Lord’s Day 13
33. Q. WHY IS HE CALLED GOD’S “ONLY SON” WHEN WE ALSO ARE GOD’S CHILDREN?
A. Because Christ alone is the eternal, natural Son of God. We, however, are adopted children of God-adopted by grace through Christ.
34. Q. WHY DO YOU CALL HIM “OUR LORD”?
A. Because-not with gold or silver, but with His precious blood- He has set us free from sin and the tyranny of the devil, and has bought us, body and soul, to be His very own.
So there I was; seated at a table with 3 elementary students whose combined age was probably equivalent to mine. They had questions, and at my age, surely I had answers. Well, it turns out I got the first half of that sentence right. They wanted to know how Jesus was God if He was the Son of God. I began an attempt at answering them, but my attempts were found wanting.
The answers to the Catechism questions today would have been helpful. You see, these young boys were understanding sonship in terms of their own personal experience as sons. There was a time when all three of these inquisitors and I were not sons. There is an exact moment in time where I became a son, both physically and spiritually. It is not this way for our Lord Jesus Christ. As we established in previous weeks, there never was a time when the Father was not a father, nor a time where the Son was not a son.
So, as has been my habit each week, let me point to something that Kevin DeYoung wrote in his helpful book The Good News We Almost Forgot, “for Jesus to be called God’s only Son means that He shares equally in divinity, glory, and honor with the Father.” This was clearly the understanding of the Jews as well as Jesus in John 5:18, “This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”
He is also our Lord. Q. 34 reminds us of the costly purchase made by the Son. He purchased us with his own blood. 1 Cor. 6:20 reads, “for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” I am not my own. And praise God for that, for left to my own, I am dead in sin and without hope.
Delight in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
I don't get one part. When was the time when all three of the inquisitors and the writer were not sons?
ReplyDeleteGreat question Nan. I was not a son in June 1978 because I was not born until June 1979. From eternity past, the Father has always been a father to the Son. The Son has always existed as the Son. His sonship is different then ours because He is one with the Father. He is God the Son.
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