TITLES OF CHRIST
SON OF MAN
DR. JIM DIXON
MARK 10: 42-45
JANUARY 22, 1989
For Jesus Christ, the title “Son of Man” was the title of preference. Other people called Him by other titles, rabboni, master, Lord, or Son of God. But time and again when Jesus referred to Himself, He used this title, the “Son of Man.”
Now in the secular world, this title simply referred to a human being. Anyone born of the seed of man was the son of man. But you see in the religious world of Judaism and in the Bible, this title had a very special meaning. In fact, this title had three very special meanings.
First of all, the title “Son of Man” was used to describe a man, a man who would come and represent all men, a man who would come and represent mankind. Think back for a moment to the Super Bowl game of last year. I’m sure that for some of you that’s kind of painful. The game started pretty well. Everything went, I’m sure, as God intended. John Elway went back and he threw a bomb to Ricky Nattiel and the Broncos were ahead seven-zip. Then at the end of the first quarter, the Broncos were ahead 10 to nothing and people in homes all over the city of Denver were celebrating. But then came the second quarter, paradise lost when the Denver Bronco defense began to look like Swiss cheese and the Broncos gave up 35 points, an NFL record, 35 points in the second quarter of the Super Bowl. The rout was on. After the game, people were mourning here in Denver and for weeks and months and even to this day, there’s a lot of people in Denver who feel kind of embarrassed and humiliated about the Super Bowl.
Why do they feel embarrassed and humiliated? The fact is they feel embarrassed and humiliated because in some sense they felt like the Broncos were representing them. That’s how it is in the sports world. Teams represent cities and they represent the people of those cities and that’s really how it is in life. Many people represent you, from the United States Congress to the state legislature, you have representatives. But the Bible tells us that the first person that ever represented you was named Adam. He’s the first person to represent mankind. He didn’t represent us very well, didn’t represent us any better than the Broncos did in the Super Bowl last year.
Now we read about Adam in the third chapter of the Book of Genesis and this morning it’s necessary for us to go back and take a look at that chapter. First of all, the Bible says “the serpent was more subtle than any other creature which the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, “did God say you may not eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden?” The woman said, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but God said of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, you shall not eat and neither shall you touch it unless you die.” The serpent said, “You will not die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and it was a delight to the eyes and it was to be desired so as to make one wise, she took of its fruit and she ate and she also gave some to her husband and he ate. And at once their eyes were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. Well, the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they sought to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” And Adam said, “I heard the sound of Thee in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.” God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat at the fruit of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of his fruit and I did eat.” The Lord God said to the woman, “What is this thing what you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent beguiled me and I did eat.” The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this thing, cursed are you above all cattle and above every creeping thing. On your belly you shall go. Dust, you shall eat all the days of your life. And I shall put enmity between you and the woman, between her seed and your seed. You shall bruise his heel. He shall bruise your head.” And to the woman God said, “I will greatly multiply your pain and childbirth. In pain shall you bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.” To the man, God said, “Because you have done this thing and you have eaten of the fruit of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you. In toil shall you eat of it. All the days of your life, thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you. You shall lead of the grain of the field. By the sweat of your brow shall you earn bread until you return to the ground. For you are dust and to dust you shall return.”
Now there we have the account of Adam, how Adam sinned and how because of Adam’s sin, he suffered the penalty and the penalty was death. “You are dust and to dust you shall return.” And his penalty wasn’t simply physical death. It was spiritual death, removal from the presence of the Lord God, separation from God. And as we go on to see it was banishment from the Garden of Eden itself. Banishment from paradise, banishment from the garden of God.
Now there was a sense you see in which Adam’s sin was corporate. There’s a sense in which his sin represented all of mankind and his penalty is our penalty and you are banished from paradise. You are banished from Eden. You are banished from the garden of God and you were born banished. You are born under the sting of death, physical and spiritual death.
You might say, well this isn’t fair. What gives Adam the right to represent me? You see, God is very clear in the scriptures that we all deserve Adam’s penalty because all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Indeed, the Bible makes it very clear that even though we live in a fallen world and we have fallen natures, nevertheless to some degree we have been given some measure of free moral autonomy. We have been given some measure of free moral agency and we have abused that freedom. There have been times when we could have done the good and we went ahead and did the bad. And in our heart we know that. We have abused our freedom. Sin has occurred at the level of volition, and we are morally culpable. We are blameworthy. We are rightly held responsible for our actions and the Bible says we desperately need someone else to come and represent us. We haven’t represented ourselves very well. Adam didn’t represent us very well. We need someone else to come and represent us. And the Bible says that someone is the Son of Man Jesus Christ, the man to represent all men.
