God the Son is the second person of the Trinity in Christian theology. Christians identify Jesus of Nazareth with God the Son. This is significantly different from the title Son of God, which is also applied by Christians to Jesus, but is used in several ways in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament or Tanakh), only some of which refer to the Messiah.
As applied to Jesus, Son of God draws attention to his humanity, where God the Son refers more generally to his divinity, including his pre-incarnate existence. In the New Testament, God the Son is co-eternal with the God the Father before creation. So Jesus was always God the Son, however he becomes the Son of God, through incarnation, death and resurrection. The New Testament quotes the Hebrew Bible as prophetic of God the Son becoming the Son of God.
- Psalm 2:7. You are my Son; today I have become your Father. [Cited in Acts 13:33; Hebrews 1:5; 5:5]
Old Testament
The phrase God the Son does not appear in the Hebrew Bible, which is distinctively monotheistic. It has the following, rather enigmatic, references to the exact phrase Sons of God.
- Genesis 6:2ff. The disobedient sons of God are distinct from the beautiful "daughters of men".
- Hosea 1:10. Israel, rejected now, will later be sons of the living God. [Cited by Paul in Romans 9:26.]
- Psalm 82:6. All are gods, and sons of the Most High. [Cited by Jesus in John 10:34.]
- Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7. The sons of God report to Yahweh, Satan among them (in 1:6; 2:1).
New Testament
The title "God the Son" does not appear a single time in the Christian scriptures. The developed theology that uses this term is an interpretation of places in the scripture where the title "God" is applied to Jesus. There are many places where Jesus is given the title "the Son of God", but this is not an equal expression. This has given rise to the debate over the meaning and origen of this terminology. The primative church, especially as recorded in the Book of Acts, never uses the title and it is onlt much later that it becomes accepted as truth and essential doctrine. Matthew cites Jesus as saying, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God (5:9)." The gospels go on to document a great deal of controversy over Jesus being the Son of God, in a unique way. The book of the Acts of the Apostles and the letters of the New Testament, however, record the early teaching of the first Christians — those who believed Jesus to be the Son of God, the messiah, a man appointed by God, but never "God the Son" or a "person of the Trinity". This is evident in many places, however, the early part of the book of Hebrews addresses the issue in a deliberate, sustained argument, citing the scriptures of the Hebrew Bible as authorities. For example, the author quotes Psalm 45:6 as addressed by Yahweh to Jesus.
- Hebrews 1:8. About the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever."
The author of Hebrews' description of Jesus as the exact representation of the divine Father has parallels in a passage in Colossians.
- Colossians 2:9-10. "in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form"
John's gospel quotes Jesus at length regarding his relationship with his heavenly Father. It also contains two famous attributions of divinity to Jesus.
- John 1:1. "the Word was God" [the Word is God's expression of Himself in context]
- John 20:28. "Thomas said to him, 'My Lord and my God!'"
The most direct references to Jesus as God are found in various letters.
- Romans 9:5. "Christ, who is God over all"
- Titus 2:13. "our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ"
- 2 Peter 1:1. "our God and Savior Jesus Christ"
The biblical basis for later trinitarian statements in creeds is the early baptism formula found in Matthew 28.
- Matthew 28:19. Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name note the singular of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Church Fathers
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