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One of the titles used of Jesus in the New Testament is ‘Son of God.’ But what does it mean?
Evidence from the title: Son of God
In the Taurat, the Prophets, the Psalms and the Injil, God uses story and picture-language to communicate with human beings so they can understand what He is saying to them. It is language that helps people understand concepts that will be fully revealed in the New Testament.
In the Bible, the title ‘Son of God’ is used of those God appointed to be His representatives, and to rule on His behalf. So it is used of Adam the first man, it is used of God’s people whom He rescued from slavery in Egypt and it is used of the king God appointed to rule over them. This was a metaphorical term to indicate both the special relationship they had with Him, and the authority He had given them, in line with His promises to bless all creation and all people through them. There was never any suggestion they were His physical offspring.
The use of this phrase ‘Son of God’ for God’s representative man or people, appointed to rule, climaxes in Jesus. But Jesus also goes beyond this and claims to be the Son of the Father in a unique sense.
“No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Matthew 11:27).
The Bible never suggests that God and Mary had a sexual relationship to make Jesus. Such teaching would be blasphemous.
Evidence from the title: Son of God
Although the Qu’ran commands belief in the previous revelations as the Word of God (Quran 4.136) – and the previous revelations used the term ‘Son of God’ a great deal – the Qur’an does not use the term ‘Son of God’ in any positive way. Instead it claims that Jews and Christians use the term ‘children of God’ about themselves in ways that suggest they are more than human.
But the Jews and the Christians say, “We are the children of Allah and His beloved.” Say, “Then why does He punish you for your sins?” Rather, you are human beings from among those He has created’ (Quran 5.18).
However, all Christians know they are human, created by God. Christians attribute divinity only to Jesus, not themselves. It seems the Qur’an has completely misunderstood how Jews and Christians use the term:
- The Qur’an suggests that a master punishes his slave but a father would not punish his son. However, this is not how most families operate. Fathers do punish their sons and doing so is an act of love. The experience of most families is more similar to the Bible: “The Lord disciplines those he loves” (Hebrews 12:6) than the Qur’an, “Then why does he punish you?” (Quran 5.18, Sahih International).
- The Qur’an says that Jesus cannot be God’s son because Allah has no wife (Quran 6.101). It is, of course, true that Allah has no wife. Muslims, Christians and Jews all agree on this. But no Christian is suggesting that Jesus is God’s physical son, born as a product of physical relations. So why does the Qur’an make this statement?
Evidence from Jesus’ Claims about Himself
Jesus claimed to have a unique relationship with the Father and to share His authority. He also claimed to have existed before Abraham and He used the title, ‘I am’ of Himself (which is one of the titles God used for Himself in the Old Testament):
“Very truly I tell you”, Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!” At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds” (John 8:58-59).
‘God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14)
It was precisely because Jesus did claim to be God that He was arrested and charged with the crime of blasphemy by the Jewish authorities.
He also predicted that He was going to die and rise again on the third day. No human being is capable of that. But that is what his disciples – and the governing authorities of the time – believed really happened. There were many eyewitnesses to these events.
Evidence from Jesus’ Claims about Himself
The Qur’an says that Jesus was a Muslim. He was just a human being who was involved in spreading Islam in the 1st century (Quran 61.14).
We are Allah’s helpers, meaning ‘We will support you with regard to the Message you have been sent with and will help you convey it.’ Whereby, ‘Isa sent the disciples to the various areas of Ash-Sham to call the Greeks and the Israelites to Islam’.{10}
However, there is no evidence from outside of the Qur’an that Jesus ever described himself as a Muslim. There is no evidence that his disciples spread Islam in the 1st century. There is no evidence that Jesus described Himself as merely a prophet.
And, as for the suggestion that such evidence was lost when the Injil was corrupted: there is no verse in the Qur’an which suggests that the Injil has been changed.
If you think the Injil has been changed, then why does the Qur’an say to the Christians and the Jews that they must follow their Scripture?
Chapter (5) sūrat l-māidah (The Table spread with Food)
Say, “O People of the Scripture, you are [standing] on nothing until you uphold [the law of] the Torah, the Gospel, and what has been revealed to you from your Lord.” (Quran 5.68) Sahih International.