It’s good for us that we know the names and titles given to Jesus. They help us to know him, rely on him and worship him.
As we’ve seen, those who believe in Jesus know him as Leader and Saviour, they cherish him as the Christ who fulfills all God’s promises, and they honour him as their Lord. When the apostles speak of Jesus, they usually include one or more of these titles.
But Jesus is also the Son of God. As a title, it doesn’t appear in the New Testament as often as those above, but it’s always used in significant ways. We could say that calling Jesus ‘Son of God’ takes us to the heart of who he is.
But first, it’s helpful to know that this way of talking about Jesus has a history. Adam has been referred to as God’s son.[i] Then, God calls Israel his son.[ii] And the Messiah God promises to send is also identified as God’s son[iii].
So, when Jesus comes among us as the Son of God, he is all that an Adam should be—a true human being. He is all that God’s people should be—living by the word of God.[iv] And he accomplishes all that God has promised his Messiah will do.
But for Jesus, ‘Son of God’ is not just a title. It’s a relationship. It’s who he is.[v] God and Jesus are Father and Son—from eternity and to eternity. He doesn’t become God’s Son when he steps into our history.
As we would expect, it’s Jesus who tells us most about this.[vi]
When he’s only twelve, he expects his parents to find him in the house of his Father—God.[vii] This is natural for him. Mary must remember the story of his birth. She knows that her husband isn’t the father. An angel has told her that her child will be ‘holy, the Son of the Most High’, or, ‘the Son of God’.[viii]
When Jesus is baptized, God speaks to him audibly. ‘You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased’.[ix] This identifies Jesus as the coming King of Psalm 2. But Jesus hears his Father acknowledge him, warmly and publicly.
All of the known prayers of Jesus (except one he prays from his cross) are addressed to God as his Father. For example, he rejoices when his disciples report on their preaching tour.[x] And he explains that no-one really knows who he is—except his Father. That’s intimacy. And, apart from him, no-one knows his Father either—unless the Son chooses to reveal him to them.
Jesus calling God his Father is very surprising to those who hear him. No-one else is doing that. In fact, the Jews find it offensive. He’s claiming to be equal with God.[xi]
John writes his whole Gospel to show that ‘Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God’.[xii] And he begins his book with with an explanation of what ‘Son’ means.[xiii]
He is the Word of God—that is, God speaking and acting and revealing himself. He is God. All creation comes into being through him. He is the life and light that we all need.
And now, this Son of God has become flesh. He’s a human being.
None of us have seen God. But this Son of God is side by side with his Father God—intimately! And he’s revealing God. It’s through him that we know that the God of all the earth is Father, and Son. And later, that he’s Spirit too. God is a community of persons.
Jesus demonstrates what Son of God means by the way he lives, and so becomes a light shining into our dark places.
For example, he doesn’t need the approval of others. He doesn’t depend on the protection of the state. He is free to place others before himself—even in the most extreme of situations. He does this because he lives and loves in the certainty of his Father’s love.
All of us, by nature, have suspicions about God, want to avoid him and even get rid of him. Our lives become confined to what we can see and do. But God sends his Son among us to set the record straight. He’s a perfect representation of his Father[xiv]—full of grace and truth.
All that we’ve looked at here is a sample of what God wants to show us. We’ll spend our whole life discovering who this Son of God is—and all of eternity too.
And now, among the various ways that Jesus is spoken of as Son of God, here are two that stand out.
First, God’s Son has come to be an offering for sin
When Jesus talks to Nicodemus, he likens himself to the image of a snake on a pole that Moses erected. People could look at this and be healed of their snake bites.[xv] It’s a vivid story. And Jesus says he also will be lifted up on a pole so people will have a place to look and be saved.[xvi]
John explains this to us. Jesus is the Father’s only and beloved Son. But God so loves the world that he sends this Son for us, so that we will not perish.[xvii]
The Son of God is not just on our planet to give us advice. We’re lost. We’re rebels. We’re dead. We need a rebirth![xviii]
Then, moving on to the teaching of the apostles, Paul, on several occasions, links Jesus being Son of God with him being the offering for our sin.
We are reconciled to God by the death of his Son.[xix] God sends his own Son among us, sinless, but wholly vulnerable to the ravages of what sin can do to him—and does do to him.[xx]
God condemns sin—all of it, while his Son is bearing those sins. And we who trust him are washed clean![xxi]
So, Paul now chooses to live by faith in the Son of God who loves us and gives himself up for us.[xxii]
Very wonderfully, God’s Son has broken into our selfish world to show us what God is really like. And to show us what life is really about. Being Son of God is all about him being full of grace and truth.[xxiii] It’s about turning enemies into friends.
