About the Author

Victor Guo is the pastor of a reformed house church.

The Glorious Gospel of the Son of God

The Chinese "Son Complex"

In 1911, the American sociologist Edward Alsworth Ross wrote a book titled The Changing Chinese based on his rigorous observation and investigation of Chinese culture. In the book, he provides this memorable summary: “From time immemorial, the things considered most worthwhile have been posterity, learning, and riches—in the order named” (1). Even though this was written more than a hundred years ago, it is certainly not far from reality today.

The problem of posterity that Professor Ross observed mainly referred to male descendants. Most people in China have always placed great importance on having sons. Daughters are regarded as ancillary or even superfluous. In Chinese culture, the birth of a boy is referred to as “the joy of a jade toy.” This phrase comes from the Book of Odes (2): “If a boy I one day bear, in a bed him I shall lay. Splendid clothing he shall wear, with jade trinkets he shall play.” This means that if the mother gives birth to a boy, she will let him sleep on a bed and will dress him in nice clothes and give him jade trinkets to play with. But the birth of a girl is referred to as “the joy of a ceramic toy.” This also comes from the Book of Odes: “If a girl I one day bear, on the floor her I shall lay. Swaddling clothes she shall wear, with ceramic trinkets play.” This means that if the mother gives birth to a girl, then she will make her sleep on the ground and will wrap her in swaddling clothes and will give her ceramic trinkets to play with. The two clearly receive different treatments. From a practical perspective, boys are thought to be the ones who truly prolong one’s life and carry on one’s own family line, while girls are seen as merely helping others to carry on their family lines. People have looked to boys to continue their family lineage and to offer sacrifices to their ancestors.

This preference for sons over daughters has led to immeasurable suffering for women in China. Many baby girls have been abused, even abandoned and killed. In the late Qing Dynasty, there were many “baby towers” where people would abandon baby girls and leave them to die. Ironically, one of the towers was engraved with the name “Tower of Righteousness.” Ultrasound and modern abortion techniques have made it more convenient to determine the sex of babies and to kill them while turning a blind eye. Oddly enough, if you look closely you will discover that women who have suffered the most from this preference for sons over daughters in real life actually prefer sons over daughters more than men do. This cultural preference for boys has not only done harm to women, however. It has also done harm to men.

First of all, adult men do not actually have much freedom in this culture of strict filial piety. A man’s marriage and future career are often arranged by his parents. After he establishes his own family, his parents will expect to live together with him and his new family. Many people pursue the ideal of four generations all living under one roof. Of course, it is not necessarily a bad thing for four generations to live together. The main problem is that it is not clear what the boundaries are or who has what authority, which easily leads to misunderstanding and conflict. In this kind of multi-generational living situation, a 40-year-old man will sometimes even be required to give his income to his father every month. There are not many situations like this now, but not long ago this was quite common in China.

Secondly, when a man starts his own family, he must prioritize the mission of his larger family so that loving and providing for his own wife and children become secondary matters. This is especially true in families with few men, where a man becomes the hope of his family and the way out of their difficult circumstances. In the past, if a man passed the imperial examinations and became a government official, he had the moral responsibility to seek benefits for his relatives and neighbors—a responsibility that he could not refuse. Therefore, it is not hard to see that from ancient times until now, when government officials take power, many of them place their relatives in positions that ensure a worry-free and financially profitable life. Professor Ross is right: “In China…there are few duties more sacred than that of helping your kinsmen even at other people's expense” (3). From the perspective of traditional culture, this nepotism was one of the most devout expressions of filial piety toward one’s elders, both living and dead. But on the other hand, this view that makes the male heir the center of attention actually places great pressure on the son. If he is not successful, he will feel ashamed to face his father. But if he succeeds, he will feel a great moral burden to take care of his needy relatives at the expense of others. Because as a boy, you are the hope of your entire family. You are their messiah and savior.

This amounts to treating a man like God, which the Bible calls idolatry. The things we turn into idols are not always bad. Rather, we take a good thing and treat it as the best thing. In reality, an idol does not have any true weight or value. It is empty, and yet it can control a man. When we treat our sons as our way out of difficulties, as our saviors, even as our hope of glory, we place on them an unbearable responsibility and ask them to make promises that they cannot fulfill.

The Gospel of the Son of God

Someone might say, “All cultures in the world prioritize male descendants. As Marx teaches in his history of social development, this world is transitioning from a matriarchal society to a patriarchal society. Therefore, it is common to want male progeny. And doesn’t the Bible, which created Western civilization, favor men?”

