“The Only Begotten Son, Our Lord” Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 13, Questions 33 & 34
“The Only Begotten Son, Our Lord” is a sermon preached from the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord’s Day 13, Questions 33 & 34, based on 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 by Noah Olguin, pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in New Berlin, Wisconsin – a confessional Reformed Baptist church subscribing to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith.
Take up the Heidelberg Catechism with me as we look at Lord’s Day 13 today, specifically Questions 33 and 34. We’ll also be considering 1 Corinthians 6:19–20. Let’s begin by reading from the Heidelberg Catechism.
Question 33: Why is Christ called the only begotten Son of God, since we are also children of God?
Answer: Because Christ alone is the eternal and natural Son of God; but we are children adopted of God, by grace, for His sake.
Question 34: Why do you call Him “our Lord”?
Answer: Because He has redeemed us, both soul and body, from all our sins—not with gold or silver, but with His precious blood—and has delivered us from all the power of the devil, and thus has made us His own possession.
Now, let’s turn to 1 Corinthians 6:19–20:
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”
Brothers and sisters, one of the more obscure yet essential doctrines for rightly understanding our Triune God is the eternal generation of the Son. Many people have never encountered this doctrine before, let alone been taught it. As a result, it’s not something they are quick to embrace. However, this doctrine is central to the historic faith.
If you look back at the Apostles’ Creed, we read:
“And in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord.”
This is the orthodox language of the catholic (small-c) Church, which includes the Reformed tradition and our Particular Baptist forebears. We should not hesitate to affirm this language ourselves.
One challenge to embracing the phrase eternal generation is the term generation itself. We often think in human terms, where generation involves temporal processes like procreation. Understandably, people hear this term and instinctively reject it as unsuitable for describing God. But we must ask—why? Why should we be so quick to reject it?
Consider this: the same people who affirm that God is the Father and that Christ is the Son often overlook what that language implies—the generative act of begetting. To call someone a father or son inherently involves the concept of begetting. Moreover, if we affirm that God is Triune—one in essence yet three distinct persons—this presupposes differentiation within the Godhead.
We’ve discussed this before: the Father is unbegotten, the Son is begotten, and the Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son. This language safeguards the unity of God’s essence while preserving the personal distinctions within the Trinity. Without it, we risk falling into either tritheism (three gods) or modalism (denying the distinct persons of the Trinity).
The Church Father Athanasius famously used the doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son to defend against Arianism. He saw this eternal begetting as a theological deduction rooted in Scripture. The relationship of the Divine Father and Son necessarily implies a generative act. Begetting involves the communication of essence: the Son receives the same divine essence as the Father and therefore shares fully in the Father’s nature.
Essence, we might say, is that by which a thing is what it is. For example, it is essence that makes a man a man or a bird a bird. In the case of divine generation, the Father communicates His whole essence to the Son. Yet, unlike human generation, which results in distinct and separate beings, the Son is distinct from the Father but not separate from Him. The Father generates not out of Himself, as with human begetting, but in Himself.
Additionally, human generation occurs in time because we are temporal creatures. Divine generation, however, is eternal. There was never a time when the Son was not the Son, which is why we speak of the eternal generation of the Son.
This doctrine is thoroughly biblical. Let’s turn to Proverbs 8:22–31, where wisdom is personified:
“The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His work, the first of His acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth…”
This passage introduces us to eternal wisdom, which the New Testament reveals as Christ—the Wisdom of God. The Father possesses the Son by way of true generation, holding Him as His most cherished delight from eternity.
As Francis Turretin explains, this generation is not temporal but eternal. It is through this eternal act of begetting that the Son shares fully in the Father’s essence while remaining distinct in person.
Introduction: Christ as the Only Begotten Son
So I want us to see, brothers and sisters, this is why then He can be called the only begotten Son as we look at Lord’s Day 13 and Question 33. Why is Christ called the only begotten Son? Right? This is why He can be called the only begotten Son, as the answer to Question 33 brings out: “Because Christ alone is the eternal and natural Son of God.”
