of redemption (new creation) that had to be by a divine person, the divine Son of God incarnate. It is also the subjective response to redemption that requires a divine person to be the object of saving faith. The fact that God has put Christ forward as the object of faith (Rom 3:25) requires that he be ontologically divine. Paul expresses the personal nature of faith in the divine Messiah in these terms: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). We are saved by “calling on the name of the Lord” (Rom 10:13; Joel 2:32). Such absolute trust in Christ, calling upon him for salvation, is a form of worship that should only be given to a divine person, not to a creature no matter how exalted. As Charles Hodge wrote, “The man should tremble, who ventures to say: I believe in Jesus Christ our Saviour, unless he believes in his true and perfect Godhead, for only on that assumption is he a Saviour or an object of faith.”41
In conclusion, it was not the post-apostolic church, in a desire to exalt Jesus more and more, that indulged in unwarranted “exaggeration” about the person of Jesus. It was Jesus himself who claimed to be the Son of God in an absolutely unique way. Indeed, so provocative were his claims, the Jewish leadership recoiled in horror and had him put to death on the charge of blasphemy. But God raised him from the dead and vindicated his claim to be the Son of God. Millions of ordinary Christians throughout history have confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, exalted at God’s right hand as sovereign Lord over all creation, and have put their faith and trust in him as their divine Savior and have worshiped him as such.
1. From his 1838 address to the Harvard Divinity School graduates. Emerson, Nature, 126.
2. Livy, History of Rome, 1.16; 5.24
3. Contra Arius, who said “there was a time when he did not exist” and “before he was brought into being, he did not exist” (as quoted by Athanasius, Against the Arians 1.5 [NPNF2 4.308–9]). See Williams, Arius, 95–116.
4. The three verses in brackets do not actually contain the “Son of God” title.
5. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version.
6. R. Brown, Introduction to New Testament Christology, 88–89.
7. On the Qumran “son of God” texts, see Fitzmyer, Dead Sea Scrolls, 41–72.
8. Marcus, “Mark 14:61,” 130.
9. Ladd, Theology of the New Testament, 163–64.
10. France, Mark, 484–85.
11. The New Testament depicts Jesus as speaking of God as “my/his Father” approximately fifty times (there are a couple of textual variants) and as directly addressing God as “Father” nineteen times.
12. Jeremias, Prayers of Jesus, 11–65. Jeremias’s argument has been subjected to criticism by scholars such as Geza Vermes, James Barr, and James D. G. Dunn, but others have rehabilitated it in a more nuanced form. See R. Brown, New Testament Christology, 86–87; Witherington, Christology of Jesus, 216–21; Lee, From Messiah to Preexistent Son, 122–36.
13. Johansson, “‘Who Can Forgive Sins.’”
14. “To the Jewish leadership he has claimed a level of equality with God that is seen as blasphemous . . . making it apparent that more than a pure human and earthly messianic claim is present.” Bock, “What Did Jesus Do,” 202, 205.
15. Rabbi Yohanan ben Toreta is recorded as mocking Rabbi Akiba for being so gullible as to accept Simon’s claims, saying, “Akiba! Grass will grow on your cheeks before the Messiah will come!” (y. Ta’anit 4.5 as quoted by Marcus, “Mark 14:61,” 127–29).
16. Hurtado, How on Earth, 34.
17. St. Basil of Caesarea, Against Eunomius 2.16–17 (ET: DelCogliano and Radde-Gallwitz, St. Basil of Caesarea: Against Eunomius, 152–53). Cp. Athanasius, Against the Arians 1.20–21 (NPNF2 4.318).
18. Dunn, Did the First Christians, 143, 145.
19. Recent scholarly defenses of the preexistence of Christ include Lee, From Messiah to Preexistent Son; McCready, He Came Down from Heaven; and Gathercole, Preexistent Son.
20. Dunn, Christology in the Making, 98–128. Good critiques of Dunn’s interpretation of Phil 2:5–11 may be found in Hurtado, How on Earth, 98–101; Lee, From Messiah to Preexistent Son, 305–8; McCready, He Came Down from Heaven, 73–80. “Dunn’s conclusion that Paul did not believe in the preexistence of Christ has persuaded very few.” Hagner, New Testament, 400 n11.
21. Hengel, Between Jesus and Paul, 30–47.
22. Jesus’ “I have come” pronouncements: Matt 5:17; 9:13 (= Mark 2:17; Luke 5:32); 10:34–35 (= Luke 12:51); 20:28 (= Mark 10:45); Luke 12:49; 19:10. See Gathercole, Preexistent Son. Coming or being sent “into the world” texts: John 1:9; 3:17, 19; 6:14; 10:36; 11:27; 12:46; 16:28; 17:18; 18:37; 1 Tim 1:15; Heb 1:6; 10:5; 1 John 4:9.
23. Heb 1:1–14; 2:5–18; 5:5–8; 7:3; 10:5–7. See Bauckham, Jesus and the God of Israel, 233–53.
24. The exclusive/peculiar work of God. Hengel, Son of God, 72.
25. As many scholars recognize, these passages are undoubtedly shaped by the Jewish tradition of reflection on the mysterious figure of Wisdom in Prov 8:22–31. Wisdom, the “master workman” at God’s side, the intermediary of creation, is now seen to be the eternally preexistent Son of God. Hengel, Son of God, 72.
26. McCready, He Came Down, 82. “If He be a creature, how is He at the same time the Creator of creatures?” (Athanasius, Circular to the Bishops of Egypt and Libya 14 [NPNF2 4.230]).
27.
