THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD

John 3:16 (October 14, 2015)

What does the bible mean of the word “his only begotten Son” ?

In John 3:16 the word “his only begotten Son” means that Jesus had a natural birth.

People don’t like reading many “begats” and “begots.” in the King James Bible. People find hard to read at times those seemingly endless genealogies. But the word “begotten has a great significance and it shows us that Jesus born naturally and literally.

I- A VIRGIN SHALL CONCEIVE AND BEAR A SON WITHOUT A MAN

It was the Old Testament prophecy in Isaiah 7:14 which says, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear so son,” Expectedly, a virgin has to receive seed without a man in order for her to conceive.  This virgin conceived by the Holy Ghost, who is God. That is why in Luke 1:35 Angel Gabriel told Mary, “that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God,” We therefore believed that Mary was Jesus mother and God Almighty was Jesus’ Father.

II- GOD PREPARED A BODY FOR THE SECOND PERSON IN THE TRINITY

God prepared a body for the second person in the Trinity so he could live on this earth (Hebrews 10:5). That body was to be sacrificed as the perfect propitiation for our sins according to the Scriptures in 1 John 2:1-1; Romans 3:24-25.  He had to come as a man and had to die as Paul writes in Philippians 2:5-11. It was prophesied in Isaiah 5:3; Psalm 22 that He had to suffer for us as our substitute once for all according to Hebrews 10:10-14. In Acts 2:33, that body is now seated in heaven at the right hand of God.

III- JESUS WAS NOT A BEGOTTEN GOD

In John 1:1, helps us to understand that Jesus was and is and shall always be God. The fact that Jesus was born in a body did not change the truth that He is God. The Bible teaches us in 1 John 5:10-12, 20 that Jesus is eternal and did not have His beginning with His birth in a body. Therefore, other translation like the NASV attacks his deity in John 1:18 as rendered that he was a begotten god.

IV- JESUS WAS THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON

The truth is Jesus was the begotten “Son,” the ONLY begotten Son.

On the other hand, there are other called sons of God in the Bible: Believers in Christ were adopted or become sons of God by the new birth when we receive Jesus as Savior promised in John 1:12 but we are not begotten.  In Luke 3:38, Adam was a son of God but in Genesis 2:7 he was created therefore not begotten.  The angels are also called sons of God in the Job 1, 2, 38 however the angels are created and not begotten according to Hebrews 1:5-7. We therefore conclude that Jesus in the ONLY begotten Son of God.