Now even in Genesis, chapter 3, we have a glimpse that the Son of Man would come. We’re told that “there would come a man from the seed of the woman, from the seed of the woman there would come a man to crush the serpent’s head.” From the seed of the woman there would come a man to deliver all mankind. That man you see is the Son of Man. Jesus Christ came into our world and He represented you on Calvary’s cross. He represented me on Calvary’s cross. He crushed the serpent’s head. He took your sin. He took my sin upon Himself. He represented us. When Jesus used the title Son of Man, He understood that it was partly a reference to this function of representing us in death.
Jesus told his disciples that the Son of Man must be delivered over to the chief priests and to the scribes and they would condemn him to death. Then He said, “the Son of Man must be delivered over to the Gentiles and the Son of Man must be abused.” He must be scourged. He must be spat upon. He must be crucified. He must rise on the third day. He says “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but the Son of Man came to serve and to give His life a ransom for many.” The representative man…and He represented us not only in death, but He represented us in life as He came into our world and He lived a perfect life without sin. He lived the life Adam was meant to live. He lived the life you want to live.
The Bible says that now if we take Him as our representatives, His righteousness and His life is imputed to us. Indeed, it says in Romans, chapter 5, and in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, that Jesus Christ is the second Adam. In the first Adam, all die. In the second Adam, all shall be made alive. In the first Adam, all sin. In the second Adam, many shall be made righteous. It says the representative man, Jesus Christ, the Son of Man.
Well, yesterday my brother and I and Everett and Mike Sadler, we went out and we golfed. It was January 21st, 60 degrees. I mean we couldn’t resist it. I hit my ball into a number of sand traps, which is pretty typical for me, and I had a hard time getting out of those sand traps, which is pretty typical for me. But you know, that doesn’t bother me that much because everybody hits into sand traps. Even Arnold Palmer in his prime hit into sand traps. Jack Nicholas in his prime hit into sand traps. But you see, sand traps are to golf kind of what sin is to the Christian life, or to life in this world. We all hit into sand traps. We all sin. Even Billy Graham sins. Even Mother Teresa Sins. Everybody sins. But you see, Jesus Christ came into our world and He played the course perfectly. He never hit into a single sand trap. He never committed a single sin. He got birdie on every hole, every time. The incredible truth is the Bible tells us in the moment we embrace Him, in the moment we receive Him as Savior, as our representative, in that moment we get His score. We get a perfect score because He is the Son of Man. He is the second Adam and He represents mankind, if only we would embrace Him as our representative, our Savior.
Well, as Son of Man, this title has a second meaning. It not only refers to the man who will represent all man, but the title Son of Man also refers to the man who will rule over all man, the one who is destined to reign over all of mankind. We see this use of the Son of Man in the Bible beginning in Daniel, chapter 7. We’re told that the prophet Daniel had a vision. In this vision he saw the future of the world. In this vision he saw four beasts, one at a time, rising from the great sea. These four beasts, he was told, represented future kingdoms of men that would come upon the face of the earth. The first beast represented the Babylonian empire and Nebuchadnezzar the Great. The second beast represented the Medo-Persian empire and Cyrus the Great. The third beast represented the Greek empire and Alexander the Great. The fourth beast represented the Roman empire itself.
Then Daniel, in his vision, looked further into the future and he was given a glimpse of the consummation, the very close of this age of the world. He saw that, in some sense, from this fourth beast there would arise ten horns called ten kingdoms. Most Bible scholars see here a reference to a ten-nation alliance that would, in some sense, rise, arise from the fourth beast, from the Roman empire. A ten-nation alliance that would arise from the culture, the heritage, the language, the peoples of the ancient Roman empire. A ten-nation alliance that would arise in the geographical landscape of the ancient Roman empire.
Then Daniel saw an 11th horn that would arise in the end times called a little horn, A little horn that would be given power over these ten nations and a little horn that would seek power over all nations, every tribe and tongue and people in nation. A little horn identified as Antichrist. Then suddenly Daniel looked into heaven and he saw judgment; judgment pronounced upon all these kings and all these kingdoms, all the kingdoms of this world. And power was stripped from them, including the power of Antichrist, and their kingdoms were taken away and suddenly on the clouds of heaven, Daniel saw a man called the Son of Man. And Daniel saw Him come and present himself before the Ancient of Days. And to Him was given power and dominion and glory, and to Him was given kingdom, and that kingdom would be an everlasting kingdom and it would never pass away…the Son of Man. There is no doubt that our Lord Jesus Christ, many times in using the title Son of Man, used it in this sense.
Thinking back to the 7th chapter of the Book of Daniel, the Son of Man who would come in glory and be given reign and rule over mankind itself, reign and rule over all things.
