Jesus, God's Unique Son (John 3:16) Series

The last three weeks, we've gone over four passages that talk about the "sons of God" in the OT. In Psalm 82, we saw God standing in the midst of the elohim for judgment. This was a picture of God's throne room-- of his heavenly council. These elohim were called "sons of the Most High," but they were threatened with death because they failed to exercise their authority rightly.

[This entire sermon builds heavily off Michael Heiser's book, The Unseen Realm. Heiser is a well-respected evangelical OT scholar, and a member of the Evangelical Theological Society. His book is endorsed by faculty from Fuller, TEDS, and Dallas Theological Seminary. All of this will be new, and maybe a challenge, but it's good, orthodox, evangelical thinking.]

In Psalm 97, starting halfway through verse 7, we read this:

Bow down to him-- all [you] Elohim/gods.

Zion heard and was glad,

and the daughters of Judah rejoiced

because of your exercising authority, Yahweh,

(9) because you, Yahweh, [are] Most High (Elyon),

Over all the earth you are greatly exalted

` over all the gods/Elohim.

What this psalm teaches us is that Yahweh is God Most High. Even though Yahweh can be called "elohim," and the sons of God can be called "elohim," this doesn't mean that they are equals, by any means. These sons of God answer to Yahweh. They bow down to him. They are beneath him.

And then last week, we looked at Job 1. There, we saw a picture of what the divine council looks like. The sons of God would come from around the world, where they had been exercising authority, to give an account of how things were going. But one son of God, the Adversary, had a special role. His job was simply to roam, and to accuse.

Now, in all of this, if I talk for long enough about the "sons of God," you should eventually find yourself asking the obvious question here.

Who is Jesus?

Jesus is the Son of Man. But he is also the Son of God. And our whole lives, that's exactly how we've said it. He is "the" Son of God.

And then, if you stop and think about it, John 3:13-18 will pop in your head:

(13) and no one has ascended into heaven,

except only the one from heaven having descended-- the son of man,

(14) and just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, in this way the son of man must be lifted up,

in order that each one giving allegiance to him will have eternal life.

(16) For in this way God loved the world,

so that He gave his [one and only/only begotten/unique] son,

in order that each one giving allegiance to him shall not perish

but shall have eternal life.

(17) For God didn't send his son into the world,

in order that he would condemn the world,

but in order that the world would be saved through him.

(18) The one giving allegiance to him isn't condemned.

Now, the one not giving allegiance already has been condemned,

because he has not given allegiance to the name of the unique son of God.

For as often as we've heard John 3:16, if we stop to think about it, we should realize that there are things here we don't understand about who Jesus is. Especially since this is one of those verses many of you memorized in the KJV:

NIV: 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

ESV: For God so loved the world,[a] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

KJV: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Is Jesus the "one and only" son of God? The "only" son? The "only begotten" son? Was Jesus "born"?

A wise man once said (paraphrasing slightly) that Greek is something best worn lightly by preachers. It should be obvious you've worked in it (if you know it), but it's not something you find yourself really talking about very much.

And, as a rule, I think that's wise. But here, we are talking about the one who is at the heart of everything we are, and do. Who is Jesus, really?

The Greek word here describing what type of son Jesus is, is µ????e???.

When we check in one of the standard lexicons (BDAG), we read that it can mean one of two things. Either, (1) it "pertains to being the only one of its kind within a specific relationship, one and only, only."

Or, (2) it "pertains to being the only one of its kind or class, unique."