Names of Jesus | Advent DevotionalSample

Monday, December 9
Matthew 3 | Son of God
Author: David Bibee

Having a child is an enlightening experience. God created us in his image, and then we bring forth children after our own image. This is both exhilarating and frightening. What a marvel seeing a child—a new image bearer of God who will live an eternal life—who shares your smiles or eyes. But what trembling they inspire. Children are a living mirror held up to our lives. They learn to say the words they hear us speak and do what they see us doing, both for good and ill. They make it impossible for us to pretend we are something other than we are, reflecting our behavior back to us. But as God sanctifies us, he uses these same copycat tendencies to produce children who follow after us in righteousness.

Every child shares their parents’ nature. This is key for understanding who Jesus is and the significance of what he has done. From Adam onward, all children came about naturally. There are many examples where God intervened in order to enable his people to have children, making the barren fertile again. But these children were all still conceived the usual way. The birth of Jesus, however, is something altogether unique. Jesus is the first and only man ever to be born of a woman without an earthly father. Jesus is Mary’s son, which means he shares her nature—he is human, just as she was. But Jesus is begotten in Mary’s womb by God directly—his heavenly Father, not an earthly one.

Jesus is the promised “seed of the woman,” “seed of Abraham,” and “son of David,” but all these fulfillments depend on the much greater truth that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the first man ever to partake of the Divine nature.

Matthew 3 tells us of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, after John the Baptizer announces him. The Lord who was coming into the world is one who brought fire with him. The blazing sun of righteousness would baptize the unrepentant in fires of judgment, but to all who receive him, he would fill them with the fiery Spirit of God. And as John poured forth water onto Jesus’ head, the very heavens themselves opened as the Spirit descended upon Jesus, with the very voice that was heard thundering from Mt. Sinai crying out, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Our salvation is dependent upon Jesus’ relationship with his Father. Out of all humanity, Jesus is the sole faithful One. Because Jesus is heir of the world, we have become “heir[s] of the world” (Rom. 4:13). Because of Christ’s work on our behalf, he is “not ashamed to call us brothers” (Heb. 2:11). Because Jesus has been raised up to a throne at God’s right hand (Phil. 2:9-11), we have been raised up and seated on the thrones with him (Eph. 2:6). Because Jesus has delivered us from the domain of darkness, we are now citizens of the “kingdom of [God’s] beloved Son” (Col. 1:13). Because Jesus calls God, “Abba, Father” and has poured out the “Spirit of adoption” upon us, we too have been named sons and heirs of God (Rom. 8:15, Gal. 4:6).

This Advent, let us remember how great God’s love is for us. For the joy set before him, Christ, the Son of God and God the Son, came to endure the cross so that we might join him as the blameless children of God. And because Christ shares both God’s nature and ours, we can have every confidence that he will not fail in remaking us into his own glorious image.