The Lord Jesus is called "the Son of God" in different respects. He is so called as being born of
the virgin (Luke 1:35). He is such by divine decree (Psalm 2:7, Acts 13:33). He is the Son, and
yet has obtained the name of Son (Heb. i:i-5).
Matthew and Mark first notice His Sonship of God at His baptism. Luke goes farther back and
notices it at His birth. But John goes back farther still, even to the immeasurable, unspeakable
distance of eternity, and declares His Son-ship "in the bosom of the Father" (John 1:18).
The bosom of the Father was an eternal habitation, enjoyed by the Son in the indescribable delight
of the Father. Another has called it "the hiding place of love"_inexpressible love which is beyond
glory, for glory may be revealed, but this cannot.
Can the love of God be understood according to Scripture if the Sonship of Jesus Christ be not
owned? Does not that love get its character from that very doctrine? Are not our hearts challenged
on the ground of it? "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16).
Again, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). Yet again, "We have seen and do testify that the Father
sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world" (1 John 4:14).
Does not this love at once lose its unparalleled glory if this truth be questioned? How would our
souls answer the man who would tell us that it was not His own Son whom God spared not, but
gave Him up for us all? How would it wither the heart to hear that such a One was only His Son
as born of the virgin and that the words, "He that spared not His own Son" (Romans 8:32) refer
to Him as a human Son and not as a divine Son?
As we trace His wondrous path from the glory to the heirship of all things, what discoveries are
made of Him! Read of Him in Proverbs 8:22-31; John 1:1-3; Ephesians 1:10; Colossians 1:13-22;
Hebrews 1:1-3; 1 John i:2; Revelation 3:14. Meditate on Him as presented to you in those
glorious Scriptures. Let them yield to you their several lights that you may view the One in whom
you trust, the One who gave up all for you, the One who has trod_and is treading_such a path;
and then tell me if you can possibly part with Him.
In the bosom of the Father He was. There lay the Eternal Life with the Father. He was God, and
yet with God. In counsel He was then set up before the highest part of the dust of the earth was
made (Prov. 8:26). Then, He was the Creator of all things in their first order and beauty;
afterwards, in their state of mischief and ruin, He was the Reconciler of all things; and by-and-by,
in their regathering, He will be the Heir of all things. By faith we see Him thus, and thus speak
of Him. He was in the everlasting counsels, in the virgin’s womb, in the sorrows of the world,
in the resurrection from the dead, in the honor and glory of a crown in heaven, and with all
authority and praise in the heirship and lordship of all things.
Deprive Him of the bosom of the Father from all eternity, and ask your soul if it has lost nothing
in its apprehension and joy of this precious mystery, thus unfolded from everlasting to everlasting.
1 cannot understand a saint pleading for such a thing. Nor can 1 consent to join in any confession
that tells my heavenly Father it was not His own Son He gave up for me.
The First Epistle of John deals particularly with the Person of the Son. It is the Son who is the
great object through the whole of it. The fathers, the young men, and the little children are
distinguished in this epistle, not on the basis of their general Christian character, but on the
measure of their souls’ apprehension of the truth concerning the Person of the Son. How divinely
and preciously consistent is all of this!
(From The Son of God.)