In the year 1890, at Auburn Prison in New York City, they first used the electric chair as a means to execute people…this was in 1890. King Menilek II of Abyssinia ordered three electric chairs and had them delivered to Abyssinia. There was only one problem. Abyssinia had no electricity. In the entire country, no electricity. Of course, these electric chairs required some outside source of electrical power. So there he was. It was kind of a shock. So he took one of the electric chairs and he used it for his imperial throne. For the next 23 years, Menilek II sat in an electric chair as his imperial throne. That might seem like kind of a strange throne, but in a sense it’s a very appropriate throne for all earthly rulers, kings and queens and czars and magistrates. The electric chair is a very appropriate throne because this chair is a symbol of death, and all kings and queens and czars and monarchs and majesties, all rulers are destined to die. Their kingdoms rise, their kingdoms fall. A brief glimpse at history manifests that. Their glory is like the flower of the grass, and the grass withers and the flower falls.
But you see, the Bible says there’s one ruler who rules forever. One ruler who sits on a throne forever. One ruler whose kingdom lasts forever. He’s not simply been given dominion over one country, but He’s been given dominion over all countries. He’s not simply been given dominion over this earth, he’s been given dominion over all worlds. The Bible says He’s destined to rule the heavens above and the earth beneath. The Bible says it is the will of the Father that the Son of Man would ultimately be acknowledged as Lord by all peoples, that before Him “every knee would bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, that every tongue would confess He is Lord.” He is sovereign in heaven. He is sovereign on earth. He is sovereign in hell. You see, those who are in heaven are those who have freely accepted, freely embraced His sovereignty. Those who are in heaven are those who have freely embraced His reign and He invites you today to freely embrace His reign and His rule in your life. He came into this world and He said, “Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
George Eldon Ladd, one of the greatest Christian scholars of 20th century America, told me that that phrase “Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” which was considered a summation of the gospel, really means Repent, the king of heaven is in your midst.” You see, that’s the gospel message. “Repent, the king of heaven is in your midst” and He invites you to embrace Him as king, to embrace His reign. The amazing fact is, because He is the Son of Man and destined to reign over all, when you receive His reign, when you freely accept His reign, He not only reigns over you, but He wants to reign through you. You see, that’s why the Bible says that as Christians we are destined to reign and rule with Christ. He wants to express His reign through you.
In Daniel, chapter 7, in the 13th verse, we’re told that “All dominion is given to the Son of Man.” Then in the 27th verse, we’re told that because of the Son of Man, all dominion is given to the people of God. He wants to reign and rule through you forever. The first Adam was given dominion over this earth. The second Adam was given dominion, is given dominion, over all things. All who are in the first Adam share his dominion over the earth, a dominion which has been abused. All who are in the second Adam share his dominion over the universe, and it’s a dominion that will never be taken away.
Well, thirdly and finally, this phrase the “Son of Man” refers to a man who would come to judge all of mankind. Not only represent all of mankind, not only rule over all of mankind, but one who would be the judge of all men.
Sometime back, just a short time back, a woman named Paula Markopoulos had decided to sue the Disney Corporation. Apparently on June 28th, 1983, Paula took her son Evan to Disney World in Florida near Orlando. When Evan, who was four years old, was standing outside of Cinderella’s Castle, he saw Mickey Mouse. Of course, it was a guy in a Mickey Mouse suit and Evan had always been enamored with Mickey Mouse and he ran up to him and he pulled Mickey Mouse’s tail rather hard. The guy inside the suit didn’t like it and he turned around and he pushed Evan and Evan fell back into a rail. Now, it didn’t really hurt Evan physically, but his mother Paula claimed that it did hurt him emotionally. She claimed that the guy in the Mickey Mouse suit was intoxicated. She claimed that as a result of that experience, Evan began to mistrust everybody, began to have a lot of anxiety, began to require psychological counsel. She began to spend thousands of dollars on his counsel, and through the years it has reached a point where she now owes more than $10,000 on the therapy that Evan has received. So, she has sued the Disney Corporation for $3,000,000 and she has sued the guy in the Mickey Mouse suit for $3,000,000. I think it’s pretty safe to say that the guy in the Mickey Mouse suit doesn’t have $3,000,000.
But you see, at some point this is all going to come before a judge. It’s all going to come before a judge and he’s going to have to render a verdict and it’s not going to be easy. This judge is going to have to decide whether Evan really needs psychological therapy and whether he needed it prior to Disney World or whether he needs it because of Disney World. And if he needs it because of Disney World, this judge is going to have to decide what constitutes just compensation, and that’s not going to be easy.
I only had one time that I stood before a judge; that was for a traffic violation. I had two tickets from the same police officer who wrote me up for running a red light and making an illegal right-hand turn. I didn’t think I was guilty of either one. I told him so and he said, “Well, you know you could take it to court.” So I did. When I got there, they wanted me to plea bargain and they said that if I’d plead guilty to one, they would drop the other. And I told them I didn’t think I was guilty of either, so I wasn’t going to plead guilty. I went in there and I shared with the judge and the police officer shared with the judge and he asked us both some questions and finally the police officer changed his story and he said, “Well, maybe the red light was actually yellow.” The judge became very upset and he threw the whole case out.
