The need to experience the life of the Son of God in your own life

1 John 5:20 "And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life."

Introduction:

Over the last couple of posts we have looked at the title "Son of God" and how Jesus Christ is revealed by it. In our explorations thus far, we have looked at the four Gospels of the New Testament, noting that with regard to Jesus Christ as the Son of God, three general conclusions can be drawn about this title:

1. The title "Son of God" reveals His Heavenly Majesty

2. The title "Son of God" revealed His earthly mission

3. The title "Son of God" reveals how we need to experience His life in our own.

The last two posts have focused more so on the first two points as they relate to Jesus Christ portrayed as "The Son of God" in the four Gospels. Today I want us to consider some life applications of this title "Son of God" by observing some key passages from the remainder of the New Testament. The key thought will be in showing how we need to experience the Son of God's life in our own lives. 

A quick note on how the major sections of our New Testaments relate to one another and to Jesus the Son of God

It has been well noted that in the Gospels, Jesus Christ is portrayed; in Acts, Jesus Christ is preached; in the Epistles, Jesus Christ is explained and in Revelation, He is prominent. So much has been illuminated to us already from the four Gospels concerning the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. What the remaining three sections of the New Testament do is to expound on the life-practical and supernatural realities of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Chiefly, the interest of the remainder of this post will deal with why you and I need to experience His life in our own.

Experiencing the Son of God in our conversion - thoughts from the book of of Acts

Acts 9:19-21 expounds on what took place following the conversion of Saul of Tarsus: "Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus,20 and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues,saying, “He is the Son of God.” 21 All those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying, “Is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name, and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?”  Notice one of the first things Saul of Tarsus (who would later be renamed Paul) began to proclaim: "He is the Son of God". This testimony indicates that the very life of the Eternal Son of God had not only been brought into contact with Saul in His conversion, but that the reality of it came to reside within His heart by means of the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. 

Truly if we are to ever appreciate the Heavenly Majesty and earthly ministry of Jesus Christ as the Son of God in all He is and achieved, there must be a dramatic experiencing of His life in our own (consider Romans 1:1-4). The wonderful theologian Lorraine Boettner writes in his book "Studies in Theology", page 153, notes concerning the Son of God's impact on people at salvation: "Christ is the Son of God by nature; we become the sons of God by grace. He is the Son of God in His own right; we become the sons of God by adoption. He has existed thus from eternity; we become sons of God in time as we are regenerated to a new life and have His righteousness imparted to us." Later on Boettner notes: "But it does mean that we have restored to us and perfected (i.e developed) in us that moral and spiritual likeness of God with which we were created but which became lost through sin."

Experiencing the Son of God as our confidence for daily living - some thoughts from the Epistles

When we think of the life of the Son of God pulsating in our own, there is the needed confidence for daily Christian living. As we noted earlier, the New Testament epistles or letters explain Jesus' life and ministry. 2 Corinthians 1:18-20 expounds on how personal experience of the Son of God grants confidence in Him: "But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no. 19 For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silvanus and Timothy—was not yes and no, but is yes in Him. 20 For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us." Notice how Paul expounds on the confidence that Jesus as the Son of God delivers to the Christian in their prayer life. For sure, He is ascended and glorified - seated at the right hand of the Father. As man He represents us in Heaven (see 1 John 2:1-2). However, as sharing equally in full Deity with the Holy Spirit, His life is transmitted completely to us and in us - henceforth providing confidence for daily Christian living. 

The Apostle Paul speaks elsewhere concerning how the life of the Son of God grants confidence in the personal Christian life. Galatians 2:20 for instance reads - "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." Not only does experiencing the life of the Son of God increase confidence for the individual believer, but for the corporate life of the local church. Notice what we read about the church's experience of the Son of God (or at least as such experience ought to be a normal reality) in Ephesians 4:13 "until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ."

