Thank you for the exegetical question on John 3:16, “What roles do God and the son have according to John 3:16, and what does the word begotten mean?”
Realizing that there are various opinions on the person and deity of Jesus Christ, the view presented is a personal one. It does not represent other Christians or other Churches. In interpreting a verse, the reader or interpreter must keep the context in view otherwise one can misinterpret the text.
As to the first part of one’s question referring to God, the answer the subject of the clause is God, for God. The reason or motivation is his love for the world. The action that God took was to give his only begotten Son.
As to the second part of the first question regarding the Son, the answer is found in the preceding verses that he came out of heaven to earth. Verse 13 says that Son of Man descended from heaven and that the Son of Man is to be lifted up. The lifting up of the Son of Man is parallel with Moses lifting up a serpent on a pole that those who were bitten by the poisonous snake would physically live if they looked at it. Jesus is declaring that the person who looks and believes has eternal life. Thus the implication that the Son of Man is somehow is able to remove the penalty of sin from that person’s life so that he can have eternal life. The clarity of the work of Jesus on the cross is not fully revealed at this point.
Summary of the first section: The Father loves the world and that he gave the only begotten Son who descended from heaven and will be lifted up so that anyone who looks and believes in him will have eternal life.
As to the second question on the meaning of the only begotten, John 3 uses the various form of beget or birth, born.
In the Greek text, the verb form, genno, and the noun form, genno are translated as beget or born in English (Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words by Vine).
As one reads John 3, the various forms of born is used 10 times:
- vs. 3, “except anyone is born from above”
- vs. 4, “How can a man to be born old being?”
- vs. 4, “to enter and to be born”
- vs. 5, “except anyone born out of flesh and spirit/Spirit”
- vs. 6, “the thing having been born out of the flesh is flesh”
- vs. 6, “the thing having been born of the spirit/Spirit is spirit/Spirit”
- vs. 7, “It behoves/is necessary you to be born from above”
- vs. 8, “so is everyone having been born out of the spirit/Spirit”
- vs. 16, “so as the son (Son) the only begotten/the one begotten he gave
- vs. 18 “because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten/the one begotten son/Son of God”
In verses 16 and 18, he does not use the form, beget, genno in the previous veses, but modifies that word with a qualifier, if I may use that term, mono-beget. Scholars have debated the meaning of “monogene”. Most Bible translate that word in attempt to give the meaning of it, “the only begotten.”
From my understanding that God sent his only Son to be born by a woman called Mary. He is the only Son to have been incarnated from heaven. Generally speaking scholars are in agreement, but the question is his existence before he came into the world. That is debated as some churches/individuals believe that God created the Son while others believe that God always co-existed with God without created.
My view on the existence of the Son of God is that he is God, co-existing with God from eternity. In John 1:1 IF the Apostle John wanted to say that the Logos came into existence, he could have used the Greek word, ginomai, to become or beget but he doesn’t instead he uses the verb of state of being, was. The Logos existed in the beginning and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. The Logos was not created but always existed with God. It is this eternal being that God sent/gave to the world so that his infinite worth as God himself would satisfy the holiness of God so that God can offer salvation to anyone who believes in the name of the Only Begotten Son of God.
SUMMARY: The Logos eternally existed with God and was incarnated in the flesh becoming the God-Man because of God’s love for the world.
For additional perspectives: