The passage for today and the next several days is one of those amazing, exalted, and grand pictures of Christ in the NT that include John 1:1-18, Phil. 2:5-11 and Col. 1:15-19. a study of these four verses can go on forever. As a matter of fact, it will go on forever! In eternity, those who live in the presence of God, will never plumb the depths of this description of the Son of God.
It will be helpful if we understand the likeness
of father and son, and thus the perfect likeness of Father and Son. When God purposed to make us holy and
blameless, He brought us into “sonship” by adoption. God Himself is holy and blameless. So, to make us like Him, He made us His “sons”
(Eph. 1:4-5).
When God purposed to make the clearest
revelation of Himself to His creation, how did He do it? He sent His Son. A father can only beget someone like
himself. “Like father, like son” is a
fact. Human fathers do not beget foxes
or dogs or lions. Thus, as we have noted
often in our studies, Jesus, as Son of God, is, in fact God. He has the essential characteristics of
Deity. Jesus is not the Son of God by
adoption. He is God’s only begotten
Son (KJV, NKJV, NASB1995). Other English
translations refer to Christ as God’s only Son (NASB, ESV), or one
and only Son (NIV).
On the other hand, when John 1:12 tells us
that, by faith, we have authority to become sons of God, what is it talking
about? It is a spiritual birth: who
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God (Jn. 1:13). Jesus told
Nicodemus that he must be born in the human way (born of water) and in a
spiritual way (of the Spirit, Jn. 3:5-8). This is regeneration, being born
again, being born from above. We have put
on the new man (Christ in us) which was created according to God, in
true righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:24). In Christ, through the gospel, we have great
and precious promises, so that through these you may be partakers of
the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).
Thus, Christ is the only begotten of God. We are sons by adoption so that we can share
in the family blessings. We are heirs—heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17).
Which brings us back to Heb. 1:2. How did God
reveal Himself to His creation in the most complete way possible? He has in these last days spoken to us by
Son! The word “His” is not there;
that’s why your English Bible has it in italics. It means God spoke through the concept or
essence of “Son-ness.” You cannot know
God any better than through the Son of God.
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you
have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how
can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (John 14:9)
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