Jesus in the Bible: the Son of Man
The Titles of Jesus in the Qur'an and the Bible
Chapters
In the Bible the title Son of Man is undoubtedly one of the most important titles of Jesus for he used this title of himself more than any other during his ministry. It is in fact the first title we find him using of himself. He addressed his new disciple Nathaniel in these words:
"Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man". (John 1:51)
Not only is this the first title of Jesus in the Gospels, it is also the last title he used for himself during his earthly life. When he was arraigned before the Jewish High Priest on the last night he was alive, he said to him:
"Hereafter you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven". (Matthew 26:64)
Quite obviously this title was a very important and distinctive one to Jesus. But what does it mean? Is it simply a way of expressing the humanity of Jesus? That Jesus was a man is disputed by neither Christian nor Muslim in this world. But the title Son of Man cannot just be an expression of humanity. The definite form of the title, the Son of Man, refers to more than this and clearly implies that it is a unique man who bears this title and that in some exceptional way he is the figurehead of the human race.
Secondly one might be tempted to say that if Jesus so often called himself the Son of Man, was he not perhaps contrasting himself with the beliefs of some who followed him who held that he was the Son of God? Was not this his way of emphasizing his humanity over and against the assertions of others that he was the Son of God?
On the contrary, no fair exposition of the Bible can allow this interpretation at all. Firstly Jesus never used the title Son of Man in a context where it is contrasted with the title Son of God. Secondly it is only in the four Gospels in the Christian Bible that these two titles Son of Man and Son of God are found and as the writers quoted Jesus as using both titles for himself, we cannot imagine that they would have done this if the title s of Man was in any way contrary to the title Son of God.
We discover the meaning and import of the title Son of Man from a prophetic passage in the Book of Daniel where the prophet describes a vision he saw many centuries before Jesus was born. He was given A vision of heaven where God is and saw all the nations of earth gathered before him. Then in the night he saw this great even happen.
"Behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of Man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was give dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed". (Daniel 7:13-14)
The Son of Man is an apocalyptic figure who is able to come right into the presence of God and it is to him that God gives authority over all the powers of the universe that every creature in heaven and on earth should serve him. Quite obviously the Son of Man is a glorious person, the epitome of human perfection and honour. And it is in this context that we find Jesus calling himself the Son of Man.
Elsewhere in the Bible we find the expression Son of Man used in a lesser sense (Psalms 8:4, Job 25:6, Ezekiel 11:15) where it does not refer to Jesus but is used in a general sense denoting humanity. Nevertheless whenever Jesus used it of himself, he used it as a title which belonged to him alone. In an exclusive sense he is the ultimate Son of Man, the one who was beheld by Daniel in all his glory in the vision he was allowed to receive, one who is unique and pre-eminent among men. The Son of Man, through something he head done and achieved as a man, was entitled to enter the presence of God and become the heir to the kingdom God has prepared for all those who truly love him.
What the Son of Man had done was to die for the sins of the world. By reconciling men to God, he was entitled to receive the kingdom which he had now made accessible to all who draw near to God through him. By conquering sin he had become the sovereign over those he set free from its power.
For this reason we invariably find Jesus using the title Son of Man in respect of his crucifixion and the glory he was to receive subsequent to it. He often told the Jews that it was the destiny of the Son of Man to be "lifted up", an expression which implied firstly that he was to be lifted up on a cross as an object of scorn before all men as he took their sins on himself and, secondly, that he was thereafter to be lifted up by God to glory in heaven to reign with him in wondrous majesty over all the sons of men. (See John 3:14-15, 8:28, 12:32-34.)
To his closer circle of disciples Jesus made this even clearer. On the last night before he was to be crucified, when he knew that Judas was about to betray him into the hands of the Jews, he said:
"The Son of Man goes as it is written of him". (Matthew 26:24)
As many of the prophets of old had foretold (e.g. Psalms 22, Psalms 69, Isaiah 53), the Son of Man was to die for the sins of men to make atonement for them. Only two days earlier Jesus had said to his disciples:
"You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified". (Matthew 26:2)
On numerous other occasions Jesus spoke of himself as the Son of Man in the context of a lowly man on earth serving his fellow men finally laying down his life for them - much the same as the concept of the son of man in a general sense where the expression is used, not only to imply humanity, but to imply lowly humanity and human weakness. The Lord of all glory had voluntarily taken on the form of a servant and had in deep humility elected not only to serve God in form of a creature but even to serve his fellow-men:
"The Son of Man came, not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many". (Matthew 20:28)
But far from the pending crucifixion being a final humiliation, Jesus spoke of it as a means of being glorified. More than once he spoke of his hour of destiny on the cross on the hour of glory for him. Shortly before his crucifixion he said to his disciples:
"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit". (John 12:23-24)
Again, as he began his last discourse to his disciples after Judas departed, he said:
"Now is the Son of Man glorified, and in him God is glorified. If God is glorified in him, he will glorify him in himself, and will glorify him at once". (John 13:31-32)
Far from the crucifixion being a disgrace for Jesus or even a triumph for his enemies, it was merely a means to that ultimate glory which the Son of Man was to receive in heaven according to the vision which Daniel saw many centuries earlier. He went to the cross to redeem thousands of sinners so that he could ultimately lead them in triumph into the kingdom which God was to give him. Three days after he had died on the cross, God raised him for the dread and forty days later God lifted him up and raised him to glory in the heavens until he should return to receive his own and lead and rule over them in the kingdom of heaven for evermore.
Accordingly we often find Jesus speaking of himself as the Son of Man in the context of glory as well as in the context of crucifixion. We only have to refer to the two texts quoted of the beginning of this section to see how emphatically Jesus spoke of himself as the Son of Man in the context of heavenly honour and majesty.
In the first quote he said to Nathaniel "You will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man" and to the High Priest he said "You will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven". One day all men will see the Son of Man coming from heaven with the glory he head already obtained in the kingdom of God. Other quotes in the same context are these:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne". (Matthew 25:31)
"Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory". (Matthew 24:30)
In all these quotes we find a deeply significant trend. The Son of Man is the central figure in the kingdom of heaven. He is unique among men - not just one who has found his way into heaven, but the one who is the focal point of glory before the eyes of all men and all angels of the highest place that heaven affords, at the right hand of the throne of God.
After Jesus had ascended to heaven, we have a wonderful example of a vision granted to one of the early Christians, Stephen, who was about to die for his Master and so became the first Christian martyr. As Daniel had seen a vision of the ultimate honour of the Son of Man in heaven, so Stephen also received a similar vision as he was about to die, and said:
"Behold I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God". (Acts 7:56)
So we see the pattern of the life of the Son of Man - from apparent disrepute at the hands of sinful men as he died for them on the cross to transparent honour and glory at the hand of God when he raised him from the dead to sit at his right hand, there to receive the kingdom he had rightly earned for all who are saved by faith in him.
So we see what a glorious personality the Son of Man is. Far from being a simple expression of humanity, the Son of Man is a title given only to the ultimate Redeemer of the earth and all who follow him. But if the Son of Man has gone to sit at the right hand of the throne of God, we are constrained to ask - does not this lead us to consider that the title "Son of Man", far from contrasting with the title "Son of God", rather corresponds to and is wedded to it? While the title implies humanity, do not the circumstances that Jesus spoke of which are found to accompany the ministry and work of the Son of Man imply that he is also in very truth the Son of God and that the Son of Man possesses divinity as well as humanity? Let up press on to see how the Jews themselves got this very impression - and then let us conclude with a very brief examination of this title Son of God which Jesus also gave himself.