September 1, 2020
FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
THE GREATER SENSE IN WHICH CHRIST JESUS IS ‘THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON’ OF GOD THE FATHER
“Having become so much better than the angels, as He has BY INHERITANCE obtained a more excellent name than they [the angels]. FOR to which of the angels did He ever say, You are My Son, today I have begotten You?” Heb. 1:4,5. None of course!
“‘This day I have begotten Thee.’ According to Acts 13: 32,33 previously quoted, this was by the RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD.”
“Christ is the ETERNAL Son of God, but He sustained an ADDED [not diminished or lesser] RELATIONSHIP to the Father WHEN He was raised from the dead.”
“As a man [when He incarnated into our flesh-and-blood nature 4,000 years after the fall of Adam and Eve] He was a member of the human family [in contrast to the His deity among the eternal, unchanging Godhead].
“When He was raised from the dead and His work [and mission] on earth was accepted by God [signified by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, 50 days after His resurrection], He was the first Man, who in His own right, could claim to have fulfilled the CONDITION of life laid down by God [starting with Adam and Eve in Eden], which in effect is, ‘Obey and Live!'”
“God’s LIFE on condition of OBEDIENCE (See Exo. 19:5; Luke 10: 25-28). Christ [in His adopted human nature] met the conditions laid down [to the first Adam], and thus earned the right of LIFE; and God, by raising Him up from the dead, recognized and admitted this right.”
“Whereas as some believe that ‘begotten’ refers to the ‘eternal generation’ of Christ, it seems better to apply it to Christ’s FIRST COMING to this world, especially in view of the ‘for’ in Heb. 1:5, which points back to the fact that Christ BY INHERITANCE obtained a better name. As ‘inheritance’ points to a definite POINT in time, is better to consider ‘BEGOTTEN’ as belonging to the EARTHLY experience of Christ [from His incarnation to His resurrection].” Andreasen, The Book of Hebrews, 55,56.
May you GROW [not stagnate] in the KNOWLEDGE of Jesus Christ, is my hope and prayer for all. NMF