Autoworkers produce cars, cooks make meals, bakers bake pastries, artists paint what is in their mind’s eye, and sculptors bring their dream into 3-D reality. But in none of these cases is the creation identical to the image in the mind of the creator. All are somewhat less, falling short of the desired plan. That is why we create and recreate over and over again. Our creations never quite meet our expectations. The gods we create are included in this failure to measure up. Isaiah spends a great deal of time describing our futile attempts. We always fall short of the glory of God when we try to describe him or live for Him, for that matter.
18 To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? 19 An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains… 25 To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. 29 Behold, they are all a delusion; their works are nothing; their metal images are empty wind. Isaiah 40:18-19,25; 41:29 (ESV)
Christmas is the time we listen and watch as God cuts through our futile attempts to reach Him and tells us how it really is. He uses the word “create” when He talks about making the Universe and making us.
Begetting is not like creating. Divine begetting can’t fall short of the Glory of God. In fact it is a perfect expression of His glory. In Psalm 2:7 He describes it: “7 I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, "You are my Son; today I have begotten you.” So important is this distinction that in Acts 13:33 and Hebrews 1:5 and 5:5 He quotes this declaration of Psalm 2.
John also reminds us that the Son is begotten, not born:
14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. 18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. John 1:14, 18 (NASB)
The Nicene Creed (325AD) elaborates so we don’t miss the implications:
“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.”
So when you read John 3:16 next time (or quote it from memory) do it with a grateful heart…grateful that He is begotten, not made!
6 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 18 "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:16,18 (NASB)
