The Son of God: The Eternal Word

When the Bible calls the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, it does not mean that He had a beginning, or that He is a lesser or created being. It means that He is the eternal Word of God — God's own perfect expression of Himself, of one substance with the Father, without beginning and without end.

The Word was God, and the Word was in the beginning

The Gospel of John opens not with the birth of a man, but with the eternity of the Word. Before anything was made, the Word already was — and the Word was God.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:1-3)

A word is the expression of the mind that speaks it; it reveals what was hidden within. So the Lord Jesus Christ is the eternal Word — the perfect revealing of the invisible God. He did not come into being; He was already there "in the beginning," before all things, and by Him all things were made.

The Word was made flesh

What eternity concealed, Bethlehem revealed. The eternal Word, without ceasing to be God, took to Himself a true human body and was made flesh, and dwelt among us. This is what we mean when we say the Son of God: the eternal Word, now come in the flesh.

"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)

"Son" speaks of His deity, not of a beginning

Far from making Him less than God, the title Son of God declares that He is equal with God, of the same nature — as a true son shares the nature of his father. His enemies understood this plainly, and it was for this they sought to kill Him.

"Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he... said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God." (John 5:18)

And the Scripture testifies that His goings forth are from everlasting — He has no beginning of days.

"But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah... out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." (Micah 5:2)

The Father Himself calls the Son "God"

Lest any think the Son is less than the Father, the Father Himself addresses the Son as God, and sets His throne for ever and ever.

"But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." (Hebrews 1:8)

So the eternal Word, the only begotten Son, is the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His Person. To behold Him is to behold God; to receive Him is to receive the everlasting God who stooped to save us.

How to be saved   Read: Why the Cross Is a Must