The Unique Son of God
Text: John 3:16 (My Translation)
“For God so greatly loved [with unconditional love that serves and elevates] the world [the entire Creation order] that He gave His one and only Son [His truly unique son; a one-of-kind Son], that whoever believes in Him [by adopting His faith] shall not perish but have [adopt] eternal life [the progressive revelation and experience of the Christ-life in us through all of eternity].
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The word for “world” in this passage is kosmos. Kosmos indicates not only humanity, but the entire Creation order. We are told in the Bible that all things, in heaven and earth, were created in and through Jesus before His incarnation. He is the eternal sustainer of all things (Colossians 1:16-17). In the person of Jesus, the entire kosmos was, is, and always will be bound up and held together.
The incarnation of God in Jesus means that the Creator has stepped into His own Creation in order to fully redeem it. Jesus, as God, represents the entire Creation because He is its creator and sustainer. When Jesus went to the Cross and died, it marked the beginning of the end of the ages because the fallen Creation order went with him (1 John 2:17; 1 Corinthians 7:31). Therefore, His resurrection holds the promise of all things in heaven and on earth becoming redeemed and restored (Revelation 21:1; Romans 8:21; 2 Peter 3:10-13).
The early church understood themselves as a new humanity living “between the ages” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Spiritually, they had been born again into a new life through the risen Jesus, but still endured the disorder, chaos, sickness, and death of the fallen, unbelieving world. As believers today, we still live in this tension. We experience the life and power of Jesus through the Holy Spirit, but live in the fallout of a world order still bowing its knee to sin and darkness.
What is Jesus doing in this tension? He is present with us by His Spirit (Matthew 28:20), partnering with us to advance the kingdom of heaven before the end of all time. Like the risen Christ, we are a kind of “firstfruits,” which foreshadow and precede the New Creation order (James 1:18; 1 Corinthians 15:23-24). Because it is God’s desire that all repent and come to a saving awareness of His Truth (1 Timothy 2:4), He has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:11). We are called to represent the risen Christ, in word and deed, in order to advance the kingdom of heaven on earth.
Paul states in Romans that “all creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed…that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:19,21). The idea is that the life and vitality of Creation is directly dependent on the spiritual state of man. A curse on the ground followed Adam’s sin in the garden (Genesis 3:17). Jesus, as the second Adam and the sustainer of the entire kosmos, destroyed this curse in His body (Matthew 27:29). Therefore, all of natural Creation will align itself with the spiritual restoration brought about by the advancing kingdom of heaven. Like us, all of Creation is subject to life between the ages, but has begun to taste the glory of the final consummation of heaven on earth.
Our role in this has already been determined by Jesus, who inaugurated a new humanity. In the first century, someone belonging to this new humanity was given the label “Christian.” This new humanity lives between the ages and works to advance God’s purposes and plans through the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus’ life was our model and pattern.
In the passage, the Greek word monogenes, usually translated as “only begotten” or “only”, literally means “one of a kind” or “unique.” This literal translation implies that there are other sons of God besides Jesus. The Bible tells us over and over again that we are sons of God through faith in Jesus (Romans 8:14; Galatians 3:26; et. al). We have been adopted as sons and heirs into the family of God. Jesus reveals me. When I examine His life in the Word, I am seeing my perfect model and pattern. I am seeing what it means to be a son of God. What makes Jesus the “unique” Son of God is that He is God himself, come to initiate and institute a new class of human being (Romans 8:29).
The new humanity is characterized by spiritual rebirth and regeneration, resulting in manifestations of Christ through us into the natural. We have adopted the faith of Jesus, which is everything the Son of God believes about humanity. Because He is present in us by His Spirit, we are called to live in, see, and experience the world as He does. We live in communion with our Father and Jesus through the Spirit. This communion is the source of our eternal life.
To yield and submit to Jesus is to step into eternal life. Eternal life does not only mean perpetual life. The resurrection of Jesus makes it clear that all of humanity is destined for perpetual life. Eternal life in Jesus is a perpetual and progressive experience of Jesus’ resurrection power -spiritually, emotionally, and physically - throughout all of eternity.
John 3:16 reveals much about Father God’s heart for humanity and the entire Creation order. It is merely a matter of us stepping into the totality of what was accomplished by Jesus. You are a son of God, responsible for advancing the kingdom of heaven by the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
