THE DISTINCTIVENESS OF MAN

J. D. Gray

Matthew 3: 16, 17; John 1: 49–51; Acts 7: 55, 56; Revelation 19: 11–16

If we look at commentaries we will find these scriptures linked together. I assure you I did not look at commentaries to find about what subject to speak; still, they help a little bit. I have been interested in the distinctiveness of man for some time, as all of you would be too, what God’s thoughts are for man. He formed him in the beginning, but Adam was a figure of Him who was to come. God waited for His Christ. We read Matthew’s gospel locally and the open heavens attracted my attention as relating to the distinctiveness of man; the Man upon whom the heavens were opened. Heaven had never opened like this before. The Old Testament heavens were opened in judgment in Noah’s days, but here the heavens are opened to a Person, to Jesus. The Father’s voice says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”. Wonderful those words, dear brethren, relating to thirty years of private life, but not an inactive life. Scripture does not record much about His private life, and I do not think Scripture speaks about the Lord having suffered during those thirty years. There is no doubt that He felt the scene in which He was in His spirit. He was “holy, harmless, undefiled” (Hebrews 7: 26); that characterized the Lord Jesus all through those thirty years, so from that point of view He would feel things in His spirit.

What Scripture seems to bring out is that those were days when He walked privately with God. At this point it is the juncture in His life when He takes up what is called His public ministry, but before that there was the private, intimate, holy life of Jesus, and heaven was interested in that. What an Object for heaven, a Man on the earth, such a Man, Jesus the beloved Son.

Have you ever thought what it must have been for God the day that Jesus was born? The Psalm says, “Thou art my Son— I this day have begotten thee”, Psalm 2: 7. That was fine, that was the day when He came into manhood. Many brethren here remember when the truth of the Lord’s sonship was unfolded. He came into the position of sonship in time on the day on which He was born; He took up a position at that point in the Father’s bosom; He never had been in it before. His eternal personality is not affected by that, but God rejoiced in that day, heaven rejoiced in that day—the gospels are full of it. Luke’s gospel particularly brings out the joy that was going on in heaven when Jesus was born. There was no room for Him in the inn, no festivities down here for Jesus’ birth. Heaven celebrated the day on which He was born; the Father celebrated, “I this day have begotten thee”. He grew up a Child, but still the beloved Son. Scripture draws aside the curtain to show us Jesus at twelve years old occupied in His Father’s business. There is silence for the next eighteen years, but all those days were days He was walking with God.

Heaven opened to acclaim Him. At this point in time He could have been received up into heaven, the opened heaven. There was no Man in heaven when heaven opened to Christ here.

The Man who came from heaven was on the earth; the second Man, out of heaven, was on the earth, the Object of heavenly beings but, more than that, dear brethren, the Object of divine Persons, the Object of the Father’s love, the Object of the Spirit’s love. “The Spirit of God”, it says, “descending as a dove, and coming upon him”, that Person, and then the voice—what an extraordinary scene, an opened heaven to a Man suited to heaven, and the only One suited to heaven at this point in time. That is the beloved Son. Has this blessed Person got a place in your affections?

Ponder the grandeur of the scene, ponder the immensity of the scene. God waited four thousand years for this from the creation of Adam. Four thousand years went on; Christ came into the scene. The Father waited thirty years before He proclaimed Him as His beloved Son.

He did not have to wait thirty years. Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, a Child full of wisdom rare! Oh the preciousness to heaven, to the Father, of what came out in Christ! He is the only Person who dwells in the Father’s bosom, this unique position. “In the bosom of the Father”, as John’s gospel points out, involves that He came into that position. What a day for divine Persons when the economy, as we know it, was expressed in the incarnation, in Christ coming into manhood, the Father having begotten Him, “Thou art my Son; I this day have begotten thee”. The mystery of His birth, “The holy thing also which shall be born” (Luke 1: 35), conceived of the Holy Spirit—here that Person, Jesus, is standing on the earth and is baptised (I do not go into that for the present time), but coming up “the heavens were opened to him”, to that Person. What a salutation—is He not worthy? Is He not worthy for you to open your heart to Him? “This is my beloved Son”—not ‘Thou art my beloved Son’, that is true—but “This is my beloved Son” involving the Father pointing Him out to others, pointing Him out to you, pointing Him out to me. Does He hold your interest? Has He a place in your heart? He has a place in the Father’s heart.

