Begotten of God

The goal of God is to establish a righteous kingdom on earth. Realization of this goal requires a righteous people to populate the kingdom. To accomplish this goal, He is creating a new race through His second Adam, Jesus Christ. The first Adam was created in the image of God; the last Adam was begotten in the image of God. The first Adam was tested and found faulty, succumbing to the temptation of Satan. Thus, the offspring of the first Adam are condemned to eternal punishment. The last Adam was tested and found worthy to be eternally installed upon God’s holy hill, Zion, as King.

The self-evident problem presented is, where will the King find the citizens over whom He will reign?The answer is found in the term begotten (Hebrew, yalad, to beget or give birth; Psalm 2:7). First, Psalm 2:7 describes an eternal decree, and the word “today” can refer to a particular day or to a period of time. There is a twofold fulfillment of the decree. First, in its eternal sense, the decree defines the Son in His relationship to the Father in the Trinity. Second, in its temporal sense, the decree describes the Son in His entrance to the human race. The angel appeared to Joseph in a dream: “Do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20, 21).

Psalm 2 is primarily a declaration of judgment against rebellious nations assembled to rage against the Lord and His Anointed (mashiyach, Christ, Messiah). The Lord laughs because He has already determined how He will deal with this rebellion. He has set His King in Zion who will “break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (v. 9). Thus, the Lord warns them, “Kiss the Son lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled” (v. 12). All judgment has been committed to the Son.

Nevertheless, there is also a whisper of hope. “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage” (v. 8). Christ, through His death, owns the world. He bought it with His blood. This is the message of Revelation 5 and 6 with the scroll (the title deed of the earth) and the Lamb worthy to open it. He is the seed of the woman promised to end Satan’s usurping the kingdom on earth (Genesis 3:15). Jesus suffered Adam’s penalty to free some of Adam’s seed in order for them to experience a divine begetting that they might become the children of God. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1 John 3:1–3).  

Listen carefully to Genesis 3:16; “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth [yalad, beget] children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.” Here is a prophetic word concerning the church. These words were spoken of the wife of the first Adam. They are also spoken of the bride of the second Adam. Jim Elliff eloquently spoke of this: “Out of the sleep of the first Adam came the woman; out of the death of the last Adam came the church.”