INTRODUCTION
The identity of Christ had to be revealed by God the Father:
Gal 1:15-16 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my
mother's womb and called me through His grace, {16} to reveal
His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did
not immediately confer with flesh and blood,
In the account of Adam and Eve being led into sin we also have
the first preaching of the gospel in Gen 3:15. That verse tells
us that through one of Adam's seed would come One who would undo
the damage that sin had done and would do. That promise was further
confirmed to Abraham and the patriarchs through whom the seed
would come, and by whom all the nations of the world would be
blessed. Then, in God's covenant with David, we find that the
Promised One would not only be descended from David, but would
also be called the Son of God.
1 Chr 17:13 says "I will be his Father, and he shall be
My son; and I will not take My mercy away from him, as I took
it from him who was before you.
So in the time of Christ it was known that the Messiah would also
be the Son of God.
John 11:27 She said to Him, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You
are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world."
Mat 26:63 But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest answered
and said to Him, "I put You under oath by the living God:
Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!"
(Mk 14:61)
GOD THE FATHER IS JESUS CHRIST'S GOD AND FATHER
God the Father is the Father of us all...
1 Cor 8:6 "yet for us there is one God, the Father, of
whom are all things and we for Him (i.e. from whom all things
come and for whom we exist); and one Lord Jesus Christ, through
whom are all things, and through whom we live."
Rom 15:6 ...glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Cor 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
2 Cor 11:31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
is blessed Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Eph 1:17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
glory,
Col 1:3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ,
1 Pet 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Rev 1:6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father,
Rev 3:5 but I will confess his name before My Father and before
His angels.
Rev 3:12 He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple
of My God, and he shall go out no more. And I will write on him
the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New
Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will
write on him My new name.
JESUS CHRIST IS THE SON OF GOD
Rom 8:3 "For what the law could not do in that it was weak
through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness
John 3:17 "For God did not send His Son into the world to
condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."
Luke 20:13 "Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall
I do? I will send my beloved son. Probably they will respect him
Gal 4:4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent
forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
So Jesus Christ, who was the Son of God, became the Kingly Son
of God in power through his resurrection from the dead:
Acts 13:32-33 "And we declare to you glad tidings; that
promise which was made to the fathers. {33} "God has fulfilled
this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As
it is also written in the second Psalm: 'You are My Son, Today
I have begotten You.'
Psa 2:7 "I will declare the decree: The LORD has said to
Me, 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.
John 6:40 "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that
everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting
life; and I will raise him up at the last day."
John 17:3 "And this is eternal life, that they may know You,
the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
John 20:31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have
life in His name.
1 John 5:9-13 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of
God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified
of His Son. {10} He who believes in the Son of God has the witness
in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because
he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.
{11} And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal
life, and this life is in His Son. {12} He who has the Son has
life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
{13} These things I have written to you who believe in the name
of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life,
and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of
God.
JESUS CHRIST - THE FIRSTBORN OF GOD, THE HEIR
OF GOD.
The firstborn/firstfruits represent the whole (Rom 11:16).
JESUS CHRIST - THE BEGINNING OF GOD'S CREATION
Col 1:15-17 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
over all creation. {16} For by Him all things were created that
are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were
created through Him and for Him. {17} And He is before all things
(i.e. He existed before all things), and in Him all things consist.
According to Leon Morris' Commentary on John (pg 81), the most
ancient manuscripts translate Jn 1:3-4 as per the RSV footnote.
The same eternal life that God the Father gave to Christ, he will
give to us (1Jn 5:11). Believing that Christ really is the Son
of God is fundamental to overcoming the world (1Jn 5:5). We become
sons of God through Jesus Christ, just as he is the Son of God.
Consequently, Jesus Christ calls us brethren (brothers), because
we have the same origin, God the Father:
JESUS CHRIST - THE WORD OF GOD
So Jesus Christ gave up his glory as an Elohim, and was begotten
by God the Father to become a human being.
THE SON OF GOD CAN ONLY DO WHAT HE HAS BEEN
SHOWN AND TOLD.
John 5:19-20 Then Jesus answered and said to them, "Most
assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but
what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also
does in like manner. {20} "For the Father loves the Son,
and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show
Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.
John 8:28 Then Jesus said to them, "When you lift up the
Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing
of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.
John 8:38 "I speak what I have seen with My Father, and
you do what you have seen with your father."