In John 1 Nathanael was standing under a fig-tree. Someone told him about Jesus of Nazareth and he said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” That was his first remark, but he came to see. Have you come to see? What have you come here for? Have you come to see something of the glory of this Person? Nathanael says to Jesus when He comes, “Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel”. That is what He will be in relation to His messiahship, in relation to the world to come and in relation to Israel mainly. But Jesus enlightens Nathanael that He has a wider glory than that of the Son of God and the King of Israel, and He does not have to wait for it till His coming kingdom. Nathanael does not have to wait for the coming kingdom to understand it, and neither do you and neither do I. He says, “Henceforth ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man”. “Henceforth”—I looked that word up in the dictionary because sometimes it is helpful, and it means ‘from that day and forward’. Nathanael would see the heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man.

Are we interested to enquire into Jesus’ glories as the Son of man? In John’s gospel chapter 12, when the Greeks come up, the Lord brings out that the Son of man had to die—“Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit”, John 12: 24. The Son of man could only acquire these glories through death. Scripture says, “Jesus, who was made some little inferior to angels on account of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour” (Hebrews 2: 9): He was made a little lower than the angels on account of the sufferings of death, but He acquires a greater glory than the angels. He inherits “a name more excellent than they”, Hebrews 1: 4. He is going to reign in relation to all men. The Son of man is Christ’s glory not only over the Jew, but over the Gentile. You know, in God’s ways, the angels were more powerful dignitaries and on a higher estate than man in God’s creation. They do not die, for one thing, but they do not know redemption, and fallen angels await the judgment of God, but here the angels of God are put into subservience to the Son of man—that shows the distinctiveness of man. Man is elevated to be greater than the angels. Through Christ, dear brethren, we are brought into a state that is greater than what God has in the angels, and the Son of man has men like Himself. He is over a vast area and has wonderful power, and the angels are subservient to Him.

I am not sure that I can help you too much about the question of “Henceforth ye shall see the heaven opened”, as being from that day and forward, but there must have been a display of it in Jesus in that the heaven was opened to Him. There certainly was a display in His lifetime that the angels ministered to Him. After His temptations they ministered to Him, in Gethsemane they ministered to Him, and there may have been other points where the angels came under Christ’s hand. Certainly in the present day in which we are the angels are “ministering spirits, sent out for service on account of those who shall inherit salvation” (Hebrews 1: 14), that is you and I. Those angels are under the service of the Son of man. The Scriptures bring out the distinctiveness of man as before God, that He has elevated him through Christ to a greater position than the angels. Scripture says He has made perfect “the leader of their salvation” (that is our salvation) “through sufferings”, Hebrews 2: 10. The Son of man has been initiated into such an office, but it is through death. Think of the Lord of glory lying in death! It says of persons that if they had known the wisdom of God “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (see 1 Corinthians 2: 7, 8)—that hidden wisdom which God has revealed to us by His Spirit. Any knowledge we have of God is revealed to us by His Spirit.

Are we interested in following through these things in Scripture? We will find food for our souls that will enhance to us the Person whom initially we knew as Saviour, but now to see Him in His glory as Son of man. It is God’s thought; He has waited for it. He did not find it in Adam; He did not find it in Adam’s race; but He has now found it in Christ and through His death He finds it in a race that is akin to Christ and will come into something of His glory according to the Scriptures. But this scripture brings out the distinctiveness of the Person who is Son of man to whom the heaven is opened. It must be characteristic in some sense, “Henceforth ye shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man”; it is in service to that Person, and that in His life here in humiliation, because remember when this was said it was the Son of man in humiliation, not the Son of man in His glory. So what God gave Him in His humiliation goes through to the time of His glory, involving His kingdom, and that must be seen too in the present time. The whole administration of heaven is at the hand of a Man. Joshua 10 brings out that heaven responded to the voice of a man. What a thing, dear brethren; the Son of man is in heaven, and heaven responds to the voice of a Man. It says, “Sun, stand still upon Gibeon; And thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon!”, Joshua 10: 12. The whole dispensation is characterized by the fact that heaven is at the voice and the command of a Man, and that Man is the Son of man, that Man is the Man who has gone into death to acquire that place of glory.

