the eternal sonship of the lord jesus christ - Paradise Primitive ...

One more testimony may for the present suffice. "Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which wasmade of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power,according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" Ro 1:3-4 First look at the words:"Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to theflesh." The Son of God is here declared to have been "made of the seed of David according to theflesh;" therefore He existed as the Son of God before made of the seed of David; for all will admit thatit is His humanity here spoken of as made." We grant," say the opponents of Christ’s eternal Sonship,"that He existed before His incarnation, but not as the eternal Son of God." How, then, did He exist,and what was His title? "The Word," they answer, according to the declaration, "And the Word wasmade flesh, and dwelt among us." According, then, to your own showing, the Lord Jesus Christ existedas the Word before He was made flesh. "Undoubtedly," you reply. Now, what is the differencebetween the two expressions, "His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of Davidaccording to the flesh," and The Word was made flesh"? for by parity of reasoning, if" the Wordexisted as "the Word" before He was "made flesh," the Son of God existed as the Son of God before"He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh." The two texts stand on precisely the samegrounds. Both speak of the Deity and of the humanity of the blessed Lord and as no change can takeplace in His glorious Deity, we justly infer that as He was the Word in His divine nature before He wasmade flesh, so He was the Son of God in His divine nature before He was made of the seed of David.Do not all these scripture testimonies prove as with one unanimous voice that the Lord Jesus Christwas the only-begotten Son of God before God sent Him into the world? Sending Him into the world nomore made Him God’s Son than, to speak with all reverence, my sending my son to school makes himmy son.2. Another error on this important point is that the Lord Jesus is the Son of God by the resurrectionfrom the dead. The main prop of this view is what we read in Ac 13:32-33 "And we declare unto youglad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same untous their children, in that He hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second Psalm, Thouart My Son, this day have I begotten Thee." But the meaning of the apostle is abundantly clear fromthe passage already quoted Ro 1:4 His resurrection did not make Him, but manifest Him to be the Sonof God. Did not the Father, before the resurrection, twice with a voice from heaven proclaim, "This isMy beloved Son" Mt 3:17; 17:5 Will any man then lift up his voice against the Majesty of heaven, andsay that Christ was not the Son of God before His resurrection, which He clearly was not, if theresurrection made Him such? Why, the Roman centurion, who stood at the cross, had a better faiththan this when he said, "Truly this was the Son of God" Mt 27:54 Nay, the very devils themselves wereforced to cry out before His sufferings and death, "Thou art Christ, the Son of God" Lu 4:41 We may besure, therefore, that none but a heretic of the deepest dye could assert that the blessed Lord was notthe Son of God till made so by the resurrection.