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.
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In the Beginning the Word was; and the Word was with God; and the Word was God. He was in the Beginning with God; read more. Through him all things came into being, and nothing came into being apart from him. That which came into being in him was Life; and the Life was the Light of Man; And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness never overpowered it. There appeared a man sent from God, whose name was John; He came as a witness--to bear witness to the Light that through him all men might believe. He was not the Light, but he came to bear witness to the Light. That was the True Light which enlightens every man coming into the world. He was in the world; and through him the world came into being--yet the world did not know him. He came to his own--yet his own did not receive him. But to all who did receive him he gave power to become Children of God--to those who believe in his Name. For not to natural conception, nor to human instincts, nor to will of man did they owe the new Life, but to God. And the Word became Man, and dwelt among us, (We saw his glory--the glory of the Only Son sent from the Father), full of love and truth.
This made the Jews all the more eager to kill him, because not only was he doing away with the Sabbath, but he actually called God his own Father--putting himself on an equality with God. So Jesus made this further reply: "In truth I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself; he does only what he sees the Father doing; whatever the Father does, the Son does also. read more. For the Father loves his Son, and shows him everything that he is doing; and he will show him still greater things--so that you will be filled with wonder. For, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them Life, so also the Son gives Life to whom he pleases. The Father himself does not judge any man, but has 'entrusted the work of judging entirely to his Son,' So that all men may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son fails to honor the Father who sent him. In truth I tell you that he who listens to my Message and believes him who sent me, has Immortal Life, and does not come under condemnation, but has already passed out of Death into Life. In truth I tell you that a time is coming, indeed it is already here, when the Dead will listen to the voice of the Son of God, and when those who listen will live.
The Father and I are one." The Jews again brought stones to throw at him; read more. And seeing this, Jesus said: "I have done before your eyes many good actions, inspired by the Father; for which of them would you stone me?" "It is not for any good action that we would stone you," answered the Jews, "but for blasphemy; and because you, who are only a man, make yourself out to be God." "Are there not," replied Jesus, "these words in your Law--'I said "Ye are gods"'? If those to whom God's word were addressed were said to be 'gods'--and Scripture cannot be set aside-- Do you say of one whom the Father has consecrated and sent as his Messenger to the world 'You are blaspheming,' because I said 'I am God's Son'? If I am not doing the work that my Father is doing, do not believe me; If I am doing it, even though you do not believe me, believe what that work shows; so that you may understand, and understand more and more clearly, that the Father is in union with me, and I with the Father."
Concerning his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord; who, as to his human nature, was descended from David, But, as to the spirit of holiness within him, was miraculously designated Son of God by his resurrection from the dead.
All who are guided by the Spirit of God are Sons of God.
All Nature awaits with eager expectation the appearing of the Sons of God.
But, when the full time came, God sent his Son--born a woman's child, born subject to Law-- To ransom those who were subject to Law, so that we might take our position as sons. read more. And it is because you are sons that God sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, with the cry--'Abba, our Father.'
So as to prove yourselves blameless and innocent-- 'faultless children of God, in the midst of an evil-disposed and perverse generation,' in which you are seen shining like stars in a dark 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.
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It is enough for a scholar to be treated like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Baal-zebub, how much more the members of his household!
But the Pharisees heard of it and said: "He drives out demons only by the help of Baal-zebub the chief of the demons."
And, if it is by Baal-zebub's help that I drive out demons, by whose help is it that your own sons drive them out? Therefore they shall themselves be your judges.
"Blessed are you, Simon, Son of Jonah," Jesus replied. "For no human being has revealed this to you, but my Father who is in Heaven.
"What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?" "David's," they said. "How is it, then," Jesus replied, "that David, speaking under inspiration, calls him 'lord,' in the passage- read more. 'The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand, Until I put thy enemies beneath thy feet"'? Since, then, David calls him 'lord,' how is he David's son?"
