 |  |
When the fullness of time came the Word became flesh, and then, the Scripture says,
"we beheld His glory as the only begotten of the Father". Luke 1: 31-35 makes a very
complete statement. Let us read it:--
"And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call
His name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest . . . . .
Then Mary said unto the angel, How shall this thing be, seeing I know not a man? And
the angel answered, and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, therefore also that holy thing which shall be
born of thee shall be called THE SON OF GOD."
The words "therefore also" put the matter beyond question. The great confession of
Matt. 16: 16:--
"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God,"
and the words of I John 4: 2 are complimentary:--
"Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God."
There is no reference to His Deity, but to His Mediatorship. The way in which many
who attacks the doctrine of the Lord's Deity use the title "Son" is but the old abuse of the
man of straw.
A.--What do you mean by this "man of straw"?
B.--It means that for the purposes of argument a person first collects together a series of
statements which have no real place in the argument, but which appear valid to the
ordinary hearer, and then having built up this "man of straw" he proceeds to display his
ability in knocking it to pieces. To those who see that the Sonship of Christ is essentially
a part of that great voluntary self-emptying, when the servant's form was taken at
Bethlehem, the spectacle is a pitiable exhibition of either ignorance or prejudice.
A.--There does not seem much more to be said. I think however that you ought to face
I Cor. 8: 5, 6 before concluding.
B.--By all means. What is the context of these verses?
A.--Idolatry.
B.--So then we have a statement concerning the Christian faith as opposed to idolatry.
In contrast with the "gods many and the lords many" of paganism, we have the sublime
teaching of Scripture:--
"But to us (here we have the `relative' argument brought in, to which we devoted
some time at the opening of our discussion) there is but one God, the Father, out of
Whom the all things, and we for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through Whom the all
things, and we through Him."