Now, you may have never been before a judge, but if you ever appear before one, you want him to be fair. You want to know you’re going to get a fair deal. Well, the Bible says even if you never appear before a judge in this life, you’re going to appear before a judge in the next life. At the consummation of this age, at the dawn of the age to come, every one of us are going to appear before the judge and that judge will be the Son of Man, Jesus Christ.
Jesus, many times in using the phrase Son of Man, made it very clear that He had this concept of judgment in mind. Time and again He spoke of the fact that all judgment had been given to Him. In Matthew 25, Jesus said, “When the Son of Man comes, in power in great glory in all of his angels with Him, He will sit on his glorious throne. Before Him shall be gathered all the nations. He will separate them one from the other as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left. He will say to those on his right hand, come, oh blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundation of the world. But He will say to those on his left, depart from Me you workers of iniquity into the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
You see, that’s judgment. Jesus says “the Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, that all might honor the Son even as they honor the Father.” Jesus says, “the Father has given all judgment to the Son because he is the Son of Man.” He said, “Do not marvel at this. The time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear my voice and come forth. Some to everlasting life, some to everlasting death.”
Well you see, that’s not going to be easy in that moment when all people stand before Jesus Christ, when you stand before Him and He has to evaluate our lives and He evaluates our behavior. That’s not going to be easy because there are physiological factors related to heredity. Some people are just born sunny side up, they can’t help but be nice. Other people are kind of born contrary and it takes a lot of work to be nice. And some people are reared in real nice environments where everything is really blessed and wonderful and some people are reared in real hard environments and the Son of Man is going to have to filter through all of that and He is going to look at your will and He is going to look at my will. He’s going to see what we’ve done with our freedom.
But you see the biggest thing, what he is going to look at above all else, the most important thing is this; He’s going to look and see what you’ve done with the Son of Man. Have you embraced him as your representative, your Savior? Have you embraced him as your sovereign, as your Lord? Have you embraced His reign? “He who has the Son has life, he who has not the Son of God has not life.”
God wants all of you to know, even those of you who are Christians, that even as Christians, you will also appear before the Son of Man. You see, part of our responsibility as a church is to prepare you for that moment, to share with you the gospel so that if you do not know Christ, you can receive Him as Lord and Savior, and if you do know Christ you’ll be ready for that moment. Because the Bible makes it very clear that even Christians will be judged. It will not be a judgment of heaven and hell, but it’ll be a judgment of your varying eternal rewards. We will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and part of our responsibility is to prepare you for that moment.
I would just like to suggest to you three tips. When you stand before Jesus Christ, you need to know first of all, that works count. Works count. They do not count for salvation. You’re saved by grace through faith. But once you are saved, works count, and your varying rewards in heaven will be based on your faithfulness. Now, don’t think works don’t count.
Secondly, Christ wants you to understand mercy counts. You see, the Bible says “judgment will be without mercy for those who have shown no mercy.” So ,by all means, show mercy. And finally, remember that humility counts when we as Christians stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Humility counts. Many who are first here will be last there, the Bible says. Many who are last here will be first there. God opposes the proud. He gives grace to the humble, humble yourselves, therefore. The Bible says “unto the mighty hand of God that in due time he will exalt you.”
Well, Jesus Christ wants us to understand that when you receive Him as your representative, when you receive Him as Savior, when you embrace His reign and you receive Him as Lord, that’s not the end. That’s just the beginning. This life is meant for Christian growth. One day as we stand before Him, that growth in Christ be evaluated.
This morning as we close the service, I’d just like to share with you a passage of scripture that’s one of my favorites. It’s found in 2 Peter, chapter 1, where the Apostle Peter addresses the Christians in Asia Minor. He tells them what is expected of them if they would do well when they stand before Jesus Christ.
Peter says “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who has called us to his own glory and excellence by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these we should escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passions and become partakers of the divine nature. Now for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and to supplement your virtue with knowledge and knowledge, with self-control and self-control, with steadfastness and steadfastness, with godliness and godliness, with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. If these things are yours and abound, they will keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful, ineffective or unfruitful in your knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But whoever lacks these things is blind and is shortsighted and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sin. Therefore, brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election. If you do this, you will not fall, and there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now I intend always to remind you of these things, though you know them and are firmly established in the truth which you have, but I think it right, as long as I’m in this body to arouse you by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon even as the Lord Jesus showed me. And I tend to see to it that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things, for we didn’t follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for when He received glory and honor from God the Father and the voice was born to him by the majestic glory, “This is my beloved son with whom I’m well pleased.” We heard this voice born from heaven. We were with him on the holy mountain and we have the prophetic word made more sure. Therefore, you do well to pay attention to this as to a light shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Let’s close with a word of prayer.