[TruthTalk] As to the eternal sonhip of Christ

[Bill Taylor]

Greetings all,   Lance called this morning to tell me that the "conversation" had swung back around to the subject of our Lord's sonship. At his request I have decided to rejoin you for a while (who knows, maybe even longer:>) As you will remember, this is a subject that I am quite passionate about; this because it speaks to the eternal nature of our God: who is this God, and how are we to know him? In my studies I have come to believe that the news that most moved the Apostle Paul was that God's desire is to be known as "Abba, Father" (cf Rom 8.15; Gal 4.6). Paul tells his readers that this is why God created, that "He predestined us to adoption as sons [and daughters] through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will," (Eph 1.5). "Adoption" is his "purpose"; it is why he created; this that we might know him as Father.   And so the question is, did God become a "Father" at some point after his creation. Is that why he created: to be a Father? OR has he always been the Father, and he created to bring others into the relationship he has always had with his Son; that through adoption we might share in that which the Son has always had with his Father? I believe that God can only be truthfully known and understood in the context of this latter question. God has always been "Father" because his Son is eternal. Adoption did not make God something he was not before -- neither did the birth of Jesus; that is, the virgin birth did not introduce "fatherhood" to the Father; nor did it introduce "sonship" to the Son. There has always existed a "filial" relationship in the Godhead. In other words, the birth of Jesus did not change the eternal nature of God. God has always been Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What the birth of Jesus did was change the way we, his creation, have come to know him. It is through Jesus Christ that we may now know God the way he desires to be known -- as "Father" through his Son: "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, 'Abba, Father' ... And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" (Rom 8.15; Gal 4.6). Indeed there was no mature articulation nor knowledge of God prior to the advent of his Son. This most wonderful of truths, while hinted at, was never fully disclosed throughout the OT period; in fact, Jesus states that prior to his coming no one really knew who God was. It was only after he came that people could begin to know him for who he really was (see Luk 10.22).   Why is the question of Christ's sonship so important to me? Because I believe it is integral to a true and right understanding of God. It is where the knowledge of God begins. Christ came not only to save us but to introduce us to his Father, to our Father; that is, he came to introduce us to God as he really is. To say that there was a time when the Son was not, is to also say that the God who can be known only through his Son, is not the God who was before the Incarnation, before he was "the Father"; it is to say that Christ came to introduce a new God, a Marcionite god, a God who suddenly stopped being the God of the Old Testament, now to be a Father. This will not do.   We are familiar with the argument against my position, the one which asserts that Christ became the Son of God at his Incarnation. The verse most commonly cited to support this claim is Psalms 2.7, along with NT verses that quote it: "... Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee." I have responded to this argument in the past, whereupon I pointed out that it was actually to his resurrection and not his birth that the prophetic language of this psalm pointed -- to that day when God would say of his Son, "On this day I have begotten you." Look with me at Acts 13.30-33: "But God raised Him from the dead. He was seen for many days by those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses to the people. And we declare to you glad tidings -- that promise which was made to the fathers. God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm: 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.'"   Did Christ become a Son at his resurrection? Is this what God through the Psalmist promised? Yes, in a sense it was. It was there that he became "the firstborn over all creation" (see Col 1; cf Acts 2). When the Son of God took upon himself human flesh at the Incarnation, it meant that he could not return to his Father until that flesh had been perfected. Luke says that Jesus beat his way forward with blows, that he grew in wisdom and stature. And the preacher to the Hebrews writes that the Son learned obedience by the things he suffered, and that having been perfected, he was qualified to return to his Father as Priest. Yes, it is the Son resurrected and seated at the right hand of his Father that God is excited about: Jesus seated as Lord and Christ (Act 2.36); the Son seated as High Priest, seated the author of salvation (Heb 5.9-10). It is in resurrection that the Son fulfills that for which he was sent. Therefore God says of him on the day of his resurrection, "Today I have begotten thee."   But was the Son the Son of God before the resurrection? Of course he was. And was the Son the Son of God before the Incarnation? Yes, indeed, he was. Look with me at the following passage in Colossians: 1:12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. Verse 16 states that all things were created "by him" and "through him." And so, the question is, who is this "him"? The antecedent for the pronoun "him" in this verse is "the Son" (see v.13), and this Son is the Son of the Father (see v.12). My friends, in order to create all things which are created, the Son had to exist prior to the creation of anything. Do you agree with me? This passage therefore stands as indisputable proof that God's Son existed as the Son of God prior to his birth as a human being from the womb of Mary -- a woman who was herself a created being. But being himself the uncreated creator of all things, the Son is necessarily eternal -- he can be nothing else.    Hence this Son is the eternal Son of God.   And so we are back to where we began. At the heart of God is an eternal, undiminished relationship between the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit. From eternity this God purposed to bring us into that relationship. That is why God created, that through adoption we might share in that which the Father has always shared with his Son and the Son the same with his Father. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved" (Eph 1.3-6).    Praise God.    Bill