Son of Man

The Son of Man, as it appears, is not Jesus using a humble title. When He says that He's the Son of Man to the Jews, they get it. They understand that He is making a powerful claim here, that He is not your ordinary earthly being, but that He has come down from heaven. Who is Jesus?

If you get the answer wrong, the consequences are fatal, eternally so. And the names of Jesus in Scripture provide great insight into His identity and His mission. This is the Tuesday edition of Renewing Your Mind, and this week you're hearing messages from R.C. Sproul's 12-message series, Names of Jesus. Before we get to today's message, we ask Dr. Sproul why this series is important and how knowing who Jesus is aligns with the mission of Ligonier.

Here was his answer. What we're trying to do is to communicate the things of God to the whole world, and at the very center of the Christian faith is Christ, the person and work of Jesus. And one of the things I like people to see is how significant the titles for Jesus are, biblically and historically. I tell a story about this professor who spoke at a convocation, and there was a 30-minute speech, and all he did was stand up and recite the titles for Jesus. His whole speech was Christ, Lord, Son of God, Son of Man, Consolation of Israel, Bright Morning Star, you know, Redeemer, Emmanuel.

He went on and on for 30 minutes. And ever since that, any time I'm reading the Bible, I notice any title that's given to Jesus. They're just replete with biblical references, and every title that we find in the New Testament for Jesus reveals something about who He is, His person and His work. This series, Names of Jesus, considers many of the titles or names of Jesus, and today R.C. Sproul examines the title Son of Man.

Here's Dr. Sproul. As we look at the titles that are given to Jesus in the New Testament, we have seen that in terms of numerical frequency, the number one title that is given to Jesus in the New Testament is the title Messiah or Christ. Second, in terms of frequency, is the title Lord.

Now, the title that we're going to look at today drops off enormously in terms of ranking of frequency. It only occurs 82 or 83 times in all of the New Testament, and it is the title Son of Man. So it's nowhere close in terms of frequency to the other two titles, Christ and Lord. But what makes it so important and so significant for our understanding of the New Testament is that it is far and away the number one title in terms of frequency that Jesus uses for Himself.

Now that's significant for many reasons, but if you want to know who a person is or what they are or at least how they perceive themselves, you ask them. And it's a significant thing that when Jesus talks about Himself, He constantly refers to Himself as the Son of Man. And since He uses it so frequently, it behooves us to try to come to an understanding of its significance.

Now there's something else very unusual about this. As I say, it's only used 82 or 83 times. I think it's 82 times in the New Testament for Jesus. Seventy-nine of them, it's used by Jesus for Himself. And only three times do we find Jesus referred to in the third person to describe Him, which is all the more astonishing that though this is the number one favorite self-designation of Christ, it almost never is used by His disciples or by the biblical writers to refer to Him.

So it's obviously not their favorite designation. They would prefer to use the term Lord or the term Christ or whatever. Now the other significance of that is apologetic. Higher Critical Scholarship has argued that the New Testament portrait of Jesus does not reflect an accurate portrait of the real historical Jesus, but rather is a redacted piece of literature where the faith of the early church is superimposed upon Jesus, and Jesus is a creation of the first century church. And that conflict that goes on between liberal and conservative biblical scholarship finds an interesting twist at this point.

Oscar Kuhlmann, the Swiss scholar, pointed out earlier in the 20th century this strange anomaly, and his argument was this. If indeed the Jesus of the New Testament is a creation of the early church, why would the early church constantly put in His mouth a title that they almost never use for Him themselves? And if they're so excited about calling Jesus Lord and Christ, why don't they have Jesus calling Himself the Christ and Lord all the time instead of this one? It's an interesting question from an apologetics perspective.

But our concern is to see the significance of it. We know that sonship is a key concept in New Testament categories with respect to God, and that Jesus is called variously in the New Testament the Son of David, but He's also called the Son of God, and He's also called the Son of Man. We remember when we looked at the Caesarea Philippi confession when Jesus asked the question to His disciples, He said to them, Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? He called Himself the Son of Man there.

And we remember when Simon gave the response. He said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. So Simon says, You're Christ, You're the Messiah, and You're the Son of God. Jesus calls Himself the Son of Man, Simon calls Him the Son of God. So we're very familiar that in the New Testament we have these two son titles, Son of God and Son of Man.

