Hebrews 1:5

For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, This day have I begotten thee? and again, I will be to him a father, And he shall be to me a Son?

Ps. 2:7,2 Samuel 7:14 are the two passages cited, both of which sustain the sonship of Christ. Now, all Christians are "Sons of God," and it is thought that even the angels bear this designation too (see Job 1:6; 38:7); but in the lofty sense intended here, no angel was ever called a son of God. In modern times, Jewish expositors have tried to remove the Messianic application of Psalms 2:7; but the fact remains that both the author and the readers of Hebrews accepted it as a true prophetic reference to the Messiah.

Pierce (as quoted by Macknight) affirms that the second Psalm belongs wholly to Messiah; and proves by passages from the writings of the ancient Jewish doctors, that they applied it to Messiah; and that some of the later doctors acknowledged "it advisable to apply the Psalm of David, in order to the better answering of the heretics" (meaning Christians).[12]

Apostolic authority for accepting it as reference to Christ comes from Peter's application of the first three verses to him in Acts 4:25. The question framing both these citations is clearly for the purpose of eliciting a negative response from the readers to the effect, "No, God, thou hast never referred to an angel as thy Son." But of course, he did so address the Messiah.

"This day have I begotten thee" is a statement upon which such things as the so-called "eternal Sonship" and other implications are said to rest. Although widely received, the doctrine of the eternal Sonship of Christ is not supported by this epistle, nor by anything else in the scripture. In truth, the scriptures deny such a teaching. By prophecy, Isaiah called Christ "everlasting Father" (Isaiah 9:6), a patent contradiction of the notion that he was eternally a son. Christ is called God no less than ten times in the Greek New Testament; and the mind cannot accept an idea of true deity that is tainted with any possible kind of inferiority. (See under Hebrews 1:8.) This expositor agrees with the words of John Wesley, as quoted by Adam Clarke:

In 1781 he (John Wesley) published in the fourth volume of the Arminian Magazine, p, 384, an article entitled "An Arian Antidote"; in this are the following words: "greater or lesser in infinity, is not; inferior Godhead shocks our sense; Jesus was inferior to the Father as touching his manhood (John 14:28); he was a son given and slain intentionally from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8), and the firstborn from the dead of every creature (Colossians 1:15-18). But our Redeemer from everlasting (Isaiah 63:16) had not the inferior name of Son."[13]

To what, then, do the words "This day have I begotten thee" apply? An apostle has given the sure and certain answers; for, in the synagogue at Antioch, Paul said, "God hath raised up Jesus; as also it is written in the second Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee" (Acts 13:33). Thus, the begetting mentioned in this place is the resurrection of Christ. It was the resurrection that established all that Christ said and did, confirming the virgin birth, the incarnation, the miracles, the prophecies, everything. Christ, therefore, in his risen human nature and united with Godhead, also glorified with the title of Son, in such a supremely exalted state, was and is far above all angels.

[12] James Macknight, op. cit., p. 510.

[13] Adam Clarke, op. cit., p. 694.