GodRules

THE SON OF GOD,

Has JESUS always been "THE SON OF GOD" ? or just since His "birth". 

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            1 In the New Testament the title "the Son of man" is always, except once,(Heb 2:6) applied by Jesus to Himself, "the Son of God" is applied by Jesus to Himself in John 10:36. When, however, it is applied to Him by others, He accepts it in such a way as to assert His claim to it. Now and then He Himself employs the abbreviated form, "the Son," with the same intention; and He often speaks of God as "the Father" or "my Father" or "my Father who is in heaven" in such a manner as to say that He is the Son of God.

            2. Meanings:  While "the Son of man" is a title that could designate the human side of our Lord's person, "the Son of God" would seem to indicate the divine side. But this is not always so, because in Scripture the title is bestowed on a variety of persons for a variety of reasons. First, it is applied to angels, as when in <Job 2:1> it is said that "the sons of God came to present themselves before Yahweh"; they may be so called because they are the creatures of God's hands or because, as spiritual beings, they resemble God, who is a spirit. Secondly, in <Lk 3:38> it is applied to the first man; (in the Genealogy list). Thirdly, it is applied to the Hebrew nation, as when, in <Exo 4:22>, Yahweh says to Pharaoh, "Israel is my son, my first-born," the reason being that Israel was the object of Yahweh's special love and gracious choice. Fourthly, it is applied to the kings of Israel, as representatives of the chosen nation. Thus, in <2 Sam 7:14>, Yahweh says of Solomon, "I will be his father, and he shall be my son"; and, in <Ps 2:7>, the coronation of a king is announced in an oracle from heaven, which says, "Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee." Finally, in the New Testament, the title is applied to all saints, as in <Jn 1:12>, "But as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name.

 When we examine its use in the New Testament as applied by others to Jesus, the facts are far from simple, and it is not applied in a uniform sense. In <Lk 1:35>, the following reason for its use is given,  And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God .  The centurion at the foot of the cross said, "Truly this was the Son of God" <Mt 27:54>. As a pagan, this soldier might be thinking of Jesus as one of those heroes, born of human mothers but divine fathers, of whom the mythology of his country had so much to tell.

            For Jesus Himself the source of the title may have been the voice from heaven at His Baptism, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" <Mt 3:17>.

 By these words, "beloved," and the words "in whom I am well pleased," there is something personal, from GOD. The same may be said of the voice from heaven in the scene of the Transfiguration. Satan heard the voice from heaven at the Baptism; this is why he approached Him in the Temptation in the wilderness, "If thou art the Son of God" (<Mt 4:3>, etc.); and, if this was the way the prince of devils made use of the phrase, then that is why the demons called Jesus by the same title.

When, at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked the Twelve their great confession, this is given by Mark in the simple form, "Thou art the Christ" <Mk 8:29; Lk 9:20>; but Matthew adds, "the Son of the living God" <Mt 16:16>.

The Hebrew language regards these words (Christ) as the "Messiah." But this generally includes   something in excess of what is expressed. That is to say, Jesus was the Messiah because He was the Son of God.

Luke 22:66-71   The Trial before the Sanhedrin

66        As soon as it was day, the elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, came together and led Him into their council, saying,

67        "If You are the Christ, tell us." But He said to them, "If I tell you, you will by no means believe.

68        "And if I also ask you, you will by no means answer Me or let Me go.

69            "Hereafter the Son of Man will sit on the right hand of the power of God."

70        Then they all said, "Are You then the Son of God?" So He said to them, "You rightly say that I am."

71        And they said, "What further testimony do we need? For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth."

In this account of the trial in the Gospel of Lk, He is charged, "If thou art the Christ, tell us"; and, when He replies, "If I tell you, you will not believe: and if I ask you, you will not answer.

 But after He says He will be seated at the right hand of the power of God," they all say, "Art thou then the Son of God?" And, when He replies "yes", they require no further witness <Lk 22:67-71>, Matthew informing us that the high priest hereupon rent his garments, and they all agreed that He had spoken blasphemy and was worthy of death (<Mt 26:65> f).

The usual assumption is that the second question, "Art thou .... the Son of God?" implies no more than the first, `Art thou the Christ? '; but the boldness of His answer said that He was making a still higher claim than to be the Christ, It was then that the angry crowd wanted to kill him, and their sentence was immediate and capital. It may be questioned whether it was blasphemy merely to claim to be the Messiah; but it was rank and undeniable blasphemy to claim to be "the Son of God." This is why in <Jn 5:18>, "The Jews sought  to kill him, because he not only brake the sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God"; to which may be added <Jn 10:33>, "The Jews answered him, For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God."

            It is with the words of Jesus Himself that we are most concerned. He speaks of God as His Father, and to the disciples He speaks of God as their Father; but He never speaks to them of God as their common Father: what He says is, "My Father and your Father" <Jn 20:17>. The opening words of the Lord's Prayer, "Our Father who art in heaven," He is not linking Himself and others together because Jesus could NOT have uttered, for Himself along with others, the whole of the Lord's Prayer, including the petition, "Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors."

 The "Son" in Mt 11:27: and Lk 10:22, "All things have been delivered unto me of my Father: and no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him." This word "Son" reveals an intimacy of the Son with the Father, as well as a power over all things, which could not have been, unless there had been a relationship in the "past". A mere man could not enable him to do things beyond the reach of human powers;

There is a saying of Jesus <Mk 13:32> about His own Sonship which He confesses ignorance of the date of His Second Coming: "Of that day or that hour knoweth no one, not even the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father."

The reason is because God Himself will tell Him when to go get His Bride- Rapture !!!

The conclusion would seem to be that He is between the angels and God; but this impression is corrected by the greatest of all the sayings in which He calls Himself the Son <Mt 28:18-20>, "All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." Here the Son is named along with the Father and the Holy Spirit showing the equality of all three. Indeed, it is the Son of God, as He appears in this final scene in the First Gospel, who dominates the rest of the New Testament.

 Thus, in <Acts 9:20>, the beginning of Paul's testimony as a Christian is given in these words, "And straightway in the synagogues he proclaimed Jesus, that he is the Son of God"; and what this meant to Paul may be gathered from his own statement in the opening of Romans, "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he promised afore through his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead; even Jesus Christ our Lord" <Rom 1:1-4>.

The equality of the Son with the Father is the theme throughout the entire book; and in <Rev 2:18>, "the Son of God, who hath his eyes like a flame of fire," speaks from the right hand of power to the church.

In John,  Jesus appilies the title to Himself in its full shape, as well as in the abbreviated form of "the Son." He further calls Himself the "only begotten Son of God" (3:16,18), that is to say, He is Son in a sense in which no others can claim the title.            He executes judgment (5:22); He has life in Himself and quickeneth whom He will (5:26,21); He gives eternal life (10:10), and it is the will of the Father that all men should honor the Son, even as they do the Father (5:23). Nevertheless, the Son does nothing of Himself, but only what He hath seen the Father do (5:19); and only that which He hath heard of the Father does He speak (14:10).

 In short, God is not only His Father, but His God (20:17).             Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.'"

The pre-existence of Christ:

All three members of the Godhead have always existed in eternity "past" and will always exist in eternity "future", future to us that is. To the Godhead, eternity is just "now", "is", thus "I AM".!

John 17:5 "And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.

John 10:30            "I and My Father are one."