August 6th, 2023
I’m returning from my sabbatical rested and rejuvenated and excited to resume pastoral ministry, which includes my notes to the church on the Nicene Creed. The creed is a pattern of sound words (2 Timothy 1:13), by which we confess our faith in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
You can find my previous notes on the creed here. In this note, I consider our confession that the Lord Jesus Christ is “the only-begotten Son of God, eternally begotten from the Father.” The Son is begotten, he is only-begotten, and he is eternally begotten.
“Begotten” is an old word. I doubt you use it in your day-to-day conversation. The word refers to the generation of life from a father. You are begotten from your father. Thus, in the King James Version of Adam’s genealogy, the words “begat” and “begotten” are repeated. Adam begat Seth; Seth was begotten from Adam. Seth’s life is from his father Adam.
God’s Word testifies that the Son is begotten from the Father (John 1:14, 18; Hebrews 1:5). God the Father is unbegotten. God the Son is begotten from the Father. This means the life of the Son is from the Father. This is what Jesus himself declares in John 5:26: “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.”
The creed adds two qualifiers: the Son is the only-begotten and he is eternally begotten. First, he is the only-begotten Son of God (John 1:14, 18). God the Father does not have two sons (the Spirit is not begotten) or three sons or a million sons. He has one Son, the Only-Begotten. In Christ, we are adopted as sons. We have received the Spirit of adoption. We are co-heirs with Christ. His Father is our Father. But Christ alone is the only-begotten Son from the Father.
Second, the Son is eternally begotten from the Father. The word “begotten” assumes a beginning, a coming into existence. Seth didn’t exist before he was begotten from Adam. This is not the case with God the Son. He was eternally begotten. He has his life from the Father, but he is without beginning or end. The Father has always been the Father and the Son has always been the Son. In the early fourth century, the Arians used to sing a little ditty about the Son, “There was a time when he was not.” They sang lies. The Son is eternally begotten.
The Son is the only-begotten Son of God, eternally begotten from the Father. He has his life from the Father. His life is eternal and the Father sent him to give us this eternal life:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.” (John 5:24-26)