said and we know the Bible, of course, says no such thing. But when we use a prooftext method that is not careful to notice context, we have no choice but to fill in the gaps with speculations that are not inherent to the text. In other words, we have to make stuff up.
Of course, we can’t blame people for trying to make sense of difficult language. Operating within the prooftext methodology, focusing on a few trees while failing to see the whole forest, it really is quite challenging to make heads or tails out of “God” being “begotten” as “God’s Son.” So we either downplay or over interpret the verses that don’t fit. Those who take the opposing view generally respond by assembling their own list of verses and offering their own strained interpretations. So we end up stranded on a prooftext impasse, my chosen texts against yours and yours against mine.
But there is a solution, and it is very clearly seen to be the solution once we engage with it and see where it leads:
Read the Bible.
The whole thing.
On its own terms.
When we read the Bible as an unfolding narrative—as the big story it actually is—with key characters played out in an overarching, intentional plot line, the meaning of the Sonship of Christ becomes unmistakably evident. In other
words, if we really want to understand the sense in which Jesus is the Son of God, we need to pan out from our selected verses to take in the grand historical tale the prophets are telling.
When in doubt, pan out.
And when we do that—wow!—a whole new world of biblical understanding opens before us, and there is no need for strained interpretations. We just see it. The story tells us the truth in ways that micromanaging individual verses never can.
So let’s do just that. Let’s read the Bible on its own terms and see where it leads.
This is going to be exciting.
“When we use a prooftext method that is not careful to notice context, we have no choice but to fill in the gaps with speculations that are not inherent to the text. In other words, we have to make stuff up.”
Chapter Three
A PROPHECY OF PROGENY
The biblical story opens with God creating Adam and Eve.
They are the first human beings.
All other humans come from them.
There is an immediately evident pattern to the narrative: creation, procreation.
God created Adam and Eve in God’s “own image” and then Adam, with no small amount of help from Eve, “begot a son in his own likeness, after his image” (Genesis 1:27; Genesis 5:3).
And this Adam fella, well, he is the first “son of God”
in the biblical narrative, and he’s the initial character in
the story that gives meaning to the Sonship identity that is woven throughout the rest of the Bible. When we skip forward in the narrative to the New Testament, the deliberate intent of the “son” theme becomes evident. In Luke’s genealogy of Jesus, each person in the lineage is called the “son” of some human father, until we get all the way back to Adam, the first man, who is distinguished from all the others like this:
. . . Adam, the son of God. Luke 3:38
Do you see what just happened? The New Testament deliberately loops all the way back to the opening of the biblical story in order to tell us who Jesus is, and it does so by telling us who Adam was. There’s Adam, and there’s Jesus. And these two figures constitute the premise of the entire biblical story, as we will see with greater and greater clarity as we proceed.
From the outset of the story, God has a “son,” and his name is Adam. God has a daughter, too, and she forms a vital thread of the story, as well, which will soon become evident. For now, we are interested in tracing the biblical thread of “son” in order to comprehend the Sonship of Jesus.
According to Luke, Adam is the “the son of God” in a more foundational sense than any of the human beings that follow him.
Why?
Well, quite simply because he is the first of his kind, the first human, from whom all others will emerge and receive their identity.
Adam and Eve were created.
Everyone else was procreated.
That’s how the biblical story begins.
Adam was the head of the human race, from whom all of humanity would receive their “likeness.” Beginning with him, the “image” of God was to be passed on from generation to generation, creating an ever-widening circle of human beings with the capacity to love like God loves, living in God’s “image” or “likeness.” That was the divine plan in humanity’s creation. There was to be a succession of sons and daughters who would pass on God’s image. Again, for clarity:
God created Adam and Eve in God’s “own image” (Genesis 1:27).
Then Adam “begot a son in his own likeness, after his image” (Genesis 5:3).
What a wonderful plan!
But right here the story makes a tragic shift. An interruption was imposed upon the plan:
an interruption we call the Fall of humanity
an interruption in which the fallen angel, Lucifer, deceived humanity into believing God is arbitrary, restrictive, untrustworthy, and self-serving (Genesis 3:1-5)
an interruption that nearly effaced the “image” of God from “the son of God,” thus disrupting the capacity of God’s son to transmit God’s image from generation to generation
And because there was an interruption, an intervention was needed:
an intervention that would have to happen from the inside of the human situation
an intervention that would offer a new way forward with a new starting point
an intervention that would come in the form of a new “Son of God” to replace Adam, a new head of the human race who would reestablish God’s “image” in humanity
Directly after the Fall, the Creator issued a prophecy in the form of a threat to Satan and a promise to humanity:
I will put enmity between you (Satan) and the woman (Eve and her progeny), and between your offspring and hers; He (the coming offspring) will crush your head, and you will strike His heel. Genesis 3:15, NIV
Don’t miss the point.
The promise of deliverance is set forth in the language of progeny or offspring. Two groups of people will be at odds down through history. A spiritual lineage will issue forth from Satan, waging war against God and His people, while a spiritual lineage will issue forth from the woman, through which a special “offspring” will one day be born to conquer Satan and reverse the effects of the Fall.
