God the Father

Our understanding of God as our Father is revealed to us in the New Testament as a result of the incarnation. Before the birth of Christ, the people of Israel did not understand God as their father except in the sense that He created all things. During the time of Christ, Israel still did not call God ‘Father’ (John 8.39), but because of our adoption God is our father. We call Him “Abba, Father” because Jesus Christ has reconciled us to the Father (Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6).

The question is asked, if God is eternally Father then why is He never called “God the Father” until the NT? It seems strange that we never read of Father and Son until the NT when God actually fathered a son. While “Father” appears approximately a dozen times in the OT it is used in quite a different sense than it is in the NT. Father and Son are relational terms used in the context of begetting a child. Did not God beget a child? Yes, only at the time of the incarnation. (The very notion of God bringing forth a Child dismisses the idea of eternal preexistence)

In Rev 21:7, Christ (post-incarnation) calls Himself both the Father and God.

He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. (KJV)

Below is a partial list of verses showing the oneness of the Father and Christ. What must be noted is that like the verse in Revelation, Christ is speaking in terms of post-incarnation, preventing the idea of Patripassianism, however, acknowledging the fact that Christ is the Father.

• Jesus said that He would send the comforter to us (John 16:7), but He also said the Father would send the comforter (John 14:26).
• The Father alone can draw men to God (John 6:44), yet Jesus said He would draw all men (John 12:32).
• Jesus will raise up all believers in the last day (John 6:40), yet God the Father quickens (gives life to) the dead and will raise us up (Romans 4:17; I Corinthians 6:14).
• Christ is our sanctifier (Ephesians 5:26), yet the Father sanctifies us (Jude 1).

God the Son or the Son of God?

Over 40 times in the New Testament we read about the “Son of God”, never once do we read about “God the Son”. Along with the word “trinity”, both are man-made terms coined by Trinitarians to define their particular theological viewpoint. “Son of God” may refer to the human nature or it may refer to God manifested in flesh—that is, deity in the human nature, but never to deity alone. The Bible never speaks of “God the Son,” as if Sonship were eternally inherent in the Deity, but only of “the Son of God.” The Bible describes the Son in terms that could only relate to humanity, not deity existing alone. For example, the Son of God was crucified and the Son died (Romans 5:10; Hebrews 6:6). Therefore, the Son of God is not a distinct person in the Godhead but the physical expression of the one God. (See emanation above)

What about the Son of God in the Old Testament? Can we find an eternal Son there? The only mention of the Incarnation in the OT is from a prophetical standpoint. By this I mean that all the reference to Him in the OT are concerning His future arrival as a baby born in Bethlehem, the suffering servant, the conquering king and many other messianic fulfillments of prophecy. We never read about a pre-existing Son of God in the pages of the Old Covenant.

It may not be exclusive proof that since the Son only appears in Scripture after the incarnation that it means the Son is bound up in the incarnation, but the lack of the Son anywhere else prior to the incarnation argues strongly against the position of an eternal Son. This argument, however, is bolstered by the fact that God is never called “God the Father” or “Father” (in the NT sense at least) until after the incarnation, apparently because He was not a father in the NT sense of the word until the incarnation (Heb 1:5).

In the middle of the second century, Justin Martyr wrote,

“Our teacher of these things is Jesus Christ, who also was born for this purpose, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judaea, in the times of Tiberius Caesar; and that we reasonably worship Him, having learned that He is the Son of the true God Himself, and holding Him in the second place, and the prophetic Spirit in the third, we will prove. For they proclaim our madness to consist in this, that we give to a crucified man a place second to the unchangeable and eternal God, the Creator of all; for they do not discern the mystery that is herein, to which, as we make it plain to you, we pray you to give heed[1]“.

What does the Bible say about the origin of the Son of God? While the deity in Christ is eternal in that God was in Christ or as Jesus said, “the Father is in me” (John 14:11), the Son of God, which refers to His humanity or the deity made flesh, was begotten in time when He was born of the Virgin Mary. What must be noted is that it is God who calls the Incarnated One the ‘Son of God’, whereas it was a long development by which man then labeled Christ ‘God the Son’.

• When God sent Gabriel to the young Mary, he said to her: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest.” And he also said to her: “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 1:28-35).
• When Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, the heavens were opened and a voice came from heaven saying, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22; Mark 1:11; Matthew 3:17).
• About the above incident, John the Baptist said, “I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God” (John 1:34).
• When Christ took three of His disciples to a high mountain, two prophets, Moses and Elijah, appeared to them: “While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!’ And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. But Jesus came and touched them and said, ‘Arise and do not be afraid’” (Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35).

Paul tells us in Galatians,

“But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law” (Galatians 4:4).

Because not many would argue the ‘fullness of time’ is the moment when the prophecies aligned, I want to tackle the second and third clause of the verse:

God sent forth his son

Vincent, in his fact (verses opinion) states that the Greek here means that God sent forth from Himself the Son.

made of a woman

Thayer remarks in his definition that γίνομαι means: to arise, appear in history, come upon the stage. When the appointed time came, when the Logos was to be fulfilled, God sent away from Himself the Logos, to be born of a woman, born under the law… This verse does not lend itself to a preexistent son. The only thing preexistent is the Logos, because the Logos is inseparable from God.

The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35)

Notice that Luke says “and for that reason” the child “shall be” called the Son of God. The divine Spirit who dwelt within Him was eternal and yet the Son of God was literally born in time in Bethlehem’s manger.

The Logos/Son is God’s vessel, as we read in Hebrews,

(I)n these last days he has spoken to us in a son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he created the world. - NET

In Genesis we read that God created the world, or all of created reality, and He did this by speaking His Logos. I contend that if you have a proper understanding of who the Son is (that he is the very Word of God - that is, God in action) then these things begin to line up appropriately. The Logos is the channel that brought the worlds into existence, still yet is no separation. We know from the Torah and the prophets, from the Gospel of Mark and from Paul, that God created all of creation, but He did it by His Word.

Let me draw your attention also between διά and ἐν. The difference is striking and worth noting. God spoke to us in a son, through whom God created the worlds. The Son here is not given free agency, but is made the agent of revelation (speaking) and of creation. We know from that the word is inseparable from the Speaker, or else Christ would have been a prophet (which is something that the author of Hebrews goes on to correct), or just a vessel of operation.

We have to notice that the Greek here (ἐν υἱῷ) is absent of any title, implying not the title, but the class. In verse one, it is the prophets that spoke for God and now, under the new covenant, God speaks through a son, speaks by himself.

We know from John 16:15 that all things of the Father’s are the Sons. Here the writer is confirming that, and how can that be? How can all power in heaven and earth be given to the Son and the Son be the inheritor of all things (especially since the process of inheriting something, usually implies that the owner has passed), unless they are the same being, and inseparable and indistinguishable? Christ is the final revelation of God to man and thus the inheritor of all things.

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[1] First Apology 13:5-6, Christians Serve God Rationally [A.D. 151]

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