Dave Baxter | Only Son, Our Lord

Sunday Evening, March 29, 2026
Given by Dave Baxter | Pastor of Disability Ministry, Christ Covenant Church

Only Son, Our Lord

Ephesians 1:2-10

Heidelberg Catechism—Lord’s Day 13

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Good evening. Turn with me, if you will, to the book of Ephesians. We are, of course, continuing in our evening series through the Heidelberg Catechism. As Kevin mentioned this morning, it's been a really rich opportunity for us. Tonight, we come to Lord's Day 13, specifically questions 33 and 34. We'll get to those in just a moment together. But I want to read together from Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus as we begin tonight. We'll certainly reference some other passages as we work through these couple of questions together, but this passage will help serve as sort of a point of reference. So, keep your Bibles open to Ephesians chapter 1, and follow along with me now as we read from there. Ephesians chapter 1, beginning in verse 2 through verse 10. 

“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he has set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in him.”

Let's pray. 

Father, we come to you tonight – even that we can do so, addressing you as Father, is only because we do so in your only eternal Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. But we ask you, Father, again tonight that you would bless your Word, that you would bless the preaching of your Word. Spirit, would you hold up Christ to us again tonight through your Word and bless our hearts? We need you. We need your help. We pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

I wonder if, as a child, you had something that really comforted you, something that was a source of comfort? Or maybe you are a child here tonight, or just a little past childhood, and you've got an item or a place or a person or a thing – something that is a source of great comfort to you. Or regardless of age, I wonder where it is that you look to for comfort today. When things are stressful or when things are chaotic, when you've suffered a great loss or when things in your life are maybe anything other than what you wish they were, where do you turn? Where do you go? What do you look to for comfort? It may surprise some of you, but I did not grow up Dutch. I also did not grow up from Michigan, though I'm sure my accent makes it confusing. I did not grow up with the Heidelberg Catechism, but I kind of wish that I did, because one thing that has stood out to me about the Heidelberg as I've gotten more familiar with it over the last several years, and perhaps maybe to you too as we're making our way through this series, is that this catechism is not meant only to teach us theology, though certainly it does a great job of doing that, but also meant to teach us comfort. 

Comfort. Apparently, comfort is something that we can learn. Finding comfort, true comfort, comfort that goes beyond particular items or situational circumstances is something that we can grow to know, something that we can internalize. Remember again where this catechism begins. What's the very first question? What's your only comfort? There's a pastoral purpose to this catechism that continues throughout. We saw it explicitly in Lord's Day 10 asked, and we'll see it explicitly asked again in the coming weeks as we come to questions like 36, 43, 45, 49, 51, 52, 57, 58, 59, 69, 75. All of those questions directly ask how does this particular truth – this particular doctrine, this particular reality, this knowledge – how does it assure you, how does it benefit you, how does it comfort you? Tonight we are looking at Lord's Day 13. Again, questions 33 and 34. And while these questions may not ask that explicitly, I do hope you'll receive the same benefit of seeing how the answers to these questions, specifically how the answers that the Word of God gives to these questions, should be to us a source of great benefit and deep and rich comfort. And that this will also lead us to worship and to praise our God. So, with that in mind, why don't you turn with me to the back of your bulletin – the questions and answers are printed there, just one page over. We can read them responsively together. I'll read the question. You read with me, then, the answer. Question 33 and 34:

Q: Why is he called God's only begotten Son when we also are God's children? 

A: Because Christ alone is the eternal natural Son of God. We, however, are adopted children of God, adopted by grace for the sake of Christ. 

Q: Why do you call him our Lord? 

A: Because not with gold or silver, but with his precious blood, he has delivered and purchased us, body and soul, from sin and from the tyranny of the devil to be his very own. 

Following those two questions, then, our outline tonight will be relatively simple. Just two points. Why is he called God's only Son? Why do you call him our Lord? If you want to make it even more simple, you can just go with the title. Two points. Only Son, our Lord. We'll spend most of our time by far on the first point. 

