The Son of Man

I recently received an excellent question from a friend, which went something like this:

How do you feel about the Transcendentalist interpretation of Jesus? That he was just a man. An exceptional, one-of-a-kind man who illustrated the "internal infinitude" of us all, and the potential thereby to actualize great deeds on behalf of the community and humanity.

My short answer is that this interpretation falls short of grasping the true uniqueness and glory of Jesus. It gives Him far less credit than He deserves and is a very dangerous position to hold, because it fails to grasp Jesus' authority over every single person (including you and me!), which God gave only to Him.

A few Scriptures giving a more accurate view of Jesus, and my notes on those passages, follow.

Mark 14:60-65

And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus,
"Have You no answer to make?
What is it that these men testify against You?"

But He remained silent and made no answer.

Again the high priest asked Him,
"Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?"

And Jesus said,
"I am, and you will see the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of Power,
and coming with the clouds of heaven."

And the high priest tore his garments and said,
"What further witnesses do we need?
You have heard His blasphemy.
What is your decision?"

And they all condemned Him as deserving death.

And some began to spit on Him
and to cover His face and to strike Him,
saying to Him, "Prophesy!"
And the guards received Him with blows.

Here is Jesus, being questioned by the high priest of the Jews.

When questioned about His identity, Jesus acknowledges in no uncertain terms that He "is the Christ, the Son of the Blessed." To acknowledge that He is God's Son is enough for those standing by to condemn Him "as deserving death."

However, Jesus goes further than that. Jesus proclaims that the high priest "will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven."

Jesus does not just confirm His identity as the Son of God, He also states that the high priest will see Him again. At that time, "the Son of Man" will be "seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven."

How can Jesus say this, knowing that He is about to die? Is He confused or thinking wishfully? Is He talking in parables or spiritual terms that are not to be understood naturally? Is He referring to someone else when He talks about "the Son of Man?"

No, Jesus knows exactly what He is saying. Not only is He the Son of God, He is also the Son of Man. That puts Him in a unique category, which can be understood more clearly through the following passage.

John 5:19-29

So Jesus said to them,

"Truly, truly, I say to you,
the Son can do nothing of His own accord,
but only what He sees the Father doing.

For whatever the Father does,
that the Son does likewise.
For the Father loves the Son
and shows Him all that He Himself is doing.
And greater works than these will He show Him,
so that you may marvel.
For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life,
so also the Son gives life to whom He will.

The Father judges no one,
but has given all judgment to the Son,
that all may honor the Son,
just as they honor the Father.

Whoever does not honor the Son
does not honor the Father who sent Him.

Truly, truly, I say to you,
whoever hears My word
and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life.
He does not come into judgment,
but has passed from death to life.

Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming,
and is now here,
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God,
and those who hear will live.

For as the Father has life in Himself,
so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself.

And He has given him authority to execute judgment,
because He is the Son of Man.

Do not marvel at this,
for an hour is coming
when all who are in the tombs
will hear His voice and come out,
those who have done good
to the resurrection of life,
and those who have done evil
to the resurrection of judgment."

Here is Jesus speaking to a group of Jews who in fact want to kill Him for healing a man on the Sabbath, and also for calling God His Father. Jesus reveals more about His unique position as the Son of God and as the Son of Man.

As the Son of God, Jesus has life in Himself and gives life to the dead. That alone is unique. Nobody else can claim to give life to the dead, nor can they. Jesus says that "an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out." This would be quite an intense claim for Jesus to make if he were merely human, but quite natural if He is in fact the Son of God, as Jesus continually claims in this passage.

But Jesus' authority extends far beyond that. Not only can He, the Son of God, give life to whom He will, but God "has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man." In other words, God gave Jesus the authority to judge all human beings because Jesus is Himself a man. God the Father is not a man. Although it is God's right to judge us, He delegated that right to His Son because He is the Son of Man.

Why? Jesus answers: "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him."

This is a question of honor, respect, and recognition! Most people recognize that God ought to receive honor, but what of His Son? Out of His great love, God sent His only Son, Jesus, to save us from the wrath we deserved and create a way for us to be called children of God! Are we just going to ignore God and His Son after all that?

