Question: The Bible clearly states that the Lord Jesus is Christ, the Son of God, and we believers all acknowledge that the Lord Jesus is Christ, the Son of God. Yet you’ve testified that the incarnate Christ is the appearance of God, is God Himself. That the Lord Jesus is God Himself and Almighty God is also God Himself, this is quite mysterious to us and differs from our previous understanding. So is the incarnate Christ God Himself or God’s Son? Both situations seem reasonable to us, and both accord with the Bible. So which understanding is correct?
Answer: This is precisely the question that most believers have trouble understanding. Ever since the incarnate Lord Jesus came to do the work of redemption of mankind, God became the Son of man, appearing and doing work among men. He not only opened the Age of Grace but also initiated a new age in which God came personally into the human world to live alongside man. With great adoration, man called the Lord Jesus as Christ, the Son of God. At that time, the Holy Spirit also bore witness to the fact that the Lord Jesus is the beloved Son of God, and the Lord Jesus called God of heaven Father. As such, man believed that the Lord Jesus was God’s Son. In this way, the notion of this “Father-Son relationship” was formed. Now let’s think for a moment. Does God say anywhere in Genesis that He has a son? No! Now during the Age of Law, did Jehovah God ever said that He had a son? He did not! This proves that there is only one God, there is no Father-Son relationship to speak of. Now some people may ask: During the Age of Grace, why did the Lord Jesus say that He was God’s Son? Was the Lord Jesus Christ God’s Son or God Himself? This is a question that believers have debated about throughout the ages. People sense the contradiction inherent in this issue, but they don’t know how to explain it. The Lord Jesus is God but is also God’s Son, so is there also a God the Father? People are even less capable of explaining this issue. Over the past two millennia, there have been very few that recognized that the Lord Jesus Christ is God Himself, is the appearance of God. Actually, there is clear record of this in the Bible. In John 14:8, Philip asked of the Lord Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and it suffises us.” Now, at that time, how did the Lord Jesus respond to Philip? He said to Philip, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known me, Philip? he that has seen me has seen the Father; and how say you then, Show us the Father? Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak to you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in me, he does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake” (John 14:9-11). Here, the Lord Jesus said very clearly, “he that has seen me has seen the Father.” As we can see, the Lord Jesus is the appearance of God Himself. The Lord Jesus did not say here that He and God have a Father-Son relationship. He just said, “I am in the Father, and the Father in me.” “I and my Father are one.” Now, according to the Lord Jesus’ words, can we not confirm that the Lord Jesus is God Himself, there is only one God and there is no Father-Son relationship to speak of?
