The third point is that the Son of Man title enforces Jesus status as a divine person.
Going back to that passage I read to you from Ezekiel.
26 And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it. 27 Also from the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as it were, the colour of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it; and from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around. 28 Like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. Ezekiel 1:26-28
And He said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you.” 2 Then the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard Him who spoke to me. 3 And He said to me: “Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, Ezekiel 2:1-3
Ezekiel may have been a son of man. But Jesus is the Son of Man. And you read when you look in the New Testament, you find that it’s always the Son of Man. He’s not a son of man. He defines Himself as the Son of Man.
And as such, the Son of Man means that He is the supreme example of all that God intended humanity to be, the embodiment of truth and grace. What human beings should have been before the fall in communication with God, in total obedience and submission to God while here on the earth.
And that was what Jesus was. He was totally in obedience and submission to God. He was totally in communication with God all the time that He was here on the earth. And He was the supreme example of all that God intended the human race to be. He was the embodiment of God’s truth.
And here a couple of scriptures which tell you about this One we’ve already read.
The word became flesh. John chapter 1:14,
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14
Colossians chapter 2:9,
9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; Colossians 2:9
That’s an absolutely clear statement. It means that, when Jesus appeared in bodily form, all the fullness of God was in Him. He was fully God all the time that He was appearing in human form.
We looked last week at the passage in Mark’s Gospel where it says,
10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins” Mark 2:10
Remember that story where the they bring a paralytic to Jesus and He says to the paralytic man,
“Son, your sins are forgiven you.” Mark 2:5
And the scribes who were sitting there said in their hearts,
“Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” Mark 2:7
They were correct in saying that. Who can forgive sins but God alone? Only God can forgive sins.
So Jesus says, “Your sins are forgiven you.” Either He’s telling the truth or He’s ascribing to Himself something which is untrue.
8 But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, “Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? 9 Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? 10 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, Mark 2:8-12
So, which is the easier thing to say? Which one’s the easier thing to say?
The easier thing to say is “your sins are forgiven you“. Because if your sins are not forgiven you, you don’t know the difference, do you? The harder thing to say is to the paralytic, ‘rise up and walk’.
If he doesn’t rise up and walk, then you know that the other one is not true either. Okay.
So Jesus says the harder thing to the paralytic. He says, “Rise up and walk.” So he says that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralytic,
11 “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” 12 Immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went out in the presence of them all, so that all were amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!” Mark 2:8-12
You see the second thing there, the harder thing to say, ‘rise up and walk’, confirms the first thing, ‘your sins are forgiven you’. If your sins are not forgiven you, then the paralytic is going to lie there on the ground. So Jesus demonstrates clearly that He is has the power of God to forgive sins.
Notice he says the Son of Man has the power of God to forgive sins. So He’s using there the Son of Man title but He’s using it in a way which affirms His divinity.
And if you look through the many times the words ‘Son of Man’ are used by the Lord Jesus, you’ll see that He is actually affirming His divinity. When He says He’s the Lord of the Sabbath, He also affirms His divinity:
3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? 6 Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Matthew 12:3-8
According to Judaism, God gave the Sabbath. So, if Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, He’s God who gave the Sabbath.
He came to save lives, not to destroy them. The Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. How can he save them? Only if He has the power of God to save them.
And in John chapter 5 verse 27, we read,
24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. 25 Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, 27 and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. 28 Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29 and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. 30 I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me. John 5:25-30
Can you see that, in that scripture, Jesus uses the two phrases: the Son of God and the Son of Man?
First of all, the dead are going to hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. In other words, there is going to be a general resurrection and there will be a general resurrection of both the wicked and the saved. The wicked will go to the wrong place, to hell. The righteous will go to the right place.
But there will be a general resurrection and they will hear the voice of the Son of God.
So, everyone’s going to hear the voice of the Son of God and live. At that point, there will be no more atheists.
But He also says that He has the Father who has given the Son the right to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man.
Okay. So you’ve got the two phrases there. Son of God, Son of Man. And He executed judgment which only God can do in His role as the Son of Man. Why has He got the right to do that?
He’s got the right to do that because He has lived as a man on the earth. He has faced all the temptations, all the difficulties which we faced and overcome them. And He has laid down His life as a sacrifice for the sin of the world and risen from the dead. Therefore, He has the right now to judge people on the basis of the truth of the Word of God and to cause those who are saved to go to the right place, while those who are not saved go to the wrong place.
That’s why we have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and why He is the only One who can open up the door of heaven to us. This scripture, particularly this one in John 5, is the absolute proof that the Son of Man title is equal to the Son of God.
It’s not saying He is lesser, that He is just some kind of glorified human being. It is saying that the Son of Man is also the same person as the Son of God. In other words, Jesus is both Son of Man and Son of God. And they are both divine titles.
The Son of Man title just emphasizes His humanity, but it doesn’t take away from His divinity.
