JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

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"Then the high priest tore his clothes and said,
‘He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look,
now you have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?’" (Mt 26:66).
Then the people joined in:
"He is worthy of death . . . Then they spit in His face and struck Him with
their fists. Others slapped Him and said, 'Prophesy to us, Christ. Who hit You?'"
(Mt 26:66-68)
The crime was that Jesus claimed what only God has a right to claim. By acquiescing to
the charge of the high priest and the crowd, Jesus asserts His equality with God the Father.
● He is called "the only begotten":
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life" (Jn 3:16).
Jesus is not just one among the many sons of God. The New International Version
translates the words "only begotten" with the phrase "one and only" Son to catch the correct
sense of the Greek. The word "begotten" (monogene) means "one of a kind," "only," "unique."
And it modifies this word in a qualitative rather than quantitative sense according to Greek
experts such as Moulton, Milligan, Cremer, and Thayer. The word "only" modifies the word
"begotten" rather than "Son." If the author would have wanted to stress that Jesus was the
"begotten Son," in the sense of the "only Son" he would have used the word monogennetos.
Cremer in his Biblio-Theological Lexicon of New Testament Greek says, "In John it
[monogenes] is used to denote the relation of Christ to the Father . . . the Pauline idios huios
[own Son]" (Ro 8:32).1 The sense is that of the Son being God's private, unique, peculiar to
Himself kind of Son. Thayer makes the comment that this "denotes the only Son of God or one
who in the sense in which He Himself is the son of God has no brethren."2 Arndt and Gingrich
say of monogene, "unique and alone . . . in the Johannine literature used only of Jesus."3 This fits
well with Jesus' own claims that God was His "own" (idios) Father (Jn 5:18).
Moulton and Milligan then, speak of Jesus as uniquely begotten. Cremer, in his use of
"own" (idios), emphasizes God's "own private possession, uniquely [His] own" and thus points
to the unique relationship of the Son to the Father. Thayer similarly refers to the unique
relationship which Jesus sustains to God as His Son. Arndt and Gingrich speak of Jesus' claim to
a unique sonship to God the Father.
This sets Jesus apart when it comes to His sonship. He is not one among many sons, but
the Son, the only begotten Son. This is another evidence that Jesus is divine—God the Son.