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31 results for “Eternal Son”
Clear searchBorn, begotten and firstborn in the eternal identity and saving work of the Son
Was Christ Begotten at the Resurrection? Born, begotten and firstborn in the eternal identity and saving work of the Son “This day have I begotten thee” appears to be applied to Christ’s resurrection. Did Jesus become the Son of God when He rose—or does Scripture dis…
Read article →Origen, Arius and the line between Creator and creation
Does Eternal Mean Divine? Origen, Arius and the line between Creator and creation Why this is useful to know: On your walk through life, you will encounter challenges to the deity of Christ from…
Read article →What the Father's love for the Son reveals about God
Eternal Love Before Creation What the Father's love for the Son reveals about God Before there was a universe, what was there for God to love? There were no angels, no human beings and no cr…
Read article →Why the distinction matters when we speak about Jesus
One Person, Two Natures Why the distinction matters when we speak about Jesus Jesus slept in a boat because He was weary. Then He arose and commanded the wind and the sea, and they obeyed Him. He g…
Read article →The covenant son and the sacrifice that points to Christ
Isaac, Not Ishmael The covenant son and the sacrifice that points to Christ Did God choose Isaac or Ishmael? This is not a tribal debate. It is a covenant question. The answer does not require hostility towards Arabs, cont…
Read article →Eustathius of Antioch, the human soul of Christ and the pictures created by our words
…s a driver enters a vehicle. God filled a human body as a hand fills a glove. Such comparisons are memorable. That is precisely why they require care. A theological statement may be qualified in the next sentence, but a picture can remain in the imagination long after its qualifi…
Read article →Seeing God, bodily resurrection, and life in the renewed creation
…ionless contemplation, as though salvation finally releases us from material creation, personal vocation, and shared life. Scripture gives us something fuller. Seeing God is not less than the goal of redemption, but the people who see Him are resurrected, gathered, serving, reign…
Read article →The divine identity of Jesus across the Gospels
…bsolute boundary around that honour. Jesus is a messenger and servant of God, not God the Son. His miracles are signs granted by God, not evidence that He shares God's identity. He must not be worshipped, and the Christian confession of His deity is treated as a corruption of tru…
Read article →Why the Trinity is not polytheism—and why Christians confess one God
…the objection runs. “That makes three gods.” It would—if Christians believed the Father, Son, and Spirit were three separate divine beings. Historic Christianity denies precisely that. The doctrine of the Trinity is an attempt to hold together everything Scripture reveals: there…
Read article →Responding to five common criticisms without defending what Scripture does not require
…lism is often criticised by slogans before it is defined. It allegedly began with John Nelson Darby, turns the Church into God's failed contingency plan, ignores the fulfilment of prophecy in AD 70, baptises modern politics, and restores animal sacrifices in competition with the…
Read article →Not escape from the body, but its redemption
…n of our body." —Romans 8:23 The body is not an embarrassing shell from which the real person must be liberated. Sin has affected the whole person, and redemption reaches the whole person. Death tears body and soul apart; resurrection answers that rupture. This is why the apostle…
Read article →Why the Son assumed a complete human nature, not merely a body
Did Jesus Have a Human Soul? Why the Son assumed a complete human nature, not merely a body Why this is useful to know: Christians rightly confess that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. Yet if “flesh” is imagined as a human b…
Read article →Two accounts of judgement, mercy, and the sinner's hope before God
…ent and publicly declared the sinner righteous through union with the crucified and risen Son. That difference deserves to be stated accurately. The Christian claim is not that Muslims have never heard of mercy. It is that mercy and justice meet at the cross in a way Islam explic…
Read article →What mercy, holiness and the cross reveal about God
…l. Islam and Christianity both speak of divine mercy, forgiveness and love. A fair comparison cannot begin by pretending that the Qur'an presents Allah as merciless or that Muslims worship a deity who never loves. Nor can Christianity be reduced to the sentimental claim that God…
Read article →Isaiah, John, and the Divine Identity of Jesus Christ
…t describe a magnificent creature authorised to represent God? Or does it reveal that the Son belongs within the identity of the one God, while remaining personally distinct from the Father? To answer responsibly, we must begin where the argument begins: with Isaiah. Throughout t…
Read article →Unity in Christ and distinction in God's purpose
…ntiles within this one body as a mystery "which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men" as it was now revealed (Ephesians 3:5-6). This does not mean that salvation by grace began at Pentecost or that Old Testament saints were saved in another way. It means that the…
