Only Begotten Son, Part I
2023-08-06
What does it mean for Jesus to be the only begotten Son? Does that mean that when we are called children of God or sons of God, does that mean we are not truly His sons? And what about the “sons of God” in the Old Testament? The word for “only begotten” is used elsewhere as meaning the only child.
“Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow: and much people of the city was with her” (Luke 7:12). This widow’s son was her hope for support in her old age. There were no other children or means for her support. Jesus’ raising this son from the dead not only removed her sorrow, but also restored her means of survival.
“For he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. But as he went the people thronged him” (Luke 8:42). Jairus’ daughter who was sick and died was his only child.
“And, behold, a man of the company cried out, saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son: for he is mine only child” (Luke 9:38). The man with the son with an unclean spirit after the Transfiguration had no other child.
Elsewhere, it is used one other time concerning Abraham, which gives us some idea of what was meant when speaking of Jesus: “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son” (Hebrews 11:17). We read elsewhere: “The sons of Abraham; Isaac, and Ishmael” (1 Chronicles 1:28). “Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah. And she bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah” (Genesis 25:1-2).
These other sons were not the son of promise. “Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise” (Galatians 4:28). Isaac and his descendants were the children of promise; Isaac is the progenitor of all those children of promise, not the other sons of Abraham.
Likewise, Jesus is the head and progenitor of all those of the New Covenant. And we are only God’s children and sons because of Jesus.