The Father and Son Relationship
When people ask me who I believe Yeshua is, I tell them, "I believe he is the Messiah promised in Hebrew Scripture, the only Son of Yahweh the Father." Scripture uses the terms "Father" and "Son" to convey to us the relationship that Yahweh and Yeshua have. It helps because we experience the father and son relationship in our own lives. I have one sibling, my sister, but I am the only son that my father has. My father begat me, loves me, has told me he is pleased with me, gives me hugs, hurts when I hurt, smiles when I smile, laughs with me, and is always there for me when I need him. I have a special relationship with my dad. I am his son, his only beloved son.
What's neat is that the older I get (and the more I grow in mind and heart), I see more and more of my dad in me.[1] People have always told me how much I look like my dad. My sister once posted a photo of me on her Facebook page, and one of her friends who had never seen me before said something like, "Whoa, he looks just like your dad!"[2] It made me smile, because I've been hearing that my entire life. I now catch myself saying things my dad always said, walking and talking like my dad, and even sitting like my dad. None of this should surprise me though, because he's my father and I'm his son.
I'm now grown, with three sons of my own. This means that I am a father and they are my sons. I love my sons. I love to be around them. I love to see them laugh. I love to give them a hug and tell them I love them. I love to take them to work with me and teach them my trade, and people are always telling me how there's no denying that they are my sons, because they look like me. I am now experiencing all of the precious moments my dad experienced with me. I used to only know what it feels like to be a son; now I know what it feels like to be a father.
I am not saying that the relationship I have with my father (or my sons) is identical to the Father and Son relationship of Yahweh and Yeshua. What I am saying is that the Father and Son language used in Scripture (of Yahweh and Yeshua) is able to teach us something about their relationship, because we experience father and son relationships. Yahweh chose to use this language in Scripture, and it is used for a reason, to help us better comprehend. We should be thankful that Yahweh has given us a relationship in our own lives that helps explain the relationship He has with Yeshua. We should also accept this relationship that Yahweh and Yeshua have, and not try to distort it or downplay it. To be the only Son of Yahweh is not a small position.
What's neat is that the older I get (and the more I grow in mind and heart), I see more and more of my dad in me.[1] People have always told me how much I look like my dad. My sister once posted a photo of me on her Facebook page, and one of her friends who had never seen me before said something like, "Whoa, he looks just like your dad!"[2] It made me smile, because I've been hearing that my entire life. I now catch myself saying things my dad always said, walking and talking like my dad, and even sitting like my dad. None of this should surprise me though, because he's my father and I'm his son.
I'm now grown, with three sons of my own. This means that I am a father and they are my sons. I love my sons. I love to be around them. I love to see them laugh. I love to give them a hug and tell them I love them. I love to take them to work with me and teach them my trade, and people are always telling me how there's no denying that they are my sons, because they look like me. I am now experiencing all of the precious moments my dad experienced with me. I used to only know what it feels like to be a son; now I know what it feels like to be a father.
I am not saying that the relationship I have with my father (or my sons) is identical to the Father and Son relationship of Yahweh and Yeshua. What I am saying is that the Father and Son language used in Scripture (of Yahweh and Yeshua) is able to teach us something about their relationship, because we experience father and son relationships. Yahweh chose to use this language in Scripture, and it is used for a reason, to help us better comprehend. We should be thankful that Yahweh has given us a relationship in our own lives that helps explain the relationship He has with Yeshua. We should also accept this relationship that Yahweh and Yeshua have, and not try to distort it or downplay it. To be the only Son of Yahweh is not a small position.
End Notes
[1] This concept I experience always makes me think of what Luke 2:52 says: "And Yeshua increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." Yeshua did not have all wisdom and favor from his birth. Yes, he was begotten by the power of the Holy Spirit of Yahweh, but after his birth he had to increase in these things. Luke writes that he increased not only in man's sight, but in God's sight as well. I must point out here that even as an adult, Yeshua did not know everything that Yahweh knew. In Mark 13:32 Yeshua said himself that he did not know the day nor hour of his coming. He said that no man knows, neither the angels, nor the Son, but my Father only. People go to great lengths in attempt to explain how as the Son, he doesn't know, but as God, he does know. When Yeshua said he didn't know the day or hour of his coming, I choose to believe him. I don't believe he could "flip a switch" and know all of a sudden (because he was really God or the Father). I really believe that he did not know, just like he said.
[2] What we experience in this way in our own lives helps us to understand what Yeshua meant in John 14:9 when he said, "he who has seen me has seen the Father." Yeshua didn't say, "I am the Father," but he was telling Philip that when he performed his miracles, people were actually seeing the Father (Whose fullness dwelt inside of Yeshua) perform those miracles (vss. 10-11). When someone looked at Yeshua, they were looking at the man who was more in the image of Yahweh than any other man that had walked the face of the earth before him, or would after him. The original Adam was made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27; 5:1), and all of Adam's descendants are said to be made in God's image (1 Corinthians 11:7; James 3:9). Yeshua is said to be THE image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15), and elsewhere is said to be the express image of God's person (Hebrews 1:3).
[2] What we experience in this way in our own lives helps us to understand what Yeshua meant in John 14:9 when he said, "he who has seen me has seen the Father." Yeshua didn't say, "I am the Father," but he was telling Philip that when he performed his miracles, people were actually seeing the Father (Whose fullness dwelt inside of Yeshua) perform those miracles (vss. 10-11). When someone looked at Yeshua, they were looking at the man who was more in the image of Yahweh than any other man that had walked the face of the earth before him, or would after him. The original Adam was made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27; 5:1), and all of Adam's descendants are said to be made in God's image (1 Corinthians 11:7; James 3:9). Yeshua is said to be THE image of God (2 Corinthians 4:4; Colossians 1:15), and elsewhere is said to be the express image of God's person (Hebrews 1:3).