Only begotten

 Jesus is said to be God's “only begotten.” Some seek to translate this as only “unique” son of God. Though this may be true, there are reasons to see this as a reference to Jesus being the heir. Jesus will be the heir of the nations and the new creation.

Psalm 2 makes a connection between the Son as God's “anointed” (he shall be “king” in “Zion”) being “begotten,” and the nations being his “inheritance.”

​¹ Why do the nations rage, And the people plot a vain thing? ² The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, ³ "Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us." ⁴ He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; The Lord shall hold them in derision. ⁵ Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, And distress them in His deep displeasure: ⁶ "Yet I have set My King On My holy hill of Zion." ⁷ "I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to Me, You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. ⁸ Ask of Me, and I will give You The nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. ⁹ You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.'" Psalms 2:1-9

Jesus being the “begotten” one is referenced in Acts and twice in Hebrews, quoting Psalm 2. ³² And we declare to you glad tidings—that promise which was made to the fathers. ³³ God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm: 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.' Acts 13:32-33 ⁵ For to which of the angels did He ever say: "You are My Son, Today I have begotten You"? Hebrews 1:5 ⁵ So also Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: "You are My Son, Today I have begotten You." Hebrews 5:5

There is a question as to when the “today” should apply. When did God beget his son? It could be 2 stages. In the resurrection, Jesus has all authority, and that authority at this time is in *giving eternal life. But the full manifestation of that authority will be when the **kingdom comes, and all nations will be under his authority as the second Psalm says.

If the begetting is about Jesus being the heir, then the “today” would speak of when his inheritance and attendant authority is received. It begins in the resurrection, but its full manifestation is the coming kingdom of God.

*​¹ Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, ² as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. John 17:1-2

**¹³ "I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. ¹⁴ Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed. Daniel 7:13-14

Sola Fide

 “Free Grace” is the designation given to those who believe that justification is by faith alone apart from works. I want to say that it is an attempt to maintain a consistent “sola fide” view about what one must do to be saved. “Sola fide” is Latin for “faith alone,” and it is understood as one of the main tenets of the Protestant Reformation.

“Free Grace” seeks to maintain Sola Fide, but with the understanding that “works” cannot be frontloaded or backloaded to that faith from which salvation results. That is, faith alone does not require good works before or after such faith that results in one being saved.

Some will seek to add turning from sins as “repentance” to such faith, or they will require some degree of moral reformation before and after such faith for salvation to be acquired. Some require a certain degree of good works, or one's faith is not legitimate or has failed and such a one has “dead” faith (James 2), and such faith cannot “save them.”

I was recently reading a book titled: “Getting the Reformation Wrong,” by James Payton, and he sets forth that the Reformers, like Luther, did not believe the faith by which we are saved is alone. The author writes that the Reformers believed that “justification is by faith alone, but faith is never alone.” The author is saying that those who hold to the view that faith alone does not require attendant works or turning from sins is not teaching the “sola fide” that the Reformers believed. And that may be very well true. The author will make reference to “easy believism,” “cheap grace,” say “the sinner's prayer,” and “walk the aisle”/ “coming to the altar” as inaccurate views of sola fide. Yet Free Grace folks often do not hold to those decisional methods of salvation. Those who do practice these methods are probably not even Free Grace folks.

Free Grace seeks to hold to a consistent view of sola fide. They believe salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone. Turning from sin (whether that is repentance or not) is not required for salvation, though it may precede it and follow it. If a believer fails to do good works after salvation, their salvation does not require it or guarantee it, but probably most believers will have some good works. The book of James is addressing believers in chapter 2 where it talks about faith being dead, and it is in reference to works, but the example is about seeing a need and not fulfilling it. All believers fail at times to act consistently in their faith. One can know to do good and fail to do it. In that case, their faith is lacking vitality; it is unfulfilled. The issue in James is not whether one is really saved or not, or whether one was once alive but is now spiritually dead. What if a believer fails? Is he not saved then? Does “true” salvation automatically produce good works, or does he lose his salvation?

The Reformers may not have been consistent with their claim to “sola fide” for justification. Most Christians are probably not.

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Israel's salvation

 Deuteronomy 4:25-31:

²⁵ "When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the LORD your God to provoke Him to anger,

²⁶ I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day,

that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed.

²⁷ And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you.

²⁸ And there you will serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.

²⁹ But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

³⁰ When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice

³¹ (for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.

Ezekiel 36:16-28:

¹⁶ Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying:

¹⁷ "Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own ways and deeds; to Me their way was like the uncleanness of a woman in her customary impurity.

¹⁸ Therefore I poured out My fury on them for the blood they had shed on the land, and for their idols with which they had defiled it.

¹⁹ So I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the countries; I judged them according to their ways and their deeds.

²⁰ When they came to the nations, wherever they went, they profaned My holy name—when they said of them, 'These are the people of the LORD, and yet they have gone out of His land.'

²¹ But I had concern for My holy name, …

²³ And I will sanctify My great name, ... the nations shall know that I am the LORD," says the Lord GOD, "when I am hallowed in you before their eyes.

²⁴ For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. …

²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

²⁷ I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

²⁸ Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.

Jeremiah 31:31-36:

³¹ "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—

³² not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.

³³ But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

³⁴ No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

³⁵ Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for a light by day, The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who disturbs the sea, And its waves roar (The LORD of hosts is His name):

³⁶ "If those ordinances depart From before Me, says the LORD, Then the seed of Israel shall also cease From being a nation before Me forever."

Romans 11:25-29:

²⁵ For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

²⁶ And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:

"The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;

²⁷ For this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins."

²⁸ Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.

²⁹ For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.