Day 9: Jesus Is the Son of Man

Day 9: Jesus is the Son of Man

Prayer:

Father in heaven, help us today to more fully understand the significance of the name Son of Man. Let us see the dignity in it and the depth of identification with us. Help us to be in awe of all Jesus accomplished as the Son of Man and all it will mean for us in the future. May Jesus Christ be magnified in our minds and hearts. Amen.

Primary Scripture:

John 1:51: And [Jesus] said to [Nathanael], “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Son of Man. What a strange name for God incarnate. Immanuel—God with us—this seems most fitting and fills us with wonder. The title Son of God also elevates Him to His rightful position and carries our thoughts into the heavenly realms. But Son of Man? Why this name?

The Christmas song, "Blessed Be That Maid Mary," states it well: “Very God ere time began; born in time the Son of Man.” Many, many Christmas hymns capture the marvel of this truth: God became the creature He had made in His own image. As we have seen on previous days and as Scripture attests, this incarnate babe was the Eternal God and the Creator of all things visible and invisible. When He reached down to scoop up the dust of the earth to sculpt the first man, He who knows the end from the beginning was fashioning who He Himself would one day be, the Gift He would give to the world. He who created time and the ages of history could see Himself as He molded that clay figure.

In the musical masterpiece, Savior, God sings His own wonder and love and yearning as He creates man.  This was who we were intended to be: image-bearers of God, sharing in all the joy and awe and creative power of who He is. He made us to be His created counterpart, communing with Him, reveling in Him, enjoying Him forever. The first catechism question, “What is the chief end of man?” is rightly answered with this response: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” This is true Man.

But the image-bearer believed The Lie: God is not good; God cannot be trusted; God is withholding the best from you; you can create your own truth; you can become like God. Irony of ironies. The cunning serpent enticingly dangled before them the very thing they already were. The first Adam chose a different path, an independent road. The creative beauty was marred. The communion was broken. All things went awry, distorted and twisted and fallen. How do we, as C. S. Lewis puts it, “get back from exile and grow Man” again?

There was only one way: a second Adam, another Man in the image of God, who would not believe The Lie no matter what evidence, what circumstances, what reversals, what pains and griefs were hurled at Him that might point to the veracity of that Lie. He was made in all things like us. He Himself suffered, being tempted in every way like we are, yet He remained without sin, fully trusting God His Father (Hebrews 2:17-18; 4:15). He always and only did those things the Father told Him to do; He always and only said those things the Father told Him to say (John 5:19, 8:28-29, 12:49-50). He fully lived by faith in the complete goodness and trustworthiness of God.

The literal translation of Romans 3:22 and 26 and Galatians 2:20 all say that the righteousness of God comes through the faith of Jesus Christ. Several Bible translations make this clear (see biblehub.com for a list of translations). It is an important distinction. The righteousness of God does not come through our faith in Jesus, but through His faith, the faith He displayed in His Father throughout His entire life here on earth. He lived the perfect life for us, in our place, and imputed His perfection to us. We are clothed in His righteousness. God has accounted His faith and faithfulness to our account. What an amazing truth! The faith of Jesus, His complete trust in the Father, is what we rest in. We live by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us (Galatians 2:20).

The first Adam, through his disobedient distrust, had handed over the dominion of the earth, which God had entrusted to him (Genesis 1:26, 28), to God’s archenemy. Because God had given the dominion to man, a man had to take it back, a man who wouldn't fall for Satan's Lie. For this reason, the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness were so critical. The devil tried to get at Him from every angle, with every possible temptation. But Jesus remained true to the Truth. Just after His triumphant entry into Jerusalem, knowing He was heading to the cross, Jesus said, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified…Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out” (John 12:23, 31). Through His obedient trust, even walking through death on a cross, the second Adam wrested back the dominion of the earth. To Him God says, “Ask of Me and I will give you the nations as your inheritance.” The earth now rightfully belongs to the second, the last, Adam. Dominion has returned to Man, the Son of Man.

The Last Adam did not simply take back dominion, but He also reversed the death sentence through His resurrection. He who had no sin could not be corrupted by death (Psalm 16:10 and Acts 2:27); the grave could not hold Him. Paul tells us, “Since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. As in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. . . The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven” (I Corinthians 15:21-22, 47).

As in our opening Scripture verse above, Jesus refers most often to Himself as the Son of Man. This name is used over 80 times in the four Gospels. It reminds us of the humbling, yet magnificent truth articulated so well in the book of Hebrews (Hebrews 2:9-18) that He was not ashamed to call us brethren. He partook of the same flesh and blood as we are and was made like us in every way—even in suffering, temptation, and death (Hebrews 4:15). Paul also expresses this astounding truth: Jesus, God of very God, laid aside His reputation as God and came in the form and appearance of a man. Indeed, He assumed the lowest and most degraded position on the social ladder, a used-as-property and taken-for-granted bondservant, completely submitting to His Father to serve us. And finally, He succumbed willingly to a cruel death on our behalf (Philippians 2:5-8). He fully identified with us.

