What Does the Bible Mean When It Calls Jesus the Son of God?

Terms can mean different things in different contexts and times.

For example, if you’d used the word awful back in the Middle Ages, it wouldn’t have meant terrible or very bad—the way we think of it today. Instead, it would’ve meant “full of awe” or “worthy of respect or fear.”¹

The same is true of the language used when the Bible was written. Sometimes, a word or phrase may mean something different than it means in our modern times, language, and culture.

That’s the case with one of Jesus Christ’s titles, the Son of God. Does it mean Jesus is literally God’s child? What does it tell us about His divinity?

Adventists—like other Christians—believe that Jesus is fully divine and fully human (John 1:1-14). When the Bible refers to Him as the Son of God, it means He is the eternal God as a member of the Godhead (Trinity)—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19; John 14:26; 2 Corinthians 13:14). Jesus Himself said He was one with the Father, who has always existed (John 10:30).

So, the term Son, in this context, expresses the role of Jesus in God’s promise to save His people.

This page will explore these concepts, highlighting Jesus’ full divinity and equality with the Father and the Holy Spirit as well as His role in coming to the earth to save us. We’ll look at:

• What the Bible says about Jesus’ divinity
• Why the Bible calls Jesus the Son of God

Let’s start with some evidence for Jesus being God.

What does the Bible say about Jesus’ divinity?

The Bible affirms that Jesus Christ is fully God. Right from the beginning, the Gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus is Immanuel, meaning “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). He has always existed as part of the Godhead. The Gospel of John also speaks of Jesus as the Word who is God and created the world (John 1:1-3, 14).

In fact, many times in the New Testament (including those verses in Matthew and John), Jesus is referred to by the Greek word for God, theos.²

We also find evidence of Jesus’ divinity through accounts like His miraculous conception, the supernatural affirmations of His divinity (like His baptism), the miracles He performed, and the greatest miracle of all—His resurrection from the dead.

The Gospel account of Luke goes to a great extent to show the miraculous nature of Jesus’ conception and birth. It highlights the fact that Mary’s pregnancy was truly out of the ordinary. All the stories in Luke’s first two chapters are miraculous:

• An angel appears to the priest Zechariah, and his wife conceives John the Baptist at an old age after being barren all her life.
• An angel appears to Mary, telling her she will conceive Jesus by the Holy Spirit.
• An angel appears to Joseph, assuring him of Mary’s role in bearing the Messiah.

The angel Gabriel told Mary:

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35, NKJV).

Right from Jesus’ conception, we see that He wasn’t merely a human being—He is God. His ministry gives us even more evidence to believe this.

At His baptism, which marked the start of His earthly ministry, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus as a dove, and God the Father referred to Jesus as His beloved Son (Matthew 3:17). John the Baptist Himself saw this as evidence that this was the Messiah (John 1:33-34).

Throughout His three-and-a-half-year ministry, Jesus showed by His life and actions that He had more than human power. He…

• calmed the storm (Luke 8:23-25)
• healed people of their sicknesses (Luke 7:19-23; Matthew 14:36)
• fed 5,000 people with only five loaves and two fishes (Matthew 14:13-21)
• raised the dead (Matthew 9:23-26; Luke 7:14; John 11:43-44)
• rose from the dead Himself (Luke 24:1-9)

When John the Baptist was in prison and struggling with doubts about whether Jesus was the Messiah, he sent messengers to Jesus with the question: “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” (Luke 7:19, NKJV)

Jesus’ response?

“Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Luke 7:22, NKJV).

Jesus’ actions were reflective of His divine role as the Messiah. They fulfilled Old Testament prophecy and confirmed what Jesus said about Himself:

“The works that I do in My Father’s name, they bear witness of Me. … I and My Father are one” (John 10:25, 30, NKJV).

It’s important to note, too, that whenever the title Son of God was used for Jesus, it was often in recognition of His divinity. Here are some examples.

What about the title Son of God?

The phrase son of God was sometimes used by the first-century Jews to refer to someone created by God, but not necessarily to indicate divinity. For example, Adam is referred to as “the son of God” in Luke 3:38, and the apostle John says that we are “children of God” (1 John 3:1).

As you’ll notice, none of these usages are completely literal, though. They’re not talking about someone who was born from someone else—the way we think of a parent-child relationship. Rather, sons of God and children of God are terms that show God’s relation to His followers.

So, when Jesus is referred to as the Son of God, does it mean the same?

The context of such passages tells us no—not quite. In many cases where Jesus is called the Son of God, it’s in recognition of His divinity.

Son of God was a title used to help describe something divine and miraculous in a way that people could relate to. They could understand the role and relationship between a parent and a child, which could then better help them understand the role that Jesus had in the Godhead.

In Matthew 4, the devil comes and tempts Jesus with the phrase, “If You are the Son of God” (verses 3, 6), and then challenges Jesus to perform a miracle, first turning stones into bread and then jumping off the highest point of the temple.

With these temptations, the devil insinuated that someone with the title Son of God would be capable of performing these kinds of miracles.

Later, in Matthew 14, Jesus calms a storm, resulting in the following exclamation from those around Him:

“Truly You are the Son of God” (verse 33, NKJV).

Jesus didn’t always receive this kind of reception, though. But even the negative responses speak to the meaning of the title Son of God.

