Why the Son of God?

[Tellyontellyon]

If Jesus is God, also Messiah, also Word.... and many other title....
Why Son of God?

What is the significance of using that word?
Is he actually God's son... while at the same time God.... What is the significance of being Son? What is the necessity of that title?

 

[Maria Billingsley]

If Jesus is God, also Messiah, also Word.... and many other title....
Why Son of God?

What is the significance of using that word?
Is he actually God's son... while at the same time God.... What is the significance of being Son? What is the necessity of that title?

Jesus Christ of Nazareth is known by many names: Child, Emanuel, Jesus, Lamb of God, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, Messiah.....

Isaiah 9:6
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

 

[BobRyan]

John 3:16 God so loved the World that He gave His only begotten Son.

God the Son has the role of functioning as "The WORD" John 1:1 for God's intelligent creation.

He appears to Abraham in Gen 18 "as a man". He is incarnate in the virgin birth in the Gospels - as the son of man.
As the Son of God we are helped by understanding the great care, cost and pain it is to the Godhead for Christ to die for mankind for what Father would not willingly spare His own Son that torture and choose instead to suffer it on behalf of His Son. Yet God endured it all.

2 Corinthians 5 "God was in Christ reconciling the World to Himself... we BEG you on behalf of Christ - be reconciled to God"

His purpose is to bridge the gap between infinite God and finite intelligent creation.

Some say that He appears to Angels in Rev 12 as "Michael the archangel". So that they too have an even closer concept of the infinite God than they might otherwise have.


God the Holy Spirit also has a function/a role -- in the Godhead. He indwells the believers and is not limited by location so that His presence and teaching is everywhere at all times. He is a "personal God" who is with each believer and hears each prayer individually.

The trinity - the Triune Godhead is the perfect form that combines infinite authority, wisdom and power, with infinite love compassion and empathy and infinite presence teaching and guidance.

====================================

No other world religion has that.

 

[Ivan Hlavanda]

If Jesus is God, also Messiah, also Word.... and many other title....
Why Son of God?

What is the significance of using that word?
Is he actually God's son... while at the same time God.... What is the significance of being Son? What is the necessity of that title?

Yes, He is the Son and always has been.

God's nature is always Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. That is who He is, that is how He revealed Himself to us.

 

[d taylor]

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​

Jesus is the son because He was the part of The Godhead that became an actual flesh and blood human. Through God's seed being united with the woman's seed, He Jesus became The Son.

 

[HTacianas]

If Jesus is God, also Messiah, also Word.... and many other title....
Why Son of God?

What is the significance of using that word?
Is he actually God's son... while at the same time God.... What is the significance of being Son? What is the necessity of that title?

Probably the most thorough explanation of it is found in the writings of Philo of Alexandria. There is an encyclopedia article on Philo here:

Philo of Alexandria | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

iep.utm.edu

It explains Philo's reasoning for referring to the Word of God as the First-born Son of God. The Word of God is the creative and sustaining power of God. As Philo had it, God exists in the form of a Divine Triad composed of God the Father, His divine and creative power, the Word, and His regent power through which He reigns, the Holy Spirit.

To the ancients, in a business transaction, to speak to the son of a man was to speak to the man himself. The son, acting as agent for his father, had all the authority of the father himself. Jesus himself uses that analogy in a parable at Luke 20:9-16. For the Apostles to refer to Jesus as Son of God is to acknowledge that he is in fact that creative and sustaining power of God, the Word, the First-born Son of God.

 

[eleos1954]

If Jesus is God, also Messiah, also Word.... and many other title....
Why Son of God?

What is the significance of using that word?
Is he actually God's son... while at the same time God.... What is the significance of being Son? What is the necessity of that title?

Jesus is designated as God's Son because he was conceived by the Holy Spirit instead of by a human father.

 

[FireDragon76]

"Son of..." is a Semitic expression For instance a "son of the road", ibn al-sabil, in Arabic, refers to somebody that is a traveler. So "son of God" means something like "God-like", or "having the nature of God". Itt is not primarily a claim about a person's ontological distinction from humanity (whereas Jesus' title "Son of Man", is a much more explicit divine claim, since it refers to the second power in heaven in the book of Daniel, who is given power and authority from God).

 

[timothyu]

Why did the Caesar's call themselves God (while also claiming to be messiahs)? What influence did that have on a church anxious to align itself with the Roman Empire, which it did? How did the celebrity of the mother of the aligning emperor influence the idea of the mother of God to perhaps please the emperor? There is a spiritual reason behind things and of course a political reason when man is involved. We ended up with a religion serving both entities, and poorly as the two are opposites in nature.

 

[Clare73]

If Jesus is God, also Messiah, also Word.... and many other title....
Why Son of God?

What is the significance of using that word?
Is he actually God's son... while at the same time God.... What is the significance of being Son? What is the necessity of that title?

The many names of Jesus reveal more about him that just Jesus.

