What Does the Bible Mean When Jesus Is Called the Son of God?
To many Christians, the reason Jesus is called the Son of God is because he is God. The problem with this conclusion is that the angels, Adam, Israel, Solomon, and believers in Christ, have been called sons of God (Job 1:6; 2:1; Dan. 3:25, 28; Luke 3:38; Exod. 4:22; 2 Sam. 7:14; John 1:12; 1 John 3:1, 2; Luke 20:34-36). We do not expect anyone to view the title “son of God” used for the angels and humans as connoting their Godhood. We all understand that the title derives from the fact that God created them, making them members of God’s family in heaven and on earth (Eph. 3:16). All the sons of God derived their existence from God. It is in this sense that all beings created by God are sons (and daughters) of God (Eph. 4:6). Figuratively, the choice God made of Israel and their privileged relationship with Him also earned them the title “son of God” and “firstborn” (Exod. 4:22).
It is evident from these texts that our Lord Jesus Christ is not the only one who has been called the Son of God in the Bible. The question that readily comes to mind is how the title “son of God” means Godhood in the case of Jesus but means a different thing in the case of all the others? I have a strong opinion that the Trinitarian dogma is the reason people are not objective in their study of the Scriptures. The idea of the title meaning Godhood in the case of Jesus is what the Trinitarian dogma has made people read into the Bible. For example, the following is an excerpt from on online article:
“Jesus Christ is called the Son of God more than 40 times in the Bible. What does that title mean exactly, and what significance does it have for people today? First, the term does not mean Jesus was the literal offspring of God the Father, as each of us is the child of our human father. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity says the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are co-equal and co-eternal, meaning the three Persons of the one God always existed together and each has the same importance… Third, the term Son of God as applied to Jesus is unique. It does not mean he was a child of God, as Christians are when they’re adopted into God’s family. Rather, it points out his divinity, meaning he is God.” – Online article, “Son of God” by Jack Zavada, published by Learn Religions.
This is what most Christians have been made to believe in. But there is a whole lot of difference between the Trinity doctrine and the true teachings of the Bible. For example, the Trinity dogma says the one God is made up of three coequal and coeternal beings – the Father the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit. Each of them is called God. But the Bible says the Father alone is the one God (1 Cor. 8:6; 1 Tim. 2:5; John 17:3; 20:17; Eph. 1:3, 17; Rev. 3:12; etc.). The Trinitarian dogma defined coequality and coeternity of the three persons of the so-called Trinity in these words: “And in this Trinity none is afore [before] or after another; none is greater or less than another.” (Athanasian Creed, Line 25).In other words, all the “three persons” are self-existed Gods. If we accept this to be true we have denied the teaching of the Bible which says the Father, whose name is YHWH, or Yahweh (יהוה) is the one God. He is called the Father because Adam (man) was the original creation of God; the woman was formed out of the man to be his helper. That is why families take their names from the father. God is called the Father not because He is of the male biological gender, but because He has made families to derive their names from the father. God is a Spirit (John 4:24). It is therefore believed that He possesses, as it were, neither male nor female genitals. People should therefore understand that Jesus was not a product of God having sexual intercourse with a virgin named Miryam.
Before Jesus became flesh, he had been with God in heaven and bears the name “word of the LORD.” (Gen. 15:1, 4; 2 Sam. 7:4; 24:11; 1 King 6:11; 18:1; etc.). He was that called because he was the one who spoke to mankind on God’s behalf. He was also the one referred to as “the angel of the LORD,” inmany places in the Hebrew Bible.