Does the Bible actually favor men over women? The Bible, in fact, affirms the value and equal status of women, both from the perspective of creation and from the perspective of salvation. Genesis 1:27 says, “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Both men and women are created in the glorious image of God. They are created in true righteousness and holiness. Galatians 3:27-28 says, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Moreover, in modern Chinese history, it was Bible-believing Christians who devoted themselves to changing this preference for sons over daughters in China. They advocated for the proper treatment of baby girls and even actively adopted abandoned baby girls. They opened maternity hospitals to improve women’s health and well-being, greatly reducing the mortality rate of newborns and mothers. They started the “Heavenly Foot Society” to end foot-binding so that women could walk around freely and even participate in sports (4). They established educational institutions that recruited female students, changing the previous status quo in which only about one in a thousand women were educated. The list goes on.

However, if you look at how often the words “son” and “daughter” appear in the Bible, you will find about 2,000 verses that talk about a son. If you add words similar to “son” like “offspring” or “heir,” then that number is even higher. On the other hand, there are only about 200-300 verses in which the word “daughter” appears. So why does the Bible repeatedly emphasize the role of sons?

The Bible does not emphasize the role of sons because God favors sons over daughters but because God wants to solve humanity’s sin problem through his son. He wants to save his elect from their sins through him. His Son become flesh and was born of a woman. He was the offspring of a woman and a descendant of Abraham and David. When we look at the entire Old Testament from the perspective of the New Testament, we see that the heart of God’s promises is found in the Son of God saving mankind. We can see a number of examples of this in the context of the woman’s offspring and the Abrahamic covenant in the Pentateuch, the Davidic covenant in the historical books, and prophecies in the Psalms and the prophetic books.

The Woman's Offspring

When humanity’s ancestors Adam and Eve sinned and fell, God pronounced a curse over the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). This has been called the “protoevangelium,” the first good news God promised to mankind. This good news is that one day God will vanquish Satan through an offspring of the woman, bringing redemption to a fallen and lost world. As generation after generation in biblical times bore sons, they continually searched for an answer to the question of what “the woman’s offspring” meant. Who is the woman’s offspring? Are not all people born into this world the woman’s offspring?

Not every person in this world was born the conventional way. For example, Adam was made from the dust of the earth, and Eve was made from Adam's rib. They had no father and no mother. God also brought his Son into the world in an unconventional way. Isaiah 7:14 prophecies, “The virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). Then Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit (Matt. 1:20), fulfilling the worlds of the prophet Isaiah.

The Abrahamic Covenant

In the time of Abraham, God told Abraham, “In your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 22:18). Galatians 3:16 tells us who “your offspring” refers to: “It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ.”

God also made Abraham the true “father of faith” through a test. God gave the elderly Abraham and Sarah a precious son named Isaac, who was their only son. One day, God commanded Abraham to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah. Abraham obeyed God and attempted to kill his son on Mount Moriah, but God stopped him and said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me” (Gen. 22:12). God prepared a lamb there to take the place of Abraham’s son. Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only son demonstrated his fear of God, and God’s willingness to sacrifice his only son demonstrates his love for us. The lamb that God prepared on Mount Moriah was a type of the true lamb—Jesus.

The Davidic Covenant

David was a man after God's own heart. The Lord promised David, “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom…I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son” (2 Sam. 7:12, 14). Does the offspring of David refer to Solomon? No, Solomon married many concubines and allowed their idols to fill Jerusalem. As a result, the people lost faith, and when Solomon eventually died, the unified nation was split in two. Hebrews 1:5-6 explains, “For to which of the angels did God ever say, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you’? Or again, ‘I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son’? And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world…” Here we are told that God's promise to David refers to Jesus Christ.

The Anointed One

In Psalm 2:7-9, the anointed one says, “I will tell of the decree: The Lord 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.’” The anointed one is the Christ of the New Testament. Revelation 2:27 says that the authority that Christ received from the Father and gave to his followers was authority to “rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces.”

Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace

Finally, let us look at a prophecy about the Son of God in Isaiah 9:6-7: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” This is probably one of the most frequently read scriptures during Christmas. This child born to us not only brings peace and stability to the kingdom, but, more surprisingly, this child is named “Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” This is simply unbelievable. Can almighty God become a baby? It is no wonder that Paul exclaims in 1 Timothy 3:16, “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”

This was the greatest turning point in human history. “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law” (Gal. 4:4). This event that may only receive a passing remark in a secular world history textbook, this event that happened in a remote town in the Roman Empire, was actually a watershed moment for the fate of humanity. It is appropriate that world history was divided into two eras by the birth of Jesus. The salvation that Jesus brings is by no means an abstract concept but a new creation, and everyone who is in Christ can begin to live in this new order and new earth. In this new order, people no longer look at the world, life, or values in the same way.

The Glorious Gospel

Returning to the importance that Chinese culture attaches to sons, we see the burden that the sons of each family bears. People are “raising sons to support them in old age” in order to ensure an easy and comfortable life in their later years. They look forward to their sons “bringing glory to their ancestors” so that they might be envied by others (5). These expectations overwhelm sons because they cannot bear the weight of this so-called “glory.”

