#942 Eternal Past Sonship?

Dr. craig’s response

Your question is a subtle one, Mark, which may be easily misunderstood by our readers. You are not calling into question the existence of the second person of the Trinity (the Logos or Word of John 1.1) prior to his incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth. The pre-existence of the Logos is widely attested in the New Testament. Rather, your question is whether the Logos had the status of being a son prior to his incarnation.

One’s answer to this question will depend in important measure on whether you think that the Logos’ being the “only begotten God” (monogenēs theos [John 1.18]) is a status that belongs to his very being or is a status that he takes on in the plan of salvation. If the former, then the Sonship of the Logos belongs to the ontological Trinity (the Trinity as it exists essentially), whereas if it is the latter, then the Logos’ Sonship belongs to the economic Trinity (the contingent roles assumed by the members of the Trinity for the sake of our salvation).

Now traditionally almost all confessing Christians (not just evangelicals!) have affirmed that the Logos is eternally and necessarily begotten by the Father. This belief attained credal status at the Council of Nicea in 325. So Jesus Christ is not only eternally God’s Son, but essentially God’s Son. The Nicene Creed affirms, “We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father; God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God; begotten not made, one in being with the Father.” We should be very chary about departing from the affirmations of an ecumenical creed.

Nevertheless, the majority of New Testament scholars have come to question the interpretation of Christ’s being begotten of the Father as referring to his eternal, necessary procession. As you note, Christ’s Sonship could be his in virtue of his incarnation. Luke, for example, in the story of the annunciation to Mary writes, “the angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God’” (Luke 1.35). On this view, the Logos is begotten by the Father, not in his divine nature, but in his human nature. The Logos is God’s Son contingently because of the role he voluntarily assumes in the plan of man’s redemption.

Notice, however, that even if this latter view is correct, it does not imply that the Logos is not eternally the Son of God. For according to the Scriptures, the plan of salvation was promulgated from eternity. Ephesians speaks of “the plan (oikonomia) of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, . . . according to the eternal purpose which he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord,” “a plan (oikonomia) for the fulness of time to unite all things in him” (Ephesians 3.9-11; 1.10; cf. II Timothy 1.9–10). Similarly, I Peter 1.20 states that Christ “was destined before the foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake.” So even if the second person of the Trinity is God’s Son only in the economic Trinity, rather than the ontological Trinity, he is God’s Son from eternity past and always will be to eternity future.