So experiencing the life of the Son of God in our own lives is transformative in our conversion and gives confidence for daily Christian living. Now lets notice one final outcome of experiencing the life of the Son of God in our own life...

Experiencing the Son of God clarifies powerful worship - some thoughts from the Epistles and Revelation

The Epistle to the Hebrews urges Christians to consider the Son of God as the focal point of devotion and worship. Hebrews 1:8 speaks of the exaltation of the Son by the Father - "until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." Hebrews 7:3 details the Son of God as the believer's High Priest, representing them in Heaven - "Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually." The final mention of the title "Son of God" occurs in a context where Jesus Himself is addressing one of the seven churches in Revelation 2:18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this". The description given by John in the text corresponds to the full-length view of the exalted Jesus found in Revelation 1. Indeed, experiencing the life of the Son of God in our own begins in our conversion, gives confidence in the Christian living and clarifies in a powerful way our worship to Him.

Jesus as the Son of God in the Fourth Gospel

image source: flowerthere.com

John 20:30-31 "Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name."

Introduction: How the Son of God's incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth can be illustrated by a rose

While growing up as a boy, I recall my mother's cultivation of roses and various flowers. In the middle of spring the roses would begin to bloom. She had given them ample plant food, which in turn produced beautiful, bright and capacious blooms. The scent of the roses would fill our entire yard and the various red and purple hues were easy to spot from the road. The petals on the roses were frail, whilst the aroma emananting from the plant could not be stopped nor easily ignored. The flowers were visible and easily tattered. The scent was invisible and yet able to draw people to take in the smell and sight of the source. We could say that the aroma of the roses and their petals were indeed distinctive phenomena (one visible the other invisible). To separate either from the plants would had rendered them no longer roses. Scent and petals were together in one plant and yet clearly different realities. Truly my mother's roses were royalty among the flowers in the yard.

When we think once again of Jesus and His title "Son of God", we find His true Deity impossible to ignore. His power, majesty and Sovereignty suffuse the entire known universe and heaven itself (see Colossians 1:13-16). At the same time, when the eternal Son stepped from eternity into history, He took unto Himself the frailty of humanity. The humanity of Jesus of Nazareth would convey the eternal Deity of the Son and the Eternal Deity of the Son would find its chiefest expression through the humanity of the Nazarene Carpenter. The Person of the Son ever remained that eternal, immortal, unending life which had and always will express Himself with the Father and Spirit in eternal union. When the Son came into this world, He through the virgin Mary and by the agency of the Spirit and will of the Father united His Person to a second human nature. As a human being, the Son would experience birth as the infant Jesus, live, mature, go to the cross, die, rise from the dead and then ascend into heaven. In a figurative way, the Song of Solomon ultimately refers to Jesus when by Solomon's pen we see Him as "The Rose of Sharon" (Song of Solomon 2:1). 

 John's Gospel and the title "Son of God"
We come to the fourth Gospel, whose very goal is to present Jesus as the Son of God. John himself writes in John 20:31 of how he wrote what he wrote so that those who believe may also know that Jesus is indeed the Son of God. The most familiar Bible verse - John 3:16 - includes this title by virtue of the phrase "the only-begotten Son of God". In the above illustration of the rose, I think of John's words in John 1:14, wherein we read of the Son of God (The Word) being made flesh. As the eternal Son came to be Jesus of Nazareth, He lived among men as a man to be seen by men who knew he was so much more than just a man. 

John's Gospel can be divided into two halves - what scholars call "the Book of Signs" (John 1-11) and "the Book of Glory" (John 12-21). The "signs" or miracles Jesus did pointed to His identification as the Eternal Son in human flesh. The glory would entail His true Deity ever increasingly seen and demonstrated through His true and undiminished humanity. 

