How is Jesus the begotten son of god?

Jesus’ incarnation meant He experienced birth, but this does not mean He was “begotten” in the human sense of the word, which involves natural reproduction between a man and woman. We know from the rest of Scripture that Jesus is God and is therefore eternal.

Translated in the King James and here in the Nicene Creed monogenes as “only begotten.” God is Father, chiefly because He has a Son. Jesus is the Son because He has a Father. And the way in which the Son relates to the Father is by begetting, or to put it in the reverse order, the Father generates the Son.

Something is begotten when it's been generated by procreation — in other words, it's been fathered. A somewhat old fashioned adjective, begotten is the past participle of the verb beget, which means to father or produce as offspring.

We have also seen that He is the FIRST-BORN OF ALL CREATION. He is creator God and has all authority and pre-eminence over His creation and His Church. Lastly we have seen that He is the FIRST-BEGOTTEN FROM THE DEAD. He paved the way in death and resurrection that we may enter in to eternal life.

Jesus was the only person to be born of a mortal mother, Mary, and an immortal father, God the Father. That is why Jesus is called the Only Begotten Son of God. From His Father, He inherited divine powers (see John 10:17–18).

We have all seen the sign. Sometimes it is along a highway. Sometimes we see it painted on a rock surface along the road. Certainly, if you have seen a baseball game, there it is in the stands—right behind home plate. And if you have watched a football game, there it is, in the background, when a field goal is attempted.

What am I referring to? The verse that is perhaps the most widely displayed verse from the entire Bible—John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Yet, for all the advertisement of this verse, and even though it is perhaps the most memorized verse of the entire Bible, how many people really know what it means?

Many professing Christians think they know, but mostly what they understand about this special verse is simply that God loves us and Christ died for us. Of course, that much is true and should be a great source of inspiration and encouragement. However, there is much more meaning behind this “golden verse” than most professing Christians understand. For example, who and what is God? And who is the Son? Why did God give His Son for us? And what does it mean to perish or to have everlasting life? These are all very important questions, but for now, consider just the first two words of that verse: “For God….”

The phrase “only begotten Son” occurs in John 3:16, which reads in the King James Version as, "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." The phrase "only begotten" translates the Greek word monogenes. This word is variously translated into English as "only," "one and only," and "only begotten."

It’s this last phrase ("only begotten" used in the KJV, NASB and the NKJV) that causes problems. False teachers have latched onto this phrase to try to prove their false teaching that Jesus Christ isn’t God; i.e., that Jesus isn’t equal in essence to God as the Second Person . They see the word "begotten" and say that Jesus is a created being because only someone who had a beginning in time can be "begotten." What this fails to note is that "begotten" is an English translation of a Greek word. As such, we have to look at the original meaning of the Greek word, not transfer English meanings into the text.

So what does monogenes mean? According to the Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (BDAG, 3rd Edition), monogenes has two primary definitions. The first definition is "pertaining to being the only one of its kind within a specific relationship." This is its meaning in Hebrews 11:17 when the writer refers to Isaac as Abraham’s "only begotten son" (KJV). Abraham had more than one son, but Isaac was the only son he had by Sarah and the only son of the covenant. Therefore, it is the uniqueness of Isaac among the other sons that allows for the use of monogenes in that context.

The second definition is "pertaining to being the only one of its kind or class, unique in kind." This is the meaning that is implied in John 3:16 ( John 1:14, 18; 3:18; 1 John 4:9). John was primarily concerned with demonstrating that Jesus is the Son of God (John 20:31), and he uses monogenes to highlight Jesus as uniquely God’s Son—sharing the same divine nature as God—as opposed to believers who are God’s sons and daughters by adoption (Ephesians 1:5). Jesus is God’s “one and only” Son.

Christ is not a created being who has a beginning but rather “the Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven” (Hebrews 1:3).

Hence, Jesus could rightly say that anyone who saw Him had seen the Father (John 14:9). He perfectly reveals the Father since He is the Son of God.

Before the universe was created, God existed in a loving relationship. When the Son added humanity to His divinity, He continued to retain this loving relationship with the other member God the father , and not a Trinity.

Christ mentions this unique relationship with His Father when He said, “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Matthew 11:27).

The bottom line is that terms such as "Father" and "Son," descriptive of God and Jesus, are human terms that help us understand the relationship between the different Persons of God . If you can understand the relationship between a human father and a human son, then you can understand, in part, the relationship between the First and Second Person. The analogy breaks down if you try to take it too far and teach, as some pseudo-Christian cults (such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses), that Jesus was literally "begotten" as in “produced” or “created” by God the Father.

While people who believe in Jesus become “children” of God, Jesus is in a special, eternal relationship with the Father as the Son (John 1:12).

He is the “one and only Son” who came to die for the sins of humankind and be raised to life to bring salvation to all who trust Him (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).

No greater act of love exists that can compare to the Father’s willingness to give His Son as the final and perfect sacrifice for our sins (Romans 8:32).

Instead of experiencing confusion when reading John 3:16 in the King James Version of the Bible, you can now understand that the Greek word behind the word “begotten” is much more specific and clearer than the traditional rendering.

Modern versions of the Bible better render the Greek word to show that Jesus is unique since no one else can compare to Him. He alone is God the Son, who has existed forever in a loving relationship with the Father .

As Christians, we should be grateful for the new title we receive at salvation as “children of God,” but even more grateful that Jesus is the “one and only Son.” Without Him, we would still be lost and would never know the wonderful gift of eternal life