Jesus says: "The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father."

Jesus is the only One with the authority to execute judgment upon me, you, and everyone we know. Not even God Himself will execute judgment - He's delegated that right to Jesus!

Perhaps, after considering these things, we may think we still have nothing to be concerned about. After all, Jesus said this: "Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment." If we're among those "who have done good," we have nothing to fear.

But how are we counted as having done good? Is it based on moral self-improvement, treating people decently, religious rites, or anything we can muster up of our own strength?

No, it is not. The only ones who have done good in God's eyes are those who believe God's testimony about His Son. Remember, Jesus is the judge. It is not a comparison game; it comes down to one sovereign decision.

Actually, the Lord Jesus sent a man named Paul to testify to these facts:

Romans 3:23-26

For all have sinned
and fall short of the glory of God,

and are justified by His grace as a gift,
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood,
to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness,
because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins.

It was to show His righteousness at the present time,
so that he might be just
and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

God purposefully created one way for sinners like us to be justified. He put Jesus "forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith."

What does this mean? By becoming a propitiation for our sins, Jesus turned away God's wrath from those who deserve it - us - by absorbing it into Himself. Although, in our pride, we may tend to think pretty highly of ourselves, this passage is clear: "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

We are justified before God not based on our goodness - since we have none to speak of before God - but by God's "grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." We must receive Christ Jesus by faith. It is the only way.

To return to Jesus' own words:

"Truly, truly, I say to you,
whoever hears My word
and believes Him who sent Me
has eternal life.
He does not come into judgment,
but has passed from death to life."

If we don't place our faith in Christ Jesus, the Lord Jesus will judge us, and we will be found guilty. But if we hear Jesus' words and believe God, who sent Him, Jesus will rescue us from judgment, and God will justify us.

Only in that way can we be saved from the coming wrath of the Lord Jesus! Remember, once resurrected, we, like that high priest, "will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven."

---

Scripture references from English Standard Version
Pronouns for God and the Lord Jesus Christ capitalized

JESUS Is Our Peace with God: Part IV

The Humility of Jesus Christ

John 1:1-2

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

The Word of God has always existed in perfect fellowship—peace—with God, before the world began, before you and I were born.

As we have seen, we deserve death because of our sins. We do not deserve peace with God and cannot earn it by doing good things or by following religion.

God knew that unless He did something on our behalf, we would be condemned to an eternity separated from His holy presence, with no chance of being reconciled to Him whatsoever.

Although He did not have to help us, God chose to love us. And God, Who is love, did so in a way that is at once incomprehensible, awe-inspiring, humbling, and infinitely wise: God gave His only Son. The Word, who was God and was with God, became the Son of God.

John 1:14

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
and we have seen His glory,
glory as of the only Son from the Father,
full of grace and truth.

God's only Son's name is Jesus. He is called the Christ (the Anointed One). He was born of a woman, just like you and I, but His Father was and is God (Matthew 1). He is, therefore, the Son of God and the Son of Man, possessing both a unique relationship to God and a body like ours. So, He did not inherit the sinfulness that we are all tainted with, but He was still a legitimate human being.

Why did God send His Son?

The Apostle John declares,

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil,
for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

The reason the Son of God appeared
was to destroy the works of the devil.

(1 John 3:8)

Jesus came "to destroy the works of the devil." These evil works are sins, as the first part of the statement makes clear: “the devil has been sinning from the beginning.”

In order to do this, Jesus had to live a perfect life in place of sinners like you and I who could not and would not do it for ourselves, and then die for our sins, satisfying the justice God requires and allowing us to partake of His righteousness.

Hebrews 5:7-9

In the days of his flesh,
Jesus offered up prayers and supplications,
with loud cries and tears,
to Him who was able to save Him from death,
and He was heard because of His reverence.

Although He was a Son,
He learned obedience through what He suffered.

And being made perfect,
He became the source of eternal salvation
to all who obey Him…

Although it was unspeakably difficult, Jesus did what we could not do: He did not sin. Not only did He do everything that His Father, God, commanded Him to do, but He did nothing that was against God’s will. In other words, He did everything that was right for Him to do and He did nothing wrong. I cannot fathom the difficulty that Jesus experienced in living perfectly up to God’s standards for every second, minute, hour, and day of His life, but He did it.

