I have introduced the first family’s three original responsibilities that, due to the Fall, became the three indemnity conditions that weave through history and shape our salvation today.
Before proceeding, I want to answer a question. Adam and Eve were born without sin, and Luke calls Adam the son of God. Then why does John’s Gospel call Jesus, and not Adam, God’s only begotten son?
“To be “only begotten” means to be born, live, and die in only one love.“
First let’s clarify that all children are begotten of God. That is God’s predestination, His 95%. But the children can be only begotten or misbegotten, and that begins with the parents’ 5%.
The parents’ 5% is to fulfill the three indemnity conditions. By so doing they liberate God to send a son and daughter without sin. It took centuries for humankind to set these three conditions.
Sin-free children are one substance with God. God is the child’s only Parent, uncontested by Satan. The parents of Jesus and his would-be Bride, and of our True Parents, stood on that foundation and gave birth to children without sin.
But being born sinless does not by itself mean only begotten. To be “only begotten” means to be born, live, and die in only one love. Adam and Eve were born sinless but fell. Jesus was born sinless and he grew into true maturity and obediently gave his life for us. That is what makes him, and not Adam, the only begotten son.
Similarly, Isaac’s absolute obedience made him Abraham’s only begotten son, and True Parents’ absolute obedience made them God’s only begotten son and daughter. We already know this from Divine Principle: “The Principle of Creation elevates the true value of all people who fulfill the purpose of creation to a level comparable to Jesus.”
“Being born sinless does not by itself mean only begotten.”
The term “only begotten” does not appear in contemporary Bible translations. It appears in the King James Version and, for providential reasons, in the Nicene Creed. But the King James Bible also calls Jesus “the first begotten” and “the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.” “Firstborn” applies to True Mother, the unfallen Eve, the embodiment of the Holy Spirit.
Divine Principle Christology teaches that all who fulfill the purpose of creation are sin-free and unique incarnations, and in that sense only begotten. For fallen people reborn through True Parents, this is the meaning of liberation and complete release.
(References: Luke 3:38; John 1:14, 1:18, 3:16, 3:18, cf. 1 John 4:9; Heb 11:17; Rev 1:5, “Jesus Christ …is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth,” Rom 8:29: “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters;” Exposition of Divine Principle, p. 169: “If [a fallen person] were to be reborn spiritually and physically through Jesus, the True Parent, and become his good child cleansed of the original sin, he would be restored as a true person who has perfected the purpose of creation, like Jesus Christ himself;” Ibid., p. 166; Blessing and Ideal Family 1993, p. 112, Chambumo Gyeong 1:1-2-48, 1992.7.30, inter alia.)
-TH
