Why can't god have a son

Reflection

Why can't God have a son often arises from a genuine misunderstanding about what Christians mean by the term, since it can sound to some ears like a claim about biological reproduction rather than eternal relationship. Classical Christian theology has never taught that God took a wife or produced a son in any physical sense. The language of Father and Son describes an eternal relationship within the one God, not the beginning of a new being. John's Gospel opens by describing the Word who was with God and was God, present from the beginning, who then became flesh and lived among us. Sonship here points to shared nature and eternal relationship rather than origin in time. Questioning why this should be so is entirely reasonable, since it is a genuinely difficult concept even for those who have studied theology for years, but it helps to first understand clearly what is actually being claimed before deciding whether or not to accept it.

Questions to sit with

• What did you previously understand the term son of God to mean?
• Does understanding it as eternal relationship rather than biology change your view?
• What questions would you still want answered about this idea?

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