But a life of perfect obedience, while incredible and necessary for our sakes, was not sufficient to pay the penalty for sin, much less earn peace with God for sinners like you and I. Since “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a), Jesus had to do more: He had to be obedient “to the point of death” (Ephesians 2:8). And not just any death would suffice; He had to endure death on a cross, because it was the will of God.

Jesus described the manner in which He would die – being lifted up on a cross – and the reason that God sent Him, to save the world through Him. The Apostle John recorded His words:

No one has ascended into heaven
except He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world,
but in order that the world might be saved through Him.

(John 3:13-18)

In accordance with the plan of God, Jesus died an excruciating physical death on the cross, which is possibly the cruelest form of execution ever devised by human minds. However, the slow suffocation and physical torment He experienced on it paled in comparison to what He had to endure on a spiritual level.

Isaiah 53:3-12

He was despised and rejected by men;
a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as One from whom men hide their faces He was despised,
and we esteemed Him not.

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

But He was wounded for our transgressions;
He was crushed for our iniquities;
upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with His stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Jesus was not just dying physically in our place; He was experiencing the terrible separation from God that we would otherwise have to experience. And, as the Son of God who had enjoyed constant fellowship with God since the beginning, it was unspeakably terrible.

On the cross, the torment was such that Jesus, despite the suffocation induced by crucifixion, “cried with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?’ which means, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” shortly before taking his last breaths (Mark 15:34).

The Apostle Paul, a man personally sent by Jesus to preach about Him, wrote this:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person —
though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die —
but God shows His love for us in that
while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

(Romans 5:6-8)

Jesus Christ died for us while we did not deserve it. Nothing we could do would earn us peace with God. We were "still sinners". But, like a king’s son paying the impossibly high debts of foreigners, Jesus stood in our place and took the pain and death we deserved.

It was not a quick and painless act; quite the contrary. Our sins deserved to be punished wholly and thoroughly, painfully and permanently. Jesus suffered throughout His life. He was tempted, mistreated, mocked, tortured, and betrayed. Eventually His sufferings culminated in His death on the cross.

Centuries before all this actually happened, a prophet of God, Isaiah, foretold the sufferings of Jesus:

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush Him;
He has put Him to grief;
when His soul makes an offering for sin,
He shall see His offspring; He shall prolong His days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.

Out of the anguish of His soul He shall see and be satisfied;
by His knowledge shall the Righteous One, My Servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and He shall bear their iniquities.

(Isaiah 53:10-11)

Jesus, God's "Righteous One," paid the debts we deserved to pay when He died on the cross. Notice in the last part of the passage above that Jesus would "make many to be accounted righteous" and He would "bear their iniquities."

This is incredible news. Jesus took the punishment for our sins ("iniquities"), so that we do not have to be punished for them.

If we believe that Jesus did this for us and trust Him instead of any of our good works, religion, or anything else, we are "accounted righteous" in God's sight. Because of Jesus' death, we can be declared righteous, and we can be forgiven by God for the sins we have committed.

These are great and glorious truths. However, if Jesus had remained dead, our penalty for sin would have been paid, but we would not have eternal life and peace with God. We would have been freed from the death we deserved to die, but we would not have been granted life, fellowship with God and His Son. Praying to His Father, Jesus stated, “And this is eternal life, that they know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3). We could not “know” Jesus if he had remained dead.

It is therefore wonderful that God, in addition to taking out the wrath we deserved on His Son, also raised His Son from the dead, making it possible for us to have eternal life as well. But, not only did God raise Jesus, but He also promoted Him to a unique position; He made Him Lord. The implications of this are quite important.

We'll look at that in the next section, if the Lord wills.

---

All emphases are mine.
All Bible quotes are from the English Standard Version (ESV).
All pronouns for God and the Lord Jesus Christ are Capitalized.

For the previous part of this series, go here.
For the next part of this series, go here.
To go to the beginning of this series, go here.