John 12:49-50 "For I have not spoken on My own authority;
but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say
and what I should speak. {50} "And I know that His command
is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the
Father has told Me, so I speak."
JESUS CHRIST - THE IMAGE OF GOD (PHIL 2:5-11)
John 17:5 ""And now, O Father, glorify Me together
with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the
world was."
2 Cor 4:4 "whose minds the god of this age has blinded,
who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them."
Col 1:15 "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
over all creation."
Heb 1:3 "who being the brightness of His glory and the express
image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His
power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the
right hand of the Majesty on high,"
Christ, unlike the first Adam (Gen 3:5-7), and unlike Satan (Matt
4:1-10), did not consider equality with God something to be possessed
by force, or rebellion. He did not try to seize what was not his,
that is, rulership over all created beings, including humanity,
as Satan did (Isa 14:13-14).
JESUS CHRIST - GIVEN A NAME ABOVE ALL OTHERS
(HEBREWS 1:4-13)
Acts 2:36 ""Therefore let all the house of Israel
know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified,
both Lord and Christ.""
In verse Ps 2.9, the Son is given dominion over the whole world.
Heb 1:6 But when He again brings the firstborn into the world,
He says: "Let all the angels of God worship Him."
Heb 3:6 but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house
we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the
hope firm to the end.
God the Father sent His precious Son to save mankind from Satan,
sin and death (Lk 4:18; Jn 3:17; 5:36; 7:29; 8:29; 12:49; 17:8,25;
1Jn 4:9,14). As the Son of God, Christ taught all that he saw
and heard from his Father (Jn 3:31-32,35; 5:19,30,36; 8:29).
God the Father made known the ways of life to His Son (Act 2:28).
If Christ was taught the ways of life, it means he was never
equal with the Father.
He was the testimony to the truth that living by God's word gives
eternal life (Jn 12:49-50; 1Jn 5:11-12). He therefore manifested
God's name to men (Jn 17:3,6,26), and proved that he had come
from God and knew God (Jn 6:57; 7:29; 10:15). But few believed
that he really was the Son of God or that they too could become
sons of God (Jn 1:11; 3:32; 5:38; 6:36). Those who do believe
are also given power to become sons of God (Jn 1:12; 3:36; Rom
8:14-17; 1Jn 4:15-16; 5:9-12), and also are sent to be witnesses
(Jn 17:18).
The world will hate and reject the elect who are the sons of God,
just as they hated and rejected the Son of God (Jn 15:19; 17:14).
CONCLUSION
As in Christ's time, so too throughout history, there has been
confusion as to who Christ really is.
(Matt 16:13-17; Lk 9:18-20; Jn 8:19,55-56; 16:3)
Mat 16:15-17 He said to them, "But who do you say that
I am?" {16} Simon Peter answered and said, "You are
the Christ, the Son of the living God." {17} Jesus answered
and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh
and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in
heaven.
On the other hand, the Messiah was known to be the Son of God.
(Eph 1:9; 1Cor 1:27, 2:8,14).
John 1:49 Nathanael answered and said to Him, "Rabbi, You
are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"
Therefore it seems that the leaders and the common people knew
that the Messiah would be the Son of God, just as promised in
the covenant God made with David.
That God is Christ's Father is the plain truth. It is not symbolic
(Jn 16:27-29)
Eph 4:4-6 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were
called in one hope of your calling; {5} one Lord, one faith, one
baptism; {6} one God and Father of all, who is above all, and
Christ's relationship to God the Father is the same as ours: God
the Father is Christ's God and Father, just as He is ours:
John 20:17 "Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to Me,
for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren
and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father,
and to My God and your God.' "
Jesus Christ belongs to God (1Cor 3:23), and God is Christ's Head
(1Cor 11:3).
God the Father sent His own Son into the world:
John 1:14 "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of
It is the doctrine of the antichrist to deny this relationship
(1Jn 2:22-23). Jesus Christ has always been the Son of God...
(John 1:18 in the original Greek reveals that Christ is the "only
begotten God")
(Jn 11:27; 1Jn 3:8; 4:9,14,15)
Prov 30:4 "Who has ascended into heaven, or descended?
Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters
in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What
is His name, and what is His Son's name, If you know?"
The footnote to Romans 1:4 in the New Jerusalem Bible makes the
following comment:
".....deserving anew, this time in virtue of his messianic
work, the name he had from eternity, 'Son of God', Ac 13:33; Heb
1:1-5; 5:5, See Rom 8:11g, 9:5d"
Rom 1:3-4 concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born
of the seed of David according to the flesh, {4} and declared
to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness,
by the resurrection from the dead.
