As the Church confessed Christ as the only begotten divine Son of the Father, the Church rightly explained all that Scripture taught, namely that Jesus is Lord and Savior because he is God the Son incarnate. Although, the Nicene Creed employed a slightly different language to explain who Jesus is, such as homoousios (although most of it was directly from Scripture), the language used conveys the exact same meaning as what Scripture teaches. 

In this article, our focus is on the biblical basis for the Nicene Creed’s identification of our Lord Jesus Christ as the only begotten (monogenēs) Son of God, which means that he is the eternal Son of the Father who is truly God and not a created being. As the divine Son, he fully shares in the one, simple divine nature with the Father and the Spirit. This is why the Creed affirms that the Son is homoousios (of one nature), namely, that he wholly subsists in the identical nature with the Father and Spirit so that he, along with the Father and Spirit, is fully and equally God.

We cannot do an exhaustive survey of the biblical data teaching the truth of Christ’s deity. Instead, we will focus on some key texts that summarize the New Testament witness to Christ and also teach significant truths that were foundational to the Church’s formulation of the Nicene Creed. It’s crucial to recognize the continuity between what Scripture teaches and what the Church confesses. The Jesus of the Bible is not different than the Jesus confessed in the Nicene Creed, although a different theological vocabulary is used to communicate the biblical teaching.

It’s also important to see that our Lord Jesus’s divine Sonship is unveiled across the Bible’s covenantal story. As Jesus’s eternal Sonship is revealed to us, he is first disclosed as the promised Messiah, David’s greater Son, who inaugurates God’s saving rule and reign. As the human son-king, he was first promised in Eden (Gen. 3:15), given greater definition through the covenants, and then epitomized in the Davidic king (e.g., Isa. 7:14, 9:6–7, 11:1–16; 52:13–53:12; Ezekiel 34). As the human son, he fulfills the role of previous sons (e.g., Adam, Israel, David). But, as the Old Testament unfolds, it becomes clear that this human son-king is not merely human; he is also the divine Son who alone does what God can do. This latter emphasis identifies the human Messiah with Yahweh in a unique Father-Son relation that transcends the human, thus becoming not only the seedbed for the New Testament’s presentation of Christ, but also for the Trinitarian dogmatic construction of the Nicene Creed. Jesus, the Messiah, is not merely human; he is also one with Yahweh: the eternal divine Son of the Father, who for us and salvation became human.

The New Testament evidence for Jesus’s eternal Sonship and deity is abundant. Building on the Law and the Prophets, the New Testament opens by identifying Jesus with Yahweh since he alone establishes God’s promised rule by inaugurating God’s kingdom through a new covenant in fulfillment of God’s covenant promises—thus doing what only God can do (Isa. 9:6–7; 11:1–10; Jer. 31:31–34; Ezek. 34:1–31). Also, along with the Father and Spirit, the Son fully and equally shares the one divine name and nature (Matt. 28:18–20; John 8:58; Phil. 2:9–11; Col. 2:9). Further, as we will discuss below, the Son is identified as God (theos) (John 1:1, 18; 20:28; Rom. 9:5; Titus 2:13; Heb. 1:8; 2 Pet. 1:1) because he is the exact image and correspondence of the Father (Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:3). As the Son, he inseparably shares with the Father and Spirit the divine rule, works, and receives divine worship (Ps. 110:1; Matt. 1:21; Eph. 1:22; Phil. 2:9–11; Col. 1:15–20; Heb. 1:1–3; Rev. 5:11–12). This is why Jesus has the authority to forgive sin (Mark 2:3–12), to say that all Scripture is fulfilled in him (Matt. 5:17–19; 11:13), and to acknowledge that he is from the Father as the Son, but also equal to the Father as the Son (Matt. 11:25–27; John 5:16–30; 10:14–30; 14:9–13).

With this basic overview in mind, let us now focus on five key texts that gloriously teach that our Lord Jesus Christ is the only begotten divine Son—texts on which the Nicene Creed was based and on which the Church faithfully formulated Trinitarian and Christological orthodoxy.

John 1:1–18

We cannot overstate the importance of John’s prologue for the entire Gospel and the New Testament. It reminds us that Jesus is the divine Word, the eternal Son of the Father, become human. In fact, these verses summarize, as D. A. Carson reminds us, “how the ‘Word’ which was with God in the very beginning came into the sphere of time, history, tangibility—in other words, how the Son of God was sent into the world to become the Jesus of history, so that the glory and grace of God might be uniquely and perfectly disclosed. The rest of the book is nothing other than an expansion of this theme.”[1] This is also true of the entire New Testament.