For example, when Jesus acknowledged that He was the Son of God, the priests saw it as blasphemy, a term for deep disrespect of God (John 10:36). The title Son of God didn’t just mean a child of God; otherwise, they wouldn’t have been so offended. To them, Jesus was claiming to be God by using this title.

And in fact, He was. Because He is God.

But the priests and other religious leaders didn’t believe Jesus’ claim. This acknowledgment from Jesus gave them what they needed to condemn Him to death (Matthew 26:63; Luke 22:70-71; John 19:7).

To the Jews who came in contact with Jesus during His lifetime, taking the name “the Son of God” meant He is God. That leads us to another important aspect of this topic…

Why the Bible calls Jesus the Son of God

The Bible calls Jesus the Son of God, not to mean that He literally generated from God but to show His role as the promised Messiah. From the moment Adam and Eve chose to sin, the Bible traces the story of God’s covenant—or promise—to save His people from sin. The culmination of this plan is the coming of the Son of God, a term that indicates the role of the Messiah.

That’s why John 3:16 tells us,

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (NKJV).

In other places, we also find Jesus referred to as the “firstborn over all Creation” (Colossians 1:15).

Ty Gibson, a well-known Adventist speaker and director of Light Bearers ministry, explores these terms a little deeper in his book The Sonship of Christ. He looks at how they are part of a bigger story—God making a covenant with His people and keeping that covenant through Jesus.

God first stated that covenant in Genesis 3:15 when He promised Adam and Eve that the “Seed”—or offspring—of the woman would come to destroy the devil. Here, as Gibson puts it,

“The promise of deliverance is set forth in the language of progeny or offspring. … A spiritual lineage will issue forth from Satan, waging war against God and His people, while a spiritual lineage will issue forth from the woman, through which a special ‘offspring’ will one day be born to conquer Satan and reverse the effects of the Fall. Adam, ‘the son of God,’ failed in the face of temptation, in his encounter with Satan. But a new Son will be born to the fallen race, and He will crush the serpent rather than yield to him. A second ‘Adam,’ a new ‘Son of God,’ will take the stage of human history and succeed where the first Adam failed.”³

After giving this covenant to Adam and Eve, God renewed it with Abraham, promising that all the world would be blessed through him because the Messiah would come through his family line (Genesis 12:1-3). In The Sonship of Christ, Gibson traces how the covenant was passed from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob to the nation of Israel.⁴

In receiving the covenant, Israel became known as God’s son. God even said to Pharaoh:

“Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn” (Exodus 4:22-23, NKJV).

Gibson concludes:

“We see that the position or role of the ‘firstborn son’ has nothing to do with birth order. It has to do with the conveyance of the covenant to all the nations of the earth.”⁵

Passages in the Old Testament communicate this same idea. Many of God’s declarations to King David of Israel and his son Solomon were prophetic. They apply in a secondary sense to the Messiah, who would come through the line of David.

Notice 1 Chronicles 22:10, which referred to Solomon. God said:

“He shall build a house for My name, and he shall be My son, and I will be his Father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever” (NKJV, emphasis added).

Solomon had already been born. But he would become God’s “son” in receiving the covenant promise.

Similarly, Psalm 2, a prophecy about God’s “Anointed,” the Messiah, talks about Him being begotten as God’s Son—not long ago in the past but when receiving the covenant role:

“I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, today I have begotten You. Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession’” (Psalm 2:7-8, NKJV).

Many people see the word begotten in passages like this (or even in John 3:16, “only begotten Son”) and think it means Jesus was born from God or generated by Him. It’s true that begotten can have this meaning in Greek and Hebrew. However, begotten in John 3:16 is the Greek monogenēs, which can simply mean “single of its kind, only.”

Understanding this and the covenant narrative in Scripture helps us understand that God didn’t create or generate Jesus. He has always existed (Micah 5:2) and been equal with the Father (John 1:1-3). His title as the Son of God indicates His fulfillment of the covenant.

Jesus’ divinity is the foundation for key Bible truths

Being the Son of God doesn’t take away from Jesus’ divinity or role in the Godhead. As we’ve seen in the Bible, the title indicates His essential role as God in the flesh, our Messiah.

This aspect of Jesus is so important to us as Christians and Adventists. It’s the foundation for:

• The authority of His teachings
• Forgiveness of sins and salvation
• His ministry in the heavenly sanctuary
• The Second Coming
• His worthiness of our worship

The fact that God Himself came to this earth, died for us, and rose again is our ultimate hope. As the apostle Paul wrote, “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty” (1 Corinthians 15:14, NKJV).

Because He was sinless and lived a perfect life on this earth (Hebrews 4:15), He was qualified to take our sins upon Him—the penalty of death we deserved. And because of His divinity, He can forgive our sins and cleanse us (Mark 2:7; 1 John 1:9), giving us the hope of eternal life through Him:

“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3, NKJV).

What’s more, Jesus is now in heaven, fulfilling His ministry as the high priest in the heavenly sanctuary so that He can deliver us from this sinful world at His Second Coming.

As the Son of God, Jesus fulfills God’s promise to save us from sin. This is our hope in a world of pain and suffering: God keeps His promises, and He’s done so through His Son, Jesus.

To learn more about how Jesus will soon rescue us from this world of sin,