In my message last week, I offered a brief catechism on the Holy Trinity. If you did not read it, you should. It is fundamental Orthodox Christian teaching that we all should know. This week, I would like to expand on that just a bit and address the subject of Jesus Christ, the only- begotten Son of God.
Through baptism, we become adopted children of God, however, only Jesus is the unique Son of God, who is “begotten not made” as we recite in the Nicene Creed. C. S. Lewis offers an insightful explanation of what is means:
We don’t use the words begetting or begotten much in modern English, but everyone still knows what they mean. To beget is to become father of; to create is to make. And the difference is this. When you beget, you beget something of the same kind as yourself. A man begets human babies, a beaver begets little beavers … But when you make, you make something of a different kind from yourself … a beaver builds a dam, a man makes a wireless set [or other object].
Now, this is the first thing to get clear. What God begets is God; just as what a man begets is man. What God creates is not God; just as what man makes is not man. That is why men are not sons of God in the sense that Christ is. They may be like God in certain ways, but they are not of the same kind.
Thus, Jesus in the only begotten Son of God. He is unique. He is begotten of the Father before all ages, true God of true God. “Before Abraham was, I am,” he said. He is eternally begotten from God the Father, the source of the divinity. We are created, not begotten.
In other words, what God the Father begets is God, of the same kind as Himself. Homoousios—of one essence. We too are children of God, but not in the same sense. We are created; He is creator.
He was born of the Virgin Mary through her immaculate conception of the Holy Spirit. Thus Jesus is also a man. He is both God and man, divine and human. Only he is our savior.
Adapted from Anthony Coniaris, Daily Vitamins for Spiritual Growth, vol. 2
