ABANDONED BABIES

ABANDONED BABIES

John 1:14 ¶ 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.

I have been mesmerized by this passage of scripture for the last year. John has a unique revelation of the eternal Son and the incarnate Son. We have become sons of God by redemption. Christ is the only eternal, or begotten Son. C.S. Lewis explained the difference in his book “Mere Christianity”. He spoke powerfully about Christ being “eternally begotten” and we being His creation. What an amazing thing, the eternal, uncreated Son entered into His own creation to redeem fallen man and enable us to become sons. Martin Luther explained the difference between Christ, the eternal Son, and us, His created sons.

“This is the first time (in John 1:14) that John called the Word the only Son of the Father. You might have wondered who the Word was when John said, “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1), “Through him all things were made” (v. 3), and “In him was life, and that life was the light of men” (v. 4). In this passage you can see that the Word, who existed with the Father from eternity and is the light for humanity, is God’s only Son. The Word alone is the Son, and no one else. Now we know what John meant when he used the term Word.”

Matthew Henry also spoke of the difference between the Son and sons. What a great mystery, Henry explains the difference between eternal generation and the regeneration we experience by redemption.

“What the glory was: The glory as of the only begotten of the Father. The glory of the Word made flesh was such a glory as became the only begotten Son of God, and could not be the glory of any other. Jesus Christ is the only begotten of the Father. Believers are the children of God by the special favor of adoption and the special grace of regeneration. They are in a sense of a like nature, and have the image of his perfections; but Christ is of the same nature, and is the express image of his person, and the Son of God by an eternal generation.”

Both of those mysteries are astounding! First, the revelation of God in the person of His Son. Eternity will be a glorious unfolding of this incredible being. Next, who can begin to comprehend the incredible inheritance we have received as adopted sons and daughters. Adoption is a powerful spiritual reality. In Shanghai China there is a healing home that rescues babies that have been abandoned. Many are found left out on the streets. These children are taken in, loved, given extensive medical treatment and placed in homes. Most end up in homes of Christians in America. That is the power of redemption. Like these babies we were fatherless and destroyed by our sins. Christ has rescued us, healed us, and called us His sons.