Christ’s manifestation in the flesh cannot be the basis for His Sonship, for His incarnation renders the second Person neither divine nor the only-begotten, proper, and first-begotten Son of God — He was already Son, the eternal Son of the eternal Father. He has been eternally begotten, thus prior to His manifestation in the flesh. Of necessity He had to be the Son of God; otherwise He could neither have assumed the human nature as the Son of God nor have manifested Himself in the flesh. “I was brought forth; when there were no foundations abounding” (Prov. 8:24). Since He was then already the begotten Son of God, His Sonship did not commence at the moment of His incarnation . . . When it is said of Christ that “God was manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16), this expresses beyond the shadow of a doubt that He was God prior to that moment and that He did not become God by virtue of this manifestation. Since it is also stated that the Son has been manifested in the flesh, and that the Son has been sent and was made of a woman, this undoubtedly expresses that He was the Son of God prior to His incarnation — not as a result of His incarnation.

WILHELMUS À BRAKEL, THE CHRISTIAN’S REASONABLE SERVICE, VOL. 1, 150.