, of showing that the Son of God was Son before all ages, whether we view "ages "here as worlds, or ages of time and all included in and belonging to such ages. The Son of God was Son before all ages or worlds is the plain declaration of the Spirit of God in this passage, and this agrees with all other portions of the Scriptures which treat on this entrancing and blessed subject. He is the self-same Son in whom we have believed, and in whom we must believe if we are to have the gift of God which is eternal life for this life is in the Son (John 3.16; 1 John 5.10-13). The Son of Cod the sent One of the Father, is the centre and theme of the Gospel and to tamper at all with this blessed fact will take from the Gospel, so far as men's enjoyment of it is concerned, the very life of God's living message. Lotus therefore hold dear and sacred the Divine and Eternal Sonship of our Lord.

CHRIST, HIS DEITY.

We are confronted at the very beginning of the New Testament with the dual facts of Christ's Manhood and Godhood. Much space is given to the tracing of the human descent of the Lord from Abraham to Joseph, to whom by his wife Mary God gave a Son miraculously, through the quickening power of the Holy Spirit. In few words at the end of Matthew 1., we are told who Jesus the Son of Mary is, in the quotation from Isaiah 7.14:

"Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son, And they shall call His name Immanuel; which is, being interpreted, God with us."

He is the Hope of Israel in all their times of peril, and they have been many, and this Child also is the true Hope of humanity and the Deliverer from eternal doom, if men only knew it. Christ was not less God when as an Infant He lay in the manger in Bethlehem than when He sat upon the Throne of Heaven. Cowper has beautifully expressed the truth in the incarnation when He wrote

"My song shall bless the Lard of all, My praise shall climb to His abode; Thee, Saviour, by that name I call, The great supreme, the mighty God.

As much, when in the manger laid

Almighty Ruler of the shy,

As when the sic days' work He made

Filled all the wondering stars with joy."

Joseph was commanded to call the Son of Mary his wife, Jesus, which means, Jehovah the Saviour. Immanuel means, "God (Theo8, Hebrew EL, strong, mighty) with us-"

It was a common practice in Israel, for the names of Jehovah and El to form part of the names of men, but in the case of the Lord it was much more than this, for He was both Jehovah and El (God), though according to the flesh He was born of a woman and laid in a manger.

Jehovah means the self-existent and eternal One. The name is derived from a word which means, to exist, to be. Jah has a like meaning, but is said to be more vehement. God said of Himself to Moses, in Exodus 3.14, "I AM THAT I AM." Gesenius explains what is meant by such words in the Hebrew-" I (ever) shall be (the same) that I am (to-day)". In Malachi 3.4, God showed to the Remnant the changeless character of His being - " I the LORD (Jehovah) change not." What is true of God is also true of Christ, as we have seen before, "Thou art the same" (Hebrews 1.12). "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to-day, yea and for ever" (Hebrews 13.0).

One has written of the being of God to the effect, that before creation He was God absolute, but after creation He became God relative. Such definitions find not the slightest support or warrant in Holy Scripture. Is it not a fact that God as the end as well as the beginning (Revelation 1.8; 22.13), is true of both God and Christ? Does He not call the things that are not as though they were? (Romans 4.17) Has He not written the names of elect persons, persons that are yet future to our time, in the book of life from the foundation of the world? (Revelation 17. 8) ; the saints of the Church, the Body, are said to have been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1 4) Is not the Church the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ? (Ephesians 3.11). Is it not a fact that, "Known unto God are all His works from the beginning"? (Acts 15.18). Were not the works of God present with Him before there were any of them? There is neither change in His being nor yet in His ways. Habakkuk3.0 says that " His ways are everlasting (Hebrew Olam which means age lasting eternal especially hidden time). Gesenius says of this verse, "Ancient ways are to Him, i.e., God goes in the ways in which He anciently went."

Of God we read -

"The Eternal (Hebrew Qedem - what is before in time or place) (Elohim) is thy Refuge" (Deuteronomy 33.27).

"Abraham... called there on the name of the LORD (Jehovah), the everlasting (olam) God (El = the strong One) " (Genesis 21. 33).

"The everlasting (Olam) God (Elohim), the LORD (Jehovah), the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not, neither is weary; searching of His understanding " (Isaiah 40. 28).

