Jesus Christ
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43. Why is Jesus Christ called ‘the Son of Man’? |
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Jesus
Christ called Himself ‘the Son of Man' to point out and underline that He was
not only partaker of the divine nature of God the Father (in that He was the
Son of God), but also partaker of the human nature because He partook of
flesh and blood. In other words, to point out and underline that He came “in
the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7 – NKJV). |
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Obviously,
the fact that Jesus partook of the human nature ENTAILED some limits and
weaknesses, which can be seen in the life of Jesus Christ: He ate, He drank
water, He slept, He got tired, He wept, just like any other man on the face
of the earth. It must be noted that as Jesus did not call Himself ‘a Son of
God’, so He did not call Himself ‘a Son of Man’ either, because He is THE Son
of God and THE Son of Man. |
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The Son of
God because He was from all eternity with God the Father; while the Son of
Man because He who was with the Father from all eternity took on human
nature, He was made flesh so that by His death He might destroy him who had
the power of death, that is, the devil (Hebrews 2:14). Such a thing had never
happened before, and it won’t happen again; He was God manifested in flesh (John
1:1,14). |
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According
to the Bible, to be ‘son of something or somebody’ means to partake of
something or to be connected with someone. For instance, believers are called
“the sons of the kingdom” (Matthew 13:38 – NKJV) because they are partakers
of the Kingdom of God; those who will take part in the resurrection of the
just are called “sons of the resurrection” (Luke 20:36 – NKJV); the man of
sin, that is, the antichrist who is coming, is called “the son of perdition”
(2 Thessalonians 2:3 – NKJV) – Judas Iscariot too is called “the son of
perdition” John 17:12 – because he will go to perdition; those who belong to
this world (who thus are under the power of darkness) are called “the sons of
this world” (Luke 16:8 – NKJV), while the saints, having been delivered from
the power of darkness and conveyed into the kingdom of the Son where is
light, are called “the sons of light” (Luke 16:8; cf. Ephesians 5:8 – NKJV). |
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Jesus is
called the Son of David because He descended from king David according to the
flesh, therefore He was part of David’s offspring or rather He was “the
Offspring of David” (Revelation |
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The Son of
God, who was from all eternity in heaven with God the Father, in order to
come in the likeness of men, was born of a woman who was a virgin, so that He
might not contract sin. For the Son of God had to be born sinless, so that He
might be able to offer Himself for our sins. According to Matthew and Luke,
the virgin chosen to bring forth the Son of the Most High was Mary of
Nazareth, a town in |
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To Christ
Jesus, the Son of man, be the glory now and forevermore. Amen. |