Jesus Became the Son of God
There was a specific moment in eternity when the Word of God, Jesus, became the Son of God. He submitted Himself to become a Son. He agreed to put on flesh like a man, His creation.
The writer of Hebrews, while talking about the Son of God, says:
For to which of the angels did He ever say: “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You”? And again: “I will be to Him a Father, And He shall be to Me a Son”? (Hebrews 1:5)
The Amplified Classic Bible puts it this way:
For to which of the angels did [God] ever say, You are My Son, today I have begotten You [established You in an official Sonship relation, with kingly dignity]? And again, I will be to Him a Father, and He will be to Me a Son?
The writer quoted Psalm 2:7. Notice that the verse talks about “Today I have begotten You,” implying a specific moment, a specific day when the Father established an official sonship relation with Jesus.
This was before He laid the foundations of the earth. Remember, by becoming the Son of God, Jesus would die to bring more sons into glory. Let’s look at some scriptures.
Jesus, in John 17:24, while praying to the Father for all believers, says,
Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
He is plainly telling us He was loved as a Son before the foundation of the world. The book of Revelation tells us that He was slain as the Lamb of God, from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8).
In Hebrews chapter 1, we learn that Jesus, the Son of God, laid the foundations of the earth and created the heavens. He will roll them away at the close of the age.
Meaning, by the time we get to the creation story in Genesis 1 and 2, Jesus had already submitted Himself as the Son of God.
While creating Adam and placing Him on earth, He knew He would put on the same kind of body, walk on the same earth He created, and die a brutal death for His creation.
We talked about how He was begotten. God replicated Himself. In Christ are all the attributes of the Godhead. He was God from the beginning (John 1:1). But the moment He humbled Himself, He also became the Son of God without losing His deity.
We see Him as LORD throughout the Old Testament, until He put on flesh and dwelt amongst men (John 1:14; 1 Timothy 3:16).
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
And the Father confirmed that He who John baptised was His firstborn Son, as Hebrews 1:6 calls Him.
“You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased,” Luke 3:21.
Later on, the disciples heard the same voice of affirmation from the Father on the mountain of transfiguration (Matthew 17:5; Luke 9:35).
You Beget Your Kind
As the Son of God, Jesus became the sole Heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2). He said everything the Father has belongs to Him.
However, through His death, Jesus brought many sons, you and I included, to glory. When we receive Him and believe in His name, we are given the right to become children of God (John 1:12).
We’ve become joint heirs with Christ. Just as Jesus was led by the Spirit, we who are sons of God are led by the same Spirit. We follow the same pattern.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together (Romans 8:14-17).
Jesus became like us in every way so that we can become like Him. We were pre-destined to become like Him.
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29).
We have become partakers of Divine Nature (2 Peter 1:4) and are being transformed into His likeness from glory to glory by the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).
We are destined to have the same humility as Christ, by the Spirit. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul explains the kind of humility Jesus has, the same humility He expressed when He, as fully God, agreed to become the Son of God, now fully man and fully God.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:5-11).
We are destined to humble ourselves under the Mighty hand of God, the One who resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. He will lift us up in due season.
Remember, the Lord offered His life through the Eternal Spirit. It is not by might or power that we live and walk in Christ-like humility. It is by the Spirit of God. He is the one transforming us into the likeness of the Son of God.
Sons of God are led by the Spirit of God, not the arm of the flesh.
Shalom!
