Lesson 15 Explore 2: Why Is Jesus Called the Son of God? How Is Jesus God’s Son?
Why Is Jesus Called the Son of God?
The Bible’s answer
The Bible often calls Jesus “the Son of God.”
(John 1.49: Nathanael responded: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are King of Israel.”)
The expression “Son of God” acknowledges that God is the Creator, or Source, of all life, including that of Jesus.
(Psalm 36.9: With you is the source of life; By your light we can see light.)
(Revelation 4.11: “You are worthy, Jehovah our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, because you created all things, and because of your will they came into existence and were created.”)
The Bible does not teach that God literally fathered a child in the same way that humans produce children.
The Bible also calls the angels “sons of the true God.”
(Job 1.6: Now the day came when the sons of the true God entered to take their station before Jehovah, and Satan also entered among them.)
And the Bible says that the first human, Adam, was a “son of God.”
(Luke 3.38: son of Enosh, son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God.)
However, because Jesus was God’s first creation and the only one created directly by him, the Bible describes Jesus as the foremost Son of God.
Did Jesus live in heaven before he was born on earth?
Yes. Jesus was a spirit creature in heaven before he was born as a human on earth. Jesus himself said: “I have come down from heaven.”-
(John 6.38: for I have come down from heaven to do, not my own will, but the will of him who sent me.)
(John 8.23: He went on to say to them: “You are from the realms below; I am from the realms above. You are from this world; I am not from this world.)
God created Jesus before he created anything else. Regarding Jesus, the Bible says:
• “He is... the firstborn of all creation.”-
(Colossians 1.15: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation;)
• He is “the beginning of the creation by God.”-
(Revelation 3.14: “To the angel of the congregation in Laodicea write: These are the things that the Amen says, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation by God:)
Jesus fulfilled the prophecy about the one “whose origin is from ancient times, from the days of long ago.”-
(Micah 5.2: And you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, The one too little to be among the thousands of Judah, From you will come out for me the one to be ruler in Israel, Whose origin is from ancient times, from the days of long ago.)
(Matthew 2.4-6: On gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They said to him: “In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is how it has been written through the prophet: ‘And you, O Bethlehem of the land of Judah, are by no means the most insignificant city among the governors of Judah, for out of you will come a governing one, who will shepherd my people Israel.’”)
What did Jesus do before he came to the earth?
He held an exalted heavenly position. Jesus referred to this position when he prayed: “Father, glorify me... with the glory that I had alongside you before the world was.”-
(John 17.5: So now, Father, glorify me at your side with the glory that I had alongside you before the world was.)
He helped his Father create all other things. Jesus worked alongside God “as a master worker.”
(Proverbs 8.30: Then I was beside him as a master worker. I was the one he was especially fond of day by day; I rejoiced before him all the time;)
Regarding Jesus, the Bible says: “By means of him all other things were created in the heavens and on the earth.”-
(Colossians 1.16: because by means of him all other things were created in the heavens and on the earth, the things visible and the things invisible, whether they are thrones or lordships or governments or authorities. All other things have been created through him and for him.)
God worked through Jesus to bring every other creation into existence. This creation included all other spirit creatures, as well as the physical universe.
(Revelation 5.11: And I saw, and I heard a voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands,)
In some respects, this cooperation between God and Jesus was like that of an architect working with a builder. The architect creates the design; the builder brings the design to reality.
He served as the Word. When speaking of Jesus’ prehuman life, the Bible calls Jesus “the Word.”
(John 1.1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.)
Evidently, this means that God used his Son to convey information and instructions to other spirit creatures.
Jesus also seems to have acted as God’s Spokesman to humans on earth. God likely spoke through Jesus as the Word when giving instructions to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.
(Genesis 2.16, 17: Jehovah God also gave this command to the man: “From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will certainly die.”)
Jesus may have been the angel who guided the ancient Israelites through the wilderness and whose voice the Israelites were strictly to obey.-
(Exodus 23.20-23: “I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you on the way and to bring you into the place that I have prepared. Pay attention to him, and obey his voice. Do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, because my name is in him. However, if you strictly obey his voice and do all that I say, I will show hostility to your enemies and oppose those who oppose you. For my angel will go ahead of you and will bring you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I will annihilate them.)
[End of article.]