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SUBJECT: Luke 3:38 Son of God
QUESTION: What does this verse mean? I thought that
Jesus was the only son of God.
ANSWER:
First the verse:
Luke 3:38
Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which
was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.
Now the commentary:
Luke 3:21-38
The genealogy concludes with this, who was the son of Adam,
the son of God.
(1.) Some refer it to Adam; he was in a peculiar manner the
son of God, being, more immediately than any of his
offspring, the offspring of God by creation.
(2.) Others refer it to Christ, and so make the last words
of this genealogy to denote his divine and human nature. He
was both the Son of Adam and the Son of God that he might be
a proper Mediator between God and the sons of Adam, and
might bring the sons of Adam to be, through him, the sons of
God. ~from Matthew Henry's
Commentary on the Whole Bible
Note: Based on
the context, we tend to agree with the first conclusion
though the second also applies in principle.
In the Bullinger Bible in Appendix 23—The Sons of God, it
states:
It is only by the Divine specific act of creation that any
created being can be called “a son of God”. For that which
is “born of the flesh is flesh”. God is spirit and that
which is “born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). Hence
Adam is called a “son of God” in Luke 3:38.
Note: This
agrees with conclusion 1 of the Matthew Henry Commentary.
Now this from the Gills Exposition of the Bible (a
commentary):
“which was the son of God”:
not begotten, as all the rest were, by their immediate
parents, but created by God, in a supernatural manner, out
of the dust of the earth, and quickened with the breath of
God: so Adam is, by the Jews F8 called, (Myhla Nb) , "the
son of God": though this may be understood of Jesus; the son
of Joseph, of Heli… and so on to this clause, "the son of
God"; being so as a divine person, to whom the human nature
was united, and on that account so called; see (Luke 1:35)
Thus, as Matthew gives us the regal line of Christ, showing
him to be heir to the throne of his father David, Luke gives
the natural line of Christ; and as Matthew traces his
genealogy down from Abraham, in a descending line, to
Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus, Luke
traces it upwards, in an ascending line, from Mary by
Joseph, even up to Adam; to whom the Messiah was first
promised, and who was a type of the second Adam, from whom
he descended, though not by ordinary generation; nay, even
to God himself: Christ, according to his divine nature, was
the only begotten of the Father; and as to his human nature,
had a body prepared by him, and in the fullness of time was
God manifest in the flesh.
Note: This
commentary is in line with the others.
CONCLUSION:
This is not a contradiction here. Christ is the only
begotten son of God. Adam is son by creation and therefore
the phrase is appropriate.
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