Who is the Son of God Series: Part 2

By: Mishelle Hill

Intro

“Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” I John 5:5

Friends, I write to you so that you may have knowledge and believe what is written about the Son of God. Overcoming the world is to overcome even all the things we hate about society and culture. 

To preface, “God” is a blanket term for supreme being, and is commonly used across different religions and even non-believers. When you use the term God to anyone, people recognize and can associate the word with a being who created the universe and can live outside of time, among many other things give or take.

Creation

So, take this a step further, we find out that there is an existence of God through the things we see and experience in our everyday lives. In Romans, it is written that we have evidence of God through what is created:

“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, “Romans 1:20 NKJV

And to reiterate from the last part about Hebrews 1:2 “But to us living in these last days, God now speaks to us openly in the language of a Son, the appointed Heir of everything, for through him God created the panorama of all things and all time.”

Morality

We know that God exists simply because there is an existence and difference between good and bad. Ask yourself this question: do you consider yourself to be good or bad? 

If you answered the question with good, then, try to explain why you are good in your own words. Maybe it’s because you gave to the poor a lot in your life, or you look out for people close to you without expecting much in return, or you have never done so much as gotten a speeding ticket. To be upfront, you might have even abstained from pork and kept an odd number of laws, idk… lets say, about 613 laws. 

If you answered the question with bad, then try to explain why you are bad in your own words. Maybe you feel that you didn't measure up to someone's standard or even your own standards. Maybe someone convinced you you’ll never be enough and you haven't had the best hand given to you in life. Maybe you have just outright murdered and stolen things and done people wrong because you wanted to.

Most societies attribute things like murder, stealing, lying, cheating etc. as bad things and the reason why we have prisons and justice systems. Who decided we needed prisons to put people in? Some people consider murder worse than stealing on a “bad spectrum” and that it is definitely worse than feeling depressed and bad about yourself. Okay, so, who decided it was worse? Someone who steals may not think stealing is that bad but think murder is too far on the bad spectrum. If you consider yourself to be in the good category, would you say that murder is worse than stealing? To push these “good person” boundaries, do you believe you’re going to heaven? Are good deeds what get us into heaven? 

In either case, there is reason to believe that these beliefs and convictions come from somewhere. I'm not exactly sure why morality becomes an existential topic but it surely makes you think through what you believe about the world and about others.

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.”

Matthew 5:21-22 NKVJ

https://www.bible.com/bible/114/MAT.5.21-22

Most people would agree that every murderer deserves to be put in jail. This text is saying that even just anger towards a fellow brother gets you the same outcome as what we believe murder should get you [the term “in danger of”, G1777, means ‘to be guilty of’]. You don’t have to go as far as murder to be in sin. This is just to give language to morality from the bible with an Old (OT) and New Testament (NT) perspective.

Is anger worse than murder? In this case, the outcome for both of them is the same. So then, the question becomes, does my behavior and actions lead to “being guilty of judgement” or not, versus this ‘bad spectrum’ where we rank the common bad things of the world as being more bad or less bad depending on what type of bad it is.

This text should address not just unbelievers, but most other religions because the view on morality is wildly different and affects the theology of ‘work’ and needing to do something to be right with God. There isn’t a thing you can do from the OT that can change your anger into love at the heart level. Unchecked anger towards your brother is sin, and we deal with sin by putting on Christ and having faith in Him. That's it. 

God in essence

There’s a difference between essence and role. “The Word” and “God” are different titles for the same essence of being. This post is not to explain Jesus being made manifest into human or to explain what He created. This post attempts to explore a foundation that comes before what is created, or I should say, “in the beginning” of all that Jesus is and what He did. (Haha.)

Jesus, or “The Word”, is God in essence and creator in role, one of many roles. The Father and Holy Spirit are both God as essence with roles different from each other and roles both different from Jesus. When it says “and the word was God” in John 1:1, it means that at a point in time, before right now, there was a being with the essence of God.

God in role

Continuing on in Hebrews, in verse 1:3, the writer expresses a little bit of the role and image of The Son, that is, The Son of God.

“The Son is the dazzling radiance of God’s splendor, the exact expression of God’s true nature—His mirror image! He holds the universe together and expands it by the mighty power of His spoken word. He accomplished for us the complete cleansing of sins, and then took His seat on the highest throne at the right hand of the majestic One.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭1‬:‭‭3‬ ‭TPT‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/1849/heb.1.3.TPT

The Son of God is a complete expression of God- God who the entire world knows as His name and who the entire world is wanting to know more about. All things in God can be found in Jesus. Not only did Jesus create the world and everything in it, He took away the sin of the world that would have kept the world separated from God forever. Jesus even went back up to heaven, after being resurrected from death, to be seated next to the Father. Truly, this is the Lord's work that no-one can compare to. Not any prophet or other god in the earth, or under the earth, can say they did this.

