V. W. J. H. Lawrence
The Son, The Son of God, The Son of the living God, the only-begotten Son of God, God's own Son, the Son of the Father, the Son of the Father's love; John 5:21; 5:25; Matthew 16:16; John 3:16; Romans 8:32; 2 John 3; Colossians 1:13.
Such is the seven-fold witness which God has witnessed concerning His Son. In the varied excellence of these seven expressions of this infinitely holy and blessed relation, we can learn the glory of the Son of God. And though that glory must ever transcend us, yet we know Him who bears its weight, who shines with its effulgence.
Love, life, and intimacy; every character of honour, glory, and might; subsist in the revelation of this relation. Jesus is truly the Son of God; He is also the Son of the LIVING God. He is truly the Son of the Father; He is also the Son of the Father's love. He is God's own Son—essentially the Son. He is the Son having life in Himself—the living, quickening One. Every honour due to the Father is due also to the Son. He is one with the Father; He is in the Father as the Father is in Him. Such realities could only be affirmed of a relation which is, in its very nature, inherently and essentially Divine; Divine, that is, as belonging properly to the absolute and eternal existence of God. Thus, indeed, is God revealed to us, in the Unity of the Godhead, yet according to the Holy Trinity of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The greatest glory of our Lord Jesus is His Sonship glory; this is unquestioned. And if its essentially Divine and eternal nature be denied, He is robbed of the brightest rays, the highest excellence, of this His greatest glory. Is it possible that a true Christian would do this? If he did it thoughtlessly, surely it is never possible that he would do it with calculated intent! Yet there are some who pretend that the Person of Jesus is greatly exalted by the denial of His Divine and eternal Sonship. And this conclusion they have reached by way of a miserable, unworthy conception, having no foundation in the Scriptures, viz: that the relation of the Father and the Son cannot possibly exist in the everlasting Being of God; in other words, they imagine that Godhead and Sonship are irreconcilable in the eternal Person of Jesus. No creature dare affirm this, except the Word of God had stated it.
Thus is the denial of Eternal Sonship, not only a baseless thing, but it robs the Lord Jesus Christ of His greatest glory, for He is God's own Son.