Son of God
Announcing that Jesus was to be born, the angel Gabriel told Jesus’ mother Mary: ‘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 1:35).
When Jesus was baptised at the beginning of his ministry, God Himself declared, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased’ (Mark 1:11).
Jesus asked the Jews, ‘Do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, “You are blaspheming,” because I said, “I am the Son of God”?’ (John 10:36).
The disciples and even his enemies understood Jesus’ claim, that God was his Father:
The disciples: ‘Truly you are the Son of God’ (Matthew 14:33).
The Pharisees: ‘He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, “I am the Son of God”’
(Matthew 27:43).
The Roman centurion: ‘Truly, this was the Son of God!’ (Matthew 27:54).
Not “God the Son”
Some suggest that Jesus is ‘co-equal’ with God Himself. This is not what the Bible says. Jesus always acknowledged that the authority he had was not his inherently, but it came from his Father. ‘I have much to say about you and much to judge, but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him’ (John 8:26).
During his agony in the garden of Gethsemane on the night before he died, Jesus made his own will subject to the will of his Father. ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done’ (Luke 22:42).
Because Jesus was the son of Mary, a human mother, he inherited human nature just like us. So he had to face temptation, like us. But unlike us he always overcame temptation; his life was sinless. He is ‘one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin’ (Hebrews 4:15).
His Care For Us
Jesus fulfils three important roles concerning those who are his followers:
1. High Priest
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession (Hebrews 4:14).
Under the Law of Moses, the High Priest entered the temple representing the people to God. He returned representing God to the people. The High Priest was a sinful man. He was allowed to enter into the temple’s Holy of Holies, into the very presence of God, only once a year on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). By contrast, Jesus is the sinless High Priest who now sits at his Father’s right hand, representing believers to God.
2. Mediator
There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5).
A mediator is a “go-between”. The role of a mediator is to bring reconciliation between two separated parties. Jesus is “at one” with his Father because his life was completely faultless. Jesus is “at one” with us because, like us, he had human nature. So, Jesus is the perfect mediator between us and God. ‘Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Romans 5:1).
3. Advocate
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous (1 John 2:1).
An advocate is someone who pleads another person’s cause and presents their requests to someone in authority. Jesus now sits at his Father’s right hand, representing his people to his Father. ‘Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth… him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood’ (Revelation 1:5).
At the Centre of God’s Purpose
Jesus is the key to God’s purpose with the world and us. ‘He is before all things, and in him all things hold together’
(Colossians 1:17).
He is human like us, son of Mary, and also divine, being son of God. He suffered and was tempted, like us, but was sinless. He “built the bridge” between God and us. ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’ (John 14:6).
In the Image of God
Twice in the New Testament Jesus is presented as an “image” of God.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation (Colossians 1:15).
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3).
All of us are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27)—in our small way we can think like God, and respond to Him and worship Him.
But we are imperfect. The “image” that Jesus presents is so absolutely right that he was able to say, ‘Whoever has seen me has seen the Father’ (John 14:9).
The Word Became Flesh
Let us think about the opening words of the Gospel according to John.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1, 14).
Of course God cannot be separated from His Word. If a child disobeyed their father, nobody would say “They didn’t disobey their father, it was only their father’s word they disobeyed”. That would be silly, because their father’s will was presented in his word: the word and the father are inseparable.
In the beginning, then, God had a plan to fill the world with people, who of their own free will would respond to Him and love Him (Numbers 14:21). To achieve that, God gave us free will whether to serve Him or to serve ourselves. In Genesis 3 we see how our first parents, Adam and Eve, disobeyed Him. They sinned and brought upon themselves and the world the curse of mortality. So God provided a Saviour, a perfect man, our representative who would obey where they disobeyed, and be sinless where they sinned. He heals the breach between us and God.
In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19).
Now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:13).
It is not possible to overstate the greatness of Jesus Christ. When he returns to establish God’s Kingdom, raise and judge the dead, destroy the forces of wickedness and finally fill the world with God’s glory, he will at last receive the reverence he deserves, so that ‘at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’ (Philippians 2:10–11).
David Budden