"Jesus said ... 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"v. 17)

For Reading and Meditation:     John 20:10-18

Some non-Christian religions claim that God is the Author of their sacred writings as well as of the Bible, but the god they talk about is not the God who has revealed Himself in the Person of His Son. The true God is a Father - the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Mohammed wrote in the Qur'an (as we saw): "Allah forbid that He Himself should beget a Son." But that is exactly what God did - He begot a Son. What does "begotten" mean? C. S. Lewis in his book Mere Christianity points out that to beget is to become the father of; to create is to make. When you beget, you beget something of the same kind as yourself. A man begets human babies, a beaver begets little beavers, and a bird begets eggs which turn into baby birds. A man can create a statue which looks like a man but is not a real man. This is an important issue to get clear. What God begets is God, just as what man begets is man. That is why human beings are not sons of God in the sense that Christ is. They may be like God in certain ways, but they are not of the same kind. One of the creeds says that Christ is the Son of God, "begotten not created," and adds: "begotten by His Father before all worlds." "Before all worlds." Christ is begotten, not created. For what purpose? That you and I might have a Divine Father also.

Gracious and loving God, from the bottom of my heart I want to thank You for begetting a Son in order that through Him I might come to know You as Father. I shall be grateful throughout time and all eternity. Amen