“When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”
(Luke 3:21-22)
Jesus said, “And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” (John 17:5)
By these words a relationship is described that far exceeded the life Jesus was living in Israel in that day. But this was not a new revelation. The prophets had spoken such truth before. Perhaps no other descriptive phrase applied to Jesus is as revealing of the nature, Being, and mission of Messiah Jesus as, “Son of God.”
To understand Jesus’ pre-existent state, we must go back to the beginning—as brought out by the apostle John. Here, John describes Jesus before He took on a fleshly human form.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
(John 1:1 – 4 and 14)
In fact, Jesus identified Himself as the “I AM” of the Old Testament. “Jesus said unto them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” (John 8:58)
We see this pre-existance in the very first book of the Bible, where the Hebrew designation for “God” is Elohim, a collective plural noun.
“Then God [Elohim] said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26a)
“Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” (Genesis 11:7)
In Jesus’ prayer recorded in John 17, He further revealed that the “Us” of these passages spoke of both the Father and the Son.
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.” (John 17:20 – 21)
So while the plurality of the Godhead is evident in the Old Testament, this truth is revealed primarily in the New Testament—by Jesus Himself. Indeed, the eternal relationship between the Father and the Son is made clearer.
“All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” (Luke 10:22)
“No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” (John 1:18)
There are many today who reject the deity of Messiah. They argue that the doctrine that Jesus was the unique Son of God was invented by the early Christians and that the God of the Old Testament had no Son. Orthodox Jews in particular emphasize Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.”
But consider also Proverbs 30:4 “Who has ascended into heaven, or descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, If you know?”
And then there are the two famous prophecies of Isaiah, quoted so frequently at Christmas time.
“Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (meaning ‘God with us’)” (Isaiah 7:14).
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: . . . and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
It is also found in the Old Testament:
Psalms 2:7 “I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.”
And Psalm 2:12 “Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.”
The Term “Son of God” occurs 47 times in the New Testament. In reference to Jesus, it is a title of the heavenly, eternal Son who is equal to God the Father (John 5:18-24). It is Jesus who fully reveals the Father (Matt. 11:27). He is the exact representation of the Father (Heb. 1:1-3), He possesses all authority in heaven and earth (Matt. 28:18), and Jesus had glory with the Father before the world was made (John 17:5). Psalm 2:7 itself is applied directly to Jesus 3 times in the New Testament. (Acts 13:33, Hebrews 1:5, and Hebrews 5:5)
Simon Peter answered and said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
(Matthew 16:16)
The expression “Son of God,” when applied to Jesus, means that He possesses the nature of and displays the qualities of God, because that is WHO HE IS. The uncreated, ungenerated, co-eternal, co-equal Son of God.
See also: “Does God Have a Son?” by Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum at http://www.bibleprophecyblog.com/…/does-god-have-son.html