The concept of three coequal and coeternal Gods making up the one God of the Bible is a Trinitarian forgery. It is nowhere found in the Bible that the one God is made up of three persons or three coequal and coeternal Gods. What has been written, upon which all true Christians should place their faith is God who is neither a Duality nor a Trinity. God had clearly declared many times that He alone is God and there is no other God beside Him. See Deut. 4:35; 32:39; Isa. 43:6-10-12; 44:6-8; 45:5; Joel 2:27. But the Trinitarian Creed created three Supreme Gods and three Almighties. It then went on to fool people by saying the three Supreme Gods make up one Supreme God. The Bible does not teach that absurd theory. Thank God that many Christians have seen the falseness of the Trinitarian “Trojan horse,” meant to corrupt the true deism of the Christian religion, and have distanced themselves from it.
God had declared through Moses that He is one Being. He said: Deuteronomy 6:4 NASB2020
[4] “Hear, Israel! The LORD [YHWH or Yahweh] is our God, the LORD [YHWH or Yahweh] is one! (words in square brackets added by me). Apostle Paul identified the one God in these words: 1 Corinthians 8:6 NET
[6] yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we live, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we live.
The apostle made it explicitly clear that only the Father is the one God. He is the one who made Jesus Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36; Phil. 2:9-11).
The teaching of the Bible is that Yahweh, also known as the Father of all beings, is the only self-existed Being. He is the only one who was not created. He created Jesus before all other beings and things were created. The Bible has revealed this fact, but the human doctrine of the Trinity is making people not to accept the clear revelation of the Bible. Here are two verses which say that our Lord Jesus was created by God:
Colossians 1:15 NASB2020
[15] “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”
Here Paul says that he is the one God chose as His firstborn, the preeminent one, among all of His creation. In other words, he is one of God’s creation.
Revelation 3:14 ESV
[14] “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.”
Here, our Lord Jesus introduced himself to the church in Laodicea as the beginning of God’s creation, the first one among God’s creation.
In summary, it is very wrong to interpret the sonship of our Lord Jesus to be in a different sense from those of angels and humans. There is no tangible basis upon which we can say that Christ’s sonship means he is God. Perhaps, the only difference in his sonship, when compared with the sonship of angels and humankind, is that he is the μονογενης (monogenes), the only begotten son of God (John 1:14). It is instructive to note that Apostle John did not say that our Lord Jesus is the only son of God. He said that he is the only begotten son of God – the only one that God brought forth out of Himself (Prov. 8:22-31). But we should understand that being brought forth out of God’s own being is synonymous to being created. The Trinitarian creed which says the Son was not created but begotten is rather ridiculous. If he was begotten, it means he was brought to life by the begetter. Until he was brought forth, he was non-existent. And he couldn’t be coeternal with the one who brought him forth out of Himself.
Is Jesus God?
Does the Bible say Jesus is God? The answer is YES. Does the Bible say he is the One God, the Almighty YHWH, or LORD in many English versions? The answer is NO. I will explain what I mean shortly. But here are two passages which say our Lord Jesus is God.
Psalms 45:6-7 NKJV
[6] “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Your kingdom. [7] You love righteousness and hate wickedness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions [fellows in KJV].”
John 1:1-3 NKJV
[1] “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”
See Heb. 1:8-9 where the author informs us that the King addressed as God in Psa. 45:6 is the Son of God, Jesus Christ. It is instructive to note that in verse 7, God is said to be the God of the one who is said to be King/God in verse 6. Therefore, the King/God in verse 6 is not coequal with God who is his God. May I refer you to Eph. 1:3 where Apostle Paul wrote that God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then in verse 17, the apostle wrote that God is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, thus affirming Psa. 45:7 and what Jesus Christ himself said with his own mouth in Matt. 27:46 (Mark 15:34), John 20:17 and Rev. 3:12. YHWH (or LORD) is his God because YHWH alone is the self-existent God who is worshipped by our Lord (Master) Jesus Christ. YHWH is the Father of our Lord Jesus because Jesus, like the angels and humans, derived his life or existence from YHWH. No single verse in both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament says Jesus self-existed. No single verse in the entire Scriptures says our Lord Jesus is coequal with God.
