Son of ______

Luke 2:49

He was not really Joseph's son, He was not really Mary's son, He was the Son of God.  Now, folks, that becomes the definitive reality of Christian doctrine.  Whenever you find a cult, whenever you find anything that deviates, perverts and twists the Christian gospel, they will do so at the point of the nature of Christ.  Whether Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science, Mormons, you name it, they will all deny this reality because in so doing you destroy Christianity.  That is why the apostle Paul said in a blanket statement in Galatians 1, "If anyone preaches another Jesus, or another Christ, let him be anathema."  Any other view of Christ than that which is true of Him brings a curse.

Jesus said God is my Father, and I am to do His business more than the family business, and to be in His house, more than in a house of humans.  With that confession as a twelve-year-old boy, Jesus made crystal clear to everybody who He was.  For a short while, we are allowed to look through the mysterious curtain that separates the natural from the supernatural, that separates the human from the divine, and get a glimpse of the wonder of divine Sonship.

He is saying God is My authority.  I do God's will.  He is saying the force controlling everything in My life is God. And He's saying to His parents, you should know that. 

In Luke chapter 10, verse 21 Jesus said, "I praise Thee, oh Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and prudent and didst reveal them to babes.  Yes, Father, for thus it was well pleasing in Thy sight.  All things have been handed over to Me by My Father and no one knows who the Son is except the Father and who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son reveals to Him."

As you read through Luke's gospel there's this divine necessity.  And it says in Luke 4:43 that Jesus must preach.  In Luke 9:22, that He must suffer.  In Luke 13:33, that He must go on His way.  Or in Luke 19:5, that He must stay at the house of Zacchaeus.  Or in Luke 24:7, He must be delivered up, crucified and rise again.  Or in Luke 22:37, 24:26, he says, I must suffer these things and enter into glory.  And in Luke 24:44, He must fulfill all the Old Testament prophecies with reference to Himself.  There's this divine ‘must’ all the way through which is none other than the Father's will.

So He's telling His parents here in the text, back to Luke 2, and He's telling everybody who would ever read this that the priority for His life was to do the Father's will.  Of course, it is this very issue that culminates in the execution of Jesus Christ. 

Luke 1:35, Gabriel says to Mary, The holy offspring shall be called the Son of God.  So the angel identified Him as the Son of God.

Mark 1:1, Mark begins his gospel, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God."

John 1:34, "I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God."  Nathanael, John 1:49, says to Him, "You are the Son of God."

Matthew 14:33, "And those who were in the boat worshiped Him saying, You are certainly the Son of God.

John 11:27, Martha says, "Yes, Lord, I have believed that You are Christ, the Son of God."

You read about the apostle Paul in Acts 9:20, he preached Christ, that He is the Son of God.  That's what Paul preached, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he makes the claim at least 8 more times as does John in his epistles and Revelation.

Let me go a little further, even Satan knew He was the Son of God. Matthew 4 and Luke 4 both record the temptation of Jesus.  He said, basically, “since You are the Son of God do this. 

The demons in Matthew 8:29 said, "What have we to do with You, Son of God?"  Even the demons know that Jesus is Son of God.  Luke 4:41, "And demons also were coming out of many, crying and saying, 'You are the Son of God.'" They believe and tremble as they say it.

Even an unbeliever, the Centurion, who was in charge of the crucifixion of Jesus, standing on the mount in Matthew 27:54, the Centurion says, "Truly this was the Son of God." 

That's why John in chapter 20, verse 31, says, "These things have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name."

And in this particular statement in Luke 2:49 you have it from the lips of Jesus Himself.  You also have it from God.  You find in the gospels that God several times says, "This is My beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased."

Now this then becomes the single most important claim that Jesus makes.  To say you are the Savior, is one thing.  To say you are the King is something.  To say you are the Deliverer is important.  But to say you are the Son of God is above those other things.  In fact, it was the claim to be the Son of God that really led to His execution.

When they dragged Jesus before Pilate they really didn't have any legitimate claims.  And Pilate says crucify Him if you want, I don't find any guilt in Him.  And they say 'We have a law and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God.  That was absolutely intolerable. That constituted blasphemy because to say you were the Son of God is to say you were equal to God.  Jesus stayed silent before Pilate, before Caiaphas, and at most said, “Thou saist.”

When He’s hanging on the cross they say, "If You're the Son of God, come down from the cross." Sarcasm, mockery. 

It all started at the age of twelve - the die was cast.  When Jesus said, "My Father," He was saying He's the Son of God. 

If I say someone is the son of Bill and Sally, or whoever, you understand that to mean the first generation male offspring of that couple. "Son" for us means coming into existence from some source.

But “son” in the Hebrew culture didn't look at origin, it looked at adulthood.  It was the time when the son became equal to his father under the law.  [bar-mitzvah=son of the law] It was the time when the son began to receive his inheritance and enter into all of the privileges that the father had reserved for him when he became a son. So that "son" comes to mean "equal to," or "one with." 

Acts 4:36. Barnabas is called a son of consolation or encouragement.  Now his mother wasn't named “Encouragement,” neither was his father.  He was a son in the sense that he was so much an encourager that he was one with encouragement.  He was just equal to encouragement.  Barnabas was synonymous with encouragement. 

