Jesus Affirms His Sonship

MEMORY SELECTION: “How is it that ye sought Me? Wist ye not that I must be about My Father’s business?” —Luke 2:49

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Luke 2:39-52

THE facts of the conception and birth of Jesus are in harmony with the prophecies. Isaiah wrote, “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.”—Isa. 7:14,15

The angel Gabriel, when he appeared to the virgin Mary, said, “And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. … The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”—Luke 1:31-33,35

The Apostle John states, “And the Logos became flesh, and dwelt among us.”—John 1:14, Diaglott

And so we have the testimony of the Scriptures that Jesus was the Son of God. The Scriptures also tell us that since God was his Father he did not inherit any of the adamic weaknesses and, in fact, was perfect in mind and body. (Heb. 7:26; I Pet. 1:18,19) In Hebrews 10:5 the Apostle Paul implies that the perfect body of flesh was especially prepared and arranged for by the Heavenly Father. This we know was for a purpose—that Jesus in his perfection could be the ransom price for Adam.

We believe that as a child Jesus was told by his mother of the miraculous circumstances of his birth and also, of course, of the many wonderful prophecies concerning him and his great future work. We know very little about Jesus as a child, but we believe that it is safe to surmise that with the brilliance of the perfect mind which Jesus possessed, his parents would provide everything that was available to read and study, and chief among these things would certainly be the scrolls of the law and the books of the Old Testament.

His perfect mind undoubtedly was able to absorb and retain all that he read; but, more than this, he was able to reason on the Scriptures. So when Jesus at the age of twelve went to the temple and discussed the law and the Scriptures with the doctors, the scripture says, “And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.” (Luke 2:47) It was at this time, when finally located by Mary and Joseph, that Jesus said, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?”—Luke 2:49

It was undoubtedly at this encounter with the doctors of the law that Jesus learned that a man was not considered mature or individually accountable until the age of thirty, for from this point on, until he appeared before John the Baptist, nothing is recorded about the life of Jesus. (Luke 3:23) But we know that when Jesus appeared before John at the river Jordan he was the exact price to correspond to Adam. We know that he had kept the law perfectly, because of the statement of the Heavenly Father, who said, “Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:22) By keeping the statutes of the law perfectly he proved that he was the One who was worthy.—Rev. 5:2-5

When Jesus took Adam’s place in death for the purpose of lifting the condemnation of death from Adam and his progeny, our Lord went out of existence as a man. (John 6:51) But God begat Jesus to the spirit nature when the Holy Spirit descended upon him at Jordan; and after his death on the cross, our Lord was raised out from death and exalted to the divine nature and the right hand of God. The Apostle Paul states, “Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”—Rom. 1:3,4

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