The Godhood Of The Son Explained
There are about four basic definitions of “god,” three of which are applicable in the Bible:
- In monotheistic religions, the creator and ruler of the universe, regarded as eternal, infinite, all-powerful, and all-knowing; Supreme Being; the Almighty. As revealed in the Bible, this definition applies to only YHWH or Yahweh, who is rendered LORD (all capital letters) in many English Bibles. Only Him is called the Almighty forty eight times in the Hebrew Bible and nine times in the Christian New Testament.
- A male spirit or being who is believed by some religions to control the world or part of it, or who represents a particular quality. Satan the Devil falls into this class (2 Cor. 4:4).
- An image that is worshiped; idol. Examples are the calf moulded by Aaron (Exod. 32:4) and the silver shrines of the goddess Artemis which Demetrius and others were making for the Ephesians (Acts 19:23-27).
What then do we say of the Godhood of our Lord Jesus Christ? Is he the one called YHWH (LORD) in the Bible? Is he the one called the Almighty? The answer to these questions is NO! The following points should be noted:
- Psa. 45:7 says God is his God. This means that he is not the Supreme God. Neither is he a coequal God with the Supreme God, also called God the Father. God is called “God the Father,” not in the sense that there are a “God the Son” and a “God the Holy Spirit.” He is called “God the Father” because He is the Father of all beings (Eph. 4:6). He brought all beings into existence.
- Our Lord Jesus is not the only one, besides God, who is called God. Satan the Devil is called the God of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). Human beings have been called Gods (Psa. 82:6; John 10:34-36).
- Apostle Paul wrote that there are many Gods, yet for us who know the truth, there is only one God, the Father (1 Cor. 8:5-6). The Father of all creation is the only self-existent Being, the Almighty God. Our Lord Jesus did not create himself. He was created by God before God created all other things through him. The Bible admits henotheism, the existence of many Gods, yet teaches the existence one supreme, self-existent, Being whose name is YHWH or Yahweh, the Almighty. We, Christians, worship only one supreme, self-existent God. He is a single spirit being. He is not a two-in-one or a three-in-one God. The Bible does not teach Ditheism or Tritheism. It teaches strict Monotheism, and that is what we believe in.
- Some people have argued that Jesus is the Almighty in Rev. 1:8, but they are wrong. The words “saith the Lord” (KJV) in the verse means Jesus was quoting what the Almighty had said. He is not the Almighty in that verse. The NASB renders the remark as “says the Lord God” thereby removing every doubt that God is the referent.
The Godhood of our Lord Jesus Christ is not of the same category as that of his God and Father. He is called God because he is powerful. But the power he has and uses was given him by God, the Almighty (John 5:25-26; 3:34; Matt. 28:18; Acts 10:38). His Godhood also cannot be divorced from the fact that God created all things through him. He has also been the representative of the invisible God in the affairs of humanity. In all the theophanies recorded in the Hebrew Bible, he was the one seen (cf. John 1:18; 1 John 4:12; 1 Tim. 6:16). We should never lose sight of what Jesus said in John 5:30, “I can of myself do nothing,” and “the Father is greater than I” (John 14:28).A coequal, Almighty, God will not talk like that.
In summary, I dare to say that the Godhood of the Son is derived from, subordinate to, and subsumed in the Godhood of the Father. Christ’s Godhood does not make him the Supreme God, the Almighty.
Conclusion
As the only begotten Son of God, our Lord Jesus was derived by birth. He was brought forth by God before the creation of the universe (Prov. 8:22-31). The fact that God brought him forth out of Himself makes Jesus a creation of God. His begettal by God was not by carnal means of a man having sexual intercourse with a woman. His begettal was supernatural. Before his incarnation as a human being, he was existing with God as a spirit being. His Sonhood should not be equated or conflated with his Godhood. The reason he is called the son of God is because he derived his life from God. He is neither coequal nor coeternal with God, the Father of all beings. God was already existing before God created him.