So, why is he called God's only begotten Son when we also are God's children? Of course, the “he” in both of these questions is a reference back to the name, the person, Jesus Christ, whom Tom did such an excellent job unveiling to us through Lord's Day 11 and 12 last Sunday evening. We actually see both of these realities of these questions here reflected, though, in Ephesians 1, don't we? Look there. You see the sonship and the lordship of Jesus. And you also see the sonship of Jesus along with our own. Look at verse 3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Jesus Christ has a Father. God the Father has a Son. Specifically, he is Father to Jesus Christ. Yet, looking back at verse 2, we can see that God is also our Father. Paul's, of course, writing to a church here, the church in Ephesus. So, he's writing to those he's trusting are in Christ, those who are Christians. But the question that the catechism asks, then, is this: how is it that the Apostles’ Creed, which is referred to here, refers to Jesus as God's only Son? Wouldn't Scripture also abundantly call us, as Christians, God's children as well? The answer it gives: Christ alone is the eternal natural Son of God. We, however, are adopted children of God, adopted by grace for the sake of Jesus Christ. Let's consider for a moment the first part of that answer, that Jesus Christ alone is the eternal natural Son of God. Honestly, I doubt in this room this evening that there are probably too many of us for whom that's a foreign concept or a source of great contention, though let me add that if you are here this evening and for you this is something new or something maybe you're not just sure of just yet, we are so thankful that you are here. Hope that this sermon will be a blessing and an encouragement to you, and there are many folks in this room who would love to have the chance to talk to you more about that question later on. And of course there are many in the world who would not affirm this truth today. Even down throughout the history of the church, this has been a source of some theological wrestling, but this profound truth tonight reminds us of three vital realities. Three vital realities. More, but at least three. 

First of all, Jesus Christ is fully God. John chapter 1 – we read it earlier – verse 1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Verse 14, John explicitly identifies that divine Word as the only Son from the Father. Verse 18, as the only God who's at the Father's side. And then in verse 17, identifies both this eternal divine Word and Son as the person Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ did not become divine. He was not made divine at some point. He did not have divinity thrust upon him or inherit it. He was fully God, eternally. As the Nicene Creed states, this Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is God of God, light of light, very God of very God. As Kevin writes in his book on the catechism, “For Jesus to be called God's only Son means that he shares equally in divinity, glory, and honor with the Father.” He is fully God. 

He is also eternally Son. Of course, in the human nature, Jesus was conceived and then born at a certain point in time. There was a moment in time at which Jesus became a man. But in his divine nature, he has always been the Son, eternally begotten, generated from the Father. And this begetting never had a beginning. This is perhaps a bit hard for us in this room to conceptualize tonight, because if you are a father in this room, I don't have to know you very well, or even at all really, to know this one thing about you as a father. And that's this: that there was a point at which you were not a father. You were not, and then you were a father. Or every single one of us here tonight is either a daughter or a son. And it goes without saying that there was a point at which we were not one, because there was a point at which we were not. So, this is the distinction that the Apostles’ Creed makes, and the Heidelberg explains here, that when it comes to the only begotten Son of God, he did not become a son at some point in time. He is always God the Son. Just as the Father never became a father, he is always Father. It's what theologians have spoken of as the eternal generation of the Son. Or again, as Kevin has written, “The Son of God never came into being. He is God's eternally begotten Son. There never was a time when he was not. The Father did not give life to him in the sense that he created the Son or brought the Son from non-being to being. Rather, the Father shares his essence with the Son and the life he has in himself.” Jesus was not conceived, not created or adopted as God's Son. In his eternal nature, he always was. He is the Father's eternally begotten Son, and of him there is only one. 

Fully God, eternally begotten, and also eternally beloved. Look back again at Ephesians 1. Look at verse 5 and 6. He's eternally beloved. “He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved.” That's Christ. Jesus Christ is the Father's beloved. He is his eternally beloved Son. Or remember at Jesus's baptism – Jesus has been baptized, the heavens break open, and a voice descends. It's the Father speaking to Jesus, and he says, "You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased.” Of course, today is Palm Sunday. And so, perhaps even more fitting then, it's appropriate to think maybe of the other end of Jesus' public ministry. Think of John 17 with Jesus. They're in a small upper room somewhere in Jerusalem. In fact, flip there, if you will, for just a moment. John 17. In a matter of hours, of course, Jesus will be hanging on the cross. He'll be crying out to whom? Father. “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Father, why have you forsaken me? Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” But for the moment there in that room, with his disciples, his closest friends and followers, gathered around, Jesus – he's praying. We call it his high priestly prayer. John 17. It's a prayer that Jesus started this way, “Father, the hour has come to glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.” Jesus is praying. He's praying to his Father as the Son. And then look at verse 24. I’ve come to love this verse, verse 24. Jesus is praying. He says, "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given to me, may be with me where I am to see my glory that you've given me” – why? – “because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” Father loved the Son. You loved me before the foundation of the world. 