In one episode, Martha confesses to Jesus in John 11:25-27 "Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She *said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.” Notice how the use of this name performs the same dual role we witnessed already - namely indicating the Divine, heavenly, eternal essence and origin of the Son and at the same time His earthly mission as the Incarnate Son who would provide redemption. As William Lane Craig notes in his book "Reasonable Faith", page 313 - "(W)e may conclude that Jesus thought of himself as God's Son in an absolute and unique sense and as having been invested with the exclusive authority to reveal His Father to men."

Closing thoughts:
Today's post aimed to explore a little bit as to what John's Gospel had to say about Jesus Christ as the Son of God. He is the Rose of Sharon whose title "Son of God", like the three other Gospels revealed, points to His:

1. Heavenly Majesty
2. Earthly Ministry
3. Your need and my need to experience His life in our own

Jesus as the Son of God in the first three Gospels

Matthew 4:3 "And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

Introduction: How the incarnation of the Son of God can be illustrated with a lesson from high school chemistry

Today's post begins an exploration into the significance of Jesus' title as "Son of God". I can recall in high school having a chemistry class. One of my favorite things to do in that class was to take glass tubes and shape and mold them in the flame of a bunsen burner. Much care had to be taken, since the glass could shatter if heated too quickly. Whenever the assignment went well, the effects of the heat brought in contact with the flame was a fascinating experience. As the glass began to heat, the flame and its heat would inhere in the glass, causing it to glow. The flame ever remained a flame and the glass test-tube ever remained a glass vessel - and yet the coming together yielded a glowing, light giving phenomena. What could not be done with the brittle, hard glass apart from the flame - namely bending and twisting - was suddenly possible as soon as the flame touched the glass. In like manner, taking that hot flame and trying to harness its heat and energy could not had been done - except through the flame's inherence within that glass test-tube. The end product - in the hand's of an expert and not a high school student like I was back in those days - resulted in a beautiful object. Heat, force and twisting were required to make an object that was unlike how it had been prior to the exposure of its structure to the flame. 

Analogies and illustrations can break down, but the above little story can aid us in appreciating all that the Son of God went through in coming into this world. When God in the Person of the Son came into this world, the uncreated flame of His Deity was brought into contact with the fragile DNA of a virgin girl named Mary. The Divine chemist - the Holy Spirit - miraculously joined together true humanity and true deity - with the result being the Eternal Son coming through and born as the infant Jesus. Before it would be all said and done, the humanity of Jesus of Nazareth would be bent and twisted in His mission to come and save His people while all the while ever remaining that Eternal uncreated flame of Deity with the Father and the Spirit. 

The incarnate Son of God is and forever will be the most supreme living Person of beauty - the centerpiece of scripture and eternity - the God-man. The eternal Son would in His incarnation learn what it was like to be an obedient Son as the historic Jesus of Nazareth (Hebrews 2:10; 5:9).

Exploring the title "Son of God" in the three Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke
 In the above opening verse we find the first mention of this title in the New Testament. Without a doubt the term  "Son" is used of Jesus in the opening chapter of Matthew's Gospel with respect to His fulfillment of Isaiah 7:14 in Matthew 1:23 and as Mary's son according to the flesh in Matthew 1:18. As one encounters the additional words "of God" in Matthew 4:13 and many other places in the Gospels and remainder of the New Testament, there is indicated a unique relationship that the Person of the Son in His incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth had with respect to God. 

What we want to do is survey key texts in the first three Gospels that use this title "Son of God" and what this title has to tell us about Jesus Christ. The first three Gospels together are called the "synoptic gospels", with the term "synoptic" meaning "seen together". Such a study can aid us in better understanding how the Person of the Son of God, eternally existing in the uncreated flame of Deity along with the Father and the Spirit, voluntarily chose to come and take unto His Person the frailty of humanity untainted by sin in the virgin-birth/conception (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:22).   

