something interesting in Grace Seeker's last post, the son of 'the' god is none other than Adam notJesus since that sentence follows Adam's name not Jesus's.
-may god's blessings be upon all the prophhets-
You are right that Adam is referred to as being "of God" in this passage. This is exactly what I said above. However, that does not mean that one should infer that Jesus is therefore not "of God". Indeed when we consider a phrase like "son of ________", it really can mean many different things depending on its context. For instance, the Jews today (and in Jesus' day) consider themselves sons (and daughters) of Abraham. Yet we know that none of them can claim that Abraham was their biological Father. So then why did they make that claim?
"Abraham is our father," they answered. (John 8:39)
One could mean that Abraham was their ancestor and thus father in that he was their great-great-great-great-...-great-grandfather. But I don't think that is the meaning. It appears that it doesn't have anything to do with biology, genetics, or bloodlines. Look what Jesus says about it:
And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. (Matthew 3:9)
Surely there would be no bloodlines in children who were raised up from rocks. But Jesus says they would still be "children of Abraham". So, in what sense would that be? Paul gives us a big clue in writing:
He [Christ] redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. (Galatians 3:14)
Sometimes when the Bible speaks of a person as another's son, it means so in a spiritual sense. Examples of that include both Peter and Paul refering to Mark and Timothy, respectively, as "my son" (see 1 Peter 5:13 and 1 Corinthians 4:17). When meant this way, the claiming of one person as a son would not preclude the same term from being applied to another. Indeed the Bible refers not only to Jesus as God's son (in several places - Matthew 3:17, Matthew 17:5, Hebrews 5:5, 2 Peter 1:17 being just a few) but also to humans as God's sons, God's children (see 1 John 3:1-2, Philippians 2:15).
So, there remains two questions:
1) In what manner, if any, is Jesus being spoken of as the "son of God" in the passage from Luke 3 (cited above)?
2) Is the sonship of Jesus referred to in the Bible in any way unique and differentiated from other references to sonship?
In the first, if one understands what I was saying with regard to the Greek grammar, the passage is indeed saying that Jesus is the son of God. It uses a particular aspect of Greek grammar to communicate that. It begins with supposed biological relationship between Jesus and Joseph. It then traces how each of the men mentioned is the son of the next by the simple Greek word "
tou", which in this case just means "of" (literally, "of the") to indicate that each man is of the next in the genealogical listing, implying that they are the offspring of them. Of course when we get to Adam, though Adam is not the offspring of God, he is still "of" God, having been created by God. All that Luke is saying by the list at all is to place Jesus in the context of the rest of humanity, saying that Jesus is one of us -- a child of Adam and a child God just as you and I are. There are several strong theological reasons that I believe Luke wanted to make that point, but the only thing that is important for this discussion is to ascertain whether in doing so that Luke was also claiming that Jesus was only like the rest of us. I think the answer to that is categorically NO. Luke not only refers to Jesus with the title of "Son of Man" (Luke 22:48), but also with other titles such as "the Christ" (Luke 24:26), "son of David" (Luke 20:41), "Savior" (Luke 2:11), and "Son of God" (Luke 22:70). When taken together, these are titles that definitely make Jesus unique.
Second, the sonship of Jesus is a unique sonship. As many different people are properly termed the "son of Abraham", a case can also be made to call many different people "sons or daughters of God". I would even submit to you that all who belong to God can, and perhaps should, be properly so called.
But Jesus' sonship is unique. When Jesus is referred to as
THE "son of God", except on rare occassion, it is not with the same meaning as would be meant by calling you or me
A "son of God". The whole context of the statement is generally different. (Though as I have now noted twice, once in this post and once in the above post, Luke's reference in 3:38 is not one of those.)
When Jesus is called the "son of God", it is not generally a description of his origins at all. Rather, it is a title. As a description, it is a description of his character, his nature, the essence of his being. Satan understands this and challenges Jesus to reveal it when he tries to tempt him in the wilderness:
If you are the Son of God.... (Luke 4:3 and 4:9)
The statements are phrased in such a way that, though couched in if/then terminology, there really isn't any question as to Satan's understanding of who Jesus is. The devil is actually acknowledging who and what Jesus is; he is the Son of God. So it is that when Jesus casts out demons, they recognize him and begin to announce it before Jesus silences them:
Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, "You are the Son of God!" But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ. (Luke 4:41)
Early in Jesus' ministry, Jesus did not go around announcing who he was. His parents knew (see Luke 1:35, Matthew 1:20-23), but, for the most part, Jesus basically let people figure it out for themselves:
Matthew 16
13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"
14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." 20Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.
