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 was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. read more. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing that exists came into being. In Him was Life, and that Life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overpowered it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, in order that he might give testimony concerning the Light--so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he existed that he might give testimony concerning the Light. The true Light was that which illumines every man by its coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into existence through Him, and the world did not recognize Him. He came to the things that were His own, and His own people gave Him no welcome. But all who have received Him, to them--that is, to those who trust in His name--He has given the privilege of becoming children of God; who were begotten as such not by human descent, nor through an impulse of their own nature, nor through the will of a human father, but from God. And the Word came in the flesh, and lived for a time in our midst, so that we saw His glory--the glory as of the Father's only Son, sent from His presence. He was full of grace and truth.
On this account then the Jews were all the more eager to put Him to death--because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also spoke of God as being in a special sense His Father, thus putting Himself on a level with God. "In most solemn truth I tell you," replied Jesus, "that the Son can do nothing of Himself--He can only do what He sees the Father doing; for whatever He does, that the Son does in like manner. read more. For the Father loves the Son and reveals to Him all that He Himself is doing. And greater deeds than these will He reveal to Him, in order that you may wonder. For just as the Father awakens the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom He wills. The Father indeed does not judge any one, but He has entrusted all judgement to the Son, that all may honour the Son even as they honour the Father. The man who withholds honour from the Son withholds honour from the Father who sent Him. "In most solemn truth I tell you that he who listens to my teaching and believes Him who sent me, has the Life of the Ages, and does not come under judgement, but has passed over out of death into Life. "In most solemn truth I tell you that a time is coming--nay, has already come--when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live.
I and the Father are one." Again the Jews brought stones with which to stone Him. read more. Jesus remonstrated with them. "Many good deeds," He said, "have I shown you as coming from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?" "For no good deed," the Jews replied, "are we going to stone you, but for blasphemy, and because you, who are only a man, are making yourself out to be God." "Does it not stand written in your Law," replied Jesus, "'I said, you are gods'? If those to whom God's word was addressed are called gods (and the Scripture cannot be annulled) how is it that you say to one whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am God's Son'? If the deeds I do are not my Father's deeds, do not believe me. But if they are, then even if you do not believe me, at least believe the deeds, that you may know and see clearly that the Father is in me, and that I am in the Father."
who, as regards His human descent, belonged to the posterity of David, but as regards the holiness of His Spirit was decisively proved by His Resurrection to be the Son of God--I mean concerning Jesus Christ our Lord,
For those who are led by God's Spirit are, all of them, God's sons.
For all creation, gazing eagerly as if with outstretched neck, is waiting and longing to see the manifestation of the sons of God.
But, when the time was fully come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born subject to Law, in order to purchase the freedom of all who were subject to Law, so that we might receive recognition as sons. read more. And because you are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of His Son to enter your hearts and cry "Abba! our Father!"
so that you may always prove yourselves to be blameless and spotless--irreproachable children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you are seen as heavenly 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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Enough for the learner to be on a level with his teacher, and for the servant to be on a level with his master. If they have called the master of the house Baal-zebul, how much more will they slander his servants?
The Pharisees heard it and said, "This man only expels demons by the power of Baal-zebul, the Prince of demons."
And if it is by Baal-zebul's power that I expel the demons, by whose power do your disciples expel them? They therefore shall be your judges.
"Blessed are you, Simon Bar-jonah," said Jesus; "for mere human nature has not revealed this to you, but my Father in Heaven.
"What think you about the Christ," He said, "whose son is He?" "David's," they replied. "How then," He asked, "does David, taught by the Spirit, call Him Lord, when he says, read more. "'The Lord said to my Lord, sit at My right hand until I have put thy foes beneath thy feet'? "If therefore David calls Him Lord, how can He be his son?"
Jesus however remained silent. Again the High Priest addressed Him. "In the name of the ever-living God," he said, "I now put you on your oath. Tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God." "I am He," replied Jesus. "But I tell you that, later on, you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Omnipotence, and coming on the clouds of the sky." read more. Then the High Priest tore his robes and exclaimed, "Impious language! What further need have we of witnesses! See, you have now heard the impiety. What is your verdict?" "He deserves to die," they replied.
