Jesus As The Son Of Man

“The Son of Man” is the way Jesus referred to Himself in Matt. 8:20 and in many other places. Paul also writes the following: “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” 1 Tim. 2:5. He had to relinquish His God-likeness and become a man in order to consecrate a new and living way and thereby become like His brethren in truth. (See 2 Pet. 1:3-4.)

There are many concocted religious expressions that are not found in the Bible. One of them goes like this: “He is true God and true man.” That, of course, is not possible, since He would not have needed then to walk by faith; but He is “the author and finisher of our faith.” Yet, in another sense, it is true, because God sent His Son. When the Son was sent, it was His (the Son’s) Spirit that was sent, and He (the Son) did not have the whole fullness of God that He had when He was with the Father. No, He relinquished His God-likeness or, as it says in some translations, “He emptied Himself.” When His Spirit was born in a human body, it had been “emptied,” as it were. It is written in Rom. 1:1-4 that He was “born of the seed of David according to the flesh.”

The flesh with its lusts and desires is the veil that prevents us from doing God’s will. Those lusts and desires are too strong for us and cause us to sin, even though we really want to do God’s will. That is why God sent His Son and gave us the gospel—the glad tidings. This is the glad tidings: “Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” Gal. 5:16. It was this that Jesus made possible for us while He was the Son of Man.

If we are looking for a simple, brief description of what the gospel is, we can find it in Rom. 1-4: “Paul, a bond servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”

The resurrection proved that Jesus had not sinned, despite the fact that He had this flesh in which we know dwells no good thing. He returned to the Father undefiled by the flesh of David. (See Rom. 7:18.) The significance of this for us is that we can, through the gospel, attain to victory over sin and to the same life that He lived. It is written about Jesus: “Curds and honey He shall eat, when He knows to refuse the evil and choose the good” (RSV). There was a time for Jesus, just like with other children, when He did not understand how to choose. However, when the time came that He was able to choose, His trials and temptations resulted in victory, which was curds and honey for Him. (See Isa. 7:15-16.)

“For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Rom. 8:3-4. These verses show clearly that the work which was accomplished in Jesus was done in order that the righteous requirement of the law could be fulfilled in us. We see plainly the possibilities that are open to us when we receive knowledge of Jesus Christ in the days of His flesh. When Paul got this knowledge, he counted everything else he had previously been interested in as rubbish. (See Phil. 3:8.) It is also written that through this knowledge we have received exceedingly great and precious promises, so that through them we might partake of divine nature. (See 2 Pet. 1:3-4.) That is how important it is to confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and how equally important it is for Antichrist to explain it away.

We read earlier that it was God who condemned sin in the flesh. In other words, this means that Jesus Himself did not have light over it. He had to receive that light from the Father. Jesus was obedient and became a sacrifice. Through the eternal Spirit He offered Himself without spot to God. (See CH 9:14.) This tells us that He did not have the power as the Son of Man to offer Himself. He had to do it through the eternal Spirit. It was in such weakness as the Son of Man that He learned to be a merciful High Priest for us.