The Hebrew names for God, Eloah (singular) and Elohim (plural), are derived from El which means the mighty or strong God, so that the idea of strength and might runs through these Divine names.

"From everlasting (Olam) to everlasting (Olam) Thou art God (El)" (Psalm 90.2).

Wherein is impossible that change from absolute to relative in the being or ways of God? It is impossible!

"Thou art the same," spoken of Christ as to His Godhead is true also of the Father and the Holy Spirit. Note that in Hebrews 1.10-12 the antecedent of "Thou" in "Thou art the same," 15 "Lord" in verse 10, the quotation being taken from the LX,,X. In Psalm 102 the antecedent of "Thou" in verse 27 is "God (El) in verse 24, which shows that the Divine name of El, as well as Lord, is true of Christ.

Scriptures have only to be quoted to show that the Lord Jesus is co-equal God with the Father and the Eternal Spirit. Frequently where the Lord is declared to be God His manhood is also referred to.

"Thy throne 0 God (Elohim), is for ever and ever:

The sceptre of equity is the sceptre of Thy kingdom.

Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated wickedness:

Therefore God, Thy God (Elohim), hath anointed Thee

With the oil of gladness above Thy fellows"

(Psalm 45. 6, 7; Hebrews 1. 8, 9)

Here God speaks to His Son, His Fellow (Zechariah 13. 7, and note that God's Shepherd, in Zechariah is the Man that is Jehovah's Fellow), and calls Him God yet later speaks of Himself as "Thy God," a fact that involves His incarnation, and He also speaks of "Thy fellows". This cannot mean the Father and the Spirit, for He is in no sense above Them, but it means His human fellows, Peter, James and John, and the like. Here in this passage the Lord's Deity and Humanity are revealed side by side.

The same is true in Isaiah 9.0:

"For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given...

And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God (El), Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Here "a Child" is the "Mighty God." The same fact is revealed in Immanuel, the Son of the Virgin (Isaiah 7.14; Matthew 1.28).

This is the same Divine Being as Isaiah saw when He said, "I saw the Lord (Adonai) ... the King, the LORD (JEHOVAH) of Hosts" (Isaiah 6.1-5), as we learn from John 12.41, "These things said Isaiah, because he saw His glory; and spake of Him." In Psalm 110.1 we have David in the Spirit calling Him Lord (Matthew

22.41-45).

The whole of the New Testament is written with the luminous background of the Deity of the Lord Jesus. "Immanuel, God with us" (Matthew 1.28). "The Word was God "(John 1.1). "Christ ... is over all, God blessed for ever" (Romans 9.5). He is "our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2.13; 2 Peter 1.1). He is to be honoured with equal honour to the Father (John 5.23). He is worshipped as a Divine Being both on earth and in heaven (Matthew 8. 2; 9.18; 15.25; 28.9, 17; Revelation 5.8-14). See in contrast what is said in Acts 10. 24-20; 14. 18-16; Revelation 19. 10; 22.8, 9, when men would have worshipped men and angels, how they refused to be worshipped, but never once did the Lord refuse the worship of those who worshipped Him, for it was proper that they should bow in His presence in acknowledgement of His Deity.

The Lord's words in John 8.58 leave us in no doubt as to His understanding of His own Person, when He said, "Before Abraham was, I AM." The Jews well understood the force and meaning of His words, for they took up stones to stone Him, believing that He was guilty of blasphemy.

In His use of "I AM" He was claiming to be JEHOVAH the God of Israel, who had delivered Israel in the days of Exodus. Such was indeed His claim and such all Scripture attests. In that glorious city, the Bride of the Lamb, as described to us in Revelation 21., we see the Lamb of God with the Lord God the Almighty.

"I saw no temple therein: for the Lard God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple thereof. And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp thereof is the Lamb... and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein" (Revelation 21.22, 28; 22.8).

"Thou art the everlasting Word,

The Father's only Son,

God manifestly seen and heard,

And heaven's Beloved One.

Worthy the name of Jesus now

That every knee therein should bow".

Amen and Amen.

J. Miller | Jan 1953
The Lord Jesus Christ: His Person And Work