Catechesis · Inquirer
God the Son
Catechesis · Inquirer
God the Son
Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, who became a human being. He is not a great teacher who was later called divine, nor a divine being…
Question
Who is Jesus Christ?
Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, who became a human being. He is not a great teacher who was later called divine, nor a divine being who only appeared to be human. He is fully God and fully man — two natures in one Person, inseparably and without confusion.
This is the most radical claim anyone has ever made. The eternal God, through whom all things were made, became a creature within His own creation — was born, grew up, suffered, died, and rose again. Everything else in Christian theology flows from this.
The teaching
The eternal Logos — begotten, not made
The Creed says of the Son: "begotten of the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one essence with the Father." Every phrase was chosen with precision. "Begotten, not made" rules out Arius. "Of one essence" — *homoousios* — is the definitional word of Nicaea.
The eternal generation of the Son is not a temporal event. The Son does not come into being at a moment in time. He is eternally begotten — the relation of Father and Son is the eternal structure of God's being. God was never without His Word.
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John says "we beheld His glory." The eternal Word, by taking on flesh, made the invisible visible — not as a temporary appearance but as a permanent reality. The Incarnation does not end at the Ascension. The Son of God is still incarnate, still bearing our nature in the presence of the Father.
St. John the Theologian
John 1:14
Holy Scripture
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made."
John 1:1–3
"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible."
Colossians 1:15–16
The Incarnation
Why the eternal Word became a particular man
The Incarnation is the most particular event in history. The eternal Word became one specific person: a first-century Galilean Jew, born to a particular woman, in a particular place, at a particular time. God did not become humanity in general. He became a human being. This particularity is not an accident. It is the point.