What does it mean when we say Jesus is the Son of God?
Several months ago I was chatting with a co-worker who was raised in the Lutheran church but has become more or less an agnostic (leaning toward atheist). During the course of the conversation, he suggested that Christians and Muslims all pray to the same God — just under a different name (this is where you’ll have to imagine the sound of a record scratching). To this, I responded that in the religion of Islam, Jesus is but a mere prophet whereas Christians believe Jesus is God. In reply, he said something like, “well he’s not God, he’s the son of God” (yet another sound of record scratching).
So here’s a guy that was raised in the Lutheran church and was a deacon at one point in time. Somehow, along the way, he never did he grasp that Jesus is God… so I want to unpack that a bit and then address the idea of Jesus as the son of God.
Jesus is God. He claimed to be the “I AM” (John 8:58). He existed before Creation (John 1:1). He participated in Creation with the other members of the trinity (Romans 11:36; cf Genesis 1:26-27; cf John 1:3). Jesus is the exact reflection of the Father (John 12:45). The existence of Jesus is eternal–without beginning or end (Isaiah 9:6; cf Rev 1:8). His authority is co-equal with the rest of the God-head (Mark 2:10). He’s omniscient (Matt 9:4) and can know all possible outcomes (Matt 11:21).
So what does it mean then when we say Jesus is the son of God? The expression is not intended to convey progeny as if Jesus had a beginning. Rather, Son of God is a title that is conveyed upon him as member of the God-head who took upon himself to condescend our world as a human (Philippians 2:6).
Instead, the expression “Son of God” is a title. It goes all the way back to Psalms 2 and Psalms 110. Those scriptures promised that there would come a Savior of men, whom God would identify by decree (Psalms 2:7). The Jewish people knew the promise and the eagerly awaited this declaration (Luke 3:15). Therefore, when Jesus is baptized, the Holy Spirit announced to the onlookers:
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
It’s hard to put the emphasis on the relative pronoun here, but imagine it this way… (bold, caps, italics, etc…) THIS is my beloved Son. God was issuing the promised decree, the metaphorical finger pointing at Jesus saying, “THIS” is the one I promised in Psalms 2.
In other words, the Son of God isn’t a description of Jesus relationship to the other members of the trinity, but rather a title bestowed upon the God-Man who entered our world. This is summed up rather succinctly in Romans 1:1-4:
Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.
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