Reference: Son of God
Easton
The plural, "sons of God," is used (Ge 6:2,4) to denote the pious descendants of Seth. In Job 1:6; 38:7 this name is applied to the angels. Hosea uses the phrase (Job 1:10) to designate the gracious relation in which men stand to God.
In the New Testament this phrase frequently denotes the relation into which we are brought to God by adoption (Ro 8:14,19; 2Co 6:18; Ga 4:5-6; Php 2:15; 1Jo 3:1-2). It occurs thirty-seven times in the New Testament as the distinctive title of our Saviour. He does not bear this title in consequence of his miraculous birth, nor of his incarnation, his resurrection, and exaltation to the Father's right hand. This is a title of nature and not of office. The sonship of Christ denotes his equality with the Father. To call Christ the Son of God is to assert his true and proper divinity. The second Person of the Trinity, because of his eternal relation to the first Person, is the Son of God. He is the Son of God as to his divine nature, while as to his human nature he is the Son of David (Ro 1:3-4. Comp. Ga 4:4; Joh 1:1-14; 5:18-25; 10:30-38, which prove that Christ was the Son of God before his incarnation, and that his claim to this title is a claim of equality with God).
When used with reference to creatures, whether men or angels, this word is always in the plural. In the singular it is always used of the second Person of the Trinity, with the single exception of Lu 3:38, where it is used of Adam.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
who was the son of Enos, who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, who was the son of God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. read more. All things were made through him; and without him was nothing made that hath been made. In him is life; and the life was the light of men. And the light hath been shining in the darkness; and the darkness received it not. There was a man, sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness of the light, that through him all might believe. He was not the light, but came to bear witness of the light. The true light, which enlighteneth every man, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world knew him not. He came to his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them he gave power to become children of God,to those who believed in his name; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; and we beheld his glory, a glory as of an only begotten of a father.
On this account the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath, but also said that God was his own Father, making himself equal with God. Then answered Jesus and said to them, Truly, truly do I say to you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing; for whatever He doeth, these things the Son also doeth in like manner; read more. for the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things which he himself doeth; and greater works than these will he show him, so that ye will wonder. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and giveth them life, so the Son also giveth life to whom he will. For neither doth the Father judge any one, but hath committed all judgment to the Son; that all may honor the Son, as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father, who sent him. Truly, truly do I say to you, He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and cometh not into condemnation, but hath passed out of death into life. Truly, truly do I say to you, The hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear will live.
I and the Father are one. The Jews again took up stones to stone him. read more. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shown you from the Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, Not for a good work do we stone thee, but for blasphemy, and because thou, who art a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your Law, "I said, ye are gods"? If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be made void, say ye of him whom the Father sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do them, though ye believe not me, believe the works; that ye may learn and know that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.
the gospel concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David as to the flesh, and shown with power to be the Son of God as to his spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord;
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are sons of God.
For the earnest expectation of the creation is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God.
but when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those under the Law, that we might be adopted as sons. read more. And to show that ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father!
that ye may be blameless and pure, children of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation; among whom ye shine as luminaries in the world,
Fausets
Applied in the plural to the godly Seth's descendants (not angels, who "neither marry nor are given in marriage," Lu 20:35-36), "the salt of the earth" heretofore, amidst its growing corruption by the Cainites.(See SETH.) When it lost its savour ("for that he also (even the godly seed) is become flesh" or fleshly) by contracting marriages with the beautiful but ungodly, God's Spirit ceased to strive with man, and judgment fell (Ge 6:2-4). In Job 1:6; 2:4, angels. In Ps 82:6 "gods ... sons of the Highest," i.e. His representatives, exercising, as judges and rulers, His delegated authority. A fortiori, the term applies in a higher sense to "Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world" (Joh 10:36). Israel the type was Son of God (Ex 4:22-23; Ho 11:1). Faith obeying from the motive of love constitutes men "sons of God" (Jer 3:4; Ho 1:10). Unbelief and disobedience exclude from sonship those who are sons only as to spiritual privileges (De 32:5; Hebrew).
