III. "HIS ONLY SON, OUR LORD." — JESUS CHRIST THE ONLY-BEGOTTEN SON

OF GOD.

JESUS CHRIST is called also the only-begotten Son of God because He is the only, true and veritable Son of God by nature and from all eternity. He is the Son of God, for He is begotten of God from all eternity, by a generation in connection with which it is impossible to conceive anything mortal or earthly. He is the veritable and only Son of God, and He has all the same attributes as His heavenly Father. He is, as the Nicene Creed says, "Begotten of the Father before all ages; God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God; begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father." Such is the wonderful generation concerning which the prophet Isaias exclaims, "Who shall declare His generation?" (Isaias liii. 8).

1. He is the only Son, for there is no other Son of God than this one who is the second person of the Blessed Trinity, and is equally God with the Father and the Holy Ghost. Thus He is the Son of God by nature and from all eternity according to His very essence. We are children of God according to grace; we are children by adoption, as the holy Evangelist, St. John, says, "As many as received Him, He gave them the power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in His name (John i. 12). Thus the sonship of Jesus Christ is one begotten in time and eternity. Our sonship to God is one granted and secured to us by the atonement. Jesus Christ, as Son of God, has neither brethren nor co-heirs, for He is the only Son of the divine Father, while we are the work of His hands. Thus in Jesus Christ it is that the grace of God is made manifest to us. He is the one in whom the

earliest patriarchs hoped, whom the prophets foretold, for whose coming Simeon and all other just men looked forward with such yearning, and for whom even the pagans themselves longed and sighed while groaning under the weight of their misery.

2. Beside Him there is no Redeemer. He, and no one else, is the promised Messias, for in Him has been fulfilled whatever the prophets foretold concerning the Saviour, so that He Himself could refer the Jews to the writings of those prophets and say, "Search the Scriptures... the same are they that give testimony of Me" (John v. 39). For all that Jacob foresaw in spirit, all those things with which Moses comforted the people of Israel, of which David sang, to which the prophets pointed in brilliant pictures, all that Isaias described in detail, portraying in his prophecies the most perfect picture of the Saviour,-all these can be to-day discovered and pointed out in the life of Our Saviour when He was on earth.

IV. JESUS CHRIST IS TRUE GOD.

The Testimony of the Prophets.

THE very names assigned in the prophecies to the expected Redeemer show that only a God could become Our Saviour. In this sense David speaks of two Lords, one of which is the Son of the other, both being from all eternity. His well-known words are, "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit Thou at My right hand: Until I make Thy enemies Thy footstool. The Lord will send forth the scepter of Thy power out of Sion: rule Thou in the midst of Thy enemies. With Thee is the principality in the day of Thy strength, in the brightness of the saints from the womb before the day-star I begot Thee. The Lord hath sworn, and He will not repent:

Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech (Psalms cix. 1-4).

To these words of David Our Lord Himself appealed against the Jews when He asked them, "What think you of Christ? Whose son is He? They said to Him: David's. He saith to them: How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord, saying: The Lord said to my Lord: sit on My right hand, until I make Thy enemies Thy footstool? If David then call Him Lord, how is He his son?" (Matthew xxii. 42-45).

In still another place David sings, "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee" (Psalms ii. 7). To this passage St. Paul appeals when, wishing to prove the divinity of Christ, he asks, "To which of the angels hath He said at any time: Thou art My Son, to-day have I begotten Thee?" (Hebrews i. 5). Isaias prophesied, "His name shall be called Emmanuel, [that is, God with us]" (Isaias vii. 14). Again he prophesied, "A Child is born to us, a Son is given to us, and the government is upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, God, the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of peace" (Isaias ix. 6). Finally Daniel calls the expected Messias "the Saint of saints" (Daniel ix. 24).

The Testimony of the Heavenly Father.

All that the prophets foretold was testified to by the Father who sent the prophets. He declared Jesus Christ to be His well-beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased, even twice the first time, when Jesus was being baptized in the Jordan by St. John (Matthew iii. 17), the second time, when the Saviour was transfigured on Mount Thabor in the presence of Peter, James, and

John, whom He had taken thither with Him, in order that they might see His glory, for they were soon to be witnesses of His degradation and death struggle (Matthew xvii. 5).

The Testimony of Jesus Christ Himself.

Whatever the prophets foretold, all that God the Father testified to from heaven, the Saviour Himself has testified of Himself. Of Himself He has said that He is no other than the Son of the heavenly Father. When Simon Peter pronounced his celebrated profession of the faith, saying, "Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God," Jesus said to him, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father who is in heaven " (Matthew xvi. 16-17). Again He said, "He that doth the will of My Father who is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew vii. 21). Everywhere He represents Himself as the Son of God, but as the one only Son whose sonship is a miraculous and supernatural one, such as no other man can claim for himself. Thus He says, "I and the Father are one" (John x. 30). Again, He says, "He that seeth Me, seeth the Father also (John xiv. 9), in order to show that He is of one and the same nature with the Father. Again, in order to teach that He has the same power and dignity as the Father, He says, “All things whatsoever the Father hath are Mine" (John xvi. 15). He affirms that without Him nothing is done: so "What things soever He [the Father] doth, these the Son also doth, in like manner" (John v. 19). "He hath given all judgment to the Son, that all men may honor the Son, as they honor the Father" (John v. 22, 23). Hence disrespect for the Son is disrespect for the Father: "He who honoreth not the Son, honoreth

not the Father who hath sent Him" (John v. 23). This belief in His identity with the Father, Jesus required from His disciples, declaring it to be a special revelation from God the Father to St. Peter when the latter acknowledged Him to be the Son of the living God, and a sign of predilection when the doubting Thomas, after touching the wounds in His hands and feet, confessed, "My Lord and my God," and declaring blessed all those who believe Him to be the Son of God, though they do not see with bodily eyes (John xx. 28).

Thus, then, did Christ give testimony of Himself. In words He testified that He is the Son of God, and true God like His Father, but He confirmed this testimony with works. These works He performed in the presence not only of two or three witnesses, not in the presence only of His followers, but before the whole people, before His enemies as well as His friends.

These works were of such an extraordinary character that they were believed not only by His disciples, but so affected those enemies who sought to take His life, that they, not being able to deny their supernatural character, could find no other way of explaining them than to charge Him with being in league with the Evil One and acting through Beelzebub, the prince of devils (Luke xi. 15).

He changed water into wine; fed at one time five thousand and at another time four thousand men with a few loaves and fishes; gave to Peter the miraculous haul of fish; stilled the storm at sea; walked upon the water; healed the sick, bidding them stand up and walk, or assuring them of cure, as in the case of the royal centurion, where He was far away from the sick person. The palsied, the lepers, the dropsical, the fever-stricken, the bleeding, the blind, the deaf, the lame, the dumb, the possessed of the devil, were healed-even the very