Read article →Near-death experiences, neuroscience, and the authority of Christ
…th. But no report from an operating theatre, however vivid, can sit in judgement upon the Son of God. Christ and the larger witness of Scripture must interpret the experience; the experience must never be allowed to rewrite Christ. What is a near-death experience? The term covers…
Read article →The incarnation, the limits of created perspective and the love philosophy could not imagine
…dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” — Colossians 2:9 A conversation with my son brought the strangeness of the incarnation freshly before me. Christians have heard the words so often that we can cease to feel their force. God became man. The Word was made flesh. The…
Read article →El, the Exodus, and the God Who Came from Sinai
…inai Yesterday I found myself discussing claims about the origins of Israel’s God with my son. He seemed to regard the essential theory as accepted among scholars. He had also discussed it with his priest, who apparently regarded it as something everyone already knew. The claim i…
Read article →Fulfilment in Christ, the inclusion of the Gentiles, and Israel's future mercy
…t repeatedly promises Israel preservation, regathering, cleansing, the kingdom of David's Son, and a restored relationship with God. A strong supersessionist response does not simply deny those passages. It argues that the New Testament teaches us how they were always intended to…
Read article →Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail
…is subject to none of those failures: "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" —Numbers 23:19 His faithfulness is not merely a habit which He hap…
Read article →Does John 6 teach the literal eating of Christ's body?
…aining away the plain words of Jesus? Has he mistaken an indispensable means of receiving eternal life for a metaphor? Those are fair questions, and they deserve something better than a reflexive Protestant answer. But they also require us to do what the presentation itself often…
Read article →Divine judgement, the character of God, and the promise of escape
…stians plainly suffer. Jesus promised tribulation in the world. The apostles endured imprisonment, violence, loss, and martyrdom. Across the world, believers still suffer precisely because they belong to Christ. Pretribulationism must never turn into a promise that Christians wil…
Read article →Two failures, two responses, and the difference between remorse and repentance
…Endings Judas and Peter had more in common than we might initially realise. Both were personally chosen to accompany Jesus. Both heard His teaching, witnessed His miracles, and shared in the life of the disciples. Both were warned that they would fail Him. Both acted against lig…
Read article →Creation, judgement, and the coming reign of Christ
…ial world. The creation groans for the return of its rightful King, the revelation of the sons of God, and the righteous reign of Christ with His saints. Recently, Emma Ruth Rundle's song God's Picture and its accompanying video gave me food for thought. The artist's worldview is…
Read article →The near was real. The far is still coming.
…ty or generosity, not a modern political position. The point is that a morally foolish person will no longer receive the reputation of a noble one. The exploiter will no longer pass as a benefactor. Isaiah exposes what such people actually do. Their speech misleads; their conduct…
Read article →Christianity, Islam and the verdict of the evidence
…and asked whether He can be contained within the category of prophet. We have considered eternal love, the crucifixion, divine justice, forgiveness and assurance. We have tested the transmission of the Bible, the missing Islamic Injeel, the Qur’an’s miracle claim, alleged prophe…
Read article →The glory philosophy could not contain
…t exceeds the limits of our created experience. The God who made the universe is not imprisoned by it. He is not merely outside our box; He is the reason there is a box at all. That truth should do more than answer an objection. It should enlarge our worship. The Incarnation is n…
Read article →The Gospel, Human Perception, and the Illuminating Work of the Holy Spirit
…eived. But the sentence contains a question we can too easily pass over. What did that person understand—and therefore reject? Did he understand the gospel as Scripture presents it? Did he understand some of it while misunderstanding the rest? Did our words awaken a familiar pict…
Read article →Constantine, Arius, the Trinity, the biblical canon—and the myths that refuse to die
…mos, meaning “same”, and ousia, meaning “being”, “essence” or “nature”. It means that the Son possesses the same divine nature as the Father. Older English translations often render it “of one substance” or “consubstantial”. It does not mean that the Father and Son are the same P…
Read article →Labour, purpose, and faithfulness in a fallen world
…ting someone who is ill, a volunteer serving quietly, a student learning a craft and a person maintaining a home all perform real work. A wage can measure what an employer will pay; it cannot measure the value of every human contribution. This also means that a person's dignity d…
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