Second, the Son of God creates a fellowship with God that we can share
Like parents who encompass their children in the love they have for each other, God’s Son comes to tell us what life in the divine family is like.
Jesus describes this union as being in each other. It’s love language and deeply personal. Being ‘in’ another person is being focused on them rather than being focused on ourselves.[xxiv]
Jesus has been teaching and demonstrating this life for us. He’s the way, the truth and the life of his Father. In other words, he’s wanting us to recognise the Father in the way he goes about being the Son.[xxv] And he’s wanting us to come into the fellowship in which he lives.
A little later, Jesus tells us that the Spirit and he and the Father will come and reside in the apostles who have come to love him and obey him.[xxvi] And he includes us all when he says, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him’.[xxvii]
The truth of our sharing in the relationship of Father and Son needs to work its way through all of the duties and relationships we have. Jesus is insistent that we love one another. In the hours before his arrest and trial, he mentions it nine times.[xxviii]
So, being a Christian is a life of fellowship with God’s Son.[xxix] And God’s sends the Spirit of his Son into our hearts so that we can say ‘Father’[xxx]—with the same intimacy Jesus would have used in Aramaic (abba).
Clearly, we need to grow and mature in this new life we share with the Son of God. We are members of God’s family—his church, and by coming to know the Son of God fully, we grow up to maturity, together.[xxxi]
If God doesn’t tell us what it means to be human beings, we’re left with theories and chance. It’s a bleak landscape. We can divert ourselves for a while, but in the end, it’s all for nothing.
But Jesus says, ‘If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’[xxxii] Human life without the Son of God becomes ridiculous. We’re walking in the dark. Worse than that! We’re being led around—unwittingly—by Satan!
The truth of Jesus being the Son of God is not an idea to implement. It’s a power to submit to. God has raised Jesus from the dead to proclaim to everyone that this is his Son. And when we trust this wonderful and mighty Son of God, we are transferred from the tyranny of darkness to the kingdom of the Son he loves.[xxxiii]
Clearly, we need to turn away from making up an identity of our own. The Son of God has come to our planet. By the announcement of his truth, he comes to us. He gives us understanding so that we may know him. And live in him.[xxxiv] This is the reality for which we are all made. And it is the privilege to which we are called.[xxxv]
[i] Gen. 5:1 with 5:3. Also, the acknowledgement of Jesus as God’s Son is followed by a genealogy that finishes with Adam as son of God (Luke 3:22-28).
[ii] Exod. 4:22-23; Jer. 31:9
[iii] Psa. 2:7
[iv] Notice the way that Jesus ‘relives’ Israel’s journey in the wilderness, and quotes the commands given to Israel at that time in his own time of testing (Matt. 4:1-11).
[v] Some believe that Jesus having a ‘Father’ is a metaphorical way of speaking. Sons, they say, are born, and Jesus could not be God if he was born. But reasoning from our experience doesn’t work. God is not like us. We are like him. So, God has a Son—eternally. We reflect that and have children—in time.
[vi] Over 200 verses in our Gospels mention the Father and the Son, over half of them in John’s Gospel.
[vii] Luke 3:49
[viii] Luke 1:31-35
[ix] John 3:22
[x] Luke 10:21-22
[xi] John 5:18
[xii] John 20:31
[xiii] John 1:1-18
[xiv] Also Col. 2:9; Heb. 1:2-3
[xv] Num. 21:5-9
[xvi] John 3:13-15
[xvii] John 3:14-18; also 1 John 4:10
[xviii] John 3:5-8
[xix] Rom. 5:10
[xx] Rom. 8:3
[xxi] 1 John 1:7; 2:2
[xxii] Gal. 2:20
[xxiii] John 1:14
[xxiv] John 14:16-26
[xxv] John 14:6-9
[xxvi] John 14:17
[xxvii] John 14:23
[xxviii] John 14-16
[xxix] 1 Cor. 1:9
[xxx] Gal. 4:6
[xxxi] Eph. 4:13
[xxxii] John 8:31-38
[xxxiii] Col. 1:14
[xxxiv] 1 John 5:20
[xxxv] 1 Cor. 1:9
Simply True 