DP,

            In your letter, you had mentioned:

“No wonder Jesus never once called Himself the Son of God! Notice He would call Himself the Son of Man..........only!”

 

However, Jesus did:

 

John 9:35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?

36 He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?

37 And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.

In line 35, Jesus mentions the Son of God.

In line 36 the man asked, “Who is he”.

In line 37 Jesus said, “it is he that talketh with thee”.

 

John 10:34 Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?

35 If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;

36 Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?

In lines 34-36, it is Jesus who is speaking.

In line 36, Jesus mentioned, “I said, I am the Son of God”.

According to his own words, he had called himself the Son of God.

 

Also, you had written:

“This shows the Incredible sacrifice that Jesus made by taking on humanity, and then as a human..........to Become a Son of God.”

 

Jesus did not “become a Son of God”, he always was & always will be the only begotten Son of God.

Jesus, the Son of God, created all things:

Hebrews 1:1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

The Son of God made the worlds

 

Proverbs 30:4 Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?

Even in the old testament

 

When the scriptures say, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee”, the words used in the King James, “have begotten”, is in the present perfect.

It is not in the present tense, past tense, or past perfect.

It doesn’t say, “I beget thee”, nor “I begot thee”, nor “I had begotten thee”, nor “I am continually begetting thee”, which would mean something different.

In the present perfect, it means that it is always true that he is the only begotten Son of God.

In the present perfect, it means that it was ‘never not true’.

On ‘any day’, or for ‘every day’, it is true that, “this day have I begotten thee”, at any time, it is already so.

To illustrate that, look the context in which it is used, different times:

 

Psalm 2:7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

This is in the context of Psalm 2, regarding the second advent, so that the Father can say, even at the day of the second advent, “this day have I begotten thee”.

 

Acts 13:33 God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.

This is in the context of the resurrection, so that on the day of the resurrection, the Father can say, “this day have I begotten thee”.

 

Hebrews 1:5 For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

This is in the context of his eternality, and power greater than that of angels, shown in Hebrews 1, for example in line 8:

Hebrews 1:8 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

So that the Father can say at any time, “this day have I begotten thee”.

 

Hebrews 5:5 So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.

This is in the context of his high priestly role, so that on any day between the ascension and the second advent, the Father can say, “to day have I begotten thee”.

 

The only begotten Son of God, who always has been the only begotten Son, was sent into the world.

The Son was sent into the world, not ‘he who was sent into the world’ “became” the Son.

I John 4:9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

 

John 3:16 ¶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 ¶ He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

When Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus, he mentioned that the Father gave his only begotten Son, and that the Son was sent into the world.

Jesus said that even at that very time that he was speaking, “he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God”.

 

Also, you had written:

“Jesus was the first son to be made in the likeness of God, to be perfected in the image of God”.

 

Jesus was not made in the likeness of God, because he is God:

Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Jesus in the form of God, because he is God, and not robbery or blasphemy, took on flesh, and thus made in the likeness of men.

It was God manifest in the flesh:

I Timothy 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

It was not someone else, ‘made in the likeness of God’, ‘becoming a Son of God’, but the LORD himself, manifest in the flesh.

Also, like seen in Hebrews 1:8, listed above, the Father called the Son, God.

 

Because the LORD is eternal and immutable, there couldn’t have been ‘a time’, when he wasn’t the Father, because he hadn’t begotten his Son yet.

An eternal LORD, cannot have the Father ‘older’ than Son, like the paintings from the dark ages used to show.

The Father didn’t “become” the Father, and the Son didn’t “become” the Son.

The LORD has always been and always will be, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

 

                        Thank you,

                                    Gino