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Jesus as the Son

I have four children. They are a great joy to me. One of the disconcerting things about having children is that, as they mature, they start to serve as a mirror in which to see myself. Sometimes, I will hear one of them respond sharply to another. It sounds harsh and unkind, but disturbingly familiar. I’ve heard that tone before. Right! It’s my tone when I’m frustrated or annoyed.

Children don’t just share their parents’ DNA, they often share character traits. How much of this is produced genetically and how much through a shared environment is a topic for ongoing debate. That doesn’t matter at the moment, the fact is that we share our human essence with our offspring, both the general and the specific. In Genesis 5:3, we read that: “When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.” Adam was the first father. He set his stamp on his sons and the line has continued to the present.

One of the things that any reader of the New Testament will discover is that Jesus is identified as a Son - both as the Son of God and a Son of Man. Today, I want to think primarily about Jesus as the Son of God. To keep things perfectly clear, on several occasions, He is called God’s “one and only Son,” or “only begotten Son” - depending on the translation you prefer. What is sometimes called the best-known verse in the Bible contains this idea. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

What does this mean to me? How does it help me understand who Jesus is? The important element to the sonship of Jesus is that He is of divine essence. He is in his nature and character God, in every respect. Paul wrote that “in Christ all the fulness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” [Colossians 2:9] Just as my children share my human essence, so Jesus, as the Son of God, shares the divine essence.

As I noted earlier, Jesus is also a “Son of Man.” He is unique because, in becoming a man, He shared fully in our humanity. This was necessary for the human race to be restored to fulfill God’s original intention for it before Adam and Eve headed down the road away from God. Because humanity had sinned, humanity must bear the consequences. However, that would result in eternal separation from God, the source of life.

The only way for God to remedy this sorry situation was for divinity to become humanity to pay the price which humanity could not pay. That is exactly what happened. The Son of God humbled Himself to become a Son of Man so that the children of men could become children of God. The Bible makes it clear that God declares those who believe in Him and come to Him through His Son, are also His children. However, they are adopted children. While they receive His Holy Spirit, they do not share His essence in the same way that Jesus, the one and only Son, does.

The apostle John wrote that “as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name. [John 1:12] The key is the act of receiving. We can only become adopted children of God when we believe in Jesus, the one and only - or only begotten - Son of God.

Ron Hughes
© July 2006