The Only Begotten, Firstborn Son

From A Brief Word of Exhortation, Volume 1:

Heb. 1:4-14

In the last Lesson, I said that the passage in Heb. 1:4-14 raises three important questions. First, since we Christians be­lieve there is only one true God, how can God call the Son “God” in verse 8? Second, if the Son is God and, therefore, has existed from eternity, why does God the Father say in verse 5, “To­day, I have be­got­ten you”? If the Son has been begotten, does that not imply that he had a beginning like the rest of us do? Third, if the Son is God and, therefore, has existed from eternity, why is he called the firstborn in verse 6?

We answered the first question in the last Lesson. We saw that God can call the Son “God” even though there is only one God because the two of them share the same divine nature and because they, along with the Holy Spirit, are united in such a way that there is only one God. That is the doctrine of the Trinity.

We will now answer the other two questions. The second ques­tion is if the Son is God and, therefore, has existed from eternity, why does God the Father say in verse 5, “Today, I have begotten you”? If the Son has been begotten, does that not imply that he had a be­gin­ning like the rest of us do?

The Greek word for “begotten” is gennao, which literally means “to beget.” It is used in the literal sense in the gene­a­lo­gy in Matt. 1:2-17, which says, for ex­ample, “Abraham begot Isaac.”

In human terms, a boy is not a son until he is be­got­ten and a man is not a father until he begets a child. There was a time when the son did not exist and there was a time when the man was not a father. “Begetting,” therefore, implies a beginning.

The cults, like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, apply this idea to God the Father and Jesus, the Son. There was a time, they say, when the Father was not a father and there was a time when the Son did not exist until the Father begot him, which means that Jesus had a be­gin­ning, which means that he can­not be God. They believe that Jesus was the first thing God made, which is why he is called the Son of God.

They also point out that in John’s Gospel, Jesus is often called “the only begotten Son.” For example, he is called that in John 3:16. They argue that if Jesus is be­gotten, doesn’t that imply that there was a time when he did not exist, that he had a beginning?

This is not a new idea. It was widely taught in the late 200s and early 300s AD. To counter this teaching, the leaders of the early Church issued a statement of faith known as the Nicene Creed. This Creed was is­sued in 325 AD and, be­cause the teaching persisted, was revised in 381 AD. In that Creed, the leaders said, “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father.”

Substance is the same as nature. When the leaders say that Jesus has the same substance as the Father, they mean that he has the same divine nature as the Father.

Notice also that they said that Jesus was begotten but not made, which means that Jesus did not have a beginning. How do we reconcile these two truths? How can Jesus be begotten but not made?

In the Greek, “only begotten” is monogenes, which means “only child.” It could be used of an only son or only daughter. What John is saying in his Gospel is that Jesus is the only Son of God.

This raises an interesting question because John also says in John 1:12 that all of us believers are the sons (children) of God. How do we explain that seem­ing con­tra­dic­tion?

The answer is in Rom. 8:14-15. We are children of God by adoption. We are not the natural children of God. We were born sinners and enemies of God. We were born outside of God’s family, but in Christ we are adopted into God’s family.

But Christ is the only begotten Son. What the lead­ers of the early Church were trying to say is, just as hu­mans beget humans and horses beget horses and dogs beget dogs, so too, God begets God. This is why we are not the begotten sons of God. We are not gods.

By being the only begotten Son, Jesus is the only son who has the same divine nature as the Father, which means he is eternal like the Father. This is why the Father says in Heb. 1:5, “Today, I have begotten you.” He is saying that the Son has the same divine na­ture as himself.

So what does the Father mean when he says, “Today, I have begotten you”? The early Church lead­ers addressed this as well. They said that since God is outside of time, it is always today for him. Hence, “to­day” is not a particular day but an eternal today. Jesus, therefore, is eternally begotten

The third question is if the Son is God and, there­fore, has existed from eternity, why is he called the firstborn in verse 6?

The Greek word for “firstborn” is prototokos, which literally means “firstborn.” It is used literally in Matt. 1:25 where Jesus is called Mary’s firstborn.

“Firstborn” was never used of an only child. It was used of the first of multiple children. An only child was called monogenes, an only begotten. Since Jesus was Mary’s firstborn, she must have had other children after him.

But Jesus is called both “the only begotten,” which means an only child, and “the firstborn,” which means the first of multiple children. This seems to be a con­tra­dic­tion. However, how a word is actually used often differs from its literal meaning. The firstborn son had pre­eminence over the other children. When the father died, the firstborn would run the house. He was given the authority over all of the other children. So, in usage, “firstborn” came to mean “the preeminent one.”

In Exod. 4:22, God declares that Israel is his first­born. When this verse was translated into the Greek, the trans­lators used prototokos. Obviously, not every­one in Israel was a firstborn, nor was Israel the first na­tion. God means that Israel is pre­em­inent over all of the other nations, the most important one to him.

The Jewish rabbis called God the “Firstborn of the World.” They do not mean that God had a beginning. They are saying that God is preeminent over every­thing.

“Firstborn” has both meanings in Col. 1:18, which says that Jesus is the firstborn from the dead. Jesus is the first to be res­urrected to eternal life. Other people in the Bible were res­ur­rected, but they died again. Jesus is the first to be res­ur­rected and never die again. Paul says in this verse that God did this so that Jesus could have the preeminence over all. So “firstborn” has both meanings here.

Paul also says that Jesus is the firstborn over all of creation in Col. 1:15. He does not mean that Jesus was the first one created, as the cults like to say, but that Jesus has the preeminence over all of creation.

By calling Jesus the firstborn, the writer of Hebrews is say­ing that Jesus is preeminent over everything, which means he is preeminent over the angels and there­fore better than them, which also means that we had better listen to him. And by say­ing that Jesus was begotten, he is saying that Jesus is the only one who also has the divine nature of the Father, that he is God himself, which is another reason why he is better than the angels and another reason why we should listen to him. Hebrews was written to a group of Jewish Chris­tians who were thinking about leaving Christianity and returning to Ju­da­ism. The writer of Hebrews is saying to them that they should stay with Jesus because he is better than the Judaism from which they had come.