About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman

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One Son, Many Sons 

In the early decades of the Roman Empire, emperors were considered to be divine upon their death.  Their successors, who weren't their biological sons, were then considered to be "sons of god".  It was in this political context that Jesus was born.  This is significant in relation to Galatians 4:4 where Paul wrote that "when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman".  This tells me that God, despite existing outside of our time space environment, has a predetermined timeline of planned events. 

We also see this timeline or timetable of events when Jesus, referring to His death, said "my time has not yet come" (John 7:6).  Similarity, Paul wrote that "God, who set me apart from my mother's womb and called me by his grace" (Galatians 1:15).    

One reason why I think God predetermined Jesus' birth in and around 4 through 6 BC was due to the Roman political culture of that day.  Caesar Augustus, the first Roman Emperor who ruled from 27 BC to 14 AD was succeeded by Tiberius who ruled from 14 AD to 37 AD.  Tiberius, then, was declared to be the first "son of god", the son of the dead yet divine Augustus.  It was during Tiberius' rule that at His water baptism the Spirit of God came upon Jesus, anointing Him to be the "Son of God", the only God.  Does that suggest a godly timeline to you?   

The DNA of Jesus was both human and divine.  His mother was Mary.  His father was God.  The angel Gabriel told Mary that her son "will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High" (Luke 1:32).  The apostle John expressed it this way when he wrote that "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God".  "The Word" here refers to Jesus, who prior to His incarnation was not just with God, but He was in fact God. 

Our English word "Word" in John 1:1 is translated from the Greek word "logos" which suggests "the reasoning processes of the mind".  John was saying that before Jesus was conceived in Mary's womb, He was the reasoning processes of God.  At the moment of His conception, Jesus was the divine "Son of God", and that in the historic period when the first Roman Emperor would two decades later be declared divine at his death, leaving his successor to be declared the "son of god".  Do you find that interesting?      

In the Greco/Roman philosophical world of the day, the Greek word "logos" commonly referred to the Supreme God, the "unknown god" as Paul noted as he conversed with certain philosophers (Acts 17:23)   I don't think it was an accident that John penned the Greek word "logos" to refer to Jesus in the opening statement of his gospel account.  His Greco/Roman readers would have clearly understood his point that Jesus was God in human flesh far easier than you and I today.

Biologically speaking, you and I are fully human, and that due to our parents.  If, however, you are a true Christian, you have been impregnated with God's divine seed, His Spirit, creating a new reality for your earthly existence.  That doesn't mean you are fully human and fully God like Jesus, but it does usher you into the life of the divine that creates a new reality in your life.    

Paul wrote that "for those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters" (Romans 8:29).  John agreed when He wrote that "we will be like Him", that is Jesus (1 John 3:2).  The Biblical fact is that when this human age ends, we who have God's Spirit within us, will exist in the exact same form as Jesus on the Revelation 21 planet.  Jesus will still be the original Son of God, but we, like Him, will be sons and daughters of God as well, existing in a completely transformed reality. 

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