Who Is Jesus Christ?

Christ Himself made enormous claims. He claimed to forgive sin, to receive worship, to share the Father’s name, to be the way and the truth and the life, to have come forth from God, to have existed before Abraham, to have glory with the Father before the world was. The apostles wrote about Him in language reserved by the Hebrew Scriptures for God Himself. And yet the same apostles confessed one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ distinctly (Lesson 2). Both halves of that confession require explanation. This lesson supplies it.

The lesson does not engage the fourth-century technical vocabulary that has dominated subsequent Christian discussion. It returns to the language the apostles themselves used — the language of only-begotten Son, of being brought forth by the Father, of life in himself given to the Son by the Father, of inheritance of a more excellent name — and lets that language do what it was given to do. The reader will find that on the apostolic terms, the question who Christ is admits a clear, biblical, and unevasive answer.

Answer

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

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.

In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

The New Testament names Christ’s identity in one consistent phrase: the only begotten Son. The phrase is not occasional; it is the apostles’ settled designation. It appears at the opening of John’s gospel, at the high point of his first epistle, and in the most famous single verse in the entire New Testament. Whatever else Christ is, He is, by the unanimous apostolic confession, the only-begotten Son of the Father.

Answer

The Greek word translated only begotten is monogenēs — composed of mono (only) and genēs (born, of a kind, generated). The plain meaning is one of a kind, uniquely generated, the only one born. The same word is used elsewhere of literal only children — the only son of the widow of Nain (Lk 7:12), the only daughter of Jairus (Lk 8:42), the only son of the demoniac father (Lk 9:38), Isaac the only son of Abraham (Heb 11:17). In every other New Testament use, the word means an actual, literal only child.

The institute therefore takes the word in its plain sense when it is applied to Christ. He is the only Son in the strict sense — the only one ever begotten of the Father in the begetting Scripture has in view. This is the apostolic confession, and it is the pioneer Adventist confession recovered. The drift in modern Christian tradition — including modern Adventism — toward treating Son as a metaphor for an eternal ontological role, with no actual begetting, is a drift away from the plain language of the text.

Christ is not the Son as if He were a Son. He is the Son. He is begotten as the word means.

Answer

But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet 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.

The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth.

For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?

Christ’s begetting is not located at Bethlehem. Bethlehem was the place of His birth in the flesh; His goings forth, as Micah names them, have been from of old, from everlasting. The Hebrew of Micah 5:2 reads literally from the days of eternity.

Proverbs 8 personifies the divine Wisdom that was with the Father before creation. The Christian church has read this passage from the earliest centuries as a window into the relationship of the Father and the Son before the world was made. The Son was set up from everlasting, brought forth before there were depths or mountains, before the first work of creation. The institute holds that this brings to view the actual begetting of the Son in the days of eternity, before any other thing was made.

The book of Hebrews opens by applying Psalm 2:7 directly to Christ: Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. The Father’s declaration to the Son names the Son as His Son, and names the begetting as a real begetting, in a real day — though a day that precedes time as the creature experiences it.

Answer

For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son.

And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible… all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

The Bible draws a sharp distinction between created and begotten, and applies the words deliberately. Angels are created. The worlds and their inhabitants are created. Adam was created. The author of Hebrews specifically denies that the word begotten has ever been used of an angel.

Of Christ, the Bible uses the language of begetting and the language of generation. He is brought forth from the Father (Prov 8). He is the only begotten of the Father (Jn 1:14). And He is the agent by whom all created things were made (Eph 3:9; Col 1:16). Christ is not a creature standing inside creation. He is the only-begotten Son of the Father, standing outside and before all creation, by whose hand the creation came into being.

Colossians calls Him the firstborn of every creature — a title sometimes misread as if it meant Christ was the first being God created. The next question takes that phrase up in detail.

Answer

Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

This is one of the most contested texts in Christology. Read hastily, the phrase the firstborn of every creature can be made to mean Christ was the first being God created — the reading the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the historic Arians take. Read carefully — in its own immediate context, in the pattern of Paul’s other uses of the same Greek word, and in the Hebrew biblical background — the phrase cannot mean that.

The Greek word translated firstborn is prōtotokos (πρωτότοκος), composed of prōtos (first) and tokos (born, generated). The word carries, both in Hellenistic Greek and in the Septuagint vocabulary that shaped New Testament usage, the weight of the Hebrew bekor — the firstborn son of the household, who received the double inheritance, the family rule, and the priestly headship. The Hebrew Scriptures use bekor as a title of rank and preeminence, not only of temporal sequence. The Lord declares of David in Psalm 89:

Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth.

David was not, by birth-order, his father’s eldest son. He was the youngest of eight (1 Sam 16:10–11). Yet God names him my firstborn — by divine appointment, by rank, by inheritance. The clarifying clause makes the meaning explicit: higher than the kings of the earth. Firstborn here is a title of preeminent rank.

The pattern carries through every other application of prōtotokos to Christ in the New Testament. Paul calls Him the firstborn among many brethren (Rom 8:29) — preeminent among the redeemed brothers He brings to glory, not literally the first of them in time. He is called the firstborn from the dead (Col 1:18; Rev 1:5) — the preeminent of the resurrected, though others had been raised before Him (the widow of Nain’s son, the daughter of Jairus, Lazarus). Even within the immediate Colossians passage, Paul tells the reader what the result of Christ’s being firstborn-from-the-dead is: that in all things he might have the preeminence. Paul himself supplies the gloss. Firstborn in this vocabulary names preeminence.

The decisive contextual marker in Colossians 1:15–16 is Paul’s own next word. He does not merely call Christ the firstborn of every creature; he immediately supplies the reason:

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible… all things were created by him, and for him.