How does the prologue identify our Lord Jesus Christ as the divine Son who became human? It does so by its use of “Word” (logos) and “God” (theos). John is the only biblical author to identify Christ by the title, “Word.” To establish its meaning, we need to locate it within the Old Testament, instead of looking outside of Scripture (despite its widespread use in Greek thought). In the Old Testament, “Word” is closely associated with the God who creates, reveals, and redeems—all by his Word (Gen. 1:3ff, 3:8–19; 12:1; Ps. 33:6, 9; 119:9, 25; Isa. 55:11). By the use of this title, John identifies Jesus, the Son, with God. But, second, by his use of “God,” John not only closely identifies the Word with God; he also teaches that the Word is God, yet simultaneously distinct from God (the Father).

In John 1:1, John uses a triadic structure to make these points. Each of the three clauses has the same subject, “Word,” and an identical verb “was” (ēn), and each clause progresses to the next. The first clause, “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1a) teaches that the Word is eternal; hence Jesus as the Son is eternal. The second clause, “the Word was with God” (John 1:1b) affirms that although the Word is eternal he is also distinct from God (the Father), hence affirming an eternal Father-Son relation. The last clause, “the Word was God” (John 1:1c) affirms that the Word shares the full deity of God. Since there is only one God, this entails that within God there is a Father-Son relation that shares the one divine nature, hence a foundational verse in the Church’s dogmatic formulation of the Trinity. In this key verse, then, John declares that the Word has an eternal existence in personal intercommunion with God and that both share the same nature. And, as John will now explain, it’s this Word, God’s own self-expression—true God of God—who becomes human and is our Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:14).

However, before we turn to John’s teaching on the incarnation, it’s significant that John’s predication of “God” (theos) to Christ is not limited to him; it’s done at least seven times in the New Testament (John 1:1, 18; 20:28; Rom. 9:5; Titus 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:1; Heb. 1:8). Why is this important? Scripture applies many titles to Christ, but most of them refer to Christ’s deity and humanity, e.g., “Son,” “Son of Man,” and “Messiah.” But theos applied to Jesus is an explicit assertion that he is God. No doubt, the title “Lord” (kurios) is similar, but theos is more explicit.

Why is “God” not used more often, given its clear affirmation of Christ’s deity? Three reasons may be given. First, let’s not forget that Scripture states that the Son is “God” at least seven times and in key places. In fact, four different authors state it (John, Paul, Peter, author of Hebrews) and they do so consistently—immediately after the resurrection (John 20:28), into the 90s A.D. (John 1:1, 18), and in Jewish and Gentile contexts. Second, the predication of “God” to Jesus is carefully done in order to preserve Trinitarian personal relations. Normally, theos refers to God the Father, yet because the Son is God, theos can also be predicated of Christ. However, in order to preserve the personal distinctions within God, theos predominantly denotes the Father and kurios the Son. Third, Jesus is God the Son, but he is also human. If theos had become a personal name for Christ, it’s possible that Christ’s humanity could have been downplayed. But with that said, we must not forget that when theos is predicated of Christ, it explicitly teaches that he is the divine Son.

Let’s now return to John 1:14. Here we discover that the divine Word/Son became flesh, and thus fully human.[2] But, who exactly became flesh? Who is the subject of the incarnation? John is emphatic: It’s the Word who became human, not the divine nature, nor even the Father or the Spirit. The acting subject (what the Church will later call, “person” [hypostasis]) of the incarnation is the Word. It’s he who united himself to a human nature (“flesh”), and now, he subsists in two natures. As God the Son, he remains what he has always been in relation to the Father and Spirit, fully and equally sharing the divine nature (John 1:1). But now, the Word/Son has assumed a human nature to reveal the divine glory and achieve our redemption. In that human nature, the Son is now able to live and experience a fully human life, yet without any change to the Son’s deity, since this would preclude him from displaying the fullness of the Father’s glory (John 1:14, 18) and accomplishing his mission to save.

This point is reinforced by the inclusio that concludes the prologue: “No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is God (monogenēs theos), who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18). In the Old Testament some saw visions of God (e.g., Exodus 33–34; Isaiah 6), yet they never truly saw God other than in theophany. But now, in the incarnate Son, the full disclosure of God is now made visible.[3] John, along with the entirety of Scripture, teaches the exclusive, unique identity of Christ. Who is Jesus? He is the divine Son, one with the Father and Spirit, who now in his incarnation has become human to reveal and to redeem.

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