Divine Sonship, Divine Kingship and Triune God

When Jesus as God says “my God” on the Cross, or elsewhere in the Gospels, he is referencing the use of this term in Psalm 110 and other places and in doing so, speaking as He did in the Psalms (for he is the Author of all Scripture)- as Yahweh speaking to Yahweh, not as a creature speaking to its Creator.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Psalm 22:1)

At the moment of His death on the cross, Christ was experiencing the abandonment and despair that resulted from the outpouring of divine wrath upon the sin that He bore, the separation that humanity experiences from God because of sin, in his own Humanity. This was the price He paid to redeem His church–all who believed and all who would ever believe in Him–and He paid it in full. On the cross, Jesus in His humanity voluntarily surrendered His will to the Father in order to finish the task for which He came into the world. In the same way, He voluntarily emptied Himself of certain aspects of His deity when He came to earth as a man. In some way we can’t fully understand, God the Father turned away from God the Son for that moment, and Jesus died a very lonely death, but because it was God’s Will that he experience that state of suffering, which was itself far greater than all the pain inflicted by his torturers. Jesus is given, in his humanity to suffer the greatest suffering of the human condition in experiencing abandonment. This does not mean that the Father literally walked out on the Holy Trinity which would be absurd. If anything it is the narration of the Jesus’ subjective Human experience which he was given, according to the Father’s Will. But as we see in what follows, in using the phraseology “my God”, Jesus is actually referencing to his own divinity as well, when seen in light of the Psalms from whence this is taken, in the first place.

There are other places where Jesus calls God the Father His God.

In John 20:17 “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” (Jn. 20.17) and Revelation 3:2,12. But of note, Jesus even while saying “my God”, is also speaking as God as we see in Revelations “I will give you the crown of life…I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each of you as your works deserve…I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you…if you conquer…I will not blot your name out of the book of life…(to the lukewarm) I spit you out of my mouth…to the one who conquers I will give  a place with me on my throne…”, and the entire book continues in this vein, of course.

The Intent of the Divine Person addressing another as “my God”

When Jesus says “MY GOD” he is expressing ENDEARMENT and BELONGING. The Father and the Son truly belong to each other. This is different from the human prayer “my God” which denotes creaturliness, inferiority and dependence. Hierarchy is a characteristic of human societal living, man thinks of everything in terms of differences in power, dignity, and so on.

Brant Pitre says (p.145, the Case for Jesus) “…Jesus speaks of the mysterious riddle about the son of David. This episode is particularly important because it is the only passage in all four Gospels in which Jesus explicitly poses a question about “the Messiah” (Gk: ho Christos) (p146) “First, despite what some claim, Jesus is not rejecting the idea that the Messiah is a descendant of King David. The Old Testament makes abundantly clear that the future king of Israel—who by the first century came to be known as “the Messiah”—will in fact be descended from David (see 2 Samuel 7; Isaiah 11; Jeremiah 33; Ezekiel 37). What Jesus is questioning is the scribal tradition of referring to the Messiah by the title “the Son of David.” Why? Because the title “Son of David” is never found in Jewish Scripture; it comes from later in Jewish tradition. For this reason, Jesus is saying that the scriptural title for the Messiah is actually “Lord (Greek kyrios) of David.”

He does this by referring to Psalm 110 (1), in which David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, refers to the future king— which Jesus identifies as the Messiah—as his “Lord” (Hebrew ’adon; Greek kyrios). …the Messiah in Psalm 110 is not just the heavenly Lord of David. According to the most ancient Jewish translation that we possess, he is also described as having been “begotten” (Hebrew yalad) by God “from the womb of the dawn” (Hebrew merechem mishchar) (Psalm 110:3)…while the scribes say the Messiah is begotten of David, the psalm says the Messiah is “begotten” by the LORD from the very dawn of creation. So by choosing Psalm 110, Jesus is also implying that the Messiah is the pre-existent Son of God. The reason this Old Testament background matters so much is simple but enormously significant. Since Jesus thought he was the Messiah, he is using Psalm 110 to reveal what he thinks about himself…” (Pitre, p.147-8)

