Jesus, the Son of God

TRULY, THIS MAN IS THE SON OF GOD.
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Another title of the Lord Jesus Christ which we can frequently encounter in the Holy Bible is His being the Son of God. In this entry, we shall mention some passages that speak of this title and attest to the fact of His being the Son of God. One thing that we can observe among the servants of God both in the Old and the News Testaments is their readiness to rectify people who worship, honor or praise them whenever they perform wonderful acts that the true power behind those miracles, signs and wonders is God, not themselves. But the Lord Jesus Christ manifested that He was  more than just God's messenger: He was the Son of God. If He was not, He would have made the proper corrections!

There are three occasions recorded in the Holy Bible wherein the Lord Jesus Christ is acknowledged as Son by God the Father himself. First was during the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ, when the heavens opened, the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove and rested on Him, and the voice of God thundered, 

"You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" [Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22; see also John 1: 32-34].

During the Transfiguration, while the Lord Jesus Christ was talking with Moses and Elijah, God's voice once again thundered,

"This is my Son, whom I have chosen, listen to Him" [Luke 9:35].

After His triumphal entry to Jerusalem, when Jesus asked the Father for the Father to glorify the Father's name, a voice from heaven spoke,

"I have glorified it, and I will again glorify it" [John 12:28].

The Evangelist John wrote what seems to be the Lord Jesus Christ's own words since it forms part of His conversation with the Pharisee Nicodemus,

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" [John 3:16].

Here we could say that Jesus our Lord did claim to be the Son of God. The following verses are also occasions when He himself claims to be so,

"I tell you the truth, a time is coming and HAS NOW COME [emphasis mine] when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live" [John 5:25].

"What about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son'?" [John 10:36].

"When he heard this, Jesus said, 'This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it" [John 11:4]

"After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed, 'Father, the time has come. Glorify your son, that your Son may glorify you" [John 17:1].

"But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer. Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?' 'I am,' said Jesus. 'And you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven" [Mark 14: 61-62].

"All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him" [Matthew 11:27].

There are other passages which support His title of being the Son of God which came from the mouths of others and which He did accept and did not correct if He was not the Son of God, let us take the following occasions as examples:

His temptation at the desert [see Matthew 4: 3-7] where the tempter challenges Him with the words, "If you are the Son of God ..." If Jesus our Lord was not the son of God, He would have silenced the tempter from saying those words as other messengers of God would do when they are worshiped or honored by men.

When He met Nathanael and told him that He saw him under the fig tree, Nathanael exclaimed, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." Again, He did not make any corrections with what Nathanael had declared; instead even promised him that he will see greater things [see John 1: 49-50].

Once they had the opportunity to take a little rest in the area in the vicinity of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asked His Apostles as to who people say He is, they mentioned different names and when He asked them as to who He is for them, Peter stood up and said, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" to which He replied, "Blessed are you for no man has revealed it you but by my Father in heaven" [see Matthew 16: 15-17]. If He was not the Son of the living God, the Lord would have rectified Peter's statement. But here we even hear Him telling Peter that the Father himself has revealed that information to him. 

Martha also confessed that the Lord Jesus is "the Christ, the Son of the living God", after He asked her if she believes that He is the resurrection and the life therefore anyone who believes in Him will live, even though he may die, and that those who lives and believes would never die, on the occasion of the death of her brother Lazarus, a friend of the Lord. Once again, the Lord made no corrections but even expected her to believe that He really is the Son of God [see John 11: 25-27].

In concluding His account of the the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Evangelist John wrote,

"But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" [John 20:31].

And in one of his letters, warns about keeping guard against those who will mislead the faithful to follow other doctrines and beliefs by writing,

"Who is the liar, if not the one who claims that Jesus is not the Christ? This is the Antichrist, who denies both the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son cannot have the Father either; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father too" [1 John 2: 22-23].

"His commandment is this, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and that we should love one another as he commanded us" [1 John 3:23].

"My dear friends, not every spirit is to be trusted, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets are at large in the world. This is the proof of the spirit of God: any spirit which acknowledge Jesus Christ, come in human nature, is from God, and no spirit which fails to acknowledge Jesus is from God; it is the spirit of the Antichrist, whose coming you have heard of; he is already at large in the world" [1 John 4: 1-3].

"This is the revelation of God's love for us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him. Love consists in this: it is not we who loved God, but God loved us and sent us his Son to expiate our sins. ... This is the proof that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us a share in his Spirit. we ourselves have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Anyone who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God" [ 1 John 4: 9-10, 13-15].

"Who can overcome the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" [1 John 5:5].

Here is one final passage which is in some way is a statement of faith about Jesus being the Son of God. It has been recorded by the Evangelists as coming not from the Lord himself, not even from someone who followed the Lord during His ministry here on earth, or from the narrator himself who must have personally witnessed the life of the Lord or who has followed someone who have been a witness to the Lord. It is about the declaration of a non-Jew, a Roman centurion, who witnessed the passion and death of the Lord: 

"And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, 'Surely, this man was the Son of God!'" [Mark 15:39; see also Matthew 27:54]. 

In Luke 23:47, the Evangelist records the same but stating righteous man instead of Son of God.

We have not even mentioned the other passages from the Epistles. In a later article, we will try to enumerate the passages from the Epistles. But for those who wish to take a look at these passages, you may visit this site just to see those passages. Most passages that we used above could be found together in this page.