Something I have been pondering as of late is that God gave His only begotten Son to adopt whoever would believe in Him in as sons and daughters (John 3:16). What a high value has been placed on us! Yes, God has many sons and daughters now… us. But only one begotten.

I never really understood the concept of begotten… but I had it explained to me by some quote that went along the lines of:

Horses begat horses, sheep begat sheep, God begot God.

(NB: I am sorry if you know who that quote was by and what it’s really meant to say and you’re offended by my mutilation of it. But I couldn’t remember the who or exact wording… comment it if you know )

But the point of all of that is… Jesus was God’s begotten Son. God of God, Light of Light (I think that one is from the Apostle’s Creed… ugh, I don’t know my quotes… but I’m trying to get my head around Bible verses first, other peoples quotes are a little lower down on the priority list…). Begotten, not made.

But us, the created image-bearers (Genesis 1:26), chose sin. Separating us from the God who is beautiful in His holiness (1 Chronicles 16:29). In order for us to draw near to Him, as children to a Father, our punishment had to be borne by someone. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). So He had His only begotten Son bear the punishment… the punishment that brought us peace with God (Isaiah 53:5)… that we could be adopted into the family of God… to be co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17)… children of our Heavenly Father (Matthew 6:26).

Now, I do know that a few times in the Old Testament God is referred to as a Father… but not many. The first reference of God as Father I can remember is in Isaiah (Isaiah 63:16, to be exact). But it may have been referred to in Deuteronomy as well. I can’t remember… argh I will have to dig out my study notes and get back to you… comment me now if you know… I want to know!! At any rate, there was some concept of God being a Father to us back in the BC days… but as far as I can gather, it was at the cross that we were truly and ‘legally’ (well, by God’s law) adopted into the family of God.

And that does my head in. I echo John’s cry…

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!“

– 1 John 3:1