Jesus is not the “one and only” son of God
John 3:16
For The God so loved the world that he gave his Monogenes [his only genetically begotten] Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life
Comments: God has many sons and daughters, so we see that Jesus is not the “one and only” son of God, as some Bibles are translated to say; rather, he is the only begotten [the mono-genes] son of God.
I don’t know about anyone else, but it offends me to hear Jesus’ identity diminished by falsely calling him the “one and only” son of God, lumping him in with human Believers and angels.
Angels are called sons of God, and Believers are called children of God. But with the exception of Jesus, angels and believers cannot be included in the begats, because they were not begotten. They were either created as children of God (angels) or adopted as children of God (Believers) John 1:12, Romans 8:15.
Jesus is the only one who was genetically conceived by God—begotten. And that is why it is so important to make that distinction when translating and quoting John 3:16.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son….
The first human, Adam, was also called a son of God and was included in the begats. But there is no argument that he was created from the dust of the earth, and not from the genetic material of the Godhead. Adam was not genetically begotten as Immanuel—The God with Us.
But Jesus was and is.
Adam was the first human to be called a son of God. But after The Fall, no human was ever called a son of God again, … until after the resurrection. After the resurrection, all Believers are given power to call themselves children of God.
How did the Almighty become Immanuel, The God with Us? Mortals cannot grasp the intricacies of the Godhead, but we do know he entered the Kosmos as the monogenes, the only begotten, the only genetically conceived Son of The God.
There is a vast difference between being created, adopted, … and begotten.
And that is what sets Jesus apart from every other child of God. He is not the “one and only,” but he is the only “begotten.”
Jocelyn Andersen challenges the status quo with an often non-traditional and out-of-the-box approach to biblical understanding. She writes and speaks on a variety of subjects including Bible Prophecy, God and Women, and Christian response to domestic violence. Her work has been featured in magazines, newspapers, radio, and television.
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