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CHAPTER
6
CHAPTER
SIX
THE
SON
SON
OF GOD
I
am fortunate enough to have two sons. Like me they are
flesh and blood. They are even of the very same flesh
and blood as myself. They resemble me in many ways.
They are of the very nature and being of their father.
It is no different with the relationship of the Son
of God and His Father---the Son is of the exact nature
and being as His Father. In His incarnation, He took
on His humanity from the virgin Mary---His divinity
He always had with His Father. He was not half human,
He was a complete Man. He was not half divine, He was
fully God. The angel said to Mary,
“You
will be with child and give birth to a son, and you
are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and
will be called the Son of the Most High---.” “How will
this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon
you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow
you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son
of God.”
(Luke
chapter 1, verses 31-32, 34-35).
There
are many more verses where Jesus is called the Son of
God. Allow me to present just four consecutive verses
where Jesus acknowledges four names/titles as belonging
to Him, one of them being the Son of God:
“How
do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I
saw you while you were still under the fig tree before
Philip called you.” Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi,
you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you
under the fig-tree. You shall see greater things than
that.” He then added, “I tell you the truth, you shall
see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and
descending on the Son of Man.”
(John
chapter 1, verses 48-51).
So
here Nathanael uses three titles for Jesus: ‘Rabbi’,
meaning Teacher, Master; ‘Son of God’, the title which
unambiguously shows Him to be God; ‘King of Israel’,
recognising Jesus as the long-promised Messiah. Jesus
accepts these titles and adds another, the ‘Son of Man’.
SON
OF MAN
Put
very simply, Jesus’ title, the Son of Man, speaks of
His human lineage rather than His divine roots which
we see evident in the title, the Son of God. He is undoubtedly
of human descent and fully man---fully perfect man.
Perfect as all men should be, and as all who are called
and chosen will be.
And
yet even this title, the Son of Man, has immense and
unsurpassed significance when spoken of in context with
Jesus. I say in context with Jesus, because we see the
Old Testament prophet, Ezekiel, referred to as ‘son
of man’ on many occasions when he was given visions
and words of prophecy by angelic beings. To me, one
of the things which this showed was the contrast between
the angelic messenger who was from heaven and not of
human descent, and Ezekiel, who was of the earth and
human. The angel was putting things in their proper
perspective.
With
Jesus we have at least two very special meanings to
His title, the Son of Man: as a ‘son of man’ Ezekiel
is seen as one of many human beings; as the ‘Son of
Man’ Jesus is revealed as the Human Being above all
others. Also, we see great significance in this title
in the book of Daniel, another Old Testament prophet.
All
religious Jews at the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry
would have been very aware of the writings of the Old
Testament prophets. What we, believers in Christ,
regard as the Old Testament was largely known as ‘the
Law and the Prophets’, and was read out in places of
worship over the centuries. The writings of the Old
Testament prophets were completed with the book of Malachi
approximately 430 years before the birth of Christ.
Somewhere
around 550 BC the prophet Daniel received some very
startling and far-reaching visions and interpretations;
amazing prophecies that would lead up to and speak of
the first coming of Jesus Christ; they would speak of
His death, and events leading to, and including, His
glorious, triumphant return to earth.
While
held captive, along with his fellow Jews, in Babylon,
Daniel had a prophetic dream about four beasts. The
beasts represented four earthly kingdoms or empires
which would rule, one after the other. These and Daniel’s
other related prophecies are wonderfully detailed and
complex. They foretell a large and vital part of world
history, from the defeat of the then extant Babylonian
Empire, to the Medo-Persian Empire, the Greek Empire,
the Roman Empire in its first form, and the Roman Empire
in its final, modern and very terrible form (I am convinced
this is where the European Union is headed). I have
written about these prophecies more fully in my previous
books.
Daniel
speaks of this final empire ruling the entire earth.
He speaks of the ruler of this final earthly empire
being truly evil and dominating everyone and everything.
This evil personality brings the world to the very brink
of annihilation. He is only stopped by someone with
the title of ‘one like a son of man’:
“In
my vision at night I looked, and there before me was
one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven.
He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his
presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign
power; all peoples, nations and men of every language
worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion
that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that
will never be destroyed.”
(Daniel
chapter 7, verses 13-14).
Also,
the book of Revelation tells us that the Apostle John
saw an awesome, heavenly vision of the risen and ascended
Son of Man:
I
turned round to see the voice that was speaking to me-------and
among the lampstands was someone ‘like the son of man’-------his
head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow,
and his eyes were like blazing fire.
(Revelation
chapter 1, verses 12-14).
And
John knew this was the same Son of Man of whom Daniel
had spoken; the same Son of Man from whose lips the
title became His very own. So, while His Son of Man
title links Him forever with our humanity, it also reminds
us that it applies very specifically to One who as the
Son of Man is also the Son of God.