Fully God, eternally Son, and he's eternally and perfectly loved. Why is he called God's only begotten Son? Because Christ alone is the eternal natural Son of God. And it's one more thing of importance for us to note tonight, before we move on, that all of this is who Jesus is, who the Son is in himself, above and before and beyond and separate from any other created thing, including us, which reminds us tonight that the eternal Son did not need anything else. God did not create out of need. Jesus did not take on flesh to redeem us out of some deficit. If there are other children of God tonight – and praise God, there are millions of them; we'll come to that in just a moment – but that there are tonight, here in this room, around the world, already with God in glory – this is not the result of any need or deficit or deficiency in the Godhead. He is the only begotten Son. He is not a lonely begotten Son. I grew up with just one sister, and she was – she is – fantastic. Probably would have been fine, I'm sure she would have been fine, maybe, to exchange me for someone else. Maybe add another sibling into the group. We have six kids in our house, which admittedly still does not get us bragging rights on this pastoral team. But I can tell you that at times it is loud and chaotic in our home, and probably our kids are just fine if we cap things at six. My dad though grew up as an only child. He grew up as an only child on a small farm in rural Tennessee. I know he would have loved to have had a brother or a sister to share some of those experiences with, someone to play with, to romp through the woods with, talk about things, maybe help out with some of the workload, go on family trips, maybe gripe about mom and dad together with. But undoubtedly, there were times when it was for him lonely. Not so for the eternal begotten Son. He was not lonely. He was not lacking. Our triune God has no needs. What he has is eternal, abundant, overflowing life and love. As Robert Letham writes in his book The Eternal Son, speaking of eternal generation, “Eternal generation signifies that God is infinitely brim-full of life, for he is life itself.” You hear that? Not half full, not 3/4 full, not mostly full, brim-full to flowing over life and love. It's the first half of the catechism's answer, that Jesus Christ is the incarnate only eternal, natural Son of God. Not so with us. That we as believers are called children of God is owing not to our natural state but only to the supernatural work of God's grace through his eternal Son in our adoption. 

So it's interesting that the answer, then, given by the Heidelberg actually emphasizes the distinction between us and Jesus – Jesus as the only natural Son and us as God's adopted children. There's a world of difference. But of course, that distinction, that difference, it's also the gospel, isn't it? It's not some sad conception. It's a glorious wonder that the eternal Son of God would willingly enter the virgin's womb and take on flesh to become the son of Mary, that he would become what he was not, the child of a woman, so that we could become what we were not, the child of God. “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” And friends, that was not some last-second, hurriedly drawn-up plan or play. We, of course, are in March Madness.  I've gotten to watch less than I usually like to, but one of the things I love about March Madness – I don't know if you follow it – but you inevitably have some really close games at the end, and somebody will call a timeout, and the coach is pulling them over, looking up at the clock. How much time's left? We're down by one, two, three, how many? What kind of defense can we expect them to run? Where are we inbounding the ball again? Who's shooting well? Who's in foul trouble? Quick, hurry, scribble up a play. We got to go. Get them back in. Everybody on the same page? That was not our adoption. Look back again at Ephesians. Here we see something else that happened before the foundation of the world. You've loved me before the foundation of the world, Jesus says to the Father. And then Paul says to the Ephesians in chapter 1, verse 4, “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.” That was always the plan between the Father and the Son, if we can speak in those kinds of terms. Our adoption, your adoption in Christ. And it's remarkable when you consider just how unnatural we were to be chosen or selected to be adopted as God's children. Look at chapter 2. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, following the course of this world. We were following the prince of the power of the air. We were sons of disobedience. We were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Or look at verse 12. Naturally speaking, we're born far off. We're alienated. No hope without God. But now we’ve been brought near. Now we've been brought in. We've been adopted. And if you have not been adopted, here's wonderful news for you tonight: you qualify for this adoption. You qualify, because no one is adopted because they should be in and of themselves. No one in God's family here has any natural right to be called a son or daughter of God. We are all, of our own nature, disqualified. There is only one who is eternally, truly, of his own nature qualified to be the Son of God, and in him everyone can be qualified to be a son or daughter of God. 