Salvation is based on believing that Jesus is the Son of God.
(Rev 2:18; Ps 45:6-7; Heb 1:5,8,9; 5:5).
John 3:36 "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life;
and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the
wrath of God abides on him."
As the Son of God, Jesus was faithful over God's house (Heb 3:6).
Jesus Christ is the firstborn of God (Heb 1:6; Col 1:15,18; Rev
1:5).
Speaking of the symbolism of the first born in the Old Testament,
Patrick Fairbairn says:
"...the representative character of the first born; the first
offspring of the producing parent stands for the entire fruit
of the womb, being that in which the whole takes its beginning;
so that the slaying of the first born of Egypt was virtually the
slaying of all - it implied that one and the same doom was suspended
over all; and, consequently, that the saving of the first born
of Israel and their subsequent consecration to the Lord, was,
in regard to divine intention and effacious virtue, the saving
and consecration of all. Hence Israel as a whole was designated
Gods first born (Ex 4:22-23)." (Institutes of Biblical Law
pg 49).
As the firstborn, Jesus Christ is the heir of God (Heb 1:2; Matt
28:18; Jn 3:35; Matt 21:37-39; Mk 12:6-8; Lk 20:13-15). He receives
the nations and the earth as his inheritance (Ps 2:8; Dan 7:13-14).
Jesus Christ was granted the kingdom through his faithfulness
and his overcoming, just as the elect do (Rev 3:21, Lk 22:28-30).
As sons of God, the elect become joint-heirs with Jesus Christ
(Rom 8:17; Eph 3:6; Heb 6:17), through the grace of God (Gal 4:7),
because they also are counted as the firstborn of God (Heb 12:23).
It is only the true sons of God who may receive the promised
inheritance (Ezek 46:16-17; Gal 4:30).
Christ is called the beginning of God's creation:
Rev 3:14 ""And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans
write, 'These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness,
the Beginning of the creation of God:"
He is described as having an origin or a family descent from "days
of old"
Micah 5:2 (NKJV) ""But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though
you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall
come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth
are from of old, From everlasting.""
Christ's immortality comes from God the Father, who alone is immortal...
RSV - whose origin is from of old, from ancient of days.
NIV - whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.
1 Tim 6:14-16 (NJB) ...until the appearing of our Lord Jesus
Christ, {15} who at the due time will be revealed by God, the
blessed and only Ruler of all, the King of kings and Lord of lords,
{16} who alone is immortal, whose home is in inaccessible light,
whom no human being has seen or is able to see: to him be honor
and everlasting power. Amen.
In Jn 5:26 Christ claims that God the Father gave him eternal
life:
""For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted
the Son to have life in Himself."
If God the Father had
to give Christ life, then Christ didn't have it before.
John 6:57 ""As the living Father sent Me, and I live
because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because
of Me."
According to the footnote in the RSV, Jn 1:3-4 can be translated
as
"all things were made through him, and without him was not
anything made. That which has been made was life in him".
(i.e. eternal life was made in Jesus Christ)
Heb 2:11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified
are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them
brethren,
JESUS CHRIST - THE ROOT OF DAVID
RSV - For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified have
the one origin.
NASB- For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified
are all from the same Father.
(Rom 8:29)
The Father is the householder who planted a vineyard, and Jesus
Christ is his Son whom he sends to care for it and to gather the
fruit (Matt 21:33-41; Mk 12:1-7; Lk 20:9-13). God the Father
is the vinedresser, Jesus Christ is the vine from which fruit
comes (Jn 15:1-6). As such, Jesus Christ is both the root out
of whom David (and mankind) came, and the offspring or branch
of David (Rev 22:16; 5:5).
The first few verses of John 1 set forward both the divine and
the human origin and nature of Jesus Christ:
John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God."
Jesus Christ is called the Word of God. No man has seen or heard
God (Jn 1:18; 5:37; 6:46; 1Tim 6:16; 1Jn 4:12), therefore Jesus
Christ cannot be the One True God. God the Father is greater
than Jesus Christ (Jn 13:16; 15:20; 1Cor 11:3). Jesus Christ
was sent by God (Lk 4:18; Jn 3:17; 5:36,43; 7:29; 8:29; 17:8,25),
to reveal God's words to man (Jn 7:16; 8:26; 12:49-50; 17:8),
because they show how man may gain eternal life (Jn 1:12; 5:39;
6:47; 17:3). As such, Jesus Christ brought the testimony of God
(Jn 1:12-13; 1Cor 1:6).
