IN WHAT WAY WAS JESUS THE ʻSON OF MANʼ?

Scripture references are to the King James

(Authorised) Version

Question: Why does Jesus call Himself the ʻSon of manʼ? See, for example, Matt. 24: 27; Mark 8: 31.

Answer: When God purposed to give the earth to mankind He gave it to father Adam, who lost it by his disobedience.

Adam no doubt looked forward to a son who might become the inheritor in his place.

If any of his male offspring had been able to keep the divine law perfectly, then he would have had the right to claim all the inheritance father Adam had prior to his fall.

But there was no one.

Because Adam himself lost the right by his sin of disobedience, all of his offspring were imperfect none of them could therefore claim the inheritance.

In due time our Lord came to earth, having left the glory He had with the Father, and was made flesh.

Not that He got into the flesh, like a coat, but that He was made flesh. For the time He lived on earth He was a man. So the Scriptures identify Him as the ʻman Christ Jesusʼ (1 Tim. 2: 5, 6).

He divested himself of the glory and honour of the spiritual nature which He had previously and became ʻthe Son of [the] man [Adam]ʼ. And by His obedience to the divine law Jesus claimed the inheritance of the earth that had been forfeited by Adam.

Of Himself Jesus announced ʻthe Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lostʼ (Luke 19: 10). Although He established His right to the eternal inheritance of earth, He gave it up, that it might go to the purchase price for Adam and his race.

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