The English for translates the Greek hoti — the explanatory conjunction, because. Paul is supplying the ground of the title. Christ is the firstborn of every creature because by Him all things were created. The One by whom all things are made cannot be one of the things made. The reading that would place Christ inside the set of created things is the reading Paul’s own explanatory clause grammatically rules out.

The institute therefore reads Colossians 1:15 with both the apostles and the historic pioneer Adventists: Christ is the firstborn over all creation in the sense that He is preeminent over it, the heir of it, the Maker of it, the Head of it. And He is preeminent over creation because He is the only-begotten Son of the Father — brought forth in the days of eternity, prior to any other thing, and the agent through whom all those other things were created. The two readings of firstborn — the rank reading and the begotten reading — are not competing. They are complementary: He is preeminent because He is the only-begotten. The begetting is real, in eternity past; the preeminence flows from it.

Answer

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.

Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.

Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

The pre-existence of Christ is not a deduction; it is the plain statement of the apostolic writings. He was in the beginning. He was with God. He existed before Abraham. He had glory before the world was. He was in the form of God before He took the form of a servant. The incarnation at Bethlehem was the entry into human nature of One who had existed eternally as the Son of the Father.

Answer

For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.

For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.

But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

Yes. The Bible affirms Christ’s full divinity without hedge. He bears the express image of the Father’s person. All the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily. He has life in Himself — the very thing the Father has — given to Him by the Father. The Father Himself, in Hebrews 1:8, addresses the Son as God. Christ is not a lesser being next to the Father. He is the Son who shares the Father’s nature.

Answer

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

Before Abraham was, I am.

The closing book of the Bible records the words of the glorified Christ to His servant John on Patmos. He speaks of Himself the words no created being could speak. He is Alpha and Omega — the title Isaiah heard in the voice of the Lord of Hosts (Isa 44:6). He is the Almighty — the standing Hebrew name for God Most High. He is the first and the last — the divine self-designation. He has the keys of hell and of death — authority over the gates of the unseen world that belongs to God alone. And in His earthly ministry He had said the same thing in the plainest possible Hebrew form: Before Abraham was, I am — the very name God gave Moses at the burning bush. Christ’s own testimony, in His own voice, is the testimony of God Himself in human flesh.

Answer

But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.

Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person… Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

Because Christ shares the Father’s nature by being begotten of Him — not by being a separate divine being who happens to be of the same kind. A son shares the nature of his father by being born of him. That is what begetting is. Among human beings the principle is obvious: a son is of the same nature as his father because the father gave him that nature in begetting him. The son is not a different man, of a different species, who happens to be also human. The son is human because the father is human and the son is born of the father.

The same principle, lifted to the level of divinity, gives the apostolic confession exactly the shape it has. The Father has life in Himself. The Son has life in Himself, but the Son’s having of life is given to Him by the Father. The Father’s name is the Father’s by nature; the Son obtains the more excellent name by inheritance — Hebrews’ word. The Son shares the Father’s divinity by being the Father’s only-begotten Son. There is one God, the Father, the source; and there is one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten of the Father, the inheritor of the Father’s name, nature, and life.

The institute holds that this is what 1 Corinthians 8:6 means in its plain reading: one God, the Father, of whom are all things; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things. One source, one only-begotten through whom the source acts. The full divinity of the Son is grounded in His Sonship, not despite it. To deny the begetting is not to elevate Christ. It is to dissolve the only basis Scripture gives for His full divinity.

Answer

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.

But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

The Bible distinguishes the two kinds of sonship plainly. Christ is the Son of God by nature — the only-begotten, born of the Father in eternity, sharing the Father’s divine nature by inheritance. Believers are the sons of God by adoption — brought into the family of God through Christ, by the gift of the Spirit. Christ is the natural Son; we are the adopted children. Christ shares the Father’s divinity uniquely; we share in it derivatively, by union with Christ.

The distinction is essential to the gospel. Christ is the Son uniquely so that He can bring many sons unto glory (Heb 2:10). Christ is the only-begotten so that we may become the adopted. He is the natural heir of the Father’s name and nature; through Him, we become joint-heirs.

Answer

He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

Christ is received by faith. The reader who confesses Him as the only-begotten Son of the Father, who trusts Him as the appointed Mediator between the one God and men, who receives the Father’s adoption through the Son and the Spirit, has eternal life in the precise sense John 17:3 defined it (Lesson 2): the knowledge of the right Father, through the right Son. The Christ who is received is the Christ Scripture describes — not a philosophical abstraction, not a mere ethical teacher, not a creature elevated, not a function of a single divine substance, but the actual only-begotten Son of the living God.

Personal response

The Christ Scripture describes is greater, not lesser, than the philosophical abstraction the fourth-century councils settled on. He is the Father’s actual only-begotten Son, brought forth in the days of eternity, sharing the Father’s nature in the most intimate way one Being can share another’s — by receiving it from Him in begetting. He is fully divine. He is the Maker of all that has been made. He is the unique Mediator between the one God and humanity. He is the way, the truth, and the life. And, having taken on Himself the form of a servant for our sake, He is the sacrifice for our sin and the High Priest of His people.

The reader who has come this far is invited to receive Him:

Father in heaven, the only true God, I receive Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, as the Son You have sent, the Mediator between yourself and me, the Redeemer of my soul. Forgive my sins through His sacrifice. Adopt me, by Your Spirit, into the family of which He is the natural Son. Teach me to follow Him with all my heart. In His name. Amen.

From the settled knowledge of the Father (Lesson 2) and the Son (Lesson 3), the next lesson asks the next question: if the universe was made by a perfectly good God through a perfectly good Son, where did evil come from? Lesson 4 walks the rebellion of Lucifer, the unfallen worlds, and the great controversy in which this earth has been made the central battleground.