The literal translation of Jn 1:1,18 according to "The Interlinear
NASB-NIV" by Alfred Marshall is
{1} "In [the] beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
the God (Greek = Theon), and God (Greek = Theos) was the Word."
...
{18} "God (Greek = Theon) no man has seen never; [the] only
begotten God (Greek = Theos) the [one] being in the bosom of the
Father, that one declared [?him]."
No man has seen Theon (Jn 6:46; 1Jn 4:12), who is God the Father
(Jn 5:37). Christ is described as the only begotten God, or Theos.
Theos equates with the Hebrew "Elohim" (eg. Ps 45:7
cf. Heb 1:9), which can refer to any divine being in the Godhead.
For further proof that there are many "elohim" see
the following scriptures.. Ps 82:1; 86:8; 95:3; 96:4; 135:5; 148:2;
Deut 10:17; Jos 22:22 (NKJV).
John 3:31-32 "He who comes from above is above all; he who
is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes
from heaven is above all. {32} "And what He has seen and
heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony.
So Jesus Christ could only do what God the Father had shown and
taught him.
Phil 2:5-11 (RSV) Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours
(was also in) Christ Jesus, {6} who, though he was in the form
of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
{7} but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born
in the likeness of men. {8} And being found in human form he humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.
{9} Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him
the name which is above every name, {10} that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
{11} and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the
glory of God the Father.
Man was created in the image of God:
Gen 1:26-27 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image,
according to Our likeness;...... {27} So God created man in His
own image; in the image of God He created him;
Jesus Christ is the second Adam (1Cor 15:45-49; Rom 5:15-18).
Before and after his incarnation, he was and is the image of
God:
(Gen 5:1-3; 9:6; 1Cor 11:7; Jas 3:9).
Jn 14:9 He who has seen me has seen the Father....
Therefore Christ is the glory of the only Son from the Father
(Jn 1:14). He is one with his Father, and consequently he reveals
or makes God known (Jn 1:18; 14:9). As such, he comes in the
name of God (Jn 5:43; Ex 23:31). In the Old Testament, when Christ
appeared on behalf of God, he was called the Presence of God (Deut
4:37), the face of God (Gen 32:30 cf Hos 12:3-4), and the messenger
of His Presence (Isa 63:9).
Rather, he willingly gave up what he had, became a human being,
accepting the path of obedience to his Father (Matt 26:39; Heb
10:7; Ps 40:8), and suffering so that he and all mankind could
receive the promised inheritance (Rom 8:17; Heb 2:5-14; 5:8; 12:2).
He receives his inheritance at his second coming (Rev 11:15).
Because he was "obedient even to death", Christ was
rewarded with exultation after humiliation, as he himself taught
(Matt 18:4; 23:12; Lk 14:7-11). He has been raised to the highest
place of honour, glory and power; the right hand of God (Ps 110:1;
Heb 1:3,13; 10:12).
The sons of God are likewise to be remade in the image of God
(Rom 8:29; 2Cor 3:18; Eph 4:24 Col 3:10; 1Jn 3:2). A son of God
is one who lives by the Spirit of God (Rom 8:14). They call God
"Abba! Father", just as Jesus Christ did (Gal 4:6 cf
Mk 14:36). Those who walk by the spirit of Satan have Satan as
their father (Eph 2:2-3; Jn 8:44).
Heb 1:4-13 having become so much better than the angels, as
He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
Christ has become "much better than the angels" (Isa
52:13, Matt 28:18). Christ has obtained "a more excellent
name than the angels", a name to which every knee shall bow
(Phil 2:10-11). There is only one name to which every knee shall
bow, and every tongue shall acknowledge - the LORD...
Isa 45:23-24 I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out of
My mouth in righteousness, And shall not return, That to Me every
knee shall bow, Every tongue shall take an oath. {24} He shall
say, 'Surely in the LORD I have righteousness and strength. To
Him men shall come, And all shall be ashamed Who are incensed
against Him.
That name has been given to Christ by his Father (Phil 2:10-11;
Heb 1:4). That name is above all others, above the angelic (in
heaven), the human (on earth) and the demonic (under the earth).
Heb 1:5 For to which of the angels did He ever say: "You
are My Son, Today I have begotten You"?