The Scribes, too, who had come down from Jerusalem said, "He has Baal-zebul in him; and it is by the power of the Prince of the demons that he expels the demons."
You all heard his impious words. What is your judgement?" Then with one voice they condemned Him as deserving of death.
And while the people were in suspense and all were debating in their minds whether John might possibly be the Anointed One,
But some among them said, "It is by the power of Baal-zebul, the Prince of the demons, that he expels the demons."
But as for those who shall have been deemed worthy to find a place in that other age and in the Resurrection from among the dead, the men do not marry and the women are not given in marriage. For indeed they cannot die again; they are like angels, and are sons of God through being sons of the Resurrection.
Thereupon they cried out with one voice, "You, then, are the Son of God?" "It is as you say," He answered; "I am He." "What need have we of further evidence?" they said; "for we ourselves have heard it from his own lips."
Then the whole assembly rose and brought Him to Pilate, and began to accuse Him.
Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing." And they divided His garments among them, drawing lots for them;
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. read more. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing that exists came into being.
But all who have received Him, to them--that is, to those who trust in His name--He has given the privilege of becoming children of God; who were begotten as such not by human descent, nor through an impulse of their own nature, nor through the will of a human father, but from God.
No human eye has ever seen God: the only Son, who is in the Father's bosom--He has made Him known.
"In most solemn truth I tell you," answered Jesus, "that unless a man is born anew he cannot see the Kingdom of God."
"In most solemn truth I tell you," replied Jesus, "that unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
On this account then the Jews were all the more eager to put Him to death--because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also spoke of God as being in a special sense His Father, thus putting Himself on a level with God.
For the Father loves the Son and reveals to Him all that He Himself is doing. And greater deeds than these will He reveal to Him, in order that you may wonder.
"You are possessed by a demon," replied the crowd; "no one wants to kill you."
"Are we not right," answered the Jews, "in saying that you are a Samaritan and are possessed by a demon?"
"In most solemn truth," answered Jesus, "I tell you that before Abraham came into existence, I am." Thereupon they took up stones with which to stone Him, but He hid Himself and went away out of the Temple.
I and the Father are one." Again the Jews brought stones with which to stone Him.
"For no good deed," the Jews replied, "are we going to stone you, but for blasphemy, and because you, who are only a man, are making yourself out to be God."
how is it that you say to one whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am God's Son'?
"We," replied the Jews, "have a Law, and in accordance with that Law he ought to die, for having claimed to be the Son of God."
"Therefore let the whole House of Israel know beyond all doubt that God has made Him both LORD and CHRIST--this Jesus whom you crucified."
"And now, brethren, I know that it was in ignorance that you did it, as was the case with your rulers also.
For the people of Jerusalem and their rulers, by the judgement they pronounced on Jesus, have actually fulfilled the predictions of the Prophets which are read Sabbath after Sabbath, through ignorance of those predictions and of Him.
that God has amply fulfilled it to our children in raising up Jesus; as it is also written in the second Psalm, 'Thou art My Son: to-day I have become Thy Father.'
but as regards the holiness of His Spirit was decisively proved by His Resurrection to be the Son of God--I mean concerning Jesus Christ our Lord,
You have not for the second time acquired the consciousness of being--a consciousness which fills you with terror. But you have acquired a deep inward conviction of having been adopted as sons--a conviction which prompts us to cry aloud, "Abba! our Father!"
In other words, it is not the children by natural descent who count as God's children, but the children made such by the promise are regarded as Abraham's posterity.
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus;
in order to purchase the freedom of all who were subject to Law, so that we might receive recognition as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of His Son to enter your hearts and cry "Abba! our Father!"
Christ is the visible representation of the invisible God, the Firstborn and Lord of all creation.
and from Jesus Christ, the truthful witness, the first of the dead to be born to Life, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins with His own blood,
"And to the minister of the Church at Laodicea write as follows: "'This is what the Amen says--the true and faithful witness, the Beginning and Lord of God's Creation.