But Jesus leaves hints all over the place for, as he would put it, those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Consider that there are certain things that only God can do. Yet we see Jesus doing them and speaking of them in reference to himself-- Jesus forgave sins; he spoke of God has his Father in a unique way that others understood to be claiming equality with God; he pictured himself as the ultimate judge in heaven between the righteous and the unrighteous; Jesus declared himself "Lord of the Sabbath" (a breaking of both the first and 4th commandments unless he is God); Jesus even presented himself as pre-existent:
Matthew 9
2Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven."
3At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, "This fellow is blaspheming!"
4Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5Which is easier: to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'? 6But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...." Then he said to the paralytic, "Get up, take your mat and go home." 7And the man got up and went home.
John 5
16So, because Jesus was doing these things [healing miracles] on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. 17Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working." 18For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Matthew 25
31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'
44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'
45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'
46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
Luke 6
1One Sabbath Jesus was going through the grainfields, and his disciples began to pick some heads of grain, rub them in their hands and eat the kernels. 2Some of the Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?"
3Jesus answered them, "Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4He entered the house of God, and taking the consecrated bread, he ate what is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions." 5Then Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."
John 8
54Jesus replied, "If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. 55Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word. 56Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad."
57"You are not yet fifty years old," the Jews said to him, "and you have seen Abraham!"
58"I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!" 59At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.
And though we can see that Jesus did confess that he was the son of God to people:
He trusts in God. Let God rescue him [Jesus] now if he wants him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God.' (Matthew 27:43)
They all asked, "Are you then the Son of God?"
He [Jesus] replied, "You are right in saying I am." (Luke 22:70)
Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."
Jesus said, "You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that." (John 1:49-50) (Note that Jesus accepts and does not correct this statement of Nathanael's.)
The Jews insisted, "We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he [Jesus] claimed to be the Son of God." (John 19:7)
The gospel writers never put those words on Jesus' own lips, rather they let others make that declaration, which they themselves also affirm: "these (pericopes from Jesus' life) are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." (John 20:31).
And John goes on to affirm that not only is Jesus the Son of God, but he is THE UNIQUE son of God. He is not a son in the same way that other humans might be spoken of as being children of God. No, Jesus' sonship is unlike ours in that he is (to use theological language) actually very God from very God. Thus it is that John, in introducing Jesus to us in his gospel, speaks of him in this very theological way, writing: "No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only,who is at the Father's side, has made him known." (John 1:18) The word behind "One and Only" is the Greek term "
μονογενης" (or
monogenes). Now "
monogenes" can have the simple meaning of "only" as in the way Luke uses it a few times. But it is also used to speak of Isaac as Abraham's "only" son (see Hebrews 11:17). Obviously we know, and the biblical writer knew, that Abraham had more than one son. What he meant by referring to Isaac as the "
monogenes" son of Abraham is not "only", but "unique". Isaac was unique in that he was born as the result of God's promise to Abraham that Sarah, though past child-bearing age, would give to him a son. Isaac was unique in that regard. So it is that when John speaks of Jesus as the "
monogenes" son of God, that he isn't trying to say "only begotten" in the way that we understand the KJV translation of that passage, he is trying to say he is in a unique way the "one and only", as the NIV translation puts it. And this is why we see the same term used in John's introduction to his gospel: "The Word [already identified in John 1:1 as being God] became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory,
the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)
Thus, I believe that we can see that the use of the title "son of God" in reference to Jesus, is a unique reference to the nature of Jesus as being "of God". Not biologically, not in a larger familial sense (that we might all also share), but in a unique way that fits Jesus alone. As the one who is actually God himself: "No one has ever seen God, but
God the One and Only [that is Jesus], who is at the Father's side, has made him known." (John 1:18)
....do we have to wait till last day for all these matters settled down ? 
mg:
