Jesus is the ultimate Son, perfect and multi-faceted in sonship.
Isaiah wrote, “To us a Son is given” (Isaiah 9:6).
Understanding the sonship of Jesus is key to understanding who he is, what he has accomplished, and what place he has in the Kingdom of God throughout eternity.
He is the Son in at least seven momentous ways, and each is important to the Christmas event.
1. The Son of Joseph
Luke 3:23 says, “Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph.” (ESV used for each Bible quotation)
Although Jesus was not the physical descendant of Joseph, Joseph was his father in a more significant way. That Luke records the genealogy of Jesus tracing back from Joseph shows that God regarded Joseph as the father of Jesus in a real way, a way that connected Jesus to the line of promise through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and David.
Because Jesus is the Son of Joseph, he fulfills promises and covenants God had made to other important figures.
2. The Son of Mary
Luke 2:7 says Mary “gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”
Jesus was a real human born after developing in the womb of his real mother for nine months. He had real blood flowing in his veins, and his DNA and genes were inherited from Mary. I assume his face resembled Mary’s. He definitely did not look like Joseph, because Joseph and Mary did not come together until after Jesus was born. Mary was a virgin, and the child Jesus was conceived in her womb by a miracle of God. Jesus was 100 percent human. That is why he was able to die for our sins.
3. The Son of Abraham
Luke’s genealogy also names Jesus as “the son of Abraham” (Luke 3:34).
Being the son of Abraham was important in the life of Jesus because two thousand years before Jesus was born God said to Abraham, “‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” (See Genesis 15:1–6)
God fulfilled that promise and covenant through Abraham’s descendant Jesus. Every Christian is one of the “stars in the sky.”
Abraham was the man of faith who was credited with righteousness through his faith in God and his promise. And this is the same way we are now saved in the new covenant—through faith in Jesus Christ. Through our faith in Jesus God credits righteousness to us, just as he did for Abraham.
4. The Son of David
In Luke’s genealogy of Jesus, he includes that Jesus was “the son of David” (Luke 3:31).
The Gospel of Matthew uses the title “Son of David” for Jesus ten times, so the idea is familiar to Bible readers. Its chief significance lies in the promise that God made to David after he had established him on the throne of Israel.
God said, “I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” (2 Samuel 7:11–13)
Jesus fulfilled this promise. Jesus will reign as a king over God’s people throughout all eternity.
5. The Son of Man
This correlates with Jesus’s being the son of Mary, but it takes the humanity of Jesus to a whole new level. Jesus uses this identity and title to speak of himself 25 times in the Gospel of Luke. (See Luke 5:24, for example.)
The title son of man was used in the Bible to speak of people other than Jesus, and in those cases it is simply a poetic way of saying a human, an offspring of the human race.
With Jesus, however, the title Son of Man was used both to emphasize his humanity and his divinity. It fulfills one of the extremely important prophecies given about the Messiah through the prophet Daniel.
Daniel 7:13–14 says, “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.”
Jesus fulfills this prophecy!
6. The Son of Adam
Luke concludes his genealogy of Jesus by naming him as the “son of Adam” (Luke 3:38).
We need to first define what this does not mean. The idiom “son of__” is used often in the Bible to mean one is under the influence and imprint of someone or something. But that is decidedly not what being the son of Adam means with Jesus. Through Adam’s disobedience, he failed the human race as our representative head, bringing condemnation, death, and original sin to all humanity. Jesus did not do that; in fact, he overturned all that for those who believe in him.
Jesus is the Son of Adam in this regard:
First, he is the physical descendant of Adam just as all human beings are descendants of Adam. To save Adam’s fallen race Jesus had to be a member of Adam’s fallen race.
Second, Jesus is the antitype for the type of Adam. Adam is a type of Christ in that he was the representative head of humanity. Christ is the second Adam who is the new and superior representative head whose obedience earns salvation for all who believe in him.
Romans 5:14–17 says, “Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.”
7. The Son of God
At Jesus’ baptism, God the Father spoke from heaven declaring, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17).
This of course is the ultimate Sonship. Jesus Is the eternally begotten son of God the Father.
Jesus is fully divine, having the identical nature and character qualities of his Father. He is equal with the Father in glory and equally worthy of worship.
Hebrews 1:2–3 says, “In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
Colossians 2:9 says, “In him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.”
And so it is with good reason that Isaiah gave his astonishing prophecy: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God…. (Isaiah 9:6)
Christmas brings into sharp focus the glorious fact that Jesus is the ultimate son: Son of Joseph, Son of Mary, Son of Abraham, Son of David, Son of Man, Son of Adam, Son of God.
This great person wants to have a relationship with you. Most likely the great people of the earth are not seeking you out, but this great person is. He loves you and is seeking a daily relationship with you. He cares about you and wants your highest good. Better yet, he can bring the highest good into your life as you follow him as a true disciple. Make that decision right now, that you will follow Jesus from this moment on as a completely surrendered and committed disciple, and tell him so in prayer.