The phrase is only used five times in the New Testament, and only in St. John's writing's. That God always had a Son appears in the Old Testament. " What is his son's name," says Agar. (Prov. XXX, 4.) So also the Father says to Mes-iah, " rhou art my Son : this day have I begotten thee." (Psal. ii. 7.) But the Sonship now before us, we must carefully remember, is not to be dated from any " day." It is the everlasting Sonship of which John speaks.
The subject is one of those which we must be content to believe and reverence, but must not attempt to define too nar- rowly. We are taught distinctly in Scripture that in the unity of the Godhead, there are three Persons of one substance, power, and eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. We are taught, with equal distinctness, that *' Sonship " describes the everlasting relation which exists between the first and second Persons in the Trinity, and that Christ is the only begot- ten and eternal Son of God. We are taught, vvdth equal dis- tinctness, that the Father loveth the Son, and loved Him before the foundation of the world. (John xvii. 24.) But here we must be content to pause. Our feeble faculties could not comprehend more if more were told us.
Let us however remember carefully, when we think of Christ as the only begotten Son of the Father, that we must not attach the least idea of inferiority to the idea of His Sonship. As the Athanasian creed says, " The Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is all one, the glory equal, the majesty co-eternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son." And yet the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father. The argument of the ancient Arians, that if Christ is the Son of God, he must necessarily be inferior in dignity to God, and subsequent in existence to God, is one that will not stand for a moment. The reply is simple. We are not talking of the rela- tionship of mortal beings, but of the relationship between the Persons of the Trinity, who are eternal. All analogies and illus- trations drawn from human parents and children are necessarily defective. As Augustine said, so must we say, " Show me and explain to me an eternal Father, and I will show you and explain to you an eternal Son." We must believe and not try to explain. Christ's generation, as God, is eternal, — who shall declare it? He was begotten from everlasting of the Father. He was always the beloved Son. And yet " He is equal to the Father as touching his godhead, though inferior to Him as touch- ing his manhood."
[Full of Grace and Truth.] These words do not belong to the Father, though they follow His name so closely. They belong to " the Word." The meaning of them is differently explained.
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