{"id":1052,"date":"2026-06-16T07:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T07:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/?p=1052"},"modified":"2026-06-16T07:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T07:16:15","slug":"the-only-begotten-firstborn-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/?p=1052","title":{"rendered":"The Only Begotten, Firstborn Son"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From A Brief Word of Exhortation<\/a><\/em>, Volume 1:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heb. 1:4-14<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the last Lesson, I said that the passage in Heb. 1:4-14 raises three important questions. First, since we Christians be\u00adlieve there is only one true God, how can God call the Son \u201cGod\u201d in verse 8? Second, if the Son is God and, therefore, has existed from eternity, why does God the Father say in verse 5, \u201cTo\u00adday, I have be\u00adgot\u00adten you\u201d? If the Son has been begotten, does that not imply that he had a beginning like the rest of us do?<\/a> Third, if the Son is God and, therefore, has existed from eternity, why is he called the firstborn in verse 6?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We answered the first question in the last Lesson. We saw that God can call the Son \u201cGod\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will now answer the other two questions. The second ques\u00adtion is if the Son is God and, therefore, has existed from eternity, why does God the Father say in verse 5, \u201cToday, I have begotten you\u201d? If the Son has been begotten, does that not imply that he had a be\u00adgin\u00adning like the rest of us do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Greek word for \u201cbegotten\u201d is gennao<\/em>, which literally means \u201cto beget.\u201d It is used in the literal sense in the gene\u00ada\u00adlo\u00adgy in Matt. 1:2-17, which says, for ex\u00adample, \u201cAbraham begot Isaac.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In human terms, a boy is not a son until he is be\u00adgot\u00adten 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. \u201cBegetting,\u201d therefore, implies a beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cults, like the Jehovah\u2019s 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 be\u00adgin\u00adning, which means that he can\u00adnot be God. They believe that Jesus was the first thing God made, which is why he is called the Son of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also point out that in John\u2019s Gospel, Jesus is often called \u201cthe only begotten Son.\u201d For example, he is called that in John 3:16. They argue that if Jesus is be\u00adgotten, doesn\u2019t that imply that there was a time when he did not exist, that he had a beginning?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 is\u00adsued in 325 AD and, be\u00adcause the teaching persisted, was revised in 381 AD. In that Creed, the leaders said, \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Greek, \u201conly begotten\u201d is monogenes<\/em>, which means \u201conly child.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 seem\u00ading con\u00adtra\u00addic\u00adtion?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s family, but in Christ we are adopted into God\u2019s family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Christ is the only begotten Son. What the lead\u00aders of the early Church were trying to say is, just as hu\u00admans 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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, \u201cToday, I have begotten you.\u201d He is saying that the Son has the same divine na\u00adture as himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what does the Father mean when he says, \u201cToday<\/em>, I have begotten you\u201d? The early Church lead\u00aders addressed this as well. They said that since God is outside of time, it is always today for him. Hence, \u201cto\u00adday\u201d is not a particular day but an eternal today. Jesus, therefore, is eternally begotten<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third question is if the Son is God and, there\u00adfore, has existed from eternity, why is he called the firstborn in verse 6?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Greek word for \u201cfirstborn\u201d is prototokos<\/em>, which literally means \u201cfirstborn.\u201d It is used literally in Matt. 1:25 where Jesus is called Mary\u2019s firstborn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFirstborn\u201d was never used of an only child. It was used of the first of multiple children. An only child was called monogenes<\/em>, an only begotten. Since Jesus was Mary\u2019s firstborn, she must have had other children after him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Jesus is called both \u201cthe only begotten,\u201d which means an only child, and \u201cthe firstborn,\u201d which means the first of multiple children. This seems to be a con\u00adtra\u00addic\u00adtion. However, how a word is actually used often differs from its literal meaning. The firstborn son had pre\u00ademinence 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, \u201cfirstborn\u201d came to mean \u201cthe preeminent one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Exod. 4:22, God declares that Israel is his first\u00adborn. When this verse was translated into the Greek, the trans\u00adlators used prototokos<\/em>. Obviously, not every\u00adone in Israel was a firstborn, nor was Israel the first na\u00adtion. God means that Israel is pre\u00adem\u00adinent over all of the other nations, the most important one to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jewish rabbis called God the \u201cFirstborn of the World.\u201d They do not mean that God had a beginning. They are saying that God is preeminent over every\u00adthing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFirstborn\u201d has both meanings in Col. 1:18, which says that Jesus is the firstborn from the dead. Jesus is the first to be res\u00adurrected to eternal life. Other people in the Bible were res\u00adur\u00adrected, but they died again. Jesus is the first to be res\u00adur\u00adrected and never die again. Paul says in this verse that God did this so that Jesus could have the preeminence over all. So \u201cfirstborn\u201d has both meanings here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By calling Jesus the firstborn, the writer of Hebrews is say\u00ading that Jesus is preeminent over everything, which means he is preeminent over the angels and there\u00adfore better than them, which also means that we had better listen to him. And by say\u00ading 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 Chris\u00adtians who were thinking about leaving Christianity and returning to Ju\u00adda\u00adism. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 be\u00adlieve there is only one true God, how can God … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-epistle-to-the-hebrews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1052"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1053,"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052\/revisions\/1053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/claytonhowardford.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}