THE
SON OF DAVID
Just
as every human being is a descendant of Adam and Eve,
our Lord Jesus Christ, in His humanity, is also descended
from Adam and Eve. However, unlike the rest of us, the
ancestry, the family line, of Jesus can be traced right
back to Adam and Eve.
I
don’t intend to go into any real detail about King David,
except to say that he is a very major character in the
history of Israel and of God’s dealings with that nation.
He lived about 1,030 to 960 BC. He was not only Israel’s
greatest king, but he was inspired by the Holy Spirit
to write many of the Psalms. In 1 Samuel chapter 13,
verse 14, God calls David ‘a man after his own heart.’
So, as with other great Old Testament characters, such
as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, David is in many ways seen
as a focal point.
David’s
line stretches back to all those men of God, and the
Godly line was promised to continue from David right
up to the Messiah---the Saviour of the world. Jesus
comes from the line of David, and since the Jews had
a way of calling ancestors their ‘fathers’ and far-removed
descendants ‘sons’, Jesus is also known as the Son of
David. Often we see the more important names mentioned
while others are left out:
A
record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David,
the son of Abraham.
(Matthew
chapter 1, verse 1).
We
then read that between David and Jesus there are fourteen
generations, and the same number between Abraham and
David. The believing Jews, such as the blind man we
hear of in Mark’s Gospel, recognised Jesus as the One
promised through the line of David:
When
he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to
shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many
rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted
all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus
stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the
blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.”
Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and
came to Jesus. “What do you want me to do for you?”
Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want
to see.” “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.”
Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus
along the road.
(Mark
chapter 10, verses 47-52).
Notice,
we come across another of our Lord’s titles in the above
verses: ‘Jesus of Nazareth’; though He was born in Bethlehem,
He was raised in the Galilean town of Nazareth---hence
the title ‘Jesus of Nazareth’. The Old Testament prophets
foretold both these events, and the New Testament confirms
them:
“But
you, Bethlehem-----out of you will come a ruler who
will be the shepherd of my people Israel.”
-----and
he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was
fulfilled what was said through the prophets: “He will
be called a Nazarene.”
(Matthew
chapter 2, verses 6, 23).
Bethlehem
is also known as David’s city or the city of David;
he was born there, as was his Lord. Remember?
Once
in royal David’s city stood a lowly cattle shed
Where
a mother laid her baby in a manger for His bed
Mary
was that mother mild, Jesus Christ the little child
As
I write this, we are two weeks away from Christmas,
and the words come back from my childhood. I wasn’t
a Christian then, not until many years later. Yet the
words of the carol remind me of singing it as an infant.
I never attended Church schools, only state schools,
but we had Christian assembly, prayers, Grace before
meals, the Lord’s Prayer daily, nativity plays and carols.
Sadly, many of these, in some cases all these things,
have been taken away in the name of some spiritually
sick form of political correctness. I was not a Christian,
but I remember my infant heart being tenderised by the
Christmas story. I was not a Christian, but I remember
my heart swelling with love towards Jesus. It may have
just been childhood emotions, but they were not selfish
emotions, and, looking back with spiritual hindsight,
I believe God was using these things to begin a work
in me; a work which would take another 30 years before
bearing the precious fruit of saving faith. I have to
sorrow at the realisation that millions are missing
out on such rich blessings because of the mean antichristian
spirit, which is ruling so much in our land. Lord have
mercy on this nation for the way we are robbing our
children.
Jesus
is the unique Son of God, but to those who truly believe
in Him, those born of the Spirit of God, He gives the
right to become children of God. We are adopted into
God’s family as sons of the Living God:
----because
those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave
again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.
And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself
testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
(Romans
chapter 8, verses 14-16).
Remember,
just to acknowledge Christ in some intellectual way
only is not believing in the Biblical sense. As we have
seen in previous chapters, we must be awakened from
spiritual death. Just as we entered this natural, earthy
world through natural birth, we can only become part
of the spiritual, heavenly kingdom through spiritual
birth. Everyone born naturally is also born spiritually
dead. Faith in Christ is the sign of spiritual birth
and life:
Now
there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a
member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus
at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher
who has come from God. For no-one could perform the
miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with
him. In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth,
no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born
again.” “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus
asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his
mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “I tell you
the truth, no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless
he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth
to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You
should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born
again.’”
(John
chapter 3, verses 1-7).
For
the Christian, the child of God, Jesus is the Son of
God---He is also our Big Brother.
Sons
of God, beloved in Jesus!
Oh,
the wondrous word of grace;
In
His Son the Father sees us,
And
as sons He gives us place.
(EL
Nathan)
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