Jesus, One With The Father, Begotten Not Made

In my last post we began to look at Jesus' hard saying in John 6. We pick this discussion up today.

I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." - Jhn 6:51-58 ESV

Jesus' saying or teaching was stiff, unbending and difficult. Many of his disciples couldn't accept it. It simply made no sense. They joined with the others who were not his disciples to complain about what Jesus said, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"

Lets start with Jesus' saying about his flesh and blood, "Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink."

At the beginning of his Gospel, John writes, "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). Prior to that John tells us that the Word was God! And that everything was made by Him. In other words, this Word is not a creature of God. No indeed. He IS God. And yet . . . "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."

This was a great controversy among us Christians in centuries past about Jesus. Just who is he? The whole thing surfaced in a huge fight in the fourth century after Christ's resurrection and ascension. An Egyptian clergyman by the name of Arius taught that Christ is the Son of God, but he did not always exist. Rather, he was created by God the Father. He based this on Jesus' discourse with his disciples prior to his suffering in which he pointed out that his Father was greater than he.

You heard me say to you, 'I am going away, and I will come to you.' If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. - Jhn 14:28 ESV

Obviously this does not appear to square with John's introduction about the Word being God and becoming flesh and blood like the rest of us. So the controversy waged on and on until the church fathers had to get together again and again to solve it—or at least agree as a majority about what the Scriptures teach about Jesus. Various forms of Arianism—the teaching that Jesus is a creature—continue among so-called Christians to this day. For instance, Mormonism, the religion of American presidential candidate Mitt Romney, teaches that Jesus is a creature, conceived by the physical union of God the Father and Mary. They further teach that Jesus is our elder brother who progressed to become a god. By following his example we too can become gods.

The majority of the church's teachers and pastors came to an agreement toward the end of the fourth century in a gathering in Constantinople, the capitol of the Roman empire. There they agreed on the wording of the Nicene Creed, the most universal of all the Christian creeds, accepted by the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox churches, Lutherans and most protestant churches. That teaching is that Jesus is begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

This teaching comes from the first chapter of John's Gospel as noted above. There we read that the Word became flesh and blood after all things came into being through him.  He is not a creature, but  the only-begotten (monogenēs - Greek) of the Father (John 1:14). That's why the creed says, begotten, not made. To say he was made would suggest that Jesus is a creature or some kind of demi-god as the Mormons teach. 

So back to the hard saying and the question, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" The point made by the church is that Jesus is indeed a man—and will always be a man. BUT! He is also God, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made (see also the Athanasian Creed). So the saying is harder than it first appears. We are dealing with the God-Man, Jesus, the Word made flesh. 

We'll probe this hard saying some more next time.