Well, in Acts 7 we see Him there and it is very encouraging, the heavens opened and someone sees the Son of man standing at the right hand of God. Although this is distinctive to Stephen, I think it is characteristic of the dispensation that the heavens are opened to believers. Stephen in the hour of his intense need saw the Son of man and it strengthened him in view of what he was as a witness, but I think it is characteristic. One thing has been pointed out, and it is worth repeating—there was an Object for Stephen in heaven. When the Lord was here and the heavens were opened, He was the Object; there was no Object in heaven. When Stephen saw the heavens opened, Christ the Son of man is the Object, but He is in glory, not in His humiliation, but in glory, and the heavens opened to strengthen the believer in view of testimony. How much is the reality of the exalted Son of man known in you and me? “He saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, Lo, I behold the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God”. I wonder how much you and I have been gripped by that!

Marvellous thing! It is the secret of walking here in testimony. You are not looking at the difficulties, you are looking at Jesus, by faith. Stephen saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God, he saw the Son of man standing there in His glory, it was literal for him. That was a touch of divine tenderness, but for us it is by faith. “We see not yet all things subjected to him, but we see Jesus, who was made some little inferior to angels on account of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour”, Hebrews 2: 9. He is in the position of pre-eminence as Son of man.

He has established the right to rule, He inherits a name more excellent than the angels. When He returns He will be presented to the habitable world, “Let all God’s angels worship him”, Hebrews 1: 6. He will rule the habitable world in righteousness, the Son of man, the Man appointed by God. The heaven is opened for believers by faith, by prayer. You can have access at any time. I trust in some measure, dear brethren, there is a feature of the opened heaven in this meeting; I do trust that, that we have been linked by the Spirit with Christ in glory. Stephen says, “Lo, I behold the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God”. I understand the Lord was ready to return at this point and I have pondered that. You can only come to it there was an absolute, sincere consideration that had the nation repented He would have come. You say, how would the assembly have worked out? I do not know; that is not opened up. But they did not repent. So the Lord says, “I ... have sat down with my Father in his throne”, Revelation 3: 21. The full truth of the church had not been opened up at this time, neither had the truth of the rapture. How could it be? It brings out the wisdom of God, how He waits till the time is right to make things known to His people. It shows in the wisdom of God, how servants have carried thoughts about Christ and other matters pertaining to divine things and waited till the word came to make them known to the people of God, till the state was right.

You have scripture for that. Divine Persons withheld the full understanding of the truth of the church, withheld the truth of the rapture because it would have caused confusion of thought in relation to Peter’s preaching in Acts 3 that the heavens had received Christ and if there was repentance by the nation He would come; but when there is this final rejection of the Just One, and the appeal by Stephen. God proceeds in relation to the dispensation in its full character, bringing out the truth of the church, and of the rapture, and bringing out too the assurance of the appearing. It is now the dispensation of the open heavens. You have access there, and the Person you will find there is Jesus, the Son of man. As looking on Him we are “transformed from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit”, 2 Corinthians 3: 18. That is what happens, we are changed. We will take on glory characteristically as we are occupied with the Son of man in His glory. Why? Because we will take on the features of the environment which we have touched in His presence. You cannot help it. Moses was on the mount for forty days and when he came down the skin of his face shone and he knew not, but others saw it because he took on the characteristic glories of the environment in which he had stayed for forty days and forty nights, sustained by God apart from human nutrition.

