NKJV 365 Day Reading PlanSample

God the Father of Christ — Every new Christian eventually wonders in what sense God may be called the Father of Christ and Christ the Son of God. The answer to this question is not a simple one. First, one must recognize that the title “Son of God” does not speak of physical nature, for God is spirit (John 4:24), and Christ was the Son of God before He assumed a human body in Bethlehem (John 3:16; Gal. 4:4). Passages that use terms implying physical origin must be taken in a figurative sense (Heb. 1:5).

Second, the title expresses a unique relationship. Christ distinguished His sonship from that of His disciples (John 20:17). He is begotten of God in a sense that no one else is (John 1:14; 3:16). Some call it “eternal generation,” signifying the timelessness of this “God from God” relationship.

Third, the title describes a relationship of equality. The Son of God is no less than God. When Jesus claimed to be “one” with the Father, He was speaking of a unity of “substance” with the Father and thus equality in all the attributes of deity (John 10:30). The Jews certainly understood this claim, for they took up stones to stone Him, protesting that “You . . . make Yourself God” (John 10:33).

Fourth, the title especially emphasizes Christ’s role as the revealer of God. He alone possesses the knowledge of the Father (John 14:6–91; John 1:2), and He is the sole mediator of that knowledge (1 Tim. 2:5). Therefore no one can know the Father except through the Son (John 14:6). The narrowness of this way to God should be a sober incentive to take to all the world the message that the Son of God has come to impart to every person the life of the Father.

Taken from The Open Bible