And the Word was Made Flesh...

Oh, the depth of the revelations of the Apostle John... often this apostle is little taught on, in the shadows of Peter and Paul, yet he was powerfully gifted in wisdom and insights of the deep things of God perhaps well beyond many of the other apostles. This was he who's understanding of love was great from the beginning. The apostle John grasped the importance of intimacy with God from the very first. It was he who rested on Jesus bosom at the passover supper before Christ's death; he who was caught up into paradise to experience and write the book of Revelation. His gospel above the others provides some of the most insightful doctrines and theologies concerning Christ, and he who understood love with great enough depth to know it casts out all fear. John could easily be known as the apostle of revelation.

The book of John is the first book in the New Testament wherein we see Jesus referred to as God's 'only begotten Son,' or 'the only begotten of the Father.' (John 1:14) It was revealed to him that Jesus – whom he loved, whose very heartbeats he'd listened to only hours before his Passion – was the one and only 'begotten' Son of God.

However, in the context of this verse, far before the term 'Son of God' is coined, John is trying to make a much more powerful revelation known. I think we often miss sight of the full point John the apostle is trying to make in the first few verses of his gospel, and this for the very reason that after years of inundation with the revelation that Jesus is the Son of God, it is simply what we see Him to be.

None of us generally beg the question, just when did Jesus become the only begotten Son of God? If He was 'begotten,' there had to be a very real time and place of its occurrence. The Jehovah's Witnesses would say that he was begotten of the Father JUST before the rest of creation, for he is – as they say – the firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15), and He is, yet not as they perceive it. The Mormons would say, that he literally was the firstborn child of our heavenly Father and Mother.

Yet when does scripture concede Him to have become 'begotten' of the Father? Well, John chapter 1 verses 1-18 give us some pretty clear clues as to the 'when' of Christs' conception as the Father's Son. We see that first, before ever He was the Son, He was the Word (1:1), and that He was not only with God, but that He also WAS God. We see that also all things were made by Him (1:3), and that life comes from Him (1:4). Then, following all of this, He came into the world (1:10), by what means? By that of putting on flesh (1:14), and here is the first time in all of scripture, that the Word is recognized as the only begotten of the Father.

Yet there are places in scripture before this wherein Christ is prophesied to be called God's Son. Psalms 2:7 “I will declare the decree: the LORD [that is, Jehovah] hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.” Yet where does this fall in context of the chapter? Following the verse which says: “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” (v.6) Ah! So even in prophecy, God declares that Jesus, the word of God will be begotten of Him when He has put on flesh and is made manifest in the world.

Jesus truly was the only begotten of the Father, for the Father conceived Himself within Mary. That's not to say he slept with her, but that He placed His seed within her virgin womb.

So we see that John's message and revelation is more powerful than simply Jesus being God's own Son, as many pagan mythologies, even before that had conceived the ideas of gods having sons or daughters (doubtless such myths came from the time preceding the flood wherein angels are believed to have slept with women to conceive the Nephelim (Gen 6:1-4)). John says clearly, that this was no mere offspring, but the very God who created the universe, in whom was the life which lit all men that have come into the world (1:9) who was begotten of the Father when He put on flesh; therein lies the revelation of Colossians 1:15. He was the firstborn of all creation, not because He was made first and that He was the tool Jehovah used to form the universe (sorry Watchtower... no, not sorry), but that He was the firstborn of God (by way of literal, physical conception), wherein His sacrifice has given us power also to be God's sons (John 1:12), and all creation to be sanctified through Him.

Hebrews 1:6
And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith; AND LET THE ANGELS OF GOD WORSHIP HIM.