It (the perverse and crooked generation) hath corrupted itself before Him (Isa 1:4), they are not His children but their blemish, i.e. "they cannot be called God's children but the disgrace of God's children" (Ro 9:8; Ga 3:26). The doctrine of regeneration or newborn sonship to God by the Spirit is fully developed in the New Testament (Joh 1:12-13; 3:3,5; 1Jo 3:1-3; Ro 8:15; Ga 4:5-6). The Son of God, Antitype to Israel, is co-equal, co-eternal, co-essential (consubstantial) with the Father; by eternal generation (Col 1:15), "begotten far before every creature" (Greek), therefore not a creature. So Pr 8:22 (Hebrew), "Jehovah begat (qananiy related to Greek gennaoo) Me in the beginning of His way (rather omit "in"; the Son Himself was "the Beginning of His way", "the Beginning of the creation of God", Re 3:14) from everlasting ... or ever the earth was ... I was by Him as One brought up with Him. I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him" (Pr 8:22-31; Joh 1:1-3).
The Son was the Archetype from everlasting of that creation which was in due time to be created by Him. His distinct Personality appears in His being "by God ... brought up with God," not a mere attribute; "nursed at His side"; "the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father"; to be "honoured as the Father" (Joh 1:18; 5:20). Raised infinitely above angels; "for to which of them saith God, Thou art My Son, this day (there is no yesterday or tomorrow with God, His "today" is eternity from and to everlasting) have I begotten Thee?" and "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever" (Hebrew 1; Ps 2:7; 45:6-7). His divine Sonship from everlasting was openly manifested by the Father's raising Him from the dead (Ac 13:33; Ro 1:4; Re 1:5). Nebuchadnezzar called Him "the Son of God," unconsciously expressing a truth the significance of which he imperfectly comprehended (Da 3:25).
The Jews might have known Messiah's Godhead from Ps 45:6-7, and Isa 9:6, "a Son ... the mighty God, the Everlasting Father"; (Isa 7:4) Immanuel "God with us"; (Mic 5:2) "whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." The Scripture-asserted unity of God was their difficulty (De 6:4), and also the palpable woman-sprung humanity of Jesus. Their supposing John the Baptist to be Messiah (Lu 3:15) shows they did not expect Messiah or Christ to be more than man (Mt 22:42-45). To Jesus' question, "what think ye of Christ, whose Son is He?" the Pharisees answered not the Son of God, but "the Son of David," and could not solve the difficulty," how then doth David in the Spirit call Him Lord?" in Psalm 110, "Jehovah said unto my Lord" ('Adonay), etc., i.e. the Lord of David, not in his merely personal capacity, but as Israel's Representative, literal and spiritual. Jesus quotes it "Lord," not "my Lord," because Jehovah addresses Him as Israel's and the church's Lord, not merely David's.
Had the Pharisees believed in Messiah's Godhead they could have answered: As man Messiah was David's son, as God He was David's and the church's Lord. The Sanhedrin unanimously (Mr 14:64) condemned Him to death, not for His claim to Messiahship but to Godhead (Joh 19:7; Lu 22:70-71, "art Thou the Son of God?" etc., Lu 23:1; Mt 26:63-66). So contrary to man's thoughts was this truth that, Jesus says, not flesh and blood, but the Father revealed it to Peter (Mt 16:17). The Jews thrice took up stones to kill Him for blasphemy
(1) in unequivocally claiming God to be peculiarly "His own Father" (idion patera): Joh 5:18. Again,
(2) in claiming divine pre-existence, "before Abraham was created ("began to be", genesthai), I am" (eimi): Joh 8:58-59. And
(3) in saying, "I and the Father are one" (hen, one "essence", not person): Joh 10:30-31,33.
The apostles preached His divine Lordship as well as Messiahship (Ac 2:36). His acknowledged purity of character forbids the possibility of His claiming this, as He certainly did and as the Jews understood Him, if the claim were untrue; He never would have left them under the delusion that He claimed it if delusion it were. But the Jews from De 13:1-11 (some thought Jesus specially meant, "if the son of thy mother entice thee," for He had a human mother, He said, but not a human father) inferred that His miracles, which they could not deny, did not substantiate His claim, and that their duty was to kill with holy zeal One who sought to draw them to worship as divine another beside God. They knew not that He claimed not to be distinct God, but One with the Father, One God; they shut their eyes to De 18:15, etc., and so incurred the there foretold penalty of rejecting Him. His miracles they attributed to Satan's help (Mt 12:24,27; Mr 3:22; Lu 11:15; Joh 7:20; 8:48; Mt 10:25).
