NAME ABOVE ALL NAMES
Only Begotten Son
Day 30 Monday
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EXPLORE THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST
For us there is one God, the Father,
from whom are all things and for whom we exist,
and one Lord, Jesus Christ,
through whom are all things and through whom we exist (1 Corinthians 8: 6).
JOHN 1: 14, 18 (NEW KING JAMES VERSION)
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.
JOHN 3: 16 (NEW KING JAMES VERSION)
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
ROMANS 8:32
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
CONSIDER
In the Apostles’ Creed we affirm that we believe “in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son our Lord.” Jesus is the Son of God in a unique way. He is eternally the Son. We are created beings. Once we were not in existence, now we are. Once we were not God’s children, but then he recreated us in Christ. But Jesus has always been God’s Son.
The Son was not created. He was, as the Nicene Creed declares, “begotten not made.” We humans make objects by using our intelligence and craft to bring forth instruments, art, stories or houses. But these are not us. However, we “beget” children. Because what comes from the union of man and woman is human; the child is literally one of us.
The mystery of our God is that from before time he was ever a God in relationship. He was, and is, and always will be love. Love means relationship and always there was the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in loving glory.
In the fullness of time, God sent forth the eternal Son into our world. The Son of God became as well a son of Adam. Jesus is uniquely God’s Son. And so Jesus alone can truly show us who the invisible God really is.
When we consider the unique intimacy of the relationship between the Father and the Son, we stagger to consider that the Father spared not his own Son for us. As T. F. Torrance has said, “In Jesus we see that God loves us more even than he loves himself!”
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PRAY THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
Begin with the Jesus Prayer. Pray it reflectively several times, for yourself or on behalf of another.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
Then pray the day’s prayer slowly and repeatedly for at least a minute (that’s about seven times). Allow the prayer to take you into the meaning of the day’s facet of Jesus’ name. Pray it for yourself and/or on behalf of another. Take your time and trust this process!
Lord Jesus Christ, only Begotten Son of the Father,
cause me to be born again in you, from the despair of sin to a living hope.
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LIVE INTO THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
He has granted to us his precious and very great promises,
so that through them you might become partakers of his divine
nature . . . For this very reason, supplement your faith with
virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness,
brotherly affection and love (2 Peter 1: 4-7).
JOHN 1: 12-13
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
1 PETER 1: 22-23
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.
CONSIDER
By the gift of the only begotten Son, we can be adopted as children of God. And it’s more than a legal adoption: we receive the Spirit of sonship in our hearts (Rom. 8: 15). We get made new, taken into the eternal relationship of love that is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
This makes Christianity so much more than an ethic for living. And Jesus is so much more than a teacher to follow. We proclaim a mystic union between Christ and his people, by which we are born anew as sons and daughters in Christ.
Close by singing two more verses from “Of the Father’s Love Begotten,”
O ye heights of heaven adore him; angel hosts his praises sing;
Powers, dominions, bow before him, and extol our God and king;
Let no tongue on earth be silent, every voice in concert ring,
Evermore and evermore!
Christ, to thee with God the Father, and, O Holy Ghost, to thee,
Hymn and chant and high thanksgiving and unwearied praises be:
Honor, glory, and dominion, and eternal victory.
Evermore and evermore!
Aurelius Prudentius, AD 400, trans. John Mason Neale. Of the Father’s
Love Begotten. 1854.
LISTEN TO TODAY'S HYMN
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