What does the term ‘the Son of God’ actually mean? More importantly for our understanding, what did the term mean to the writers of the New Testament Bible? First we must understand that the New Testament was exclusively written by the followers of Jesus of Nazareth. Just as Jesus Himself was born Jewish, the authors of the New Testament were also born Jewish.
The Jews are strictly monotheistic which means the belief in one God. The ‘Shema’ is the prayer/law taught by God in the Old Testament which declares the existence on one God. You will find the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-7 which states: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (KJV)
As we can see, the Bible is clear in stating that there is one God and also to make sure that this is taught to the reader’s children. It is no doubt that the obedient Jewish family taught their children this truth given by God.
In Mark 8:27-29, Jesus of Nazareth asked His followers who other people thought that He was, they answered that some believed He was John the Baptist or Isaiah or some other prophet. When Jesus asked them directly who they thought He was, Peter answered that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. What this literally meant to Peter was that God had made a human body for Himself and the Everlasting Father was with them, robed in flesh. They knew from Old Testament prophecy that a child would be born of a virgin and that child would be called Emmanuel which Is translated ‘God with us’. (Isaiah 7:14) They knew according to Isaiah 9:6 that a male child would be born who would one day rule the nations and that He would actually be a wonder or miracle of a teacher, He would be El Gibor which is translated ‘God the strongest’ (Mighty God), the everlasting Father and the principality or Master of peace. Peter and the other followers were present when Jesus opened blind eyes, and many deaf received their hearing and the dead were raised to life and many other miracles that only God in flesh could do; as a result Peter knew that he was talking to the anointed One (the Christ), in other words, God in flesh . On this truth, Jesus the Christ stated that the very gates or protection of hell would not prevail against the church also translated, the called out ones. (In that time, gates were used as a defense against outside attack) In other words, the devil’s kingdom can’t stop this Truth. This is a truth that needs to be rediscovered in this perilous time of modern spiritual attack and deception. The Christian church needs to receive an understanding of Who Jesus actually is!
The good news is that the Truth will still set you free even today…