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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the son of Cainan, The son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
In the beginning existed 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 by him, and without him was not one single thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, but the darkness perceived it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a testimony, to testify of the light, that all thro' it might believe. He was not the light, but was sent to testify of the light. This was the true light, who lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him; yet the world knew him not. He came to his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he privilege to become the sons of God, to them that believe in his name: Who were born, not of blood, nor by the will of the flesh, nor by the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and tabernacled among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.
Therefore 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, Verily, verily I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do; but what things soever he doth, these also doth the Son likewise. read more. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doth: and he will shew him greater works than these, so that ye will marvel. For as the Father raiseth and quickeneth the dead, so the Son also quickeneth whom he will. For neither doth the Father judge any one, but hath given all judgment to the Son: That all men may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father that sent him. Verily, verily I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and cometh not into condemnation, but is passed from death to life. Verily, verily I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.
I and the Father are one. Then the Jews again took up stones to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; read more. for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, We stone thee not for a good work, but for blasphemy, and because thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, ye are gods? If he call them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the scripture cannot be broken) Say ye of him whom God hath 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, tho' ye believe not me, believe the works; that ye may know and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.
Concerning his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was of the seed of David, according to the flesh, But declared the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead,
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God.
For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revelation of the sons of God.
But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem those under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. read more. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father.
That ye may be blameless and simple, the sons of God, unrebukable, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights 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.
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It is enough for the disciple that he be as his teacher, and the servant as his lord.
But the Pharisees hearing it said, This fellow casteth not out devils but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.
And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.
And Jesus answering said to him, Happy art thou, Simon Barjonah; for flesh and blood have not revealed this to thee, but my Father who is in heaven.
Whose son is he? They say to him, David's. He saith to them, How doth David then by the Spirit call him Lord? read more. Saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my righthand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?
But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answering said to him, I adjure thee by the living God, to tell us, if thou art the Christ, the Son of God? Jesus saith to him, Thou hast said. Moreover I say to you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right-hand of power, and coming upon the clouds of heaven. read more. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy: what further need have we of witnesses? Behold now ye have heard his blasphemy. What think ye? They answering said, He is guilty of death.
But the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.
Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to deserve death.
And as the people were in expectation, and all mused in their hearts of John,
But some of them said, He casteth out devils by Beelzebub the prince of the devils:
But they who are accounted worthy to obtaan that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage. For neither can they die any more; for they are equal to angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.
And they all said, Art thou then the Son of God? He said, Ye say it: I am. And they said, What farther need have we of witness? For we ourselves have heard from his own mouth.
Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment and cast lots.
In the beginning existed 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 by him, and without him was not one single thing made that was made.
But as many as received him, to them gave he privilege to become the sons of God, to them that believe in his name: Who were born, not of blood, nor by the will of the flesh, nor by the will of man, but of God.
No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
Jesus answered and said to him, Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Jesus answered, Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Therefore 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 sheweth him all things that himself doth: and he will shew him greater works than these, so that ye will marvel.
Yet none of you keepeth the law. Why seek ye to kill me? The people answered and said, Thou hast a devil. Who seeketh to kill thee?
Then answered the Jews and said to him, Say we not well, That thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?
Jesus said to them, Verily, verily I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him; but Jesus concealed himself, and went out of the temple, going thro' the midst of them, and so passed on.
I and the Father are one. Then the Jews again took up stones to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father;
The Jews answered him, We stone thee not for a good work, but for blasphemy, and because thou, being a man, makest thyself God.
God came (and the scripture cannot be broken) Say ye of him whom God hath 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 by our 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 this Jesus whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ.
And now, brethren, I know that thro' ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.
For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, neither knowing him, nor the sayings of the prophets, which are read very sabbath-day, have fulfilled them, in condemning him.
God hath fulfilled this to us their children, in raising up Jesus: as it is written also in the second Psalm, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee.
who was of the seed of David, according to the flesh, But declared the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead,
For ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again unto fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
That is, not the children of the flesh are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
For ye are all sons of God by faith in Jesus Christ.
made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem those under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father.
Who is the image of the invisible God, the first begotten of every creature.
And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first begotten from the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth:
And to the angel of the church at Laodicea write, These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.