Sunday: The Son of Man
This title, the Son of Man, was Jesus’ favorite designation for Himself. He referred to Himself as Son of Man more than eighty times. Other people never addressed Him that way. He, of course, selected this special designation for Himself with a purpose in mind.
Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com
This idiomatic expression was common in the Old Testament. With just one exception, it always referred to a human; thus, Jesus used it in order to emphasize His humanity.
Scripture presents Jesus as a true human being. He was born as a baby, grew up as a child (increasing in wisdom and in stature [Luke 2:40, 52]), and had sisters and brothers (Matt. 13:55-56). He ate (Matt. 9:11), slept (Luke 8:23), was tired (John 4:6), and suffered hunger and thirst (Matt. 4:2, John 19:28). He also experienced sorrow and distress (Matt. 26:37).
To the casual observer, Jesus seemed to be a common man who walked among the people as one of the multitude. Many of His contemporaries did not recognize in Him anything more than a man (John 7:46). People treated Him as one of them; they laughed at Him (Luke 8:53), criticized Him (Matt. 11:19), even mocked and beat Him (Luke 22:63). To them, He was just another human being.
Unfortunately, they failed to perceive that there is more to be found in this title. According to Daniel 7:13 and Daniel 7:14,
One like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven to the Ancient of days, and received eternal dominion, glory, and a kingdom. The Jews identified this Son of Man with the Messiah. So, when Jesus used this title, He was revealing, in a half-concealed way, that He was also the promised Messiah, the incarnate Christ.
Read Matthew 24:30, Matthew 25:31, Matthew 26:64. What elements in Jesus’ words recorded in these verses are reminiscent of Daniel 7:13-14?
(14)
When did Christ first become the Son of man?
Who was Christ before He was the Son of man?
Who is Jesus now?
How can Jesus say He is the I Am?
Was part of God incarnate or was all of God expressed in Jesus?
In what way is Jesus our example?
How can we follow His example perfectly?
How can we let this mind which was in Christ Jesus be in us?
I believe that Christ became the Son of Man when he was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary. The bible tells us that "the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us." (John 1:14) When did the Word become flesh? The word became flesh at conception - the embryological starting point of human life.
Jesus was the Son of Man before incarnation. See Daniel 7: 13. Jesus assumed the role of Son of Man from the moment He decided to become the sacrifice for man's redemption. Revelation 13: 8 says he was slain from the foundation of the world. Proleptically Jesus died before He went to Calvary.
Great lesson! I am not sure I agree with the comment that Christ "half-concealed" His identity as the Messiah by referring to Himself as the Son of Man. On the contrary, I think by calling Himself the Son of Man, He undoubtedly aligned Himself with and introduced the idea of Himself as the Messiah. Just a thought.
I agree with you Lystra. The very notion of " half concealed' smacks of dishonesty, a trait we should never attribute to God.
While the espression "half concealed" may be associated with dishonesty, in this case one must recognise that the fact that Jesus was the Messiah was not overtly apparent to everyone. Perhaps a better way of expressing it would be that Jesus as the Messiah was hidden from those who were blinded by their own self interest.
I would imagine that if Jesus were to come today, there would be those even in the Seventh-day Adventist church who would not recognize him as the Messiah because it would mess with our perception of how he should fit into the church environment. Some times we have such big plans for what "we" want in our church, that we miss the Messiah. It is "us" who do the concealing.
There is a good reason why the Church of Laodicea was advised to buy eye-salve!
I agree with you Brother Ashton.
I also hope for more references about what the Jews of the day were expecting with respect to a Messiah.
They apparently did not expect him to be divine. How then did they interpret Daniel?
Was quoting Daniel a way around their prejudices?
I see your point. May be "half-concealed" was a poor choice of words, however, re-reading the earlier Sabbath, 4 July's lesson, where Matthew 16:13 and :15 were quoted, if we read further into that chapter --
I am not sure what to make of Matthew 16:20:
"""Then He commanded His disciples that they should tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ"""
After affirming Simon Peter's answer, Jesus prohibited the disciples from telling anyone. If you were troubled with a half-concealment, how about a full-blown one?
Thoroughly enjoyed the lesson. Jesus can say He is I AM because He and the Father are One. He was in the beginning with God and He is God. As Jesus said in John 10:30, I and my Father are one. Given this all of God was and is expressed fully in Jesus.
What implications Jesus' humanity have for our salvation? Jesus is my role model, he demonstrated to me that I can live beyond sin. I am amazed how he was tested by the enemy in isolation, but he maintained his integrity. He demonstrated how we ought to respond to people who chose to be our enemies simply because we are Godly. He showed us how to be compassionate without impartiality. ( I remember this when I see homeless people and other needy cases. I resist judgmentalism and help in the best way I can). He taught us how to pray and get the aid of the Holy Spirit. I can go on and on. Most of all, he chose to be self-sacrificing for my salvation. Just imagine, this MAN who did so many things that humans do is coming back as a King of King for us who shared many simaliralities with him.
In Welfare Ministry Sister White talks about Christ's benevolence and ministry to the poor as being our example. She further states that we benefit in what is called reflex blessings. As we help others and lead them to Christ we also open our own heart to being receptive to our Savior and inheriting eternal life.
I agree with this.
EGW mentions this in Steps to Christ I believe.
I'm thinking that service is more than a nice addendum to spirituality. It's the main course. We cannot grow spiritually without service to others.
Awesome,the knowledge imparted to those who have the ability so I can glean through the power of the holy spirit. Praise the Lord for giving me all the knowledge and understanding so I can intelligently accept Him and know how to live for Him at His will and not mine. All the intellectual without the actual living Out His will is futile.So help me Lord amen.
God is sovereign. His dominion is not forced, yet He has very characteristic morals which He does not transgress. By His intervention He elevates us from certain and immediate death to life. Are we to imagine
by our profound questioning to find out God? Job, needed answers too to the reason for his suffering, but in the final question we will either submit to God or perish without Him. God is Spirit, God is love, His ways are not our ways, He cannot be searched out, when we put our trust in His healthcare we will have all the knowledge and wisdom of the Universe available to us.This is enough for us to be content, this is what I believe.
Don Litchfield:
"Who was Christ before He was the Son of Man?
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
John 1:1
As the same with a King in disguise as a pesant walking the streets of his kingdom or as a boss of an establishment secretly acting as a customer so did the Son of Man came to this World as us to preach the Gospel and Teach all people. To be honest I find it hard to wrap my mind around it, not as in why he did it, but that He actually did it... And Died for undeserving people who really didn't care...sad to say. When all is said and done the rigetious will be saved and the wicked perish. It's like a King walking the streets telling the citizens be warned of a coup or something similar and trying to save people from innocently become apart of destruction. That right their just says God is Love and so is the Son of Man.
This is a very great part of this quarter's lesson because looking at Jesus reffering himself to a son of man and yet he also surffered humilliation,rejections from various people,it means we also as christians should learn something out of his way of life because we also may expiriene the same rejection and objection but we should stay strong in faith because since our saviour won,then we should believe that we shall to win the battle and that is eternal life that he promised us!!!!!!thanks
Yes, Lystra, there is no reference in the Bible that I know of that indicates that Jesus hid His true mission or identity for the reason of saving His life.
I agree Donald, it was not so much to save His live (although it could be so He could finish His mission) but rather to disarm prejudice. This post may shed a little more light on the concept.
https://ssnet.org/blog/dealing-with-prejudice-should-we-hide-who-we-are/