But there is more to Jesus’ own preferred self-designation than simple identification and confirmation of His humanness. At His mock trial before the Jewish Council, the high priest asks Him, “Are you the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the Blessed One (the Son of God)?” (Mark 14:61). The Gospel of Matthew quotes the high priest in this way: “I put you under oath by the living God: Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!” (Matt. 26:63). And Jesus replies, “I am. And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.” Messiah, Son of God, Son of Man. The Jewish leaders knew what He meant and to what He was referring, for the high priest tore his robe and exclaimed, “What further need do we have of witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy!” And they all condemned Him to be deserving of death (Mark 14:61-15).

To understand what those Jewish leaders understood, we have to go back to the book of Daniel, chapter seven. Daniel is given a vision of four great beasts and is told that they each represent four great kings and their kingdoms. The fourth beast was very terrible, devouring, breaking in pieces, and trampling the whole earth. This beast made war against the saints of God and persecuted them, prevailing against them; and they were “given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.” Daniel says he was grieved in his spirit and greatly troubled. Thankfully the vision doesn’t end there. The Ancient of Days comes, whose throne is a fiery flame with a stream of fire flowing forth from it, and sets up His court of justice. The dreadful fourth beast is thrown into the fiery blaze coming from the throne of God.

And then (one can almost hear the triumphant, announcing drumroll), One like the Son of Man comes with the clouds of heaven and presents Himself to the Ancient of Days. "To Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away; and His kingdom, the one which shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7:7-14). Do I hear the Hallelujah Chorus echoing in the background?

It is this reference to the Son of Man that caused the Jewish leaders to tear their robes, shout “Blasphemy!” and pronounce the death sentence. Each time Jesus used that title, He was making a clear Messianic statement. He was claiming to be both the Son of God and the Messiah, both King and Judge of the whole earth. He was declaring to them that He would be the Final King, King over all kings, whose dominion would extend over the whole earth forever. He was the One to whom God the Father would give the nations as His inheritance (Psalm 2:8-9).

When the Roman soldiers put a crown of thorns upon Jesus’ head and clothed Him in a purple robe, Pilate brought Him out before the leaders and all the people and declared, “Behold, the Man!” He didn’t realize how utterly, profoundly true and prophetic those words were (John 19:1-5). The Man. The Last Adam: who, by the very death Pilate thought he was governing, reclaimed dominion over all things.

God did not want us to forget that His Son came in the flesh. He was fully and truly human, not some spiritual apparition. John makes this very clear in his first letter. He states that the liar and antichrist are those who 1) deny that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah), 2) deny the Father/Son relationship (Son of God), and 3) deny that Jesus has come in the flesh (Son of Man). Our faith rests on these three truths. Jesus, fully God, fully Man, is our Messiah, the Genesis 3:15-Promised One and the only One who can restore us to full Manhood: “As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man” (I Corinthians 15:49).

In the Hawaiian Pidgin translation of the New Testament, the name Son of Man is translated “Da Guy Dass Fo Real.” What a great way of putting it. This is real Man. Jesus was the real image bearer, the One who showed us how Man was intended to live in perfect trust and in perfect communion with God, His Maker. Jesus was made in every way like us. He endured the same temptations and sufferings as we do. He lived the image of God in all its perfection and glory. Because of His perfect obedience—even the supreme act of obedience, willingly enduring the cruelest of deaths—He was able to wrest the dominion of the earth back from Satan who had taken it by deceit and treachery. One day He will return in power and glory to claim His rightful inheritance: the world and all that is in it.

Do you want to know God's original intent for created man—for you? Look at Jesus. Study Jesus. Come bow before the One who will reign supreme as the triumphant Son of Man. Worship Jesus.

Family Worship:

Discuss the ways that Jesus' humanity was revealed. Also discuss how His life reflects the true image of God, what God intended at creation. What do you think Jesus meant in John 12:31 when He said, "Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out"? Think about that in terms of the Last Adam and the dominion God originally gave to the first Adam who gave it over to Satan.

Conclude your family time with prayer, giving thanks for the different aspects of meaning wrapped up in the name Son of Man.

Jesus Christ: the Son of Man and the Last Adam

Other Related Scriptures:

John 3:13: No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.

John 6:27: Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”

John 6:61-62: When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?”

John 8:28: Then Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.”

John 12:23-24: But Jesus answered them, saying, “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”

John 13:30-32: Having received the piece of bread, he [Judas] then went out immediately. And it was night. So, when he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and glorify Him immediately.”

Acts 7:55-58a: But he [Stephen], being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord; and they cast him out of the city and stoned him.

I Corinthians 15:21-22, 45-49: For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.

Revelation 1:12-18: Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.”