THE SON OF MAN

^[p. 24] THE SON OF MAN

Psalm 8; 1 Corinthians 15: 27, 28; Ephesians 1: 20 - 23; Hebrews 2: 8 - 12

What I want to present to you tonight is a few thoughts about the Son of man; that is the prominent thought in Psalm 8. In Psalm 2 we saw that the two great thoughts there were that Christ is the anointed, and that He is the Son of God. The decree is declared, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee”. As the anointed He is the One in whom God sets forth all His good pleasure to man. The Spirit of the Lord was upon Him down here for that purpose. Now, on account of His rejection, He is called to sit at God’s right hand, and in Him there God fully sets forth His pleasure in regard of man; we can only know that good pleasure, and His thoughts and purposes, as we learn it all in Him who will give effect to the will of God. God has set Him there in spite of all the opposition of men.

The designation Son of man in Psalm 8 is perhaps a little more difficult to understand than the others, but it is one of great interest. The Lord often applied it to Himself, indeed I think He applied no other, and it was a title by which He was known down here. You will remember that the Jews, although they understood something about the Christ, yet they said, “Who is this Son of man?”. They did not understand it. There are two important points in connection with the Son of man: first, His sufferings; secondly, His exaltation. You get His humiliation in Psalm 8, but in Hebrews 2 the further thought of His sufferings. Let me say also that “man” and “Son of man” are two distinct ideas. In Psalm 8: 5 the Son of man is referred to. Adam was not crowned with glory and honour, neither was he the son of man. In Hebrews 2 ^[p. 25] we get that which interprets Psalm 8; we get the reason of His humiliation, and there also we get that He is crowned with glory and honour as Son of man. Most of us are, I think, acquainted with the fact that in the first three gospels there is a point where the Lord closes up the testimony to Himself as the Christ, and from that time onward He speaks of Himself as the Son of man, and began to teach His disciples that the Son of man must suffer. “By the grace of God he should taste death for everything”. Hence He will take the kingdom on the ground of redemption, and Hebrews 2 shows us that the world to come is not put under angels, but under the Son of man. God’s great display in the world to come will not be by means of angels, no angel could have accomplished redemption; all will be in the hands of the Son of man, and grace will be operative in power and righteousness. It is very wonderful, the account that God takes of the Son of man. He was of the seed of Abraham, and legally the son of Joseph, but as soon as He is born into the world, He is claimed by God as His Son, but also He is Son of man, the One who was to suffer, take the kingdom, and have universal authority. It is very interesting to notice that in the gospels when the Lord speaks of Himself He speaks according to that which He is under the eye of God, and as I said there is a point in the first three gospels where the Lord no longer allows Himself to be spoken of as the Christ but as the Son of man, because it was in that character that He would suffer and reign. In Psalm 2 God’s King is set on His holy hill of Zion, with authority to execute judgment on the nations. It is hardly the thought of reigning but of subduing the nations. You get the same thing in Revelation 19, where He is seen as the Word of God vested with power to put down all that is contrary to God, but when we look at Psalm 8 in the light of Hebrews 2, we find that He by the grace of God tastes death for everything, and takes the ^[p. 26] kingdom on the ground of redemption; He is put in possession of the world to come. The Son of man came to relieve man of the pressure of death by tasting it, and brings in universal blessing as the result. You could not think of blessing here unless death were annulled, because death is God’s judgment on man, and man is under it. I do not think that we realise sufficiently that all were under death, and so Christ died for all, in order that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him who died for them and rose again. In Isaiah 25, and again in 1 Corinthians 15, we find passages which speak of death being swallowed up in victory. How could that be if He had not first tasted it? The ground of rejoicing in the kingdom will be not only that God makes a feast, but that man is relieved of death as the judgment of God, and all this is brought about in the very scene where the enemy brought in the ruin. The victory will take place where Satan has triumphed, and so in 1 Corinthians 15 the passage goes on to say, “Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”. The point of the passage is that the victory is celebrated here on earth, death is no longer a terror to the believer, but becomes his servant to introduce him into the enjoyment of his blessing, “absent from the body and present with the Lord”. If we think of ourselves as a company of saints I do not say that we shall not fall asleep, but we are no longer under death as the judgment of God. The proof of it is that we have the Spirit. We have passed out of death into life, and the Holy Spirit is given as the well of water which springs up to everlasting life.

For the moment the rights and title of the Son of man are in abeyance. He has tasted death but He has not yet taken the kingdom, and in the interval He is called to sit at God’s right hand until His foes are made His footstool; therefore this psalm has not had its ^[p. 27] complete fulfilment. The psalms are most instructive, because in the earlier ones we get the purposes of God set forth, while the later ones speak of their being brought to pass.

