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Introduction
And yet, in hopes of better understanding the different persons of the Trinity we are going to talk about them separately.
So let’s start by offering a simple diagram that shows both the individuality and connectedness of the Trinity—its “three in oneness”—which may help before we talk about each person separately.
How is God also The Son?
In last week’s post, we talked about God the Father as one of the persons of the Trinity. God is the Father of all things, and He is also the Father of Jesus. Yet God is Jesus—God the Son of the Trinity. How is God both Father and Son? That is exactly what we’re going to explore today.Backstory
Before we get to the relationship between God the Father and God the Son, let’s review a little bit of backstory. In the beginning, God created the world. He created Adam and Eve, and for a moment, His creation was perfect. When Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge, God the Father’s creation went awry. From that moment, God knew that He could be the only salvation for His creation. (Remember at the end of our last post when we said that God the Father always had a plan?)The plan was this: God would enter His creation as a visible, physical form, but carry His image and Spirit. He would be human with all of the same challenges and triumphs that we experience, yet live as God. By doing so, He would display to His creation exactly the life that He expected for them (and show them love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control) and what sacrificing oneself for God really means.
Enter: Jesus Christ.
Jesus: The Only Begotten Son
Jesus was both in Nazareth (a town in Israel) to Mary (his mother) and Joseph (Mary’s husband). Yet Jesus was not conceived by the usual means in marriage. He was begotten of God, meaning Jesus was of the substance or brought into being by God. How do we know this? In a few ways:In John 1:1-3, John begins like this: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He [the Word, a person] was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
Continuing in verse 14, John adds, “And the Word became flesh [Jesus] and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Breaking this down, we see that the Word both was and was with God. And under these two persons that existed everything was made. We can also see Jesus’ miraculous conception in in Matthew 1:20-21: “an angel of the Lord appeared to him [Joseph, Mary’s husband] in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son; and you shall name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.’”
Again, in Matthew 3:16-17, we read how God proclaimed Jesus as His Son: “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment, heaven opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’”
Pretty straight-forward, right?! There are numerous examples of Jesus’ miraculous conception and His relation to God the Father as God the Son throughout scripture.
But how does Jesus save us as God the Son?
Jesus’ was a Jewish rabbi who lived a profoundly impactful three-year public life marked by miraculous acts of healing and supernatural power and God’s blessing. He taught with unprecedented authority about real goodness and limitless life in the kingdom of God and how this life is available, not just to “good” or powerful people, but to all who would trust and follow him. Like we mentioned above, Jesus was the living example of what God wanted for humanity. He spoke and taught about God’s love and hope for the world, all while knowing that He would sacrifice Himself to save humanity from sin. Numerous books of the Bible provide the details and experiences of those who believed in and followed Jesus, recounting His teachings. Yet the teaching is only part of the story. Sure, Jesus taught us what God wanted for us, but His death came next to save us.Remember in the backstory section when we talked about God’s plan and how by becoming human, He would show us what sacrificing oneself for God really means? Jesus allowed himself to be crucified by those who were fearful and skeptical of His teachings, and doubted that He was the Son of God. He knew He would die and he sacrificed himself anyway. For God. For us. As we read in Colossians 1:19-20, this was all part of the plan: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him [Jesus], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
And the best thing is that He received new life in the Resurrection so we receive new life through His sacrifice and Resurrection. The Bible’s eyewitness accounts then tell us Jesus was in fact raised from the dead.
Jesus first appears to Mary Magdalene after His resurrection. At the tomb of Jesus, Mary was met by an angel who said, “‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said…He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you to Galilee.’… So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly, Jesus met them. ‘Greetings,’ he said…’go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.’” (Matthew 28:5-6, 7, 8-9, 10).
Jesus then makes appearances to his followers and Disciples, his brother James, and even to 500 people on a mountain in Galilee:
“Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you have received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed” (1 Corinthians 15:1-11).
This account, and others, affirm Jesus as God’s Son. His rag-tag, mostly uneducated followers were empowered by God’s Spirit to continue to follow Him and tell others, launching groups of believers that spread across the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and beyond. Through God in all of His Trinitarian persons, we live:
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful” (Colossians 3:12-15).
The Wrap Up
Let’s take a minute to summarize.God the Son (Jesus) is also God the Father because they exist together and as one. Through God the Son’s sacrifice, we are saved from sin, and have eternal life as part of God the Father’s plan. How awesome is it to know that someone sacrificed their life for you? That is love and an example of dedication to God that we strive to emulate. God gave us Jesus not only to save us but to teach us how to live and love as Christians. Jesus’ teachings have had a profound impact on humanity for a long time and you can begin exploring them in the Gospels.
And we can take heart knowing that Jesus offers us new life and He loves us as God the Son, just as God the Father loves us:
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 10:10 Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Romans 8:34 “Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”
We hope you’ll continue exploring the Trinity! For more resources and study materials on God the Father, the Trinity, and other study materials, visit RightNow Media here. Also, take a listen to “Jesus” by Rich Mullins and Sung by Ashley Cleveland, which is a wonderful song about our Jesus, God the Son. We hope you’ll also reach out to us with questions or if you want to talk more about this subject with one of our pastors or staff members. Just send us an email!
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 10:10 Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Romans 8:34 “Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”
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