“Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee” (Psa. 2) is Son of God as born into this world. He “became” flesh. “Only begotten,” always so. Christ was the Son begotten, not adopted like us. “First begotten” is in reference to other children; “only begotten” is sole, absolute relationship with the Father.
Matthew 16:15-16
“He says to them, But ye, who do ye say that I am? And Simon Peter answering said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (JND).
Psalm 2 says, “The Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee.” But Peter went beyond this; Christ is here seen as the Son born on the earth in time, not as the Son from eternity in the bosom of the Father. Peter, without the full revelation of this last thought, sees Him to be the Son according to the power of divine life in His own person, upon which the assembly consequently could be built.
These psalms do not go beyond the earthly part of these truths, excepting where it is written, “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh” at them, while in Matthew 16 the connection as the Son of God with this, His coming with His angels, is set before us.
J. N. Darby
(to be continued)