This quote comes from Ps 2:7. It refers to Christ's resurrection
from the dead (Act 13:33).
Leopold Sabourin, a Jesuit priest, in "The Psalms, Their
Origin and Meaning" says of this verse
"..only after his passion is Jesus declared Son of God, Lord
and King. As man he had to 'be born' to the glory he possessed
eternally as the Son. In this sense it is said of Him in a paschal
context: "Thou art my son, I this day have begotten thee"
(Heb 1:5; Ps 2:7; cf. Rm 1:4)." (Pg 338c)
Heb 1:5 And again: "I will be to Him a Father, And He shall
be to Me a Son"?
This verse, from 2Sam 7:14 and 1Ch 17:13, follows on from the
quote from Ps 2:7, because it shows that Christ after his resurrection
was made King and that his rulership was going to last forever:
1 Chr 17:11-14 "And it shall be, when your days are fulfilled,
when you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your
seed after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish
his kingdom. {12} "He shall build Me a house, and I will
establish his throne forever. {13} "I will be his Father,
and he shall be My son; and I will not take My mercy away from
him, as I took it from him who was before you. {14} "And
I will establish him in My house and in My kingdom forever; and
his throne shall be established forever." ' "
This quote is from Ps 97 which describes the coming of the Lord,
King and Judge.
(Ps 89:34-37).
Psa 97:9 "For You, LORD, are most high above all the earth;
You are exalted far above all gods (i.e. elohim)."
The Septuagint renders it, "Let all God's angels worship
him",
showing that the Son's rulership even extends over the angels
(Phil 2:10-11).
Heb 1:7 And of the angels He says: "Who makes His angels
spirits And His ministers a flame of fire."
These verses from Ps 45:6-7, attest to the fact that because Christ
loved righteousness (i.e. upholding God's law) over lawlessness
(i.e. rebelling against God's law), he has been elevated to a
position of eternal rulership over his companions, the angels,
and mankind. (Heb 2:5-13)
Heb 1:8 But to the Son He says: "Your throne, O God (i.e.
Jesus Christ), is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of Your Kingdom. {9} You have loved righteousness
and hated lawlessness; Therefore God (Jesus Christ), Your God
(God the Father), has anointed You With the oil of gladness more
than Your companions."
Heb 1:10 And: "You, LORD, in the beginning laid the foundation
of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. {11}
They will perish, but You remain; And they will all grow old like
a garment; {12} Like a cloak You will fold them up, And they will
be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will not fail."
These verses are quoted from Ps 102:25-27 and reveal that Christ
was the one who created the universe, by the will of his Father.
They will pass away (2Pet 3:10) but Christ will remains the same
forever (Heb 13:8).
Heb 1:13 But to which of the angels has He ever said: "Sit
at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool"?
This verse is from Ps 110. This Psalm describes the coming of
the King, Judge and High Priest of God. Hebrews 1:13 shows that
this refers to the Son of God, Jesus Christ, showing conclusively
how far above the angels Christ has been exalted. However, we
should note that the pre-incarnate Christ appeared as the Angel
of the LORD many times (Gen 16:7-13; 18:1-22; 22:11-18; 32:1-2,22-30
(Cf. Hos 12:3-5); Gen 48:15-16; Ex 3:1-6,10; Judg 2:1-6; Zec 3:6-10).
Heb 3:1-2 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly
calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession,
Christ Jesus, {2} who was FAITHFUL TO HIM WHO APPOINTED HIM, as
Moses also was faithful in all His house.
THE WORLD REJECTS THE SON OF GOD
(Ex 23:20-21 tells us that Jesus Christ (Angel of the LORD) has
been given
names and titles that His Father has.)
It was over his claim to be the Son of God that Christ was killed.
Jn 19:7 The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and by that
law he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God."
Satan tried to attack Christ's faith that he was the Son of God
(Matt 4:4-6).
(Matt 26:63-66; 27:43; Mk 14:61-64).
Jesus Christ was the Son of God before his human birth (Prov 30:4;
Lk 20:13; Rom 8:3), Yet there are other sons of God (Job 1:6;
2:1; 38:7; Ps 89:6). As a human being, he was the Son of God,
fathered through Mary (Lk 3:22; Jn 1:18; Heb 5:8). He became
the Son of God in power through his resurrection, appointed as
the Messianic King and High Priest who is to rule all nations,
because of his faithfulness to God and obedience to God's Law.