The Biblical Meaning of "Son of God"

[Arial]

A few days ago I began re-reading J.I. Packers book "Knowing God". I first read it twenty years ago, and early after "converting" from Arminianism to Reformed theology. I blame the fact that I was so new to the theology that much of his book did not resonate or register. Or if it did, I don't remember that it did. I am only on page 58 and am wondering why I had so little of it underlined!

In dealing with the deity of Christ, Packer uses John 1, as is often done, but in a simple way that bypasses the historical and Greek nuances that don't exist in the English language, and through it identifies that the meaning of Son of God, beyond a shadow of doubt, when applied to Christ is a declaration of his deity.

John 1:1 is an echo of Gen 1. "God said 'Let there be---be" and there was. The actual statement of God's purpose had power in itself. The word of God is the work of God. What he is doing and his purpose and the "it was so" is the power of the word, come to pass.

John says seven things about the Word that show he is God and Jesus is God incarnate. The following is a direct quote from Packer.

1. " In the beginning was the Word." (John 1:1) Here is the Word's eternity. He had no beginning of his own: when other things began he -was.
2. "And the Word was with God"(1:1). Here is the Word's personality. The power that fulfills God's purposes is the power of a distinct personal being, one who stands in an eternal relation to God of active fellowship (this is what the phrase means).
3. "And the Word was God" (1:1). Here is the Word's deity. Though personally distinct from the Father, he is not a creature; he is divine in himself, as the Father is. The mystery of personal distinctions within the unity of the Godhead.
4. "Through him all things were made" (1:3). Here is the Word creating. He was the Father's agent in every act of making that the Father has ever performed. All that was made was made through him. (Here incidentally is further proof that the Maker, does not belong to the class of things made, any more than the Father does.)
5. "In him was life" (1:4). Here is the Word animating. There is no life in the physical realm of created things except in and through him. Here is the Bible answer to the problem of the origin and continuance of life, in all its forms: life is given and maintained by the Word. Created things do not have life in themselves, but life in the Word, the second person of the Godhead.
6. "And that life was the light of men (1:4). Here is the Word revealing. In giving life he gives light too; that is to say, all people receive intimate knowledge of God from the very fact of being alive in God's world, and this no less, than the fact that they are alive, is do to the work of the Word.
7. "The Word became flesh" (1:14). Here is the Word incarnate. The baby in the manger at Bethlehem was none other than the eternal Word of God.

And now, having shown us who and what the Word is--a divine Person, author of all things--John indicates an identification. The Word he tells us, was revealed by the Incarnation to be God's Son. (End of quote from Packer.)

So we learn that every time the Bible uses Son of God in reference to Christ, it means that he is God incarnate. Therefore confessing that Jesus is the Son of God is confessing his deity.

1 John 4:13-15 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son, to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

 

[Fred]

2 Corinthians 1:19
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yes and no, but in Him was yes.
2 Corinthians 4:5
For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake.

Romans 10:8, 13
8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
13 For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord of the Lord shall be saved.

A major component of what Paul preached (Romans 10:8) includes the fact the Lord Jesus is to be called upon (prayed to) as being "Lord" (YHWH; cf. Joel 2:32). Jesus, being the Son of God, means that He is YHWH.


Acts 9:20-21
20 And straightway he preached Jesus in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.
21 But all who heard were amazed, and said; Is not this he who destroyed those who called on this Name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
Born-again Christians are sons of God by means of adoption. (Rom 8:15, Gal 4:4-5,
Eph 1:4-5)

Christ is a son of God by means of heredity. (John 1:14, John 1:18. John 3:16,
John 3:18, Heb 1:4, 1John 4:9)
_

 

[Arial]

Born-again Christians are sons of God by means of adoption. (Rom 8:15, Gal 4:4-5,
Eph 1:4-5)

Yes. But when the reference is to Jesus it always declares his deity.

Christ is a son of God by means of heredity. (John 1:14, John 1:18. John 3:16,
John 3:18, Heb 1:4, 1John 4:9)

Christ is Son of God by means of his eternal existence in the Godhead. Jesus is the Son incarnate by means of his being gathered by the Holy Spirit.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This refers to his incarnation.

18. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. Jesus is declared to be God incarnate, who reveals and fulfills God's redemptive purpose.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. This declares his purpose of redemption through faith in the Savior.

18. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. This declares the result of Jesus work of providing forgiveness of sin and the result of believing (no condemnation) and the result of not believing (condemnation). It declares that there is only one way of forgiveness of sin and reconciliation to God. Faith----not the person and work of Jesus.

Heb 1:3-4 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. This declares his deity and the culmination of his work on earth.

1 John 4:9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. This shows the motive of love God has for his covenant people and the love the Son has for us in agreeing to do the will of the Father and the unimaginable grace in the sacrifice of the Son to take a people from the kingdom of darkness where we are held captive, and bring into the kingdom of the Son.

Great scriptures! Thanks.

 

[Arial]

We are probably inclined to restrict Jesus' sacrifice to the cross. That is understandable, for that was the sacrifice of his body that defeated the power of sin's condemnation of those he laid down his life for. That is the shed blood of the Covenant of Redemption and that of Grace. That is the substitution of his life for ours, that through faith in him we are fully reconciled to God.

That is the blood that washes us clean through our regeneration by the Spirit, our union with Christ, our sealing in him, forever out of the clutches of his enemy and ours. That is the blood that insures the promise of the consummation of our salvation, the resurrection of our bodies as a new creation, an undefiled earthly home, and God dwelling with us again forever.

But was that his only sacrifice? I propose, in light of the OP, that the entire life, from his birth and all the way to the cross, the Son of God was a sacrifice on our behalf.

Philippians 2:4-11
Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

When we confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, that is nothing less than confessing that Jesus Christ is God. And he did not sacrifice any part of his deity, but he purposely restrained or restricted its use at times, always according to the will of the Father. The sacrifice was becoming as one of us and living within the boundaries in which we live, subject to all the same needs and sorrows as we are, encompassed round about by sinners and sin. The baby in the manger, who was fed, and clothed, and grew---a toddler, a child, an adolescent, an adult---learned to walk and talk and read, was God with us, Immanuel.