The Two Types of Sons: Natural and Adopted
Now, when we think of sons, though, there can be two types of them, right? There can be natural sons—those who, as soon as they begin to exist, have these parents as theirs, right? Or you can have adopted sons—those who exist prior to being children of a particular mother or father.
Now, for us as the natural children of our parents, we need to see Christ is, according to His divine nature, the natural and only Son of God, right? He is of the same essence and nature with the Father, out of whose substance He was begotten from everlasting. But in a way that is altogether beyond our comprehension as finite creatures.
This is why Jesus can say things like this in John 5:26: “As the Father hath life in Himself, so also He hath given to the Son to have life in Himself.” Right? So Christ is called the natural Son of God according to His divinity because He was begotten from everlasting from the Father.
The Sonship of Christ in His Humanity
But what about His human nature? Well, this is what Zacharias Ursinus points out: According to His humanity, He is not so called but is called the Son of God by grace. And that not the grace of adoption, but of conception by the Holy Ghost and of union with the Word.
The reason why Christ is not, according to His humanity, the natural Son of God is because He was not begotten from the essence of the Father according to His humanity. And the reason why He is not the adopted Son of God in respect to His humanity is because He was not made a son of no son, but because in the very moment in which He began to be, He began also to be a Son.
The Grace of Adoption for Us
Okay, so what’s true, though, of Christ there is not true of you and I, right? It says, “In the very moment in which He began to be, He began also to be a Son,” right? A Son by the grace of conception according to His humanity.
But for you and I, there was a time in which we were, and yet we were not children of God, right? Right? We existed prior to becoming children of God. And at that time, we were His enemies, right? We were hostile towards God; we were not His children.
It was only through faith in Christ that we have been allowed to exercise, as adopted children, the place of natural children. But it’s only through the grace of adoption, right? That’s the only way now that we participate as His children—not through the grace of conception like the humanity of Christ, not as natural sons as Jesus according to His divinity, but as adopted children according to the grace of adoption, which the Catechism points out.
God’s Plan of Adoption
And this ultimately is according to the plan of God, isn’t it? In Ephesians 1:5–6, this is what Paul says:
“He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved.”
So this is why then, brothers and sisters, He can be called the only begotten Son and yet still have brothers, because He is the only begotten Son according to the generation and the nature in which He came forth, right? Which no one, neither you nor I, did, right? None of us are begotten of the substance of the Father but are only adopted by His grace.
And only because we have been blessed with the grace of adoption do we now have the same Father as Christ has, right? So He is only begotten by generation, by nature, right? We, though, can be His brothers, and we can have the same Father by the grace of adoption.
Four Ways We Are Brothers with Christ
And that’s how Jesus can be the only begotten and yet still have brothers. And so when it’s asked, though, how we are His brothers with Christ, it may be said, as Ursinus does, in four things:
- Human Nature: Our brotherhood with Christ consists first in the similitude and likeness of human nature and because we are born from Adam, the common father of us all. So what he’s saying is we can be brothers with Christ because Christ is of human nature. I’m not a brother with a dog. I’m not a brother with a cat. I’m not a brother with a kangaroo, right? But I can be a brother with someone who is of like nature, which Christ was. And so, in that way, we can be brothers with Christ.
- Brotherly Love: In His fraternal or brotherly love toward us, right? So Christ exercises a brotherly love toward us as His brothers and sisters.
- Conformity with Christ: In our conformity with Christ, which consists in perfect righteousness and blessedness. Right? So the Father is shaping the same character in us that was in Christ. I had this discussion this past week with someone who said—this is obviously hypothetical—but if it was the Father who would have come down and not the Son, the character of the Father would be no different than the Son, which is why when Jesus says, “If you have seen Me, you’ve seen the Father,” right? Because it is that same character, then, in Christ, who is the God-man, that is being shaped and fashioned in us.
- Participation in His Benefits: In the consummation of His benefits, right? All the children of the Father participate in the same benefits. And so that’s another way in which our brotherhood with Christ consists.
The Superiority of Christ Over His Brothers
But I want us to see, in all of these things, though, the complete superiority of Jesus over all of His brothers, right? Jesus is incomparably superior to every one of us who has ever been born, especially according to His deity, right?