The Hebrew for “glory” (kabad) basically means “weight.” For example, consider 1 Samuel 4:18: “As soon as he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for the man was old and heavy (kabad).” When we say that something has glory, we mean that it is important and valuable. When the Bible speaks of God’s glory, it means that he is very important. He has transcendent value and is worthy of worship. When the Bible says that God deserves all glory, it does not mean that God lacks glory and needs man to add glory to him. Rather, it means that all the goodness and beauty and blessings of man reflect the glory of God, just as the moon reflects the light of the sun. Because man lacks glory due to his sin and depravity, he often seeks to add glory to himself through wealth, knowledge, and sons.

But the glory that our families give to their sons, the weight and value they assign to them, is not realistic. Anyone who relies on his son can only satisfy his momentary needs. He cannot rely on his son to solve the most fundamental problems with his soul. If man wants to solve the abiding problems with his soul and find true value and glory, then only Jesus Christ can provide the solution.

Those sons in whom so many place their hope bear the responsibility of fulfilling a messianic mission and yet they live every day in sin and sorrow. They cannot be a messiah for others, and they cannot provide for them salvation and glory. They and their families who place so much hope in them need a true Messiah—Jesus Christ. He alone can give us life. He alone can give us value. All men who “labor and are heavy laden” who are trying to be messiahs for their families, all who have placed hope in their sons and have been disappointed, all who are relying on their sons to obtain temporary glory—all of you can come to Christ and find rest. For the Bible tells us that the only one who can truly bring us hope and salvation, the only true Messiah, is Jesus Christ and no other.

Hebrews 1:3 says that Christ is “the radiance of the glory of God.” When Jesus became a man and lived on earth in obedience to his Father, he said, “I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do” (John 17:4). Before Jesus was crucified, he said to his disciples, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified” (John 12:23). And he prayed, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you” (John 17:1). As Calvin says, “The glory of God shines, indeed, in all creatures on high and below, but never more brightly than in the cross” (6).

Jesus Christ shed his blood and died on the cross. Whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life, and by passing on their spiritual inheritance, those who belong to the household of faith can add to their godly lineage in each generation. Jesus Christ was glorified on the cross that we might see his true value. He is worthy of worship, and he also gives value to all who believe in him. He redeemed us with his life. He gave his life for us. This reveals the surprising truth that God loves those who offer no benefit to himself and who have no value in themselves. He makes us the apple of his eye and predestines us for glory.

Conclusion

Brothers and sisters, we may not have fulfilled the hopes that our families have for us. We may not have brought them renewal or glory. Even if we have brought them some degree of renewal or glory, we may feel weary and empty. Regardless, we have the best gift that we can give to our families—the gospel. What our families are seeking may not be able to truly satisfy them, but the Son of God—the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ—is what the human heart truly needs. He is the true salvation and hope of every family.

Notes:

1. Edward Alsworth Ross, The Changing Chinese, trans. Gong Maohong and Zhang Hao (Beijing Shishi Chubanshe, 2006), 96..

2. The Book of Odes is an ancient Chinese book of poetry written between the 12th and 8th centuries BC. It is one of the “six classics” of ancient Chinese literature.

3. The Changing Chinese, 131.

4. Foot binding was a traditional Chinese practice which first broke and then tightly bound a young girl’s feet to stunt their growth and limit her ability to walk long distances. Generally practiced among China’s elite classes as a sign of beauty and status, the practice eventually diminished and ended in the early 20th century under the influence of various social campaigns, many of which were organized by Chinese Christians and foreign missionaries.

5. The two phrases in quotations, 养儿防老 and 光宗耀祖, are both popular Chinese phrases.

6. Taken from Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith. IVP Academic, 2012.

Copyright © 2022 by the Center for House Church Theology. We encourage you to use and share this material freely—but please don’t charge money for it, change the wording, or remove the copyright information.

Notes:

1. Edward Alsworth Ross, The Changing Chinese, trans. Gong Maohong and Zhang Hao (Beijing Shishi Chubanshe, 2006), 96..

2. The Book of Odes is an ancient Chinese book of poetry written between the 12th and 8th centuries BC. It is one of the “six classics” of ancient Chinese literature.

3. The Changing Chinese, 131.

4. Foot binding was a traditional Chinese practice which first broke and then tightly bound a young girl’s feet to stunt their growth and limit her ability to walk long distances. Generally practiced among China’s elite classes as a sign of beauty and status, the practice eventually diminished and ended in the early 20th century under the influence of various social campaigns, many of which were organized by Chinese Christians and foreign missionaries.

5. The two phrases in quotations, 养儿防老 and 光宗耀祖, are both popular Chinese phrases.

6. Taken from Michael Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith. IVP Academic, 2012.

Copyright © 2022 by the Center for House Church Theology. We encourage you to use and share this material freely—but please don’t charge money for it, change the wording, or remove the copyright information.