June 28, 2025 - 1 John 5:1 - "Begotten Sons"

1 John 5:1

"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him."

This verse stands as a clear testimony to the sovereign work of God in salvation. Believing that Jesus is the Christ is not the cause of the new birth but the evidence of it. The apostle John speaks not of a potential or cooperative birth, but of a decisive, divine act: “is born of God.” This birth is not of the will of man, nor the flesh, but of God alone. It is God's sovereign grace that grants the sinner life in Christ and causes him to believe. Faith is the fruit, not the root, of regeneration. In this scripture, we are brought to rejoice in the glorious truth that all who truly believe in Christ do so because they have already been made alive by the Spirit of God, made partakers of the divine nature by God's sovereign mercy and grace.

Adam was the first man made in the image and likeness of God- "This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;" (Genesis 5:1). Man is not his maker, and therefore is not his own master. We live and move and have our being in HIM as Creator and Sustainer. God made Adam in His likeness, upright, albeit finite and fallible! Yet sons of Adam are not born now in the likeness of God’s image. Because of Adam’s fall, they are born in the likeness of Adam, "And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:" (Genesis 5:4) - rebels, fallen creatures, spiritually dead in their sin, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:" (Romans 5:12). Such is the state of every creature born into this world.

Although some are begotten sons of God by the electing grace of God, there is only one true Begotten Son of God. Christ is so described in Scripture, not that He is a created being, for He is eternal. Rather, this is to describe His place of glory as God’s Only Son by nature, and because of the work that He came to accomplish.  As the Only Begotten Son of God, He is also called the Last Adam, “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit,” (1 Corinthians 15:45). Even as the first Adam had an earthly race, so the last Adam has a spiritual race. Scripture declares that Christ’s spiritual race was begotten of Him when He died and rose again, 1 Peter 1:3- “Blessed be the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” When He died and rose again, their adoption as sons was complete. All legal obligations of redeeming and justifying them are complete, and now released from the curse of the first Adam and attributed a Righteousness greater than that of the first Adam, His chosen race has an everlasting Righteousness (Daniel 9:24).

The phrase “born again” is rich with grace and filled with glory. Yes, it speaks of the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in regenerating the sinner. Every soul dead in trespasses and sins must be made alive by divine power. This is not a work of man’s will, effort, or religion, but of God’s Spirit giving life where there was none. Begotten of God by the Spirit- "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). A sinner must be born again to see/perceive the kingdom of God in Christ and their salvation in Him. Those in whom the Spirit so works are born “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,” (John 1:13). 

But the phrase also finds its highest and fullest expression in the resurrection of the LORD Jesus Christ. He is “the first begotten of the dead” (Revelation 1:5), raised by the glory of the Father. His resurrection was, in a real sense, His own “new birth” from death to life, not as a sinner but as the Surety Who bore our sin and satisfied divine justice. In rising, He emerged as the Head of a new creation (His Church), the Firstborn among many brethren (Romans 9:29). Thus, believers are said to be “begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

Being born again points both to regeneration by the Spirit but also to the elect sinner's union with Christ in His resurrection. As He was raised, we are raised in Him—justified, sanctified, and destined for glory. Blessed be God for the miracle of the new birth, both in the tomb and in the heart.