How God the Son became the Son of God
“God the Son” is not a phrase that appears in the bible. Rather, like the word “Trinity”, it is a systematic summary of what the bible teaches. It refers to the second person of the Trinity who is truly God – eternal, infinite, of one essence with the Father, the creator of all things, the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus.
By contrast, the title “the Son of God” appears frequently in the bible. But this title does not always apply to God the Son. In fact, in the first place, it is a human title. This is what it means to be made in God’s image (Gn. 1:26-27). Adam was the Son of God (Lk. 3:38) and all his descendants likewise are God’s sons (Lk. 3:23-38). See, for instance, Gn. 5:1-3 where the connection between Image bearing and Sonship is clarified…
This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. (Gn. 5:1-3)
As God’s children we are to have dominion over the universe (Gn. 1:28). Plants, rocks, etc. are part of the furniture, if you like, dolphins and elephants are precious pets in the household, but humans alone are God’s children. We are God’s offspring (Ac. 17:28-29). Even after the fall, this remains true – our fundamental nature has not changed. This is why an attack on a human being is such a serious offence (Gn. 9:6). For an attack on God’s image bearers is in some sense an attack on God himself.
What has changed of course, is that human beings no longer live worthy of their special status as God’s image bearers. We are wayward children, prodigal sons. Children are supposed to honour and obey their parents (Ex. 20:12, Mal. 1:6, Prov. 10:1, Eph. 6:1-3), and gratefully receive their fathers’ gifts (Mat. 7:11, Jam. 1:17, 1 Tim. 4:4). Because of our wicked behaviour, God’s judgement upon us (partially experienced now) may be described as a sort of disowning or disinheritance. This is what Adam and Eve experienced when they were banished from the garden. God will not let us live long on his land, so long as we insist on dishonouring him and trashing his property.
In the book of Exodus it becomes clear that God is determined to adopt a new Son from within the human race; the nation of Israel. The LORD tells Moses,
Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, “Let my son go that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.”’ (Ex. 3:22-23)
Pharoah, of course, refuses to let God’s firstborn son go, until his own firstborn Son is killed (Ex. 12:29-32). In this way, God rescues his Son from slavery (Hos. 11:1) and delivers them to a new inheritance – the land of Canaan (Deut. 4:21).
Then within the nation of Israel, the theme of sonship focuses down one more time. God specially selects David, the King of Israel, promising him that his son will be the Son of God.
I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. (2 Sam. 7:12-15)
We are often tempted to apply this passage straight to the Lord Jesus. But it is worth slowing down for a moment (especially when you read v.14b) to realise that God is talking about all of David’s kingly line. Solomon will be the first Son of God from David’s line, then Rehoboam and so on. As soon as the King is crowned, he has become the Son of God. This is what is meant in Psalm 2, when the King of Zion recounts what the LORD said to him at his coronation, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.” (Ps. 2:7).
By the time we arrive in the New Testament then, and Jesus is called the Son of God (Mk. 1:1, Lk. 2:49 etc.), first and foremost we ought to have these three categories in mind – Jesus is the new Adam (Lk. 3:38, see also 1 Cor. 15:45), the new Israel (Matt. 2:15), and the new Davidic King (Lk. 1:32-33). Jesus succeeded in trusting and obeying his Father where all the sons of God failed before him (see esp. the temptation in the wilderness (Lk. 4:1-13)). This is why Jesus is the beloved Son with whom the Father is well pleased (Lk. 3:21-22). Historians will tell us as well, that Jesus’ sonship is a direct affront on the claims of the Roman emperors who also called themselves sons of god (Lk. 2:1).
What is surprising, of course, is that Jesus is also God the Son (Mat. 1:23, Jn. 1:1, 14 etc.). And one of the great delights of the New Testament is to point out the ‘fittingness’ of all this – that God the Son became the Son of God. Or perhaps to use more biblical language - the true, unique, original Son of God became the human Son of God, the first among many sons. See for instance the language of Fatherhood, Sonship and Brotherhood in Colossians 1.
Timothy and the gentile Christians at Colossae are brothers and God is our Father (vv.1-2).
God is our Father because he is particularly the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ (v.3).
The Father has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints (i.e. the Jewish Christians), having transferred us into the Kingdom of his beloved Son (vv.12-13). The language here (e.g. redemption) is particularly reminiscent of the Exodus narrative concerning the nation of Israel.
Finally, Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation (v.15). The language here is particularly reminiscent of Adam.
But… why is Jesus deserving of such a glorious position? Why is it fitting that he is the heir of the world?
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Col. 1:16-17)
Ah, of course! Jesus deserves to be the ruler of the world, because he made the world. Jesus is the perfect Son of God because he was always God the Son. We were made to bear the image of the Image of the invisible God (1 Cor. 15:49). We were made sons of God by the Son of God twice over (Lk. 6:35, Jn. 1:12, Heb. 2:10-18) – first in our creation from dust and then again through the resurrection (Jn. 3:3, 1 Pet. 1:3)! That is why he deserves absolute pre-eminence in both this world and the next (Col. 1:18, Heb. 2:5)!