Attributes of God

Lastly, 

We know Jesus, the Son of God is God because of the attributes given to Him that only God can have. He is light, truth, and life. These three things are only described in reference to God in the bible. He became flesh and multiplied food (fish and bread) and commanded the seas, both more than once, which is the epitome of the exodus in the OT, as well as healed the sick, raised the dead, forgave sins, cast out demons, and gave power to the disciples to heal and cast out demons as well. There are few that could do one or the other of these things (i.e. Moses/Elijah) but no one has done EVERY last one of them on top of doing something no-one has done: shedding His blood, dying, and resurrecting to the right hand of the Father in heaven for all of the sin of the world- past, present, and future sins.

Let’s explore in more detail, soon, about how the Son of God has attributes and characteristics that only God can have. 

If you believe that Christ died for your sins so that you can no longer be an enemy of God, pray with me to the Father, in Jesus’ mighty name, of your accepting of His finished work on the cross for you.

Sinners prayer of repentance

“Dear God, I come to You admitting that I am a sinner and enemy of God. I believe that Your Son, Jesus, was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, shed His blood, and died on the cross in order to take away my sin and defeat death for me. I also believe He rose from the dead so I can be justified and be made righteous through faith in Him and His completed work on the cross to redeem us from sin and from being enemies of God. God, I repent of my sins of ____________. Jesus, I ask that you forgive me of my sins, cleanse me, and fill me with the power of the Holy Spirit to be a Christ follower and child of God. Thank you for saving me! In Jesus’ name, amen.”

Thank you for reading and praying! If you do not have a bible or need help navigating translations let me know! I’m hoping you start reading it everyday and that you would find community at a local bible believing and sound church near you (really important!). 

This concludes the second part of Who is the Son of God series. Sign up to be notified for the next part!

Let’s just jump right into who the Son of God is. It is the foundation of what John 1:1 Co. is. 

So, what does this scripture, John 1:1 say?

“In the beginning, God created the hea…”

Oh, sorry, that was Genesis 1:1. I was trying to quote John 1:1.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

‭‭John‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬ ‭BSB‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/3034/jhn.1.1.BSB

John 1:1 is a play on Genesis 1, as it is commonly preached in the body of Christ. But what does this really mean? Let’s walk through what both of these two scriptures are trying to say.

In the beginning… is the start of time. Both these scriptures point to the same moment in time, the very start of it. But to explore deeply, “beginning” really means that something preceded the beginning and it alludes to a function of time. The textbook definition of beginning is “the point in time or space at which something starts”.

So, in looking at Genesis 1:1 closely, it says, “God created the heavens and the earth”. To begin something alludes to time which means that heaven and earth had to be created in time, and was specifically made first. All this means that time was also created by God. For proof of this, Hebrews 1:2 expresses God as the creator of the world and of time.

“But to us living in these last days, God now speaks to us openly in the language of a Son, the appointed Heir of everything, for through him God created the panorama of all things and all time.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭1‬:‭2‬ ‭TPT‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/1849/heb.1.2.TPT

In further conversation on this term “In the beginning”, it is just one word in hebrew translation as beresheit. There are a few Hebrew letters that make up this word. When each Hebrew letter is translated back to English, Tav, Yud, Shin, Alef, Resh, Beit, it will read, “The son of God, crowned with thorns upon His head, on a tree, a gift of the covenant”. For further explanation on this you can go to this website. https://www.calledoutbelievers.org/bereshit-and-the-depth-of-meaning-in-the-first-word-of-bible/

This term has so much depth and even prophesies what is now our historical accounts of the cross on Calvary. John 1:1 automatically inherits these deeper meanings from the inspired text in Genesis because John the writer of this gospel, is using it to retell the origin of everything made to make a point (to be explained in later blog postings). Not to mention that the next few verses after John 1:1 really mirrors the context of light vs darkness as it is also written in the verses following Genesis 1:1.

What an inspiration Genesis 1 had on John 1!

This concludes the first part of Who is the Son of God series. Sign up to be notified for the next partt!

Hello again, 

I started a series on Who is the Son of God where I would like to address the deity, essence, and role of Jesus Christ starting with surface level and basics of what/who God is and break down Jesus explaination of concepts and parables that may be really difficult to understand or grasp. And that is coming up shortly after this post.

But, I also want you to get to know my drive and reasoning for wanting to start a brand and series centered around the topic to explain why spreading the Word is important and can even be impactful with this approach of Christian clothing.

