It is generally recognized that Jesus is the Son of God, but only a metaphorical one, a symbolic son, or a son who plays the role of the son to us human children to make the plan of salvation understandable through a role play of the three persons of the Godhead. But a literal interpretation of the term "only begotten son of God" as a real and true son born or brought forth by the father is often considered a heresy to be condemned.

Why can't we allow Jesus Christ to be the truly begotten Son of God who owes His existence to His Father? Then He cannot be God, one thing excludes the other, we think. A God always has everything from His own resources. He has received nothing from anyone else. He has omnipotence, omnipresence and an eternal existence, everything from within Himself. Everything is inherent and has always been so. That is our idea of a god, and anything that does not correspond to it is considered inferior or viewed as lower and does not qualify a being to be called "God" - at least not in our eyes. Therefore by all means we have to enforce a symbolic or metaphorical or temporal meaning of the word "son".

If we succeed in breaking free from this wrong pattern of thinking that a God can only be someone, who has everything from within himself (a standard that is not set up anywhere in the Bible), then we can recognize what the Word of God clearly teaches, namely that Jesus really is the Son of God and has received all of His divine qualities from the Father by INHERITANCE.

This allows us to recognize Him as the true Son of God while still maintaining His full divinity and accepting the testimony of the Father who said:

This is my beloved Son: hear him. (Mark 9:7)