Now the plot thickens. When we go beyond the Scriptures and look at church history and look at the theological reflections of Christian theologians throughout the history of the church, the great church councils like at Ephesus and at Nicaea and at Chalcedon and so on, that one of the most significant affirmations of faith of the Christian church historically is the affirmation of the dual nature of Christ, that Christ is verihomo verideos, truly man, truly God, so that we affirm that Jesus is one person with two natures. He has a divine nature and He has a human nature. Now since the church affirms a human nature and a divine nature, and since the Bible speaks of Jesus in terms of Son of God and Son of Man, what would be the most tempting conclusion we could reach in terms of the referencing of these titles? Wouldn't it seem natural that the primary reference of the title Son of God would be to Jesus' divine nature and the primary reference of the title Son of Man would be to His human nature?

That's what we would expect to be the case. It's just not that simple, and it would be equally a distortion to say that the Son of God refers exclusively to His humanity and the Son of Man exclusively to His deity, because that's not the case either. But what I want to get at is this, that the primary reference to the Son of Man, though it certainly includes references to His humanity, to His identification with us, His corporate solidarity with those to whom He has come to redeem, nevertheless, the primary reference biblically of this title Son of Man as applied to Jesus is a reference to Jesus as a heavenly being who has come to earth. The Son of Man is chiefly what we would call an apocalyptic reference, having its roots in the Old Testament book of Daniel. Now, to examine those roots, let's take a look at the passage in Daniel that is significant. Let's begin, first of all, in chapter 7 of Daniel's book, where he gives a description of his night visions, and we're going to start it at verse 9, Daniel chapter 7, verse 9. Listen carefully to this vision that Daniel has. He said, I watched till thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days was seated. Now, who do you suppose the Ancient of Days refers to here? We have a scene inside of heaven that Daniel is observing in the vision, and it displays God the Father, the Ancient of Days, seated on a throne.

Now we get the graphic visual description. His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire, a fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, and the books were opened.

Now do you get the picture here? We have this vivid graphic description of the enthroned Ancient of Days, and the throne is seated in a courtroom, and the books are about to be opened. This is a vision of heavenly judgment, where we're looking at the judgment throne of God. And God in this judgment court is surrounded by myriads of the heavenly host that are serving Him and ministering to Him.

And abruptly, this scenario takes a new twist that we discover in verse 13 of chapter 7 of Daniel. I was watching in the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then 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. Now first of all, the Son of Man arrives into this heavenly court on clouds of glory.

The glory cloud, the Shekinah, is used to manifest the presence of God in the Old Testament. There is some debate about what this text is referring to. Some look at it as Christ's coming at the end of the age. But when we talk about Christ's coming in glory at the end of the age, He comes here. I think this refers to Christ coming back to heaven in the ascension, where Jesus says, No one ascends into heaven except the one who has descended from heaven. And when Christ comes into the world from heaven, He comes as the Son of Man. And the principal role of the Son of Man here is to be the one who is given the responsibility of judging the nations. And Jesus speaks frequently about the judgment that is at hand with His appearance in the corridor of human history. And He speaks of where He has come from and where He is going.

He is the Son of Man. Now let's take a look to the way the New Testament uses this in one of those occasions where Jesus is referred to in the third person as the Son of Man, where we have an apocalypse found in the New Testament literature commonly called the Book of Revelation, written by John while he was on the Isle of Patmos. And John is in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and he has a vision that he records in chapter 1, beginning at verse 9, the Book of Revelation. Here's what he says, I, John, both your brother and companion in the tribulation and kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was on the island that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.

What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. 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 and out of his mouth one 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. Before I go on, let me just stop here for a second and ask you, did you notice how closely the visual description of the Son of Man in the vision of John matches Daniel's vision of the Ancient of Days? Here, John is seeing the glorified Christ, the Son of Man, as He has returned to heaven and is clothed in the garments of deity. He said, 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. Write the things that you have seen. And then later on in John's apocalypse, he talks about the Son of Man appearing at the judgment throne and comes to the scroll that is written on both sides but is sealed with seven seals, and no one is found worthy to open the scroll. But here comes the Lamb who enters into that scene and tears open the scroll.