Because He is the only one who is the eternal begotten Son of God. It is of the Son that the Father says in Hebrews 1:8: “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.” Right?
Christ’s Eternal Sonship and Humility
It is He, then, that the Father has sent into the world. But as George Bethune points out, Christ must therefore have existed before He was sent. But how did Christ exist before He was sent? As the only begotten Son of God, right? That one through whom all things were made.
The one who was with God from the beginning, who was made flesh and dwelt among us. This one who is truly God, who has the same nature as His Father—not some lower deity, right? Jesus is not a lesser deity than the Father but equal to the Father.
And this is the one whom the Church should adore with equal praises to both Father and Son, right? This one who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but rather emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
His Sacrifice for Us
And to consider it, brothers and sisters, that He did all of that for us. He did all of that for you and for me, that we might be the children of God, right? He did it that we would have the same Father that He has, and that we would be treated, even though we are adopted children, just as natural-born children, right?
Question 34: Why Do We Call Him Lord?
This leads us, then, to Question 34, which asks, “Wherefore callest thou Him our Lord?” Now, just as we were careful to distinguish between the divinity and humanity of Jesus in Question 33, we want to be careful to do that here as well in Question 34. And so, we have to ask: Who is it that we call Lord?
Are we calling Jesus Lord according to His divinity, or do we call Him Lord according to both His divinity and His humanity? Well, this is what Zacharias Ursinus says:
“The name Lord belongs to both natures of Christ, just as that of prophet, priest, and king; for the names of the office, benefits, dignity, and beneficence of Christ towards us are affirmed in His whole person—not by the communication of properties, as the names of the two natures and attributes of Christ, but properly in respect to each nature. For both natures of Christ will and secure our redemption. The human nature paid the price of our redemption by dying for us, and the divine gives and offers to the Father this price and applies it unto us by the Spirit.”
Christ is therefore our Lord, not only in respect to His divine nature, which has created us, but also in respect to His humanity. For even insofar as He is man, the person of Christ is Lord over all angels and men.
Calling Christ Lord: Both Natures Together
So, when we call Christ “Lord,” let us be sure that we are saying it of the whole of Christ—according to His divinity as well as His humanity, to both natures. Now, let’s ask the question, though: What does it mean to be “Lord”?
If someone is Lord, what does that mean? To be Lord is to have claim over something or someone. And so, we see that what is being confessed is that Christ has claim over us, right? He has claim over His Church.
Ways in Which Christ Is Our Lord
How so, or in what ways? Well, let’s consider some of the ways the Catechism points out:
- Lord by Redemption
He alone redeemed us by His blood, purchasing both us—body and soul. Which means what? That it is not just a portion of us that He is Lord over, but it is all of us. It is the whole of us. Right? Body and soul belong to Him. That means that our hearts, our thoughts, our words, our deeds, our actions—all of it belongs to Jesus.This is what we are told by Paul, as we read earlier in 1 Corinthians 6:19–20:
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.”It is to say, then, that Jesus is Lord in the sense that He has sole authority over us. Right? He has sole command over us. He has sole rights over us. He has the ability, as our Lord, to direct all our ways over and above anyone or anything else.
Without Him, brothers and sisters, we were enslaved to the power of the devil. Right? We were in bondage to sin. But Christ came, and as Lord, He provided a way to make us free—not by paying gold or silver to God, but by purchasing us with His precious blood. And now He is our Master.
- Lord by Preservation
What does a good Lord do but protect? Right? Keep safe those whom He has mastery over. And that is what Jesus does as our Lord: He protects us, He keeps us, He preserves us, He guards us.As the Catechism goes on to say, “And hath delivered us from all the power of the devil, and thus hath made us His own property.”I want you to see that He doesn’t just break our chains or cut the ties that bound us to sin, but He likewise grabs hold of us. And by His power, He will not allow anyone who desires us to return us to our former state or bring us back there ever again. Right? Because He holds us by His power.
