I bear the good name “Christian” because of all these things. I am a Christian because I am a member of Christ and I participate therefore in all his gifts.
1. I am a Christian in order to confess his name. In this, I am a prophet.
2. I am a Christian in order to offer myself to my God and my Savior, as a living sacrifice of thanks, and in order to pray for my brothers. In this, I am a priest.
3. I am a Christian in order to fight in this life against sin and Satan, with a good conscience. I am a Christian in order to reign at last to all eternity with Christ over all created things. In this, I am a king.
As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you . . . 1 John 2:27.
It is a trustworthy statement: for if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we endure, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us . . . 2 Timothy 2:11–12.
2. The chapter entitled The Preaching of the Word of God, Source of Christian Faith, Questions 121–142 will specify some aspects of this question.
3. Here reread the Scriptures from question 45. The chapter on Confessing the Faith, questions 161 and following, will make clear the importance of confessing the faith.
4. This work of Christ will be studied in detail in a long section in the second part of the Apostles’ Creed.
Lesson 8
The Only Son Our Lord
SUMMARY: Christ is the eternal Son of God. Before the creation of the world, the Son lived by the side of the Father. With him, the Son created the world; with him, after the creation, the Son works in preserving the world and fighting evil and sin.
It is this unique Son of God who took to Himself a human nature of the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary. He was made like us in all things except for sin, in order to wipe away (or expiate) our sin, and reconcile us with His Father. He took on a complete human nature in order to accomplish our salvation and to communicate to us all the spiritual blessings we lack.
Jesus Christ is therefore my Mediator and Lord. I become, thanks to Him, an adopted child of the Father, and a member of the family God.
Bible Readings: Monday, Question 51: 1 and 2; Tuesday, Question 51: 3 and Question 53: 1; Wednesday, Question 53: 2 and 3; Thursday, Question 55: 1 and Matthew 17:1–13; Friday, John 13:1–20 and Psalm 72; Saturday, Psalm 110 and Philippians 2:1–11.
50. Why do you call Jesus Christ “the only Son of God”, seeing that God also calls us His children?
Because Christ alone is the eternal Son of God by nature. We are God’s children not by right of birth but because He adopts us in Jesus Christ. Then, by His grace, He considers us His children. For this reason the Apostle Paul called Jesus Christ “the first born among many brethren” (compare the Scripture citations under Question 34).
. . . You have not received the spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” . . . and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. Romans 8:15, 17
He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will. Ephesians 1:5
51. What does the expression “eternal Son of God” mean?
Jesus Christ is truly the eternal Son of God, true God from all eternity. He did not begin to exist only at the point of time at which He came to earth. As Son of God He existed from before the beginning of all things.
The life of the Son of God cannot be measured in the same way as that of an ordinary human being. Before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus of Nazareth did not exist. Nevertheless the eternal Son of God did exist from all eternity, as the Word and Wisdom of God.
In Jesus of Nazareth the eternal Son of God took to Himself a true human nature and was made like us in all things, except for sin (Question 53). This was a unique and unprecedented event.
The historical and visible revelation of the eternal Son of God, in a human nature is called the incarnation of the Son or Christ. Beforehand he was invisible and spiritual like the Father.
Let us thus summarize the first stages of the life of the Son of God:
1. Before the Creation.
The Father and the Son (called in Scripture His Word and Wisdom) were intimately united and were each other’s happiness in mutual love. “The only begotten Son . . . is in the bosom of the Father” (John 1:18). They knew one another perfectly. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1–2).
2. At the Time of the Creation.
The Son worked with His Father and accomplished with Him the work of the six days.
All things came into being by Him; and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness; and the darkness did not comprehend it . . . The world was made through Him . . . John 1:3–5, 10
For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. Colossians 1:16–17
3. During the History of the World.
Since the creation, the Father and the Son always work together in the preservation of the world and the fight against sin. Jesus said, “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17).
It was by the Son that the Father began to reveal Himself to men and made Himself known to them, especially in the disclosures during the time of the Old Testament. Paul says of the Israelites in the dessert: “They drank from a spiritual rock, who followed them, and this rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4).
We will see how the Son continues to be associated in the work of His Father. It is His work as well, until the end of history, as the incarnate, resurrected, and glorified Son.
Bible Readings:
1. The intimacy of the Father and the Son: John 5:19–30.
2. The agreement of Father and Son in their eternal plan: John 17:9–26.
4. The Birth of Jesus Christ.
This birth is the incarnation of the Son of God in a human nature. He is the Word and the Wisdom of God. It is the event through which we can contemplate on earth the image of the Father. Jesus Christ often said that He was—for a short time—an ambassador of heaven on earth.
He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. What He has seen and heard, of that He bears
