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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?
One of the reasons that our Muslim friends reject faith in Jesus is because of a misunderstanding of the phrase “Son of God.” In their thinking, this suggests that Christians believe God had sexual relations with Mary in order to bring forth Jesus.
“Ibn Kathir understood Muhammad’s teachings. Muhammad taught that Christians held the doctrine that God took Mary as His wife or concubine, impregnated her, and as a result she later gave birth to Jesus. The Quran challenges, “Allah could not have had a son because he took no wife.” Later in Medina, Muhammad, still not understanding the Christian doctrine of Jesus’ sonship, continued to speak out against the idea that God had fleshly relations with Mary: And they say: Allah hath taken unto Himself a Son. Be He glorified! Nay, but whatsoever is in the heaven and the earth, His. All are subservient unto Him. The Originator of the heavens and the earth! When He decreeth a thing, He saith unto it only: Be! and it is (2: 116-117). Again Ibn Kathir comments on the Quran’s rejection of Jesus’ sonship: This and the following Ayat refute the Christians, may Allah curse them, and their like among the Jews and the Arab idolators, who claimed that the angels are Allah’s daughters. Allah refuted all of them in their claim that He had begotten a son… All creatures are Allah’s servants and are owned by Him. Therefore, how could one of them be His son? The son of any being is born out of two comparable beings. Allah has no equal or rival sharing His grace and greatness, so how can He have a son when He has no wife? 8 Ibn Kathir refers to a union of flesh to produce offspring. Since there was no woman comparable to Allah then Allah could not have taken a wife to have relations with. Note here that in all of these verses a physical union (with Mary), is presented and rejected by the Quran. Muhammad countered that concept and said that Allah only needed to speak “Be” and in that fashion Mary conceived miraculously. Muhammad did not understand the very essence of Christianity. His knowledge of Christianity seems to be flawed and inaccurate, that is, that a follower of Jesus believes that God had sex with Mary! This is contrary to what the Bible teaches. We believe that Jesus, in eternal relationship with God, took upon Himself human form.” (Josh McDowell, Jim Walker, Understanding Islam and Christianity: Beliefs That Separate Us and How to Talk About Them, 66-67 (Kindle Edition): Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers)
Christians do not believe, of course, that God the Father brought Jesus into the world through sexual relations with Mary. This is a misunderstanding of the Bible teaching of the phrase “Son of God.” In fact, Matthew contradicts this theory, since He is clear that Mary continued to be a virgin until after Jesus was born (Matthew 1:18-25).
So then, what does the phrase “Son of God” actually mean?
“Perhaps no name or title of Christ has been so misunderstood as the title Son of God.[ 22] Some have taken this term to mean that Christ came into existence at a point in time and that he is in some way inferior to the Father. Some believe that since Christ is the Son of God, he cannot possibly be God in the same sense as the Father. Such an understanding is based on a faulty conception of what “Son of…” meant among the ancients. Though the term can refer to “offspring of” in some contexts, it carries the more important meaning, “of the order of.”[ 23] The phrase is often used this way in the Old Testament. For example, “sons of the prophets” meant “of the order of prophets” (1 Kings 20: 35). “Sons of the singers” meant “of the order of singers” (Neh. 12: 28). Likewise, the phrase “Son of God” means “of the order of God,” and represents a claim to undiminished deity. Ancient Semitics and Orientals used the phrase “Son of…” to indicate likeness or sameness of nature and equality of being.[ 24] Hence, when Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, his Jewish contemporaries fully understood that he was making a claim to be God in an unqualified sense. Benjamin B. Warfield affirms that, from the earliest days of Christianity, the phrase “Son of God” was understood to be fully equivalent to God.[ 25] This is why, when Jesus claimed to be the Son of God, the Jews insisted: “We have a law, and according to that law he [Christ] must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God” (John 19: 7, insert mine). Recognizing that Jesus was identifying himself as God, the Jews wanted to put him to death for committing blasphemy (see Lev. 24: 16).” (Ron Rhodes, Christ Before the Manger: The Life and Times of the Preincarnate Christ, 29-30 (Kindle Edition): Wipf And Stock)
One thing that we should learn from this is that common phrases we take for granted may not be understood in the same way by those that we study the Gospel with. I remember hearing once about a preacher who was studying with a lady about the Trinity. After a while, he realized that there was some kind of language barrier between them. He asked her what the Trinity is, thinking that she would say the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. She responded by saying that the Trinity is faith, hope, and love-and the greatest of these is love!
We need to gently and accurately define our words as we share the Gospel with our neighbors.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.