Whose Son Is Jesus? Whose Son Are You?

David W Palmer

(John 14:7–8 NKJV) “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” {8} Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”

In answer to Philip’s request— “show us the Father”—Jesus is about to re-explain something that is challenging for us Westerners to grasp. In response to a similar statement, Jesus had earlier explained about family members and their relationship to the Father:

(Luke 8:20–21 NKJV) And it was told Him by some, who said, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, desiring to see You.” {21} But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

By birth, Jesus was undoubtedly God’s son; but he was also Mary’s son. So Joseph and Mary’s other children were Jesus’s half-brothers and half-sisters. In this passage, we see that they came to see him. However, when someone told him that his mother and brothers were outside wanting to see him, his response reveals his understanding of family: “My mother and my brothers are these who” hear from God and submissively obey him.

In Jesus’s mind, and possibly in the Eastern mindset of his day, family members were all of those in submission to the one father—taking on his values, his dreams, and who imitated his actions. Jesus made this clear about himself when he explained his own actions:

(John 5:16–18 NKJV) For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. {17} But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” {18} Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.

In this passage, Jesus is explaining to the “Jews” why and how he healed the paralytic on the Sabbath day. What he said to them should have been obvious to them; he was his Father’s Son—no doubt like all of them who were indeed their own father’s sons. He was simply following his Father’s example, imitating what he saw with him. He clarified this for them:

(John 5:19–20 NKJV) Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. {20} For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does; and He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.”

Jesus claimed that his miraculous works were merely a Son imitating what he saw his Father doing. After all, they all imitated and walked in the steps of their fathers; so without doubt, they fully understood what he said to them. No wonder “the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He … said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.”

Instead of seeing his miracles as irrefutable evidence of Jesus being God’s son, the Jews wanted all the more to kill him. This is because they were not doing the will of the same father that he was:

(John 8:38, 41–42 NKJV) “I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father.” ... {41} “You do the deeds of your father.” Then they said to Him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.” {42} Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me.”

In this speech, Jesus again makes the family connection: “If God were your Father, you would love Me.” The works proved he was God’s son; their murderous hatred of him proved that they were not God’s sons. To clarify exactly whose sons they were, Jesus confronted them with the truth:

(John 8:44 NKJV) “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”

During the Last Supper, Philip still seemed not to understand this very basic truth. He asked Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.”

Philip was not one of those murderously imitating the devil; on the contrary, he was submitted to Jesus and his ministry. But he still didn’t “get” this fundamental truth about a son being a replica of his father. So, pointing again to his miraculous and loving actions, Jesus said:

(John 14:9–10 NKJV) … “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? {10} Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.”

Jesus had been with his Father—watching him, loving him, listening to him, and imitating—so much that the Father was literally “in him.” This is like us being around family members or best friends; after a while, we know all their sayings, and can virtually predict what they will do in any given situation. In other words, we know their characteristics, patterns, habits, and style by heart—they are in us.

Jesus had already shown them the Father; everything he did was a replica of his unseen dad. Again, to confirm that it was the loving creative God he was imitating, Jesus pointed to the words he spoke that led to the loving miracles he performed in his Father’s name:

(John 14:10–11 NLT) “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. {11} Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do.”

Today, I want to encourage you that you have access to Jesus in the same way that he had access to his Father. You can watch both Jesus and Father in the spirit through your open invitation to come to the throne room, to dine with him, to listen to his voice, and to watch what he is doing:

(Revelation 3:20 NKJV) “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.”

The next move is up to us. Jesus is already knocking at the door. He promises that if we open up to him, we can enjoy sweet fellowship with him, along with the ultimate supernatural nutritious and satisfying spiritual food. The Holy Spirit adds …

(James 4:8 NKJV) “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Let’s avail ourselves of this invitation until we fully know him; we can get to know his character, watch his intended actions, listen to his voice, and consume his words. This is all available to us right now. What’s more, if we abide in this communion, Jesus will be in us as his Father was in him:

(John 17:21–23 NKJV) “That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. {22} And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: {23} I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”

In the new birth, we have been born as God’s sons and daughters, adopted in Jesus. Now, by knowing him, watching him, and listening to him, we can be sons and daughters of God in the same sense Jesus explained to Phillip and the Jews: we can speak his words, do his works, and plainly show his character. It begins by drawing so near, listening so intently, and worshipping so submissively that who he is literally gets into us. Then he will overflow through our every conversation, action, and characteristic. You will then be God’s son or daughter in every sense of the word. Praise the Lord.