1. The theological is associated with the apologetic aim of the Fourth Gospel. It was an important part of the object of the Evangelist to enable the Church to rid herself of the influence of the mis- chievous speculations of the time, of a humani- tarian Ebionism on the one side, and of Gnosticism on the other. That Jesus is God from the begin- ning,—eternally God, — was his answer to those who would detract from the Divine dignity of
Jesus. Again, by his doctrine of Sonship, the application of the thought of generation to the relation of God the Father to Christ the Son, St. John gave a new meaning to the expression 'Logos,' which represented a well-known philo- sophical conception long current in the East and among the later Platonists and Stoics, while the speculations of Philo and the Alexandrian School had brought it into still greater prominence. According to the Fourth Gospel, Christ as Logos is the Revealer of the Father, not as Philo and others imagined, as being an ' emanation,' an out- flow from the Inaccessible Deity, a shadowy existence to be described only by analogies and metaphors, or by mere negations, but as being the Son of God, who shared the Divine nature and glory. One who came at the Father's bidding to do the Father's will. What that mysterious ' begetting ' meant, in virtue of which the Son of God was Son of God, John did not attempt to explain. To him it was a Divine mystery which 3 could penetrate. It was enough for him that God so loved the world as to send forth His Son, sharer of His Divine nature, for that world's sal- vation. Thus, according to the testimony of St. John, Jesus ' is i/.ovoyo'rjs, the Only - begotten, as Logos ; He appears as fiovo-yep-Zis through the In- carnation ' (Beyschlag).
2. Again, in all four Gospels the idea of beget- ting is applied in an official or Messianic sense in connexion with Christ's actual appearing among men and with His redemptive mission. The three Synoptists record the Divine proclamation with which, at the Baptism, the first stage of Christ's ministry was solemnly inaugurated : ' This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ' (Mt 3" ||). The same Evangelists testify to the events of the Transfiguration, when again the voice from heaven addressed the disciples in similar language, as if to inaugurate the final stage of Christ's ministry (Mt 17' II). In the latter case the addition of the words 'hear ye him' to the original form of the Divine testimony would naturally suggest to per- sons familiar, as the disciples probably were, with the current Messianic interpretation of Ps 2', the thought of the Divine decree there spoken of, which constituted the subject of the prophecy King of God's people, having a Divine right to their loyalty and obedience. In the Fourth Gospel this official aspect of the idea of begetting in con- nexion with Christ is expressed in those passages in which Jesus speaks of Himself as One sent of God, and by that mission brought into a new rela- tion to God and to mankind. That 'sanctifica- tion ' and that 'sending' of which He speaks (10^") correspond to the begetting referred to by the Psalmist, though in this case they point to the Incarnation, and not, as in Ro 1^, to the Resurrec- tion. In illustration of this we may compare with the passages already quoted in another connexion (Jn 3" 6**-*^-^") such utterances as these: 'I pro- ceeded and came forth from God ; neither came I of myself, but he sent me ' (8^-) ; ' Ye have believed that I came out from God ... I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world' (16^"*). ' Sending forth ' and ' coming forth ' appear, accord- ing to the Fourth Gospel, to have been favourite expressions in the mouth of Jesus with which to describe His Messianic commission, and that act of Divine grace which was, as it were, the genesis of the New Dispensation— the reign of ' grace and truth ' inaugurated bjf Christ as Messiah ; as St. John himself laid special stress upon the Incarna- tion of the Logos as an event which meant the manifestation of that 'life' (1^) which 'was the light of men.' The thought is the same. The idea— coming from heaven, being sent of God— is practically identical with that of ' became flesh,'
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BELIEF
In this Messianic sense, tlien, tlie tliought of ' beget- ting' may fitly apply to the beginning of Christ's manifestation in liistory.
3. The third aspectis the spiritual or ethical. In Christ, as the Only-begotten, the proofs of the Divine Sonship are found in His absolute sinless- ness (Jn S-"*), in that He did ahvay those tilings ■which pleased God (S--'); that there was perfect har- mony between Christ and the Father in all things, in willing and in working, and in the fact that Jesus was habitually conscious of the Father's presence, so that during the season of His sorest trial, when He was deserted by His disciples, He was ' not alone, for the Father was with him ' ( Jn 16^°). This aspect of the doctrine of the DiN-ine Sonship of Jesus is of gi-eat interest and importance in con- nexion with the idea of ' begetting,' being the point at which the doctrine of the sonship of be- lievers is linked on to that of the Sonship of Christ Himself. It is in this connexion that St. John introduces at once the conception of Christ as the Word made flesh, and that of the regeneration of believers. The two thoughts are indeed, in the Prologue and elsewhere, so closely related that the one almost imperceptibly shades off into tlie other. Thus (!'-) we read, 'As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God ' ; (y 13) '\vhich were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.' At this point the Evangelist proceeds at once to state the doctrine of the Incarnation of the Divine Logos. As has been remarked, ' the subject of the fiovoyev/j$ is introduced onlv after we have learned what is involved in the tliought of believers becoming children of God.' The same idea of the relation between the Divine descent of Christ, the Only-begotten of the Father, and the sonship of believers, is noted and emphasized in the First Epistle of John (in which tlie teaeli- ing of John's Gospel on this subject is worked out in greater detail), as when we read, ' If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him ' (1 Jn 2^) ; and again, ' Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him : and he cannot sin, because he is born of God ' (3^). The relation of the Son to the Father, His Divine setting apart for the accomplishment of the Father's will, the absolute oneness of Father and Son in respect of will and of work, and the mystery of Christ's miraculous entrance into the world, being con- ceived by the power of the Divine Spirit, are, throughout the Gospel of John, treated as ana- logues of the regeneration which must be wrought out in the heart and life of all who would enter the Kingdom of God. Thus those expressions which, in the case of Christ as the Incarnate Word, or in the case of believers who share the life and the grace of Christ, speak of a Divine begetting, of a birth from above, of regeneration by the Spirit, 'denote a new commencement of the per- sonal life, traceable back to a (creative) operation of God.'