"His only Son"

All the Gospels tell us that Jesus is the Son of God. In fact Mark’s opening words are “The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1) and this is almost immediately followed by the account of Jesus’s baptism in which a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11). At his trial, Jesus affirmed that he is “the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One” (Mark 14:61-62) and that’s acknowledged even by evil spirits and by the Roman officer responsible for crucifying him (Mark 3:11; 15:29).

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John’s gospel emphasises the unique relationship Jesus has with the Father – he is God’s one and only Son (John 3:16) who is at the Father’s side (John 1:18). Because of this Jesus can say, “I and the Father are one” and “the one who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 10:30; 14:9). Both judgement and the giving of life are entrusted to him by the Father, “that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father” (5:21-23).

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So Jesus is equal to the Father and worthy of our worship, “for God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him” (Colossians 1:19). Supremely, he is shown to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:4).