Men may commit awful sins in fanatical zeal for God, with the Scriptures in their hands, while following unenlightened conscience; conscience needs to be illuminated by the Spirit, and guided by prayerful search of Scripture. The Jews ought to have searched the Scriptures and then they would have known. Ignorance does not excuse, however it may palliate, blind zeal; they might have known if they would. Yet Jesus interceded for their ignorance (Lu 23:34; Ac 3:17; 13:27). Deniers of Jesus' Godhead on the plea of God's unity copy the Jews, who crucified Him because of His claim to be God. The Ebionites, Cerinthians, and other heretics who denied His Godhead, arose from the ranks of Judaism.
The arguments of the ancient Christian apologists, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, etc., against the Jews, afford admirable arguments against modern Socinians; the Jews sinned against the dimmer light of the Old Testament, Socinians against the broad light of both Old and New Testament The combination in One, the Son of God and the Son of man, was such as no human mind could have devised. The Jews could not ascend to the idea of Christ's divine Sonship, nor descend to the depth of Christ's sufferings as the Son of man; so they invented the figment of two Messiahs to reconcile the seemingly opposite prophecies, those of His transcendent glory and those of His exceeding sufferings. The gospel at once opposes the Jews' false monotheism by declaring Christ to be the coequal Son of God, and the pagan polytheism by declaring the unity of God.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
It is enough for the disciple to be as his teacher, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they so call those of his household!
But the Pharisees, hearing it, said, This man doth not cast out the demons, except through Beelzebul, the prince of the demons.
And if I cast out the demons through Beelzebul, through whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall they be judges of you.
And Jesus answering said to him, Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonah; for flesh and blood did not reveal it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven.
saying, What think ye concerning the Christ? whose son is he? They say to him, Davids. He saith to them, How then doth David in the Spirit call him lord? saying, read more. "The Lord said to my lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I put thine enemies under thy feet." If David then calleth him lord, how is he his son?
But Jesus was silent. And the highpriest answering said to him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou art the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith to him, I am. Moreover I say to you, Henceforth ye will see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven. read more. Then the highpriest rent his garments, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? See! ye have now heard the blasphemy. What think ye? They answered and said, He should be punished with death.
And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebul; and, He casteth out the demons through the prince of the demons.
Ye have heard the blasphemy; what think ye? And they all condemned him as deserving the punishment of death.
And while the people were in expectation, and all were considering in their hearts concerning John, whether he were the Christ,
But some of them said, He casteth out the demons through Beelzebul, the prince of the demons;
but they who have been accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage; for they cannot die any more; for they are like the angels, and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.
Then they all said, Art thou then the Son of God? And he said to them, Ye say what is true; for I am. And they said, What further need have we of testimony? For we have ourselves heard from his own mouth.
And Jesus said, Father, forgive them! for they know not what they do. And they divided his garments, casting lots.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. read more. All things were made through him; and without him was nothing made that hath been made.
But as many as received him, to them he gave power to become children of God,to those who believed in his name; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
No one hath ever seen God; the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath made him known.
Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly do I say to thee, Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Jesus answered, Truly, truly do I say to thee, Unless a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
On this account the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath, but also said that God was his own Father, making himself equal with God.
for the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things which he himself doeth; and greater works than these will he show him, so that ye will wonder.
The multitude answered, Thou hast a demon! Who seeketh to kill thee?
The Jews answered and said to him, Say we not well, that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a demon?
Jesus said to them, Truly, truly do I say to you, From before Abraham was, I have been. They therefore took up stones to throw at him; but Jesus concealed himself, and went out of the temple.
I and the Father are one. The Jews again took up stones to stone him.
The Jews answered him, Not for a good work do we stone thee, but for blasphemy, and because thou, who art a man, makest thyself God.
say ye of him whom the Father sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God?
The Jews answered him, We have a law, and according to the law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified.
And now, brethren, I know that ye acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.
For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, not knowing him, nor the voices of the prophets which are read every sabbath, fulfilled them in condemning him.
God hath fulfilled to us their children, in raising up Jesus [from the dead]; as it is also written in the first Psalm: "Thou art my Son; I have this day begotten thee."
and shown with power to be the Son of God as to his spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord;
For ye did not receive the spirit of bondage so as to be again in fear; but ye received the spirit of adopted children, whereby we cry, Abba, Father!
That is, not the children by natural descent are children of God, but the children to whom the promise is made are accounted as the offspring.
For ye are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus;
to redeem those under the Law, that we might be adopted as sons. And to show that ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father!
who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of the whole creation;
and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him that loveth us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God: