# Be Ready - Friday, 2025.12.12 ## Passage So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. {Luke 1.35b (BSB)} ## My Thoughts According to Luke, Gabriel told Mary that her first born, Jesus will be called "the Son of God" I have been studying the names of Jesus for several years. On a regularly basis, God shows me more and more evidence about the names by which we should refer to His Son. This morning was another such day. I don't recall ever noticing these words of Gabriel, "the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God." One would think that if we are to refer to Jesus as "God," then Gabriel would have communicated that fact! This is especially true based on two other statements by Gabriel: - In this section, Gabriel finished his exchange with Mary with this statement, "For no word from God will ever fail." {Luke 1.37 (BSB)} - Earlier, in the exchange between Gabriel and Zechariah, Gabriel responded to Zechariah with this terse statement, “I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news." {Luke 1.19 (BSB)} Since Gabriel stands in the presence of God and is sent to various people to communicate a message from God, why would he say something to Mary that is only partially true? To be clear, Gabriel did in fact refer to Jesus as "the Holy One!" So, Jesus IS divine with all the characteristics and attributes of His Father; as well as an additional feature, His human flesh. Paul said something similar, "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form." {Colossians 2.9 (BSB)} This isn't just an academic debate like how many angels can dance on a pin head. This is all about JESUS; loving Him, respecting Him, & worshiping Him! If you love someone, why would you refer to them by someone else's name? Try calling your spouse by the name of a previous partner and see how that goes! In the Bible, it is common to refer to a male as "the son of {his father} , i.e. "Jesus the Son of God" or "Jesus the son of Joseph," according to Grok, there is no evidence that people referred to sons by their father's name. For example, it was not common to refer to Jesus as "Joseph." Furthermore, according to Grok, this would have been disrespectful of Joseph. So, if Grok is correct about the culture in biblical times, then it would be disrespectful to Jesus' Father to refer to Jesus by His Father's name, "God!" To summarize, when people refer to Jesus as "God" they are disrespecting both Jesus and His Father! Although there are many, many dozens of verses that seem to say that the name by which we refer to Jesus should not be "God," I acknowledge there are a handful of verses such as Isaiah 9.6, John 1.1 & 18 that refer to Him as "God." I reconcile these apparent contradictions by affirming Jesus' deity without using His Father's moniker. I have a very small following on social media, so I doubt this post will have much of an impact. That notwithstanding, after months of prayer, I felt it was time to hit the send button. I am open to a civil discussion using nothing but the Bible as the source of truth. Prove me wrong!