Theology 101 — Christ, the Son of the Living God

Theology 101 — Christ, the Son of the Living God

What’s in a Name?

By Jerry Batson, Th.D.
Special to The Alabama Baptist

What Jesus knew about Himself all along, His disciples only came gradually to grasp. On the occasion of the great confession recorded in Matthew 16:16, Peter voiced for the disciples what they had come to realize: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” As far back as the age of 12, Jesus had some degree of realization about being God’s Son. When Mary asked Jesus why He had stayed behind in the temple when she and Joseph had begun their trip back to Nazareth, Jesus gave His famous reply, “Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business” (Luke 2:49)? Apparently, Mary had not fully grasped what the angel Gabriel told her when announcing that she would miraculously conceive a son, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest” (Luke 1:32).

Devil and his demons

Amazingly what Mary and the disciples came to understand with the passing of time was already known to the devil and his demons. Approaching Jesus in the wilderness the devil referred to Him as the Son of God (Matt. 4:3, 6).

During His public ministry Jesus exercised power over unclean spirits. On one such occasion, the demons cried aloud, “You are the Son of God” (Mark 3:11), an insight that Jesus warned them sternly not to publicize. On another occasion a demon possessed a man and used his voice to cry aloud, “What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God” (Mark 5:7)?

What is strikingly even more significant is the testimony that God the Father bore concerning Jesus at His baptism: “This is My beloved Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). Again on the occasion of Jesus’ transfiguration in the presence of three of His disciples, Matthew 17:5 tells that a voice from a cloud was heard to declare, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” We also read that what Jesus had said about God at age 12 was repeated during His adult ministry as He referred to God as “My Father” (Matt. 11:27). The designation “Son of God” carried clear overtones of Jesus’ divine nature, just as His preferred self-designation as “Son of Man” carried undertones of His human nature.

Divine nature

The record of Jesus’ earthly life contains many evidences pointing to His divine nature as the Son of God. Among these we might list His authority over unclean spirits; His miracles and teaching; His practice of referring to God as His “Father” and His sinless life. However, the crowning evidence of His divine nature as the Son of God was His resurrection from the dead. Romans 1:4 expresses this by saying He was “declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.” What Jesus was as to His divine nature was given lasting and convincing declaration by the resurrection.

Part of the significance in Jesus being the Son of God is that He is the agent whereby the Father is revealed to us. Jesus put it, “Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Matt. 11:27). Later He declared to the disciples, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). As God’s Son, Jesus not only reveals the Father, but also brings people to God, as He said, “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).