The word “son” means someone’s male descendant or one he has adopted to fill that role. Jesus was called the Son of God for another reason. He was God’s Son by birth (Luke 1:34-35), but the title “Son of God” most often refers to Jesus being of the same nature as God. When Jesus called God His Father, the Jews understood he was claiming to be God (John 5:17-24).
John tells us Jesus was God come down to earth. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:1-3). John says that the Word was with God at the beginning and was God. That all things were made by Him is proof that he is God, since God was the creator (Genesis 1:1; compare Colossians 1:16-17). This Word, that was God, John plainly shows to be Jesus (John 1:14).
The Father testified to Jesus’ sonship on two separate occasions. After Jesus’ baptism, “a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'” On the mount of transfiguration, after Peter suggested making tabernacles for Moses, Elijah and Jesus, “a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!'” (Matthew 3:13-17; 17:1-5). The Jews, as we have seen, understood that Jesus being the Son of God made him partake of God’s very nature, in other words, the Father was saying Jesus is God!
The inspired writer of Hebrews also shows us the Father thought of Jesus as God. Jesus was the shining forth of God’s glory and the very image of his substance (Hebrews 1:3). God commanded Israel to worship no other gods (Exodus 20:3-6). Yet, the Father commands the angels to worship Jesus (Hebrews 1:6). The inspired writer went on to quote Psalm 45:6-7, and said that God, the Father, called Jesus God (Hebrews 1:8).
We worship Jesus because he is God.
Gary C. Hampton