How? Verse 7, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace.” See that? We've been justified so that we can be adopted. Our adoption required that the eternal Son of God would take up flesh so that he could then lay it down again so that we could be brought in through him and through his blood. It's the gospel. Verse 13 of Ephesians reminds us that when you hear that gospel and believe in this eternal Son, Jesus Christ, you are sealed with the promised Holy Spirit and made clean, yes, not only clean; forgiven, yes, not only forgiven; but family, sons and daughters sealed. There's a whole lot that we could say tonight about this incredible reality of being adopted as a son or daughter of God. We'd be hard-pressed probably to find somewhere that says it in as less space or as well as the Westminster Confession chapter 12. And we love the Heidelberg here. We're going through it. But we are Presbyterians, so we should give some airtime to Westminster as well. So, Westminster Confession chapter 12 speaks of our adoption. I'll read it slowly to you so you can take it in, but certainly would encourage you to look it up later and just meditate on the wonders of what it means to be an adopted child of God. Here's what it says: “All those who are justified God vouchsafeth, in and for his only Son Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption; by which they are taken into the number, and enjoy the liberties and the privileges of the children of God; have his name put upon them; receive the Spirit of adoption; have access to the throne of grace with boldness; are enabled to cry, Abba, Father; are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by him as by a father; yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption, and inherit the promises, as heirs of everlasting salvation.” It's a fantastic summary of what it means to be God's adopted child. Here's an even more succinct one from J.I. Packer: “The adopted status of believers means that in and through Christ, God loves them as he loves his only begotten Son and will share with them all the glory that is Christ's now.” 

What's this mean for us tonight? Friends, I don't know what for many of you, what you're facing tonight, what you may be facing tomorrow, but if you are in Christ, here is what is facing you. Or better yet, here is who is facing you. And here is how he is facing you. Because if you are in Christ, the beloved one of the Father, then the Father faces you no longer as a child of wrath, but he faces you as his only begotten Son, because he faces you in him. He faces you in Christ, adopted, made a son or daughter through Jesus Christ. It's the wonder of the answer the catechism provides, or moreso the gospel. Also means that this catechism presents us with a very personal and significant question tonight – a critical question, one of eternal difference for every single person and also one of eternal comfort. Are you called God's child tonight? If not, don't you want this kind of assurance, this kind of confidence, this kind of relationship with God as your Father, this kind of future with him? And the wonder of the gospel, the Christian hope, is that that can be true for you even this evening. God's child. And if you are called God's child tonight, and most all of you in this room certainly are, what a reason to rejoice, to give thanks, to wonder, to worship, to revel in that comfort, and perhaps also to pray, “Oh, Father, thank you for making me your adopted child. Help me. I want to love you, to worship you, and to be obedient to you, to please you as you would have your adopted son or daughter to do.” 

Well, that begins, then, to turn our attention much more briefly to the second question, which is this: why do you call him “our Lord”? There’s not time to explore this question in great depth tonight, so I want to focus our attention really on one aspect in particular, and that's the way that the question is asked to us is actually of some importance. Notice the difference. Even between question 33 and 34, did you notice that? Question 33, why is he called God's only Son? Question 34, why do you call him our Lord? Look back again at Ephesians 1. Without making too much of the difference here, but you can see perhaps at least a grammatical difference there as well between verses 2 and 3. Verse 2, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Verse 3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Again, don't want to make too much of the distinction here in terms of Paul's own thinking, but perhaps for us tonight, it can be instructive, particularly in light of the catechism – both the question and the answer it provides. The Lord, our Lord. And I want to think with you for a minute about the significance of that word “our,” because there is a sense in which we can simply say that Jesus is the Lord. Period. No “our,” no “my” needed. He doesn't need your acceptance or mine, our acknowledgement, our submission, to establish that fact. He is the Lord. 

