In our songs, prayers, and confessions of faith, we proclaim, “Jesus is the Son of God,” but do we really know what we are saying? The Apostle John writes in 1 John 4:15, "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God." We often recite the words, but have any of us ever stopped to consider what it means?
The New Testament speaks of Jesus as the Son of God in three ways. Understanding them leads us to deeper awe of Him.
Born of the Holy Spirit
The first is the one most familiar to us: Jesus is the Son of God because He was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary not by any human father, but by the Holy Spirit of God. In Matthew 1:18, Mary "was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit." When Joseph struggled to make sense of it, the angel said to him, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:20). When the angel appeared to Mary herself, she asked, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God” (Luke 1:34-35).
Jesus was conceived through the Holy Spirit. God intervened supernaturally in the affairs of mankind, and the Word became flesh. This should make us stand in awe of what God has done for us.
Chosen and anointed king
The second way the New Testament speaks of Jesus as the Son of God is less familiar, but the phrasing occurs often in the Bible. In the Old Testament, when God chose and designated someone (or something) as his own, He sometimes called that person (or thing) His son. Israel was called God's son in Exodus 4:22 and Hosea 11:1. And when God appointed a king, He referred to the chosen, anointed king as His son.
"I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you” (Psalm 2:7). That enthronement psalm, quoted repeatedly in the New Testament, has a double meaning. In the literal sense it speaks of King David, and in its fulfilled spiritual sense to Jesus Christ, our king. When God spoke those words, "this day" referred to the day of the king's installation. To call someone God's son in this sense was to declare him God's chosen ruler.
The New Testament affirms Jesus’ position as God’s chosen. When Jesus miraculously knew Nathaniel from afar, Nathaniel cried out, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” (John 1:47-49. Both phrases (‘son of God’ and ‘king of Israel’) mean the same thing. When Peter confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), he was declaring Jesus to be God's anointed king, the Messiah Israel had been waiting for.
And for any still in doubt, the resurrection confirmed it. Paul writes in Romans 1:4 that Jesus “was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” When Jesus rose and sat down at the right hand of the Father, He was installed as king, just as David's son had been promised (2 Samuel 7:12–14). He inherited the name. He took the throne. He became, from that point forward, the absolute Lord over all things, with "all authority in heaven and on earth" (Matthew 28:18).
When we confess Jesus as the Son of God, we are acknowledging a miracle of birth and a reigning king.
Obedient son
The third way comes from the book of Hebrews, where we are given an example of a son obedient to his father. Hebrews 3:5-6 speaks of Moses first, saying that “[he] was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son.” In the time New Testament letters were written, households were divided by fathers, sons, and servants. Moses is one such servant, but Christ fits the role of the faithful son—which is also our role, as sons of God. Hebrews 2:10 states “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.” The word ‘founder’ can also be translated as author, or trailblazer. As God’s first son, Jesus blazed the trail to salvation so that we could follow.
But what trail, or path, are we meant to follow? Well, if we follow Jesus’ perfect example, it is the path of obedience in the face of suffering.
There will be trials and tribulations in life, but God expects obedience regardless of our circumstances. He expects us to suffer in order to obey Him. Jesus suffered death on the cross, and the foreknowledge of that death, in order to be an obedient son: “In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:7-8). Jesus suffered in the garden of Gethsemane; He sweated drops of blood; He fought with his humanity; He prayed for God to take that cup from Him. But, ultimately, He obeyed, saying, “not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42). He became the perfect sacrifice to lead us down the path of salvation, and, in doing so, was obedient.
That is the race Hebrews 12:1–2 calls us to run — not a quick sprint, but a marathon, with aching legs and splitting sides and miles still left to go. We are instructed to“[look] to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Keep your eyes on Him. He finished it. So can we.
Grief and suffering are part of life. When we go through hard times, when God allows us to struggle, He is not abandoning us. He is teaching us, as his children, that obedience is not only for easy days.
What a name we carry when we call Jesus the Son of God. He is the one born of the Spirit, the miracle of God in human flesh. He is the king installed at the resurrection, before whom every knee will one day bow. And He is the faithful Son who endured the cross so that we might know how to endure our own.
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