“…the Masoretic vowel pointing is unlikely to reflect how this was being read in Jesus’ era, as the other ancient manuscript traditions make clear. For instance, on the strength of Ps.2:7, where we find the same Hebrew consonants, as well as the LXX evidence from Ps.109:3 itself, it is much more likely that the consonants were originally read as a qal perfect yelidtika (’I have begotten you”) rather than as a possessive noun yalduteka (‘your youth’)…” (Matthew Bates). Brenton’s English translation of the Septuagint reads: “(109:3) With thee is dominion in the day of thy power, in the splendours of thy saints: I have begotten thee from the womb before the morning: (μετὰ σοῦ ἡ ἀρχὴ ἐν ἡμέρᾳ τῆς δυνάμεώς σου ἐν ταῗς λαμπρότησιν τῶν ἁγίων ἐκ γαστρὸς πρὸ ἑωσφόρου ἐξεγέννησά σε)”. So Psalm 110 tells of the coming Divine Son who is also God.

Psalm 45:6,7 the psalmist is referring to the “God of God”, and the God who is given to rule by God: Psalm 45 speaks of the two Persons of God, one of which will rule Earth with a sceptre: ““Your throne, O God, isforever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions” (Psalm 45:6,7)

Psalm 2:7 seems to speak of the Messiah being begotten of God

“…Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree of the Lord: He said to me, “You are my son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Remembering also the prophecy about Judah “the sceptre will no depart…”.

Psalm 16:8-10 is also referenced by Luke in Acts 2:25-27, in the words of Peter in his first speech. The Psalm goes “…the Lord…is at my right hand…you do not give me up to Sheol or let you holy one see the Pit”, Peter stating this is in reference to Jesus, again using the “my Lord” language.

 

 The New Testament authors confirm this

Apart from Jesus himself claiming this, the Epistle to the Hebrews begins in the very first chapter with the appeal to Trinitarian verses in the Psalms. It is very much in the manner of Jesus’ own address to the Father both on the Cross “My God, my God…”, and at the Resurrection “…my God and your God”, hearkening also to Psalm 22 “O God my God…”, clearly deriving from that very same phraseology as we shall see-  one divine Person addressing another. Let’s break up this section of Hebrews into two parts as:

1. Hebrews 1:8,9- from Psalm 45:6,7: the “God of God”

It is the “God of God” who is being addressed here:  “But of the Son (God) says, “Your throne, O God, isforever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions”…”(Hebrews 1:8,9).

• Hebrews 1:13 (also Mt. 22:41-44, Mk. 12:37 where Jesus quotes from Psalm 110 in the same relation) from Psalm 110: God appoints God to sit at his right hand, rule over his enemies, and be priest forever… all the elements of Christ’s divine Sonship. And if we are to take also the Septuagintal translation, then God is Begotten of God. “But to which of the angels has he ever said, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?  (Heb.1:13)

Here again a divine plurality is being addressed: “The Lord says to my lord – “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” The Lord sends out from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your foes.Your people will offer themselves willingly on the day you lead your forces on the holy mountains. From the womb before the dawn I have begotten you.The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” The Lord is at your right hand; he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath.He will execute judgment among the nations…” (Psalm 110:1)

(Note: “from the womb before the dawn”- as translated from the LXX- The NeTBible states it is ““from the womb of dawn.” The Hebrew noun רֶחֶם (rekhem, “womb”) is probably used here metonymically for “birth.” The form מִשְׁחָר (mishkhar) occurs only here and should be emended to שַׁחַר (shakhar, “dawn”) with the מ (mem) being understood as a duplication of the mem ending the preceding word. The phrase “womb [i.e., “birth”] of dawn” refers to sunrise”- This is taken on by most English translations today and I presume that is the reasoning behind the now more mainstream: “From the womb of the morning,  the dew of your youth will come to you””. ἐκ γαστρὸς πρὸ ἑωσφόρου ἐξεγέννησά σε Brenton’s Septuagintal commentary translates it “With thee is dominion in the day of thy power, in the splendours of thy saints: I have begotten thee from the womb before the morning” (109:3) Douai-Rheims retains this translation which comes down in the Latin Vulgate.)

Jesus quotes this very Psalm 110 when he claims divinity: ^“…“How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’? If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?”…” (Matthew 22:41-44, also Mark 12:37). Jesus is asserting to the Jews that the Messiah is not just the son of David, but Son of God. (This also links to Psalm 2 in which the “anointed one (messiah) is the begotten son, and is given the nations as their heritage to rule with a rod of iron. No king of Israel is given the entire world to rule over.)

Further, both the Psalms have the theme of God giving God the authority to rule with a “sceptre”.