CP 1. The Designation of Jesus Christ to be the Son of God

How can Jesus be the only begotten Son of God and the firstborn Son of God?

Christ is both the Son of Man and the Son of God. As the Son of Man, He is human, possessing humanity, and as the Son of God, He is divine, possessing divinity. The man Jesus was designated to be the Son of God in His humanity. The Son of God in verse 4 does not refer to Christ as the only begotten Son of God from eternity but to Christ as the firstborn Son of God, referred to in Romans 8:29. The firstborn Son of God was designated. His humanity was designated into the sonship with the divine element.

The central aim of God’s gospel is to produce many sons conformed to His Son (v. 29). His firstborn Son is a pattern, a model, for the producing of the many sons. Romans 1:3-4 describes this model, whereas Romans 8 reveals the mass production. The central message of the book of Romans is that sinful, fleshly people are made sons of God and conformed to the image of the Son of God. In this way Christ becomes the Firstborn among many brothers. (Elders’ Training, Book 6: The Crucial Points of the Truth in Paul’s Epistles, ch. 2, section 1)

Do not think that only Jesus needed the designation. Today all His believers in Him need the same kind of designation…This kind of designation of the Lord Jesus should also be our experience. Designation is actually our sanctification. Sanctification is to live out the Lord. Therefore, designation is to let the Lord live out of us. Now we can see that this is not just a doctrinal, objective point of theology that has nothing to do with us. (Elders’ Training, Book 3: The Way to Carry Out the Vision, ch. 1, section 2)