Remember, the books were opened in Daniel's vision. And then the elders begin to sing, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive honor and glory, dominion and power. And myriads of angels, thousands and tens of thousands, begin to sing their praises, fulfilling in detail the same vision that is explained in Daniel. So you see that the Son of Man, as it appears, is not Jesus using a humble title. When He says that He's the Son of Man to the Jews, they get it. They understand that He is making a powerful claim here, that He is not your ordinary earthly being, but that He has come down from heaven.

Look at how the term functions. Notice it every time you read it in the New Testament. Jesus is having a dispute with the Pharisees over the Sabbath day, where He heals on the Sabbath day, and they rebuke Him.

And Jesus says what? The Sabbath was made for man, man was not made for the Sabbath, and I do this that you might know that the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. That's why they picked up stones to execute Him, because Jesus claimed to be Lord of the Sabbath. And they understood that the Sabbath was something instituted by God Himself, and no earthly prophet or minister ever had the right to legislate anything different or new about the Sabbath day. And Jesus said, I did this so that you might know who you're dealing with here, and that you might know that My authority extends over the Sabbath day.

He's not being humble here. In a similar incident that takes place on the Sabbath, He says to the man who was crippled, your sins are forgiven. And again the Pharisees get apoplectic in their fury against Jesus, saying, who does He think He is, saying your sins are forgiven? He said, I said this that you might know that the Son of Man has the authority on earth to forgive sins. Notice it every time Jesus uses the title Son of Man. It is a title of judgment. It is a title of authority. It is the title of the one who has been vested with this authority by the Father, who was with the Father in heaven, who came into this world as the judge of all mankind. And so even though the title Son of Man indicates that He has become incarnate and has participated in our humanity, He comes as the Redeemer of humanity, who is first and foremost the one who comes down from heaven. And so far from being a title of humility, it is a title of exaltation.

One last point. When the Son of Man is pictured in Revelation, He is seated at the right hand of God. In the book of Acts, one of those rare occasions where the Son of Man is mentioned in the third person, in the event of the execution of Stephen, you recall the masses were infuriated at him, and they fell upon him, and they were going to stone him. And we're told that Stephen looked into heaven, and God gave him a vision into the inner courts of heaven at the very moment that the earthly tribunal was judging him a heretic and a blasphemer.

He said, Behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Now, who stands in the courtroom? The prosecutor and the defense attorney. The witnesses are seated, and the judge is seated. And what Stephen is seeing here is that the very moment that the earthly court is condemning him to death, he looks and sees the one who is the Son of Man whose role is to be the judge. He sees the judge get up from behind the bank and come around and stand in defense of Stephen. That's the gospel, is that the one whom God has appointed to be your judge will also serve as your defense attorney if you put your trust in him.

Again, I want to urge you to pay close attention to this title, Son of Man. Every time it occurs in the New Testament when you read it and you see it, you know, if you use a marker in your Bible, you know, mark it, and pause and think about it and say, What is Jesus saying about Himself here when He uses this title? He is claiming to come from heaven, and He claims to come from heaven for us. And He returns in the Shekinah cloud of glory to heaven to preside at the judgment of heaven and earth. God has given Him all authority on heaven and earth. He is our judge.

He is our defense attorney. The profound good news of the gospel explained in the name Son of Man. Thanks for listening to Renewing Your Mind today. Our Sea Swirl series, Names of Jesus, is our focus this week, and I've always found that title, Son of Man, so mysterious, but Dr. Sproul really helps clarify our understanding of it. At Ligonier Ministries, we desire to help you know what you believe, why you believe it, how to live it, and how to share it.

So take the time not to simply know the names of Jesus, but what they mean. It's a 12-message series, and we'll grant you lifetime digital access when you give a donation of any amount at renewingyourmind.org, or when you call us at 800 435 4343. We'll also send you a copy of The Word Made Flesh, The Ligonier Statement on Christology, along with its affirmations and denials. So show your support of Renewing Your Mind and the proclamation of who Christ is by donating today at renewingyourmind.org or by using the link in the podcast show notes. Thank you. Thank you.