There are a few scriptures on my mind that I want to discuss. We can talk about a scripture for spreading the Word and then in the next post about another scripture that Jesus said to His disciples about God. 

Spread the Word is the tagline for John 1:1 Co. and it would be good to understand why we should spread the word and WHO we are spreading the word to? Who should hear the word?

—

Matthew 10:5-7

5 Jesus sent these twelve out with the following instructions: “Don’t go among people who are not Jewish or into any Samaritan city. 6 Instead, go to the lost sheep of the nation of Israel. 7 As you go, spread this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’

—

It’s really funny because Jesus instructs the 12 on where to go and where not to go, namely, not to go to any Samaritan city but instead to lost sheep of Israel. Interesting... However, in John 4, starting with the story of the Samaritan woman, it says that Jesus wanted to get to Galilee but needed to go through Samaria, where Israel's (Jacobs) well was located. And He ended up resting there- in the place He had charged the 12 not to go. This Samaritan woman, convinced she met “the Christ”, proclaimed to the people in the city of the encounter she had, and them believing her, then beseeched Jesus to remain and abide with them, which He did for two days (of course He would because Jesus receives sinners and eats with them- Luke 15:1-2).

Some could look at this connection between these two scriptures in Matthew 10 and John 4 and say that Jesus contradicted Himself but it is not possible based on a few reasons:

It is a fact that the woman at the well encounter (27 AD) happened two years before the sending out of the twelve (29 AD). 

You might be able to justify that maybe Jesus changed His manner of teaching or did something different after two years of ministry since the woman at the well encounter, but fortunately, Jesus continued to encounter Samaritans after this saying of His in Matthew 10:5 and He performed miracles for them even up until right before He went to Jerusalem to be crucified. 

• Jesus cleansing ten lepers in Luke 17:12-19 (30 AD) : 

"12 Then as He entered a certain village, there met Him ten men who were lepers, who stood afar off. 13 And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. 15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, 16 and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. 17 So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.”

• Parable of Good Samaritan in Luke 10 which reinforces the idea of how people can do good things for others without having the outward appearance or proper role/title as a Jew.

So what does Jesus want us to know or understand?

—

Romans 2:28-29: 

“28 A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. 29 No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.”

—

I encourage you to read this whole chapter and the two chapters after (3 and 4) to hear Paul's teaching. Jesus did not tell the disciples to do one thing and Himself acted the complete opposite. The meaning is deeper than surface level or physical appearance. 

So, going back to Matthew 10:5-7, Jesus charged them to go into the world to spread, or in other translations it says to preach (meaning to herald or proclaim publicly), a message that the kingdom of heaven is near. We are getting closer to what the gospel means but now it is established who we are spreading the word to- Jews who are inwardly circumcised and would be impossible to tell by outward appearance. 

The tricky thing about this is that your role as someone who is preaching (or spreading) does not mean that everyone who hears your message is a Jew, but 1 out of the 10 who hears just might be and so our hope is that the one who takes heed may come and fall at His feet giving thanks like the Samaritan and that the one may go and tell the whole city and ask the Lord to dwell with them.

I’m driven to spread the word much because of the command in Mark 16 saying, “15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”, and Im also insprired those who are in societies that struggle in a lot of different ways: are forbidden to believe in anything that threatens their governments power, forbidden from reading the bible, and are persecuted for such things. These are those who know they are in need of a savior and they risk their lives daily for the gospel.

I feel called to go find the one out of the ten and to encourage others to engage with Jesus' command the same way. Let's spread the word!

Thank you for listening and supporting and I'll see you in the next post!

Much love <3,

Mishelle 

Hello! 

My name is Mishelle, owner of John 1:1 Co. who also is very interested in understanding and breaking down biblical text on who is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Welcome to my website and this blog!

The bible talks about seeking first the kingdom and it's righteousness, and all [these] things will be added to you. Since Jesus is the one who clothes us in righteousness, it makes sense to then seek Jesus. If we are always in a heart posture of seeking first the kingdom and its righteousness, then our hearts will always be turned towards God and His will even in seasons of flourishing and abundance- the seasons we dont think we need to seek Him as much. 

This series will be a understanding of how the TEXT itself explains who He is and I believe it explains Him as the Son of the Most High God. And I feel led to take my time and break it down in such a more thorough and fun way as I also am studying this for my personal journey with Christ. 

It will be helpful for you to sign up to be notified when posts come in- just click Join Now on the blog homepage to enter your email.

Thank you for signing up and coming along with me on this journey! Talk soon!

-Mishelle