God The Son

The prophets in the Old Testament prophesied about the time when God would come as the Savior.  Isaiah says “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight a path in the desert for our God”.  John the Baptist, who was the last prophet before Christ, took up that cry and declared to the people that Jesus Christ is both Lord and God.

There are some popular religions that believe Jesus was a re-incarnated Michael the Archangel or that he was just a prophet that taught a good moral message, but what does the Bible have to say about that?  Was Jesus an angel picked out for the job of being Savior or was He, as God offering Himself as the ransom for the sins of the people or was He just a prophet?

The Son has existed forever, even before the Father prepared Mary as a surrogate.  The Bible says “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”.  The Prophet Micah prophesied that a Ruler would come out of Bethlehem who had neither beginning nor end, and the book of Hebrews says that Jesus Christ is a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, who had neither beginning nor end.  Jesus is an eternal being who rules forever and is a priest forever.  The Priesthood begins with Jesus and ends with Jesus, therefore it was He who commissioned the priests out of the tribe of Levi.

Though we often view Mary as the mother of Jesus the Son of God, and so she is in respect to the fact that she cared for Him as a mother would, God had chosen through His Sovereign Nature to come into the existence of mankind  through the portal of humanity .  The Son of God, though He chose to come to the earth as a baby that would need a mother’s care; pre-existed as God throughout eternity past.  It is through coming like this that it can be said of Him “He was tempted in all points such as we are, yet without sin”.  Jesus, after taking upon Himself the form of a human, opened Himself to being able to feel the depraved feelings of mankind, but yet purposed in His heart not to defile Himself by indulging into self-pity, feelings of rejection, feelings of lust, or any other thing known to mankind.

So what really does it mean when you see or hear Immanuel?  Immanuel or Emmanuel is a word used to describe the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  First of all “incarnation” means “taking on the flesh”.  The words Immanuel or Emmanuel mean literally “God With Us”.  Isaiah brings these words into his writings (under the direction of the Holy Spirit) to give hope in a time when there was none.  The meaning was clear God was going to visit His people. The Word of God was going to become flesh!

The messages that God had spoken in times past were clear, Mankind deserved to die for its sin; yet God, the merciful Father that He is offered to take our sin and our punishment for sin in exchange for a relationship with Him.  A life of sin always will end up with someone’s death and there is no getting around that fact, so when God declares that he is willing to take it on Himself, He is declaring that you (we) have been pardoned if you allow His blood sacrifice to atone for your sin.  Physical death is not yet eradicated, but it will be as Jesus will come back to this earth destroy the rest of His enemies.  Sin will always take a person to the point of self-destruction unless God steps in to reverse that path through Salvation.  Though many of us live our lives with seemingly “good morals”, unless we choose Jesus our lives are headed for destruction in the Lake of Fire which was prepared for the angelic enemies of God and those they have deceived.

The Ministry of Jesus Christ began at His Baptism.  Baptism was always a sign of entering into a life of service for God and when Jesus was baptized the meaning hadn't changed.  It is here that the three person Godhead is present in either visible or audible form.  Those around Jesus had no doubt as to what had just happened unless they just chose to ignore the truth.  John the Baptist, the man doing the baptizing at that point interpreted that to mean that Jesus was (is) the Sacrifice of God.  The crowd that was standing around heard, saw and heard the interpretation so they really were without excuse.

As Jesus received His ministerial initiation ritual, it became evident that He was set to become a leader of an entirely different stripe.  His physical leadership was going to be short, and divisive; yet it was going to be a leadership that was focused on His love for His followers rather than some selfish agenda.  It was unheard of for a leader to seek to give life to his followers by dying for them.  Usually the leader would spend years discipling his followers and hope they would catch it by the time he could no longer lead them.  Jesus discipled His followers a mere 3 years and then offered Himself up as a sacrifice on the cross to give them life (spiritual).  Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

The life and ministry of Jesus the Son of God on this earth had more purpose than just to create some amazing stories to teach good morals.  Many people view the stories of the Bible this way; but in reality the Bible is the story of God rather than just independent stories of people or even an isolated story of Jesus.

The ministry of God incarnate drew to a close as the Religious Leaders declared Jesus a blasphemer of Himself as God, and through which they became the true blasphemers of God.  They thought they had enough evidence against Jesus to destroy Him by death and He willingly offered Himself up so that His message would spring to life through His death.  His physical death on the cross was the beginning of a new era for the world as within three days He was raised bodily from the grave and an earthquake made the empty tomb visible to those who came to see it.  The Power of God is the only force that is capable of raising the dead body of our Lord to life.

God the Son is the person of the Godhead through whom all things are issued.