We could cite numerous reasons. I'll share just four very briefly. First, he is before all things. Colossians 1:17. Before and apart from anything else, he is God. There are no rivals to him, to his eternal being, his eternal power, his eternal person. He is the Lord. He is before all things. Second, all things are made through him. Colossians 1:16, Hebrews 1:2, John 1:3. All things were made through him, including us, and shall what was made say anything back to the one who made it? Romans 9. No, he is the maker of all things, and that makes him the master of all things, over all things. He is the Lord. All things are made through him. He sustains all things. Colossians 1:17, Hebrews 1:3. Not only did he make all things, but he actively holds it all together. He upholds the universe by the word of his power. He created, and he continues. If he were to withdraw his actively sustaining, life-giving, molecule-securing power for even one millisecond, then everything that exists would cease to be. Are you thinking about what you have to do tomorrow? And it's okay if you are. Are you thinking about tomorrow? Are you thinking about what's at work? Perhaps a doctor's appointment, a meeting? Are you thinking about what you have to do when you get home from here in a few minutes? The reality is that we won't have a home or a family or a dinner or a stove or a TV or a computer or a bed or a breath or a next sentence if he does not hold it all together. He is the Lord. He's before all things. All things are made through him. He sustains all things, and he has triumphed over all things. Back to Ephesians 1, verse 20. He was raised from the dead, seated above all rule and all authority and all power and all dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. He's the Lord. But notice this that none of these reasons actually find their way into the answer the Heidelberg gives. The answer the Heidelberg gives highlights his personal, redeeming, saving work for you and for me. Why do you, Christian, call him our Lord? Because not with gold or silver but with his precious blood he has delivered and purchased us, body and soul, from sin and from the tyranny of the devil to be his very own. Or as Paul said it to the Ephesians, because in him we have redemption through his blood. Of course, if you think about how the catechism words it, it's hard not to hear echoes of 1 Peter 1:18-19, “You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” 

Again, it's a fitting word as we look ahead to Holy Week, to the cross, the Lord of all creation hanging there, shedding his precious blood to redeem his chosen people from all of their sins. You know, history has a lot of lords – a lot of lords who saw their position, their title, their rule, their governance as means to their own privilege, to padding their own accounts, to promoting and protecting themselves, lords who used their people to deliver their own privilege and power. Jesus Christ is the Lord who spends his privilege and power to deliver his people. He's the Lord who redeems, not with earthly riches. That would actually be nothing to Jesus. He made all the earthly riches. He could make infinitely more earthly riches. It would not be hard for him. He would not have to leave heaven. He would not have to take on flesh to do that. But that's not what he used to redeem us. Not earthly riches. No, something of infinite more worth: his own precious blood. We were delivered from our own sin, the tyranny of the devil, and purchased to Christ himself, not with earthly riches, but with his own precious blood. It's not hard to hear the echoes of 1 Peter 1, but as we close tonight, I wonder if you can also hear the echoes of Heidelberg question 1. If you remember it, perhaps you can. Heidelberg question 1: what is your only comfort in life and in death? Here's the answer, and listen for the parallels. It's almost an expanded version of the answer to question 34. “That I am not my own, but belong body and soul in life and in death to my faithful savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins, and with his precious blood, he has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready now on to live for him.” 

They're different questions. Why do you call him our Lord? What is your only comfort? But it's remarkable how similar the answers actually are. In fact, you could almost answer question 1 with question 34. What is your only comfort in life and death? That Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God is my Lord. Is he yours tonight? Do you call him that? Do you belong to him? Have you been made his own, body and soul, rescued and delivered from your sin and from the tyranny of the devil, purchased to belong to and live for him forever? If so, then God's only Son is your Lord and as such your only true comfort. And yet, praise God that with Jesus Christ as your comfort, we don't need any other. Let's pray. 

Father, thank you so much for these truths – familiar perhaps, and yet, write them again on our hearts. Renew our affections and gratitude, our wonder and our worship for all that you have done for us, all that you are in and of yourself, before and apart from us, all that you have done for us in your Son Jesus Christ, that you would come and shed your precious blood to make you our Lord and to make us your children. We thank you, and we praise in Jesus' name. Amen.