James and John are called the sons of thunder in Mark 3:17.  It doesn't mean that their mother's name was “Thunder” or their father's name was “Thunder.” They were "bull in a China shop" type people. They just came thundering into every situation.  They were equal to thunder. 

In Matthew 23:15 there are certain people who are described by Jesus as being a son of hell.  That doesn't mean that hell gave birth to the individual, it simply means that this is a person who has all the characteristics of those who occupy hell.  Also, 2 Thessalonians 2:3 and John 17:12 refer to a son of perdition, John 17:12, the son of perdition is Judas and 2 Thessalonians 2:3 the son of perdition is the Antichrist.  It doesn't mean they were born of perdition, it means they were equal to perdition.  In other words, they were synonymous with damnation and destruction because that was their character.

In Ephesians 2:2 every unbelieving person alive is called the son of disobedience.  It doesn't mean you were born out of a disobedient act, it simply means you are one with or equal to disobedience.  Your character is that of disobedience.

Luke 16:8 as well as John 12:36 refers to believers as sons of light.  It doesn't mean anything about origins. It doesn't mean anything about birth or generation.  It simply means we have all the characteristics of the light.

Matthew 13:38 says the tares, which are false believers in the church, are called the sons of the wicked one.  They aren't the offspring of Satan, they simply have so much identified with Satan's character that they are literally equal to or one with him.  BTW, we are never more like our ‘father the devil’ than when we lie and rebel.  He’s the father of both.

The same is true in Deuteronomy 13:13, to use a Jewish illustration, where men are called bar Belial, sons of Belial. They had taken on the characteristics of Belial, which is an Old Testament word for Satan. And they are “sons of” in the sense that they are equal to or one with Satan.

In Luke 20:36 there is a wonderful expression, "the sons of the resurrection."  It has nothing to do with origins. It has nothing to do with offspring, generation. It has to do with the fact that our character is identified with the resurrection.  We are the resurrection people.  Do you know already you have resurrection life?  So that even though your body dies you will never die but you'll enter into the glory of the Lord, you are already the possessor of resurrection, so you are a son of the resurrection. 

Mark 2:19 talks about sons of the bride chamber. That is those who are identified with the bridegroom when He comes and the great bridal feast, those who belong as the wife of the bridegroom.  In Luke 10:6: “A son of peace,” somebody who is identified completely with peace.  And in Matthew 8:12 we are called sons of the kingdom.

When Jesus says He’s the Son of God He doesn't mean anything about origins.  He's using it in the classic Jewish sense where son means equal to or one with. That is He is of the same essence, the same nature, the same character, the same rights, the same privileges as God Himself.  And so that is the point.

And that's why when Jesus said He is the Son of God the Jews immediately said He has made Himself equal to God. They completely understood that. See John 5:18 and John 10:33.

John calls Jesus five times “the only begotten Son of God.” And we might ask the question, well that does bring in begetting, doesn't it?  Doesn't that tell us that there wasn't a Son of God, and then He was begotten by Mary and then He came into existence?  Isn't that what that means, “the only begotten?”

Well let me answer that.  The term, "only begotten," in the Greek, monogenēs. Gennao, “to be born,” and mono, “only”; “the only begotten” can refer to an only child.  I mean, you could use that to refer to somebody who had an only child, the only begotten child.  But again, in the Jewish context of the full meaning of monogenēs it didn't have anything to do with the fact that this is the only child that was born to a couple.  It had to do with the fact that this was a title given to a son who had been chosen by his father to receive the full inheritance.  It's the same as the word prōtotokos, which Paul uses a lot, which we often translate "first born." 

Hebrews 11:17        Was Isaac Abraham's first son?  No. Who was?  Ishmael.  So Isaac was not his only begotten son in the sense that he had no other son.  But in Hebrews 11:17, Isaac is referred to as Abraham's monogenēs, his only begotten.  Now he had another son, an older brother, half-brother.  That was not Abraham's only son, but he was Abraham's monogenēs, which means he was the choice son to receive the covenant and receive the inheritance. 

So when John writes this is the only begotten Son of God, the Jews know exactly what He's saying.  They're claiming this is one who was equal with God, and has the very essence of God. 

Psalms 2:7-8

⁷ I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. ⁸ Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

His Sonship is not so much connected with Him coming into existence as it is with receiving the inheritance. 

Here's a twelve-year-old boy who says I am equal with God.  The Sonship will unfold and be manifest through His perfect life, through His substitutionary and atoning death, resurrection, His ascension, His enthronement, His glorious coming kingdom and His eternal reign.  He will reign, as the promise came from Gabriel, forever and ever. 

This is the Son of God.  If you understand that, then you understand the gospel story. If you don't believe that, no matter what you believe, you can't be saved. There's not salvation in any other name than the name of Jesus which embodies all that He is.

His mother and father couldn't grasp the full sense of it. We are still trying to pack it into our souls. This set the stage for everything that is to come in the rest of the story.  We'll see that as we get into chapter 3 next time.