I pass on now to 1 Corinthians 15: 24 - 28. There the apostle by the Spirit takes up everything in connection with the last Adam, who will put down all rule and authority and power, and finally, at the close of the millennium, give up the kingdom to God. Here you get two important points: (1) That all enemies are to be put under His feet, the last enemy to be destroyed being death; (2) That all things are under His feet. You must make a distinction between enemies and things. Every enemy is put under His feet to be crushed, and death is to be destroyed. Why? Because death is the existing evidence of sin, but it will not be destroyed till everybody is taken out of it. It will be swallowed up in victory at the beginning of the millennium, but it will be destroyed as the last enemy after it has delivered up every one in its grasp, even those who have to stand before the great white throne, then death will be destroyed in the lake of fire, and all the thoughts and purposes of God will be accomplished.

What marks the nations at the present moment is that they are in opposition to God, and it is a comfort to know that what is in opposition will be broken to pieces as a potter’s vessel, and that death will be annulled by Him who tasted death for everything. You will remember that all the promises to Abraham were confirmed to Isaac, because in Isaac we get a type of resurrection, and the Lord will take the kingdom in the same way, and all things will be under His feet for blessing. In Hebrews 2 the apostle says, “We see not yet all things put under him”, that is, the rights of the Son of man are in abeyance, but what we do see in the interval is Himself, crowned with glory and honour, and all on the ground that He ^[p. 28] tasted death, so that there is no longer any hindrance to the accomplishment of God’s purpose, because the power of death and judgment has been annulled. The world to come is not yet displayed, but the One to whom it all belongs is in complete accord with God, and God by Him is bringing many sons to glory. God has declared His purpose, and the One by whom He will effect it is in complete accord with His mind, and thus He is suitable to be the Captain of salvation and the Leader of many sons to glory. That is the place He has taken now while He waits for the kingdom. He has trodden the path which the saints are now treading, He has passed through death, and is at the right hand of God. We cannot really apprehend God’s thought of salvation unless we apprehend it in the Captain who is now at the right hand of God, because He is completely identified with those who are saved. Both the Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one. It is His delight to be identified with the objects of God’s purpose, because they are the objects of God’s love and they are unspeakably precious to Christ. On that account He is not ashamed to call them brethren. We are predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brethren. The bonds which bind Him to the saints are bonds of affection, and the saints are led to Him in their affections by the Spirit. The Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one, it is complete identification with His people, He loves them because they are the objects of the love of God, and the gift of His Father to Him during His rejection, before He receives the kingdom. Have you affection for Him? Are you glad to be in His company? Are you pleased to be in the assembly where He meets His saints? If you are dull in the assembly, you have not in the affection of your heart got to Him, and we only have affection for Him in the measure in which we are under the influence of His love. The assembly begins with the Lord’s supper which sets forth that which was the expression of His love, and thus we are led into it by the Spirit. If we really understood the privileges of the assembly, where He is pleased to be, I do not think we could bear the thought of being absent. If we knew more of the love of Christ we should be more ready to respond to it, and our love would go out to those who are the objects of His love. It is impossible to love Him and not to love the saints.

I now pass on to Ephesians 1: 19 - 23. The thought here is not so much what the saints are to God, but what they are, so to speak, from God. Christ is seen at the height, above all, and all things under His feet. All is looked at as accomplished, and so everything is seen under His feet, and then we find another great truth, that Christ is Head of the church. Psalm 8 does not speak of this, but here it is brought in. The great idea of the church is that it came from Him, like Eve was taken out of Adam; she was taken from him as his body, and then she was united to him as his bride. He was also head to her and she partook of his nature and character. When the church is complete and in full display, as seen here, there will be nothing seen but Christ. We shall be the same persons, but morally there will be no trace of anything but Christ. The body is derived from Him, and therefore He is given to be the Head of it. It comes out in chapter 5, “the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church”; it was taken from Him in order that He might be adequately displayed in it, it is the fulness of Him that filleth all in all, and fulness, as I understand it here, is that which is needful for the complete display before the vast universe of bliss of all that which once came out in one solitary Man down here, but who is now in glory up there; it will then be displayed in millions of saints, it will be the fulness, the adequate ^[p. 30] display. He is given to be Head over all things to the church which is His body, and the church will be morally suitable for the full display. All this is connected with the Son of man.

Just think of the psalmist as he looked up into the heavens, and considered the work of God’s fingers while he watched his sheep, exclaiming, What is man? He could not understand it, but we see the wonderful truth that the Son of God has become a man, and as Son of man has tasted death for everything. He will take the kingdom on the ground of redemption, give effect to the will of God, and at the close of the millennium will deliver up the kingdom to the Father, and the Son Himself will be subject as Man, that God may be all in all. May God in His grace give us divine light as to His counsels and purposes, so that we may be completely separated from the course of things here, that we may know that present place which the Lord takes in regard to those who are the objects of God’s love and purpose, and be led into the enjoyment of our place before the Father, and of the place where He finds His delight in the company of the saints. May we also see the greatness of the Person who effects every purpose of God.