If You Are the Son of God

As Jesus hung on the cross, the Jewish religious leaders sarcastically said, “If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” Does this not remind us of their father, the devil, who when tempting Jesus said, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread?” And “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down, for it is written…?” This was a stumbling block for the Jews, for they did not believe the truth Jesus spoke, and they wanted to kill Him for blasphemy: “For this reason therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.” [John 5:18]

However, whenever we see Jesus’ disciples, we hear them profess their faith that He is their Messiah and the Son of God. In addition to Peter’s confession of faith quoted above, Nathanael also said, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.” [John 1:49] When Jesus walked on water and calmed the storm, “those who were in the boat worshiped Him, saying, “You are certainly God’s Son!” [Matthew 14:33] Martha said, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.” [John 11:27] Mark starts his gospel with, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” [Mark 1:1] John the Baptist testifies to this truth, “I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.” John finishes up his gospel by saying, “but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” We have the Ethiopian eunuch say, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” We have Paul, right after his conversion, immediately beginning to “proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

Not only do we have all Jesus’ disciples confessing their faith that He is the Son of God, but Jesus Himself testifies, “do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? [John 10:36] We have the Father testifying, “and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” We have the Holy Spirit testify at Jesus’ baptism, “He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.” And the crowning evidence of His glory as the Son was Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, “who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness.” [Romans 1:4] If Jesus had not been speaking the truth, surely God would not have raised up a false prophet to mislead the world! His resurrection from the dead affirms His Father’s satisfaction with His Son’s spotless sacrifice for all sinners and should silence anyone who denies Jesus’ diety.

We have all this testimony, we are confronted with this truth repeatedly through the scriptures, and yet the Jews did not believe it. Even the demons would cry out, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me.” It is a sad commentary indeed that the people who deny Jesus’ glory as God, His equality with the Father, His eternality, His role as Creator, and His nature as Divine are less aware of His divine identity than a demon!

In today’s SOAP devotional, we see the Roman centurion and other soldiers guarding Jesus come to the same conclusion that all believing disciples do, having been firsthand witnesses of Jesus’ death march to the cross and all that took place after He breathed His last breath and said, “It is finished!” Our salvation is not complete unless Jesus is who He says He is.

Scripture: “Truly this was the Son of God!”

Observation: This centurion and the soldiers with him all heard the taunts and blasphemies of the Jews, the passersby, and the two criminals on either side of Jesus, and were able to deduce the sticking point the Jewish religious leaders were so offended by: that Jesus claimed to be the Son of God. For they all said, “If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross… let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

And here, we have gentile men who witnessed how Jesus suffered, how He responded to His scoffers, how He spoke to the robber next to Him when he expressed his faith, and how He breathed His last. Perhaps they had even been there at the beginning, at His scourging, and witnessed or maybe even participated in the mockery when they placed the crown of thorns and purple robe on Jesus. And when they realize His innocence, they respond with fear and reverence, with praise, and the full assurance that Jesus was in fact who He claimed to be–the Son of the Living God.

Many Jews at that time also realized Jesus’ innocence because of of these things, the grave sin they had committed, upon hearing the soldiers’ testimony, which up to that point had been an unspoken fear of their treachery. Indeed, the gospel of Luke says the crowds began to beat their breasts in grief. I can’t imagine a greater remorse than realizing you had insulted, mocked, and murdered your promised Messiah! No wonder Jesus prayed, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Application: There are many who deny that Jesus was the Son of God as He meant it, that He was of the same substance and equal with God the Father. That is also what the Jews understood Him to claim, and this they considered the supreme blasphemy, a claim which under their Law deserved the death penalty. We need to recognize everything the Jesus said was truth–He is either the true Son of God or He lied, and if He lied, He would not be perfect, and if He was not perfect, His death would have been like that of any other man, and He could not have been the perfect sacrifice for our sins, and we would all still be lost in our sin an in the unenviable state of judgment. If anyone denies Jesus’ deity because they don’t understand it takes up a poor excuse, for surely there are more than many things we don’t understand about an eternally existent and omniscient God and yet accept them as true.

When you think about it, many people deny God’s truth because they can’t understand it. For example, we can’t understand how the Lord made all of creation in six days, so many defer to science and evolution because it seems to be an explanation for the unexplainable, it seems to offer understanding which can make one comfortable enough, albeit foolish enough, to stand before a holy, unfathomable God and call Him a liar.

We should not make understanding a god. We should not make understanding everything a requirement for our faith, for if we do we will stumble and fall away as soon as we come face to face with what we do not know, which is a lot! I imagine man’s knowledge to be the sum total of the length of a city block in comparison to all the freeways, back roads, alleyways, and dirt paths people travel on all over the world. We know so relatively little, and yet we thrive. How much less do we know of an infinite universe, and yet we can thrive on what the Lord has chosen to reveal to us in His word, in His creation, and in His Son, who is the image of the invisible God, the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, in Whom all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form. Jesus said it, and it must be true regardless of my inability to comprehend it, just like the beauty of a sunset is true for every single person on the planet–it’s a universal truth we all believe, but we don’t know why.

Prayer: Dear Abba, the heavens and all of creation declare Your glory, the scriptures declare Your glory, You declare Your glory, Your Son declares Your glory, and the Holy Spirit declares Your glory. It is only the man who demands understanding of the inexplicable power that spoke the world into being who fails to give You glory. Help us not make understanding Your nature or Divine Providence a god that leads us astray to follow the “reasonable” explanations of a deceived world. Lead us instead to a faith like that of a little child, who trusts his parents to care for him and do him good. Your word says God is Love and God is Light. How can we claim Jesus is neither? For Your word says we are to comprehend “the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,” and Jesus Himself said, “I am the Light of the World.” May Your Holy Spirit reveal to us Your utter faithfulness and truthfulness in all things, for You are “God, who cannot lie.” Blessed be the name of Jesus this day and always, Amen.