Jesus the Eternal Son
John 1:1-14
“1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 8He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
“In the beginning was the Word”
Jesus is the Word—the Logos (John 1:1). What is the meaning of Logos? The term means knowledge, message, or revelation. Jesus is the Revealer or the Revelation of God. Hebrews 1:1, 2 says, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.” 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” (John 1:18). Jesus as the Word reveals fully and completely who God is. He is God’s Perfect Revelation to man.
The phrase “in the beginning” reminds us of Genesis 1:1. John here was trying to tell his readers that the story of Jesus he was about to present did not have its starting point in John 1:1, but in Genesis 1:1. In other words, to know Jesus, one must know the Bible right from its very first book. Jesus was there “in the beginning.” He is Creator: “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3).
Now, it must be said that the beginning of John 1:1 is also a beginning before the “beginning” of Genesis 1:1. The word “was” in the Greek (eimi in the imperfect tense) implies timelessness. This tells us that He has always existed—He existed in eternity past, He exists right now, He exists forevermore. He was there in Genesis 1:1, and even before the creation of the world. Jesus has a beginning of no beginning. He is the Uncaused First Cause.
“and the Word was with God”
The Logos is distinguished from God. The distinction has nothing to do with essence, for Jesus is of the same substance with God. Here the distinction has to do with persons. The Logos is a Person Himself. He is “with” God in the sense that He is “in the presence” or “in the company” of God (cf, Matt 13:56, Mark 6:3, Luke 9:41, 1 Thess 3:4).
Who was this God that Jesus was with? It had to be God the Father. Jesus is said to be “the only begotten of the Father” (John 1:14, 18, 3:16, 1 John 4:9). God the Son was with God the Father. The Father and the Son are thus distinct persons. The Father is not the Son but both are nonetheless the very same God—the one living and true God (Deut 6:4). Know also that there is another person in the Godhead—God the Spirit. The Apostle John knew this well for he wrote in 1 John 5:7, “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” This is the clearest biblical proof text for the doctrine of the Trinity
“and the Word was God”
Jesus is God Himself, not just 50% God as heretically taught by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, but 100% God. And we know this because of the Apostle John’s unique description of our Lord calling Him the “only begotten Son”.
Jesus is not just the Son of God, He is the eternally begotten Son of God. The doctrine of the eternal generation of the 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity is taught in the 4th century Athanasian and Nicene Creeds which state that Jesus is both Son and God “only-begotten … of the Father before all the ages.” The Westminster Confession of Faith likewise affirms, “In the unity of the Godhead, there be three persons, of one substance, power and eternity; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; and the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son” (II:3).
Know that this historic and fundamental doctrine of the eternal Sonship of Christ is being undermined today by the modern versions of the Bible. The Revised Standard Version (RSV) for example renders it as “only Son”, and the New International Version (NIV) has it as “one and only Son.” Where is the word “begotten”? It has been removed! In the Greek Scriptures, the word monogenees means literally “only begotten” as accurately translated in the King James Version (KJV) and not simply “one and only.” Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God —begotten, not created. The RSV and NIV by omitting the word “begotten” have effectively taken out the doctrine of the eternal Sonship of Christ from the Bible, which is a fundamental doctrine of the Christian Faith. That is why we use the KJV. We can trust the KJV to be faithful and true to the original language Scriptures that God has inspired and preserved, and to the fundamental doctrines of the Christian Faith, but not these modern versions.
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us”
The Word has been identified as God Himself, and the only begotten Son of God. And this only begotten Son “was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” Galatians 4:4 says, “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
But the question is: Was Jesus the Son of God before His incarnation, before He was made flesh? There are those who deny. John MacArthur for example in his commentary on the book of Hebrews erroneously taught, “The Bible nowhere speaks of the eternal sonship of Christ. … He was always God, but He became Son. He had not always had the title of Son. … His Sonship began at a point in time, not in eternity. His life as Son began in this world.”
Such a view of the Sonship of Christ makes a mockery of John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” How can God be said to have given His Son when He had no Son to give in the first place? Moreover, if Jesus Christ has not been the Son since eternity past, then logically there cannot be a Father either. And if there was no God the Father who existed eternally as the Father, and no God the Son who existed eternally as the Son, then was there God the Spirit who existed eternally as the Spirit? If we deny the doctrine of the eternal Sonship of Christ, or for that matter, the eternality of any of the distinctive Persons and Titles of the Godhead, we effectively deny the doctrine of the Holy Trinity altogether.
John 1:18 is sufficient to dispel any notion that the 2nd Person of the Holy Trinity was never the Son before His incarnation. In this verse John tells us that there was never a time when God the Father was never the Father, or God the Son was never His Son. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” Clearly, God the Father and God the Son already had a unique and intimate Father-Son relationship before the incarnation, even before the world began. What a God and Saviour we have! JK
Letter from Kathmandu
(12 November 2011)
Dear Sir,
Warm greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And thank you very much for your email and word of encouragement.
I thank God for raising Far Eastern Bible College for His glorious purpose. It is a college that helped me to have a good understanding of the Word of God. Through the four years of orderly teaching, I was brought to a better understanding of the truth. It is my prayer that the College will continue to be used by God to equip many more of God’s people for the ministry of extending His kingdom. Thank God for my Alma Mater (Far Eastern Bible College) and her kindness toward me.
I am thankful to the Lord for the privilege of serving Him in Kathmandu (the capital city of Nepal) as a preacher. Thank God for the establishment of Kathmandu BP Church. Please continue to pray for the ministry of Kathmandu BP Church.
I am trying to finish my translation work (Fundamentals of the Christian Faith) by end of December 2011, and will attend next year’s graduation.
Only this much for today.
In His grace,
Preacher Rajan Shrestha
Kathmandu BP Church
