What do Baptists Believe about God the Son?

Over the years, Jesus Christ has been called a lot of things. Today, some say he is imaginary, others say he was a man. Many will say he was a good teacher and we should look to him for morals. Even more will say he is a prophet of God, but could never be the Son of God. When we talk about the "Son of God," what do we believe about Jesus?

From The Baptist Faith and Message:

Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.

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Christ existed before he came to earth, before creation. He will always exist (Heb. 13:8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."). Is is because of Christ that everything exists, because nothing existed without going through Christ first. John 1:1-3, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made."

Jesus is the Son of God. Muslims think this is heresy because they do not believe God could ever bear a Son, but this comes from an inaccurate view of the Trinity. Jesus calls himself God's Son (Mt. 11:27, "All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."), God refers to him as His Son (Mt. 3:17, "...and behold, a voice from heaven said, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.'"), men say he is the Son of God (Mt. 14:33, "And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, 'Truly you are the Son of God.'"), and demons label Jesus as the son of God (Mt. 8:29, "And behold, they cried out, 'What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?'").

Biologically, Jesus did not have a human father, but was wholly man (from Mary) and wholly God (from the Holy Spirit). Matthew explains in Mt. 1:18, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit."

Jesus was perfectly the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15, "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation."), even though as man, he had to face the same conditions and temptations as man.

Jesus was the only person to completely follow the Old Testament law perfectly. He fulfilled the Law by not only following rules, but by fleshing out what those rules meant. For example, Jesus explained in Mt. 5:27-30, Jesus explained that to follow a command like "Do not commit adultery" you would need to not even lust after a person who is not your wife. Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5-7) not to give man more rules to live by, but to show how the Law is impossible to completely obey--unless you are God's Son.

Because Jesus was perfectly obedient, his obedience was the perfect substitute for us. Rom. 3:22b-26, "For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."

dictionary (Grenz):

• justified - God makes humans, who are sinful and therefore worthy of condemnation, acceptable before a God who is holy and righteous.
• redemption - how sinful people are "bought back" from the power of sin into a relationship with God.
• propitiation - an offering that turns away the wrath of God.
• forbearance - patience in dealing with man's unrighteousness

Jesus died so that all men would be able to be forgiven of sin (John 1:29, "The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'").

After his resurrection, he appeared to many in the form of a real body--the body he had when he lived on earth (Acts 2:24, "But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.").

He then ascended into heaven, where he sits at God's right hand (1 Pet. 3:21b-22, "Jesus Christ, 22who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him."). He intercedes between man and God (Heb. 7:25, "Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them."). No one can come to God except through Jesus Christ, our perfection. Only through Jesus can we be reconciled to God (1 Tim. 2:5-6, "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.").

There will be a day when Jesus will judge all according to what they have and have not done (Mt. 16:27, "For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done."). On this day, he will complete his job, which is to bring creation back to its creator.

He is in every believer. Does he do this because you have "asked him into your heart"? No. As a matter of fact, you can go your whole life without using the words "ask Jesus into my heart" and God will still live in you, if you have placed faith in Christ alone (1 Jn. 4:15, "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.").

Rom. 1:3-4, "...concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord."

Discussion Questions (message board):

1. Why couldn't Jesus be conceived by two human parents?
2. Why is it important that Jesus is God?
3. What are some of the things Jesus did and continues to do?
4. Did Jesus really have to be resurrected to be the Son of God?
5. How does Jesus link man and God?

Works Cited:
Grenz, Stanley J., David Guretzki & Cherith Fee Nordling. Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms. Downers Grove, Ill: Intervarsity, 1999.