Weird Ideas: God's Son, Our Lordናሙና

Jesus is called a lot of things in the Bible. Nearly 200 names and titles are ascribed to him, each capturing an aspect of the wonder and hope of who he is. Of all those titles and names, that ancient Christian statement of faith known as the Apostles’ Creed hones in on three: “I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.”

Christ. Son. Lord. What is it about these three titles that stood out among all the rest that these ancient Christians were so keen on highlighting? Why were these three titles considered so central? In our previous plan, we talked about Christ. Over these next five days, we’ll explore Jesus as God’s only Son, and Jesus as Lord.

There is a mistake in our culture today. If people believe in God, they’re inclined to believe that we are all God’s children. In one sense this is true. Since we are all God’s creation, by extension we are all God’s children. Paul will pick up on this idea as he shares with the people of Ancient Athens the truth about Jesus in Acts 17. But the Bible has a different sense when it talks about Jesus as God’s son.

John 3:16 says that God has God's one and only son. That son is not you or me. Jesus alone is God’s son. He stands in special relationship with the Father in a way that we don’t.

Fathers and sons share like characteristics. They share the same DNA. Adopted children don’t share that DNA. Instead they are invited into the family and treated as sons.

We are God’s children by adoption. Jesus is God’s son by nature and substance. This is why a later Christian creed called the Nicene Creed will round out the Apostles’ Creed by further explaining that Jesus is “the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things are made.”

None of this is to assume that God created Jesus or that God gave birth to Jesus. The Nicene Creed was written precisely to combat that line of thinking. Rather it’s to express that Jesus is the same nature as the Father himself with that special relationship between them. And by Jesus, we can become adopted children.