Since the Lord Jesus appeared and performed His work during His incarnation as the Son of man, with great adoration, the followers of the Lord Jesus 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, the religious world all believed that the Lord Jesus was God’s Son. In this way, the notion of this Father-Son relationship was formed. In fact, in the Old Testament, there’s no record that God has a Son. It only testifies that “Jehovah our God is one LORD” (Deuteronomy 6:4). The Lord Jesus never said that God and He are Father-Son relationship. He only said “He that has seen Me has seen the Father,” “I am in the Father, and the Father in Me,” and “I and My Father are one.” Clearly, these words of the Lord Jesus said that He is the Father, and He is the Son. He is God Himself, the appearance of God. There is only one God, and there is no Father-Son relationship to speak of.
Some people may say that it’s recorded in Matthew 3:16-17 that “And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, see, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting on Him: And see a voice from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Since there is no Father-Son relationship, why did the Holy Spirit personally bear witness that the Lord Jesus was God’s beloved Son? On this question, Let’s read God’s words. God says, “There are others who say, ‘Did not God expressly state that Jesus was His beloved Son?’ Jesus is the beloved Son of God, in whom He is well pleased—this was certainly spoken by God Himself. That was God bearing witness to Himself, but merely from a different perspective, that of the Spirit in heaven bearing witness to His own incarnation. Jesus is His incarnation, not His Son in heaven. Do you understand? Do not the words of Jesus, ‘I am in the Father, and the Father in Me,’ indicate that They are one Spirit? And is it not because of the incarnation that They were separated between heaven and earth? In reality, They are still one; no matter what, it is simply God bearing witness to Himself.” God is Spirit, invisible to man. When God becomes clothed in flesh, man sees only flesh, he still cannot see God’s Spirit. If the Holy Spirit had directly borne witness to the fact that the incarnate Lord Jesus was God, man wouldn’t have accepted it. Because, at the time, no one even knew what it meant for God to be incarnated. They just came into contact with God’s incarnation and had very little understanding. They never imagined that this regular Son of man would be the embodiment of the Spirit of God, that is, the appearance of God in the flesh. Even though the Lord Jesus expressed much of His word in the course of His work, brought man the way, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” and manifested many miracles, fully revealing God’s authority and power, man failed to recognize from the Lord Jesus’ word and work that the Lord Jesus was God Himself that is, was the appearance of God. So, God just worked according to the stature of people at that time, He didn’t make it hard for them. The Holy Spirit could only testify within the understanding of the people at that time, so He called the Lord Jesus God’s beloved Son, temporarily allowing man to think of the Lord Jesus as God’s Son. This way fit in better with people’s conceptions, and was easier to accept because, at that time, the Lord Jesus was only doing the work of redemption. No matter how people called the Lord Jesus, the important thing was that they accepted that the Lord Jesus was the Savior, had their sins remitted, and were thus qualified to enjoy God’s grace.
Some people also ask, “If the Lord Jesus is God Himself, then why is it that when the Lord Jesus prays, He still prays to God the Father?” There is truly mystery to the Lord Jesus praying to God the Father. When God is incarnated in the flesh, God’s Spirit is hidden within the flesh, the flesh itself is unaware of the Spirit’s presence. Just as we cannot feel our spirits within us. What’s more, God’s Spirit does not do anything supernatural within His flesh. So, the Lord Jesus would pray to the heavenly Father, which is to say, from within His normal humanity, the Lord Jesus prayed to God’s Spirit. This makes complete sense. When the Lord Jesus formally performed His ministry, the Holy Spirit began to bear witness that He was the incarnate God. Only then did the Lord Jesus realize His true identity, that He had come to do the work of redemption. But when He was to be nailed to the cross, He still prayed to God the Father. This shows that Christ’s substance is completely obedient to God. Therefore, no matter how the Lord Jesus was expressing His word or praying to God the Father, His substance was divinity, not humanity. His true identity is God Himself. Just as God’s word says, “When Jesus called God in heaven by the name of Father as He prayed, this was done only from the perspective of a created man, only because the Spirit of God had put on an ordinary and normal flesh and had the exterior cover of a created being. Even if within Him was the Spirit of God, His exterior appearance was still that of a normal man; in other words, He had become the ‘Son of man’ of which all men, including Jesus Himself, spoke. Given that He is called the Son of man, He is a person (whether man or woman, in any case one with the exterior shell of a human being) born into a normal family of ordinary people. Therefore, Jesus calling God in heaven by the name of Father was the same as how you at first called Him Father; He did so from the perspective of a created man. Do you still remember the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught you to memorize? ‘Our Father in heaven….’ He asked all men to call God in heaven by the name of Father. And since He too called Him Father, He did so from the perspective of one who stands on an equal footing with you all. Since you called God in heaven by the name of Father, Jesus saw Himself to be on equal footing with you, and as a man on earth chosen by God (that is, the Son of God). If you call God Father, is this not because you are a created being? However great the authority of Jesus on earth, prior to the crucifixion, He was merely a Son of man, governed by the Holy Spirit (that is, God), and one of the earth’s created beings, for He had yet to complete His work. Therefore, His calling God in heaven Father was solely His humility and obedience. His addressing God (that is, the Spirit in heaven) in such a manner, however, does not prove that He was the Son of the Spirit of God in heaven. Rather, it was simply that His perspective was different, not that He was a different person. The existence of distinct persons is a fallacy! Prior to His crucifixion, Jesus was a Son of man bound by the limitations of the flesh, and He did not fully possess the authority of the Spirit. That is why He could only seek the will of God the Father from the perspective of a created being. It is as He thrice prayed in Gethsemane: ‘Not as I will, but as You will.’ Before He was laid on the cross, He was but the King of the Jews; He was Christ, the Son of man, and not a body of glory. That is why, from the standpoint of a created being, He called God Father.”
