Monogenes

Have you ever seen a perfect 3D hologram—one that’s so detailed, it looks like the real thing standing right in front of you? Imagine someone creating a living hologram of themselves so others could see exactly who they are, how they talk, move, love, and respond. That’s what Jesus did.

The Lord Jesus is described as the only born Son of the Father. But then we see something extraordinary about His mission, what He was born to do, in our theme verse: He came to make the Father known: “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”

The word declared is from the Greek “exēgeomai” which means that Jesus, God’s born-Son, came to rehearse God to men. He came to show us what God is like in human form. He came to declare and act out the nature of God.

Now, think about this: the life that He had is what He’s given you (1 John 5:11-12). And the Bible says as He is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17). So, today, He’s called the “...first begotten of the dead...” (Revelation 1:5). This is because He heads up a new species, a new class of Monogenēs— people who have now been born of God as a result of the resurrection of Jesus Christ—by virtue of the New Birth (1 Peter 1:3).

Recall what the Bible says in 1 John 3:1, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God….” We’re born-sons of God: “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).

James 1:18 says, “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” We’re the first and the best, the one and only or one of a kind, unique. (Also read 1 Peter 2:9 AMPC). Hallelujah!