Matthew's Gospel and the title "Son of God"

As we already saw in the opening passage of Matthew 4:3, Satan is using this title to refer to Jesus in the course of His temptation (also see Matthew 4:6). In Matthew 8:29 we find demons speaking through a demoniac to Jesus in the following way: "And they cried out, saying, “What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?” To find this title in the words of Jesus' enemies is to actually find the first clue to the meaning of the title itself. Satan and the demonic realm used this title with reference to the authority and power of judgment possessed by Jesus as God-incarnate. In John 5:24-29 and Matthew 28:18 we find out that all authority on heaven and earth, as well as the power to judge at the end of all history had been granted by the Father to the Son. Thus we get the sense that this title "Son of God" is another way of describing Jesus as no less than "true Deity" revealed in "true humanity". 

As Matthew's Gospel goes on we discover a second signification of the title "Son of God" - namely how Jesus is the Messiah of Israel. In Matthew 16:16 we read Peter confessing: "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God". To be "the Christ" meant "the Chosen One" or "The Anointed One". Many passages in the Old Testament (such as Psalm 2, 89 & 110; Isaiah 49,51,53; Zechariah 12-14) speak of what would be a future human man who would be the Savior and champion of Israel. Moreover, this man would be invested with the Divine power and ministry of the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 61:1-2); will rule over the earth (Isaiah 11) upon the throne of David (Psalm 110) and have within and through Himself nothing less than God's very authority (Psalm 89). 

Peter's confession in Matthew 16 is enormously important in connecting Jesus of Nazareth to the prophetic swath of Old Testament Messianic expectation. So with Matthew we gain a sense of Jesus "Heavenly origin" and "earthly mission". 

Mark's Gospel and the title "Son of God"

Mark begins his Gospel with the title: "The beginning of the Gospel of the Son of God". Evidently whatever we see Jesus teaching and doing will express His life as the Pre-eternal Son in human flesh. In Mark 3:11 and 5:7 we find once again, like we saw in Matthew, demons crying out in fear at the sight of Jesus - thinking that the final judgment had came upon them. Towards the end of Mark 14:61-62 we find Jesus standing trial before the Jewish High Priest and the following exchange taking place: "But He kept silent and did not answer. Again the high priest was questioning Him, and saying to Him, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” 62 And Jesus said, “I am; and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” 

The High Priest's use of the title "Son of the Blessed One" is a euphemistic way of saying "Are you the Son of God"? The use of this title along with "Christ" and then Jesus' own use of another Divine title "Son of Man" zeroes in on the climactic revelation of Jesus Christ's heavenly origin and earthly mission - just as we saw in Matthew.

Luke's Gospel and the title "Son of God"

Whenever we factor in what we have learned thus far from Matthew and Mark about this title "Son of God", we can take that into our reading of Luke's usage. In the infancy narrative of Luke 1:32-35 we read - "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” 34 Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”35 The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God." 

Such an announcement tells us two important truths about the "Son of God" - first, that the Son of God describes the Son as He was prior to His incarnation and second, this Eternal identity would remain with Him after His incarnation. In Luke 9:35 we see the Father announcing from Heaven: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased, listen to Him!" 

Whenever we tie in all of the previous insights from the other two Gospels, we discover that Christ's identity as Son of God is an eternal identification as He was within the Triune Godhead, and that the revelation of Him as "Son of God" is theological shorthand for saying that He is now "God in human flesh".  As the New Bible Dictionary, page 503, notes: "that the Son perfectly embodies all that is in the Father, or putting it negatively, that there is no aspect or constituient of Deity or character which the Father has and the Son lacks (2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15; Philippians 2:6; Hebrews 1:3). 

Closing thoughts:
Today we explored Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the significance of that title. We discovered that the first three Gospels of the New Testament, also called the "synoptic" or "seen-together" Gospels (due to their common literary and thematic inter-dependance and presentation of Jesus) speak frequently of Jesus as the Son of God. This important title tells us about Jesus' heavenly origin as the co-equal second Person of the Trinity along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. This title "Son of God" was also used to refer to His earthly mission as the Savior and as the chosen-one or Messiah.