Sermon Tone Analysis

The Only Begotten

24June 2007

 

Pray first:

 

Today, I will be talking about the expression “*ONLY BEGOTTEN”:* this phrase is deeply entrenched in Christian language as descriptive of Jesus.

The word traditionally translated “only begotten” does not carry the idea of birth at all.

Literally, it means “only one of its kind.”

That is what I want us to investigate today.

*Some Background information:*

The Apostle John wrote 5 books around 90AD, they are the book of John, the 3 epistles of John and the book of Revelation.

It was a time when the Church was growing: the 3rd generation of Christians were coming into the church.

It was a time when wolves in sheep’s clothing were coming into the church, and preaching heresy against Jesus Christ.

John was inspired by the HS to write these 5 letters in order to refute some of the heretical teachings that were being taught in his day.

The Greek word for this phrase, the only begotten, appears nine times in the NT, and five of these occurrences, all from the writings of the Apostle John, make reference to Jesus Christ     (Jn 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 Jn 4:9).

So let’s turn to John 1:14.

The NAS reads: John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

The NIV reads: John 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

In both of these translations we have the Greek word translated “the Only Begotten” or “The One and Only”.

I checked on 4 more translations and found that this Greek Word is translated “the one and only” in the English Standard Version; “The only Son” in the New English Translation: and “the only begotten” in the KJV and the NKJV.

Now each translation is good, but maybe can be misleading in our English understanding minds.

The Jehovah Witnesses and the Mormons have used word translated “the Only Begotten” to construct their unique Theology.

Let’s see what they believe as a result of using “the Only Begotten” in John 1:14.

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The cults have taken John 1:14 and the words “only begotten” to come up with their theological systems.

And of course, they had to ignore all the other verses around these verses, and the context of these verses, in order to come up with their heresies.

*The Jehovah witnesses teach and believe:*

1)       Jehovah is the only name of God; (A combination of the Hebrew Word JHWH, and the vowels of Adonai).

2)       Jesus Christ was a created being and not God-in-the-flesh;

3)       Salvation is through works; witnessing as Jesus taught His disciples: preaching the kingdom, going out in groups of 2.

The Jehovah witnesses have wrongly taken the English translation of the KJV where it says “only begotten” and made it into their doctrine of Jesus being only a man; since begotten, in English, implies birth of an individual.

*The Mormons teach and believe*

1)       God as the Supreme Being of the universe.

However, He gradually acquired that position over a long period of time by living a perfect and righteous life.

God the Father has a body with flesh and bones.

2)       The Mormon Church views Jesus and Satan as spirit brothers and sons of God.

God put forth His plan of salvation for the world, and Satan proposed his own plan.

Jesus accepted the Father's plan and offered to implement it as the Savior.

The Father chose Jesus, and the spirit of Jesus was given a body through the Virgin Mary.

He was crucified on a Roman cross, and rose from the dead three days later to establish His deity.

The character and life of Jesus is attainable by anyone who performs at such a righteous level.

The Mormon Church believes that since Jesus was a spirit being and became a man by birth, he showed us how to attain to deity.

All cults take one verse, or one translated word and build a Theology on that one word.

All cults deny the  deity of Jesus Christ; and diminish the importance of the Crucifixion of Jesus, as a substitutionary sacrifice for our sins.

(Overhead)

John alone uses /monogené̄s/ to describe the relation of Jesus to God the Father, presenting Him as the unique one, the only one (/mónos/) of a class or kind (/génos/), in the discussion of the relationship of the Son to the Father (John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9).

/Génos/, from which /gené̄s/ in /monogené̄s/ is derived, means race, stock, family, class or kind, and /génō/ comes from /gínomai/, become, as in John 1:14, “and the Word became [/egéneto/] flesh.”

This is in distinction from /gennáō/, to beget, engender or create.

This word then is used by John to tell us the Jesus was the only one of a kind Son of God, who is capable of revealing the Father to us, because Jesus is God in the flesh.

Well the Greek words are so close, but not the same.

It would be like a commander of an army who has a troop of soldiers with high morals, or high morale.

Which one would you want to be in charge of, if you were commanding a troop in time of war?

You can see that just one letter can change the meaning of a word like moral, in English.

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/monogené̄s/

 

/mónos/                           /génos/

 

the only one             of a class or kind

 

 

 

 

/monogennáō/

 

/mónos/                           /gennáō/

/ /

the only one             begotten

 

 

 

 

 

 

John 1:14, 18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9

 

 

 

Now let’s read the 5 verses in the Book of John, which use this “monogenes” term, with what we have learned.

John 1:14 (my translation) and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the only one of a kind, from the Father, full of grace and truth.

We can also say unique, or “one and only” instead of “only one of a kind”, but I think “only one of a kind” has a better impact on us.

Let me make it also clear that I am not demeaning the translators at all.

They were trying to translate a Greek term into English as best they can for our English minds to comprehend.

I am just trying to help us see a little deeper into God’s revelation of His Son.

So again, I am not trying to demean the translators of any of our English Bible versions.

Going back now to John 1:14.

John tells us that Jesus came from the Father to dwell or tabernacle among us, and John says “we saw His glory.

The glory as of the only one of a kind from the Father.

This Jesus was full of grace and truth.

Grace – God’s unmerited favor toward us.

Truth – Jesus was full of truth.

Unlike Satan who is the Father of lies, and is full of lies.

Jesus tells the truth, lives the truth and is the truth.

Jesus came to us balanced with truth and grace.

He did not come with truth only - telling the truth in a harsh way: but He came telling the truth in a gracious way.

That is why He could proclaim the truth to a prostitute and then say “go and sin no more”.

That is why He could forgive the sins of the man at the pool of Bethesda and say “go and sin no more”.

This, only one of a kind, Jesus was full of grace and truth.

Jesus was not full of grace, with no truth.

He could not be gracious to all and forgive all of our sins without being truthful and saying “unless you believe in Me, you cannot be saved.”

Jesus was full of grace and truth; in the proper balance.

This fact also shows us how different Jesus is from us.

We humans find it hard to be balanced in grace and truth.

John says “We disciples have seen His glory.”

The disciples could see Jesus’ glory because Jesus is God in the flesh.

John and the other disciples have seen God’s glory, the glory of God shinning out of Jesus on the mount of transfiguration: but also they saw God’s glory – the only one of a kind Son, God in the flesh.

When this realization hit doubting Thomas, he fell down before  Jesus and said “My Lord and My God”.

Let’s look now at the second occurrence of this word “only begotten”, used by the Apostle John.

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John 1:18 (NASB) No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

John 1:18 (NIV) No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.

\\ The text literally says “No one has ever yet seen God.

The only one of a kind God, the one who is in the bosom of the Father, that one has revealed Him.

Did you hear correctly?

The only one of a kind God?  Yes that is what it says.

Jesus is God.

He is God in the flesh, the only one of a kind God, in the flesh.

He had to be born a man in order to accomplish His task on earth.

The task was to be the lamb of God being sacrificed for all the sins of the world.

As Hebrews 10:5 tells us “ a body you have prepared for me”.

A spirit being cannot die; so a body must be prepared for this special only one of a kind Son.