So the believer who is occupied with the Son of man in His glory and His grandeur will, like Stephen, take on a glory, a glory that might become testimonial in a sense as related to the dignity of the anointing, but a glory that is substantial in relation to new creation and the work of God going through to eternity, where it will shine in an environment unrestricted by sin. What an attraction to become occupied with this Personage in His own environment! If we want to be like Him where He was, we need to be occupied with Him where He is and take on the glory of that environment. How distinctive it is and completely contrary to the environment in which men, unregenerate, find their lives, pursuing an objective which they will never attain; but the believer is pursuing an objective to which he will attain. He is running a race with Christ as the Objective, and the heavens are opened to him as a characteristic feature. He has the power of access to go in there and enjoy something of that glory, “But we all, looking on the glory of the Lord … are transformed according to the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit”. We

become changed. There was no change in Jesus. When He was on earth the Son, the blessed, beloved Son, there was no change in Him; the way to the glory for Him meant the awfulness of the laying down of His life; but He acquires an inherited name that is greater than any name any creature has ever inherited. So it says in Psalm 87 that when God inscribeth the peoples He shall say, “This man was born there” (Psalm 87: 6)—that is Christ; it also says, “This one and that one was born in her” (Psalm 87: 5)—that is you and I, secured in accordance with the Man who is born in Zion, as distinct from the dignitaries of this world that are mentioned earlier in that psalm as born in other cities. The only thing that Scripture would say of them is that if the princes of this age had known (and that is in relation to the hidden wisdom of God) “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory”, 1 Corinthians 2: 8.

Revelation 19 is interesting. It is another scene, One on a white horse, coming as the King, Faithful and True. It takes your mind back to the opening of the address to Laodicea and the failure of the church, “These things say the Amen, the faithful and true witness”, Revelation 3: 14. Heaven has never opened like this yet, but heaven is going to open like this, and it involves Him taking up His rights; the Son of man is going to exercise His rights. The Father has given the word—times and seasons are in the Father’s hands—and the Son of man is taking up His rights. Now there are features about Him which are distinctive, “And his eyes are a flame of fire, and upon his head many diadems”—how many there are! we have been speaking of some—and “having a name written which no one knows but himself”. I understand that the name is written so that we know that it is unknowable and relates to the inscrutability of His Person, as it also says in Matthew, “No one knows the Son but the Father”, Matthew 11: 27. There is what is inscrutable about Christ, and we always have to remember that, something inscrutable about the Son of man. It brings out distinctiveness, who the Person is, and bows our heart in worship to the Son of man. There is a glory and a mystery attaching to Him, but His revealed name is the Word of God, the King of kings, the Lord of lords.

The Lord has His own distinctiveness. He is the only One who has a garment dipped in blood. He is going forth as the Avenger and will come “the second time without sin for salvation”, Hebrews 9: 28. There is no salvation for those who have scorned this blessed Man, the Son of man. Do not scorn Him. When He comes He will deal with scorners, He will remove them out of His kingdom. We come in in the armies of heaven to enjoy His victory.

“And out of his mouth goes a sharp two-edged sword and he shall shepherd them with an iron rod”. Now I know there is a connection back to the promise to the overcomer in Thyatira, who will come into that, but here it is something that Christ does Himself, “He treads the wine-press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty”. He is doing things Himself as the Avenger and we come into His glory.

All this precedes the glorious setting of Revelation 21 when the holy city, Jerusalem, comes down “out of the heaven from God, having the glory of God” (Revelation 12: 10). The Lord goes forth to deal with the beast and the antichrist personally; whoever else He will deal with personally is His matter. He is going to remove violence and scorn with a view to the holy city coming down to a scene from which evil and violence have been removed, to adjudicate for Christ for a thousand years. I know there are the sessional judgments in Revelation 20: 4,

“And I saw thrones; and they sat

upon them ...”, but the Avenger, you might say the Avenger of blood, Christ, does things Himself and the glory of His Person is that He has a name that is unknowable. We cannot enter into it—that is the glory of the Person. But we do enter into His glories and His victories as the Son of man, the Faithful and True, the Word of God, the One who expresses the mind of God, the One who treads the wine-press of the fury of God the Almighty. It is what He does Himself, “And he has upon his garment, and upon his thigh, a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords”. These things we can appreciate. Well, may the Lord help us in these things, for His name’s sake.

Address at Kirkcaldy
15 February 1986