But Jesus remained silent. On this the High Priest said to him: "I adjure you, by the Living God, to tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God." "It is true," Jesus answered; "Moreover I tell you all that hereafter you shall 'see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of the Almighty, and coming on the clouds of the heavens.'" read more. Then the High Priest tore his robes. "This is blasphemy!" he exclaimed. "Why do we want any more witnesses? You have just heard his blasphemy! What is your decision?" They answered: "He deserves death."
And the Teachers of the Law, who had come down from Jerusalem, said: "He has Baal-zebub in him, and he drives the demons out by the help of Baal-zebub, their chief."
"You heard his blasphemy? What is your verdict?" They all condemned him, declaring that he deserved death.
Then, while the people were in suspense, and were all debating with themselves whether John could be the Christ,
But some of them said: "He drives out demons by the help of Baal-zebub, the chief of the demons";
But, for those who are thought worthy to attain to that other world and the resurrection from the dead, there is no marrying or being married, Nor indeed can they die again, for they are like angels and, having shared in the resurrection, they are God's Sons.
"Are you, then, the Son of God?" they all asked. "It is true," answered Jesus, "I am." At this they exclaimed: "Why do we want any more evidence? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips!"
[Then Jesus said: "Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing."] His clothes they divided among them by casting lots.
In the Beginning the Word was; and the Word was with God; and the Word was God. He was in the Beginning with God; read more. Through him all things came into being, and nothing came into being apart from him.
But to all who did receive him he gave power to become Children of God--to those who believe in his Name. For not to natural conception, nor to human instincts, nor to will of man did they owe the new Life, but to God.
No man has ever yet seen God; God the Only Son, who is ever with the Father--He has revealed him.
"In truth I tell you," exclaimed Jesus, "unless a man is reborn, he cannot see the Kingdom of God."
"In truth I tell you," answered Jesus, "unless a man owes his birth to Water and Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
This made the Jews all the more eager to kill him, because not only was he doing away with the Sabbath, but he actually called God his own Father--putting himself on an equality with God.
For the Father loves his Son, and shows him everything that he is doing; and he will show him still greater things--so that you will be filled with wonder.
"You must be possessed by a demon!" the people exclaimed. "Who is seeking to put you to death?"
"Are not we right, after all," replied the Jews, "in saying that you are a Samaritan, and are possessed by a demon?"
"In truth I tell you," replied Jesus, "before Abraham existed I was." At this they took up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid himself, and left the Temple Courts.
The Father and I are one." The Jews again brought stones to throw at him;
"It is not for any good action that we would stone you," answered the Jews, "but for blasphemy; and because you, who are only a man, make yourself out to be God."
Do you say of one whom the Father has consecrated and sent as his Messenger to the world 'You are blaspheming,' because I said 'I am God's Son'?
"But we," replied the Jews, "have a Law, under which he deserves death for making himself out to be the Son of God."
So let the whole nation of Israel know beyond all doubt, that God has made him both Lord and Christ--this very Jesus whom you crucified."
And yet, my Brothers, I know that you acted as you did from ignorance, and your rulers also.
The people of Jerusalem and their leading men, failing to recognize Jesus, and not understanding the utterances of the Prophets that are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him.
That our children have had this promise completely fulfilled to them by God, by his raising Jesus. That is just what is said in the second Psalm--'Thou art my Son; this day I have become thy Father.'
But, as to the spirit of holiness within him, was miraculously designated Son of God by his resurrection from the dead.
For you did not receive the spirit of a slave, to fill you once more with fear, but the spirit of a son which leads us to cry 'Abba, Our Father.'
This means that it is not the children born in the course of nature who are God's Children, but it is the children born in fulfillment of the Promise who are to be regarded as Abraham's descendants.
For you are all Sons of God, through your faith in Christ Jesus.
To ransom those who were subject to Law, so that we might take our position as sons. And it is because you are sons that God sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son, with the cry--'Abba, our Father.'
For Christ is the very incarnation of the invisible God-- First-born and Head of all creation;
and from Jesus Christ, ' the faithful Witness, the First-born from the dead, and the Ruler of all the Kings of the earth.' To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his own blood--
To the Angel of the Church in Laodicaea write:-- "These are the words of the Unchanging One, 'the Witness faithful and true, the Beginning of the Creation of God':--