Theme 5 ’Jesus Son of God’
Easy this one honest
Last week in our sermon we continued our new series on Doctrine by looking at the concept of the Divinity of Christ, not an easy one by any means but one I hope nevertheless you enjoyed thinking about. This week we will spend some time looking at the New Testament concept of Jesus as the Son Of God and unlike last weeks topic the description of Jesus as The Son of God, believe it or not, is really not that difficult to get a handle on.
Most Christians in my experience actually have the basic idea already without even thinking too much about it and do so because all of us have that in built automatic understanding of what it means to be either a parent or some- one else’s child.
The idea of Son-ship contains two basic qualities; that of being genetically related to another person and secondly that of being one half of what should be the closest of personal relationships.
I have often thought, from a Fathers point of view that of all the people I would be prepared to die for, my own Son Daniel would be at the top of my list. The bond both from a genetic and relational point of view is astounding.
I can vividly remember being quite shocked very early on after he was born to discover how vulnerable having this baby made me feel, in as much as I knew how incredibly devastating it would be for me should anything now happen too him (I still feel the same now, as do most parents I suspect)
So ‘Son-ship’ contains these incredibly powerful characteristics of genetic and relational bonding and In Biblical terms, the whole concept of son-ship to God contain exactly the same two characteristics;
Adam for example is described as a Son of God just as Seth is described as the Son of Adam (Luke 3:38) simply because Adam owed his creation directly to Gods intervention and God was directly involved in his life.
Israel are described as Gods firstborn because God brought them into being as a nation and decided to make them his special people (Exodus 4:22) and Christians all over the Bible are described as Sons of God in order to stress their new birth by the spirit and the subsequent intimacy of their relationship to God.
So the whole concept of Son-ship to God theologically, is based on these two same ideas of a direct creational link to God (a sort of genetic idea) and a relational connection to the divine, Gods choice to be close to them. Different people and also Israel are described as Gods Sons then because they in some way owe their existence directly to Gods intervention and because of his love for them.
In Jesus of course this basic concept is amplified considerably in that Jesus shares Gods nature intimately, he is divine, the image of the invisible God, he is Born of the Holy Spirit, a unique genetic connection and because Gods Spirit lives in him in a perfect unity of personality and love. However the relational connection and this idea of Jesus’s son-ship to God is also amplified further by a connection to his unique Mission as Gods Messiah or Saviour because of which Jesus then takes on a further unique character all of his own he becomes not ‘A’ Son of God But THE Son of God, the one and only Son who not only shares the Fathers nature and the closest of relationships but who also comes to DO his Fathers will in the salvation of his people.
Son-ship for Jesus then is a unique idea and contains this added theological concept of mission and obedience (If only all kids were like that hey!) Jesus becomes then in NT thought not just a son of God but THE MESSIAH SON a concept which goes right back to the Old Testament where throughout its history Israel looked to the arrival of the ultimate Son of David’s line, one who would come and bring in the Kingdom of God (see Psalm 2) and In the N/T of course Jesus readily takes on this mantle from his Baptism (Mark 1:11) to the Transfiguration (Mark 9:7) Jesus is THE Son of God because of……..
His Direct creational link to God as proposed in the story of the Virgin Birth.
His unique relationship to his Father as the Divine Son.
And because of the unique role he had to play as God the Fathers obedient Messiah.
What does this mean for us?
Well it means firstly that Jesus can be trusted to bring us into a relationship with God, everyone looks at some point in their lives for a connection with whatever is above…in times of trouble, at times of challenge, in times of extreme danger and at the point of death when everything else seems to have failed to answer our fears or our needs we look upwards don’t we for hope for help for a connection to make sense of what we have or are experiencing well Jesus, because he is the Messianic Son has the direct link to God that we need. Created by God hand, at one with God by his Spirit having been obedient unto death for our salvation Jesus is now the conduit by which we can travel into Gods presence as Gods Son he stands in his presence and God embraces all those he embraces and he embraces you.
And secondly it means that as the image of the invisible God he can be trusted because as God, is so he is Love, he shares Gods nature as THE Son and so he is the complete epitome of truth if you come to him then the experience you receive will be the genuine experience not one created perhaps by the false intoxicants of this life or half of an experience as might be received through the practice of other religions rites and rituals as THE Son Jesus is the genuine article the one and only truth in whom we can trust.
The doctrine of Jesus then as the Son of God stems from his direct ( sort of)biological or genetic link to God created by his conception by the Spirit within his mother Mary's womb. From the incredibly intense relationship that developed between Him and his Father as a result of this Birth and from his willingness to be obedient to his father for our salvation even to death on the cross and it provides for us the ultimate and most trustworthy conduit by which we can also discover the Love of God for us in our lives.
May God open our eyes to this wonderful idea.
Amen.