The number of books written about Jesus presenting him as a legend, an unknown historical figure or the divine Son of God, reveals that he is one of, if not the most fascinating individual in human history. However, you don’t need to go beyond the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to come to the same conclusion. The more you consider Jesus in light of the Greco-Roman-Judaeo culture in which Jesus lived in the first century, he becomes even more interesting. As we saw in one of my recent posts, Jesus used for himself the phrase “Son of Man” a relatively common expression God used when speaking about or to men. Prophetically it was also used in Daniel to refer to an apocalyptic figure whom Daniel saw in one of his visions. As we saw in that post, Jesus was primarily the only one who used that term for himself. After his death and resurrection, the church began referring to Jesus as “Son of God”.
The phrase “son of God” was used in a variety of ways in Scripture. Adam was a son of God, as Seth was a son of Adam. As a result of creation, men are referred to as sons of God. In Psalm 2 an individual is identified as God’s Son who will establish his kingdom upon the earth. The phrase is also used of Christians, who are sons by means of adoption. In the Gospels, the phrase is also used of Jesus. At Jesus’ baptism the voice from heaven identified him as God’s Son. At his temptation, Satan tempted Jesus to prove that he was God’s Son. In Matthew 11:25-27, Jesus spoke of how the Son knows and reveals the Father, calling his followers to himself so that they can find rest. While the term Son of God in the Gospels does not necessarily imply deity, John identifies Jesus as God’s Son as the pre-existent logos (1 John 1:1-4; John 1:1-14). In the first century culture, the term Son of God was also used of Roman Emperors and Egyptian Pharaohs. In that sense the term referred to those who were uniquely blessed to rule and in that way represented God. When the Roman Centurion saw how Jesus died, he recognized Jesus as the Son of God (Matthew 27:54; Mark 15:39). However, this usage may not refer to deity, as much as Jesus’ innocence as mentioned in Luke’s gospel (Luke 23:47).
Contrary to Jesus himself, the early church dropped the use of Son of Man and referred to Jesus as the Son of God, implying as John did Jesus’ deity. One of the questions the writers of the New Testament and the early church had to address was how could a divine Son of God be put to death in such a humiliating way. Their response was that Jesus gave his life as a ransom (Mark 10:45). In the first century a ransom was paid to free servants, meaning that a ransom was paid to free those who had lost control of their lives. The church father Origin developed the idea that Jesus’ death was a ransom paid to the devil, an idea that became quite prevalent in the church during the first millennium. However, the New Testament does not reveal anything further about to whom the ransom was paid, just that Jesus’ life was a ransom. Others within the early church questioned the deity of Jesus and that the phrase Son of God implied deity. This question was debated in the early church for the first 300 years. Arius surmised that Jesus was not truly God, but a being like God and generated by God. His views were condemned at the Council of Nicea, which defined Jesus as having the same essence or substance of God the Father.
The phrase used in the New Testament, Son of God, refers to not only deity but also connects with the covenant promises of God to his people. The concept of Son of God, implies that God is Father and links to the Kingdom springing from the old covenant relationship with Israel, when God called Israel as his first-born. When Israel became faithless, the father-son relationship continued with the faithful remnant of Israel, who turn to Jesus. While some liberal theologians teach of the universal fatherhood of God, Jesus only referred to God as His Father and the Father of His followers. You enter into a father-son relationship with God through a relationship with Jesus the messianic Son.
No matter what title you may attach to Jesus: Messiah, Son of Man, Son of David, Son of God, the one thing that Jesus made clear was that in order to enter into a father-child relationship with God you must enter through Jesus himself.
David Freitag 