 

[timothyu]

Attributing nefarious motives to Christians seems impious, especially about such a central issue as Christ's divinity.

Perhaps but Christianity is far from free of ulterior motives on the part of man and of course the Adversary. Otherwise there would be no need for discernment.

 

[Aaron112]

If Jesus is God, also Messiah, also Word.... and many other title....
Why Son of God?

What is the significance of using that word?
Is he actually God's son... while at the same time God.... What is the significance of being Son? What is the necessity of that title?

Instead of all man's descriptions,

God uses His Own , His Own Word unaffected by man's ideas or words or docrines,
and God Speaks Only Truth as He Pleases.
It is as He Says,
and once in a while He Reveals His Meaning to man/men, as He Pleases.

 

[Paul4JC]

If Jesus is God, also Messiah, also Word.... and many other title....
Why Son of God?

What is the significance of using that word?
Is he actually God's son... while at the same time God.... What is the significance of being Son? What is the necessity of that title?

[1Ti 3:16 NIV] 16 Beyond all question, the mystery from which true godliness springs is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.

There was only one way to save humanity from the penalty of sin. Nothing else meets God's holy requirements. In which case we would all go to hell, and be eternally separated from God, as sin can be in his presence and we are all sinful.

[Isa 64:6 NIV] 6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

God had to become a man and die for us all. Being fully God, and fully man. Almost impossible, but nothing is impossible for God so he uniqued himself as Jesus Christ (John 3:16). Born of a virgin, he is the Son of God. Fully man and fully God.

"the son" occurs 219 times in 148 verses in your custom selection 'between Mat and Jhn' in the NIV.

Genesis 1:1 (NIV)

"the son" primary search results are listed below along with dictionary aides, FAQs, and Lexiconc.

www.blueletterbible.org

[Col 1:15 NIV] 15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

[Heb 1:3 NIV] 3 The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

 

[timothyu]

All elohim were also called sons of God.

 

[ViaCrucis]

If Jesus is God, also Messiah, also Word.... and many other title....
Why Son of God?

What is the significance of using that word?
Is he actually God's son... while at the same time God.... What is the significance of being Son? What is the necessity of that title?

There are three Divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The Son is called Son because He has His origination from the Father, not in time but in eternity; He is therefore God from God. Being what His Father is: God.

We use these terms "Father" and "Son" because this is the way the sacred writers wrote, and we receive as inspired of God. We should not imagine this in biological terms; but rather it speaks of begetting and begotten; of One and the Other; Generator and Generated. The Son is called Son because He is of the Father, and the Father is called Father because He is the One from whom the Son is from. Yet this generation--this begetting--is not an activity, something that has happened, rather it is an eternal reality. The Father never began to beget, nor was there ever a time when the Son was begotten; rather the Son is eternally begotten, eternally generated of the Father. The Son is uncreated, eternal, without beginning and without end--even as the Father is.

The Father and Son are, therefore, two distinct "Persons" but nevertheless one-and-same in Being. The Father is God, the Son also is God; the Son is not less God than the Father, but is God completely and perfectly even as the Father is God.

Thus it is not a "title", but a reference to Who He is in relation to the Father. He is the Son, the Eternal Son, of the Father.

In the One God there are Three Persons, subsisting in eternal majesty, equal in glory, never confused and never separated. The Father is never without His Son, neither is the Son without His Father; and neither are ever without the Holy Spirit.

St. Augustine offers us this illustration of love: Complete Love always subsists of Lover, Loved, and Love itself. Take away any of these aspects and talk of love makes no sense. Here's an example, "Jimmy loves Sally", we have here Jimmy, the one who loves; and Sally, the one that is loved, and then between them is the love itself. Take away any of these and talk of love becomes nonsense. If we say "Loves Sally" we rightfully should ask, who or what loves Sally? If we say "Jimmy loves" we rightfully should ask who or what does Jimmy love? And if we say "Jimmy Sally" we are left the most perplexed because we have no way to make sense of this at all.

St. Augustine then wants us to understand that "God is Love" is not a meaningless aphorism, but communicates something actual and real about the Divine. God is Lover, Loved, and Love--for love without a lover or without a loved is nonsense. There must therefore always be Lover and Loved and Love itself. And this we find in the Trinity: For to say God is love is to say that there is always Lover, Loved, and Love itself.

Three Divine Persons, because there is always Lover, Loved, and Love. The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, the Spirit is the bond of love between Father and Son. So is the Father love? Yes, for He loves His Son--and this has always been true. Is the Son love? Yes, for He loves His Father, and this has always been true. Is the Holy Spirit love? Yes, for He is the love-bond of Father and Son, He loves the Father, He loves the Son and is loved by the Father and the Son.

Thus there is always Three, even as there is only One. Three Persons, one Being.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[timothyu]

The elohim are also sons of God Who Are the Elohim? The Answer Might Rattle Your Theology