Jesus: The Son of God (Introduction)

Lately, the Lord has given me some opportunities to speak with a Muslim co-worker at UPS about the gospel. This co-worker [as usual when mentioning my co-workers, I'll refrain from using his name, in case he might be embarrassed to see his name published on the Internet] told me that he believes Jesus was a prophet and a miracle-worker, but that he does not believe that Jesus is the Son of God nor that He died on the cross.

My co-worker asked me why I believed that Jesus is the Son of God. Thankfully, we had recently studied Matthew 16:13-20 in one of my classes at Seminary, so I was able to quickly take out my pocket New Testament and show him where Peter says, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!" And how does Jesus respond to Peter's statement? Does He say, 'No, I'm only a prophet and miracle-worker, but you shouldn't call Me God's Son'? No, instead He says, "Simon, son of Jonah, you are blessed because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father in heaven." And so Jesus Himself testifies that God Himself reveals Jesus to be the Son of God. (I'm fairly certain that my co-worker, who said he'd only read a little of the New Testament, had never seen this passage before, and that he previously believed that the idea of Jesus being God's Son was developed by Christians sometime after the Gospels were written.)

My co-worker responded that Muslims believe Mary was a virgin when Jesus was born. I affirmed that Christians believe this as well. After a moment's reflection I realized that when my Muslim friend hears Christians use the term "Son of God," he automatically believes we are saying that Jesus is the product of sexual union between God the Father and Mary. Last week, I did not have the opportunity to address this misunderstanding, and over the weekend I have been thinking about how to respond based on the Truth revealed in the Bible.

I believe that there are at least two main reasons that Jesus is called the Son of God: 1. From the human side, Jesus is called the Son of God due to His miraculous birth, in which no human father was involved; 2. From the divine side, Jesus is called the Son of God due to His unique eternal relationship with the Father, in that He has always existed as one God with the Father, yet He has always been a distinct Person from the Father.

Over the next couple of days on this blog, I hope to explore more fully the two concepts just mentioned. I ask Christians reading this post to pray that I would have additional opportunities this week to speak with my Muslim co-worker, that my friendship with him would grow, and that God would use the Truth to draw him to faith in Jesus.