This is why He says in John 10:28:
“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them from My hand.”Because He is our Lord by preservation. He preserves us, He keeps us, and He will never allow anyone to snatch us away from Him again.
- Lord by Appointment
The Father ordained Christ to this. Right? He ordained Christ to this work and gave us to Christ. This is why Jesus says in John 17:6:
“I have manifested Your name to the people whom You gave Me out of the world.”And as our Lord, He has stamped His name upon us. If you recall from the book of Revelation, the sealing of the 144,000—the sealing of the Church—He has stamped His name upon us. How? By indwelling us with His very own Spirit, who is our guarantee of our heavenly inheritance.
Our Response to Christ as Lord
And so, as we consider these things this evening, brothers and sisters, as we walk away out of here tonight, I hope that we would be filled with a greater sense of awe and wonder. That we would walk away with a greater sense of comfort for all who believe in God.
For it is Christ who is our Lord. It is Christ who is our Redeemer. It is Christ who is our God. And the confidence that we should reap from these truths ought to be very great. For if God has done all of this for us, if there is all of this that He will continue to do for us, what is there that you and I have to fear in this world? Nothing.
At the same time, as we consider the price that was paid—not silver or gold, but something of infinite value and worth, the precious blood of Jesus—it ought to provoke within us a greater sense of thankfulness toward God as well.
A Call to Faithfulness and Gratitude
It ought to cause us, then, to desire to demonstrate that faithfulness and thankfulness to God by walking in a manner worthy of those who have been called forth out of the world by the Gospel. We should have a desire, then, out of thankfulness, to submit to His ordinances, to keep His commandments, to use both body and soul to honor Him.
We ought to want to demonstrate our thankfulness by constantly being engaged in His service, remaining chaste toward Him as a faithful bride to our bridegroom, who has loved us and given so much for us. And out of love toward Him, we should be driven—whether in life or death—to openly declare His name to the world.
A Call to the Unbeliever
Lastly, brothers and sisters, as we draw to a close this evening, it should teach all people about their need for this Christ. No earthly lord can secure what Christ has secured for His people.
No earthly lord can save both body and soul. No earthly lord has defeated sin, death, and the grave. But our Lord Jesus Christ has.
It is to Him, then, that all must go—to look to Him, to call out to Him, to plead with Him that He would make Himself your Lord. There is no making Jesus Lord, but you can go to Him and plead that He would make Himself Lord.
The Special Lordship of Christ Over His Church
Now, there is a sense in which He is Lord over all as Creator of all. But the sense that we are talking about is a special way because it is an act of His will and an act of His grace.
It is a special way that He is Lord over His Church—the people that He has redeemed by His own blood, by paying that penalty for their sin in order that their sin would be blotted out and that they would be renewed after His image.
A Final Plea to the Unbeliever
And so, for those of you who do not have Him as Lord in this way, I implore you: Ask that He would save you according to His great mercy, forgiving your sin so that by faith you might receive the Spirit of adoption as sons, being made heirs of all things as His brothers and sisters, who with Him will have one Father—that same glorious and wonderful Father that all share in who have Christ as brother.
Closing Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for those men who have come before us, who have developed upon the language, themes, and truths from Scripture in order that we might better be able to describe our Triune God and their relation toward one another and toward us. We are thankful, Lord, that You have given us now eyes to see these truths which have been put down in historic creeds and confessions of the past and have caused us to embrace them and to love them and to defend them ourselves.
We ask, Lord, that You would continue to teach us by Your Word these very truths that are so helpful in safeguarding the realities of Scripture.
We pray, Lord, that You would cause us to have a greater appreciation for this language, even though at times we
don’t always understand what it means. But we ask, Lord, that through the teaching of the Holy Spirit, these truths would become clearer to us, that we would be able to teach them and speak these great truths to others as well.
Lord, we pray this day that You would help us to lift up our voices in praise for the eternal generation of the Son, that He is the only begotten Son of God. And that You would also help us to lift up our tongues and hearts in thanksgiving that we likewise are Your children, but by the grace of adoption.
We thank You for these things, and we ask that You would help us to meditate upon them this week. And we pray all these things in Christ’s name. Amen.
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