THREE TITLES OF CHRIST
[p. 320] THREE TITLES OF CHRIST
Matthew 21: 33 - 46; Matthew 22: 1 - 14; Psalm 2
It is very remarkable to see the titles which belong to Christ and to see too how they are interwoven in the gospel, not in the gospel of Matthew simply, for the same thing is found in the other gospels; in John, for instance, you get three names or titles of Christ. The three to which I refer are ‘Christ’, which is equivalent to Messiah, the one being Greek and the other Hebrew, as you all perhaps know, but the terms are equivalent; then the other two are ‘Son of David’ and ‘Son of man’. Now I want to point out to you the significance of them.
When everything breaks down at the hand of man — there are certain titles in which Christ is presented to man and everything breaks down on that ground — God is not baffled, but He accomplishes everything in Christ. Take the second Psalm, for instance, though you must first remember the period taken in by the Psalms. The Psalms were compiled by very many people, and they consist, as you all doubtless know, of five books, in which there is a certain progress. They were written very many years before Christ came, yet the period covered by the Psalms begins really with His rejection, and they close with the establishment of the Kingdom; you get the restoration of Israel and Judah and the establishment of the Kingdom. The books close with the great Hallelujahs consequent upon the establishment of the Kingdom. Here in Psalm 2 we get the rejection of Christ, it commences with that all are found to be in organisation against Jehovah and against His Christ, yet has He set His King upon His holy mount. Then He is not simply ‘Messiah’ but Jehovah’s Son — “Thou art my Son”, and then connections are formed for Him, that is the [p. 321] consequence of His rejection by His own people. But I will not dwell long upon that. The second Psalm gives us the thesis or groundwork for very many of the Psalms, in fact, I might almost say for all the Psalms. Now the effect of the presentation of Christ in the flesh was this, “Let us ... cast away their cords from us”. Not only the nations but God’s own people reject Him. Then in verse 4 you get the response, “the Lord shall have them in derision”, etc., in spite of all their disturbance God will accomplish His purpose. There are two things, God sets His King “upon his holy hill of Zion”, and at the same time He is declared to be God’s Son; it is another light in which He is presented, and then connections are formed for Him. You get part of this Psalm taken up in Revelation 2:18; Revelation 2:26,27; the title under which He here speaks to the churches — “Son of God” — is beautiful taken in connection with what we get in Psalm 2. Christ comes in as the Son of God, and He gives to the overcomer authority over the nations — it is the new connection formed for the Son of God.
Now I will just revert to what I said as to the three titles — first you get Christ the anointed; secondly — Son of God; and then thirdly — Son of man. Now just look at Matthew 16: 13, Jesus asks His disciples, “Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” Then in verse 16 you get Peter’s confession, “Thou art ... the Son of the living God”; then in verse 20 He charges them that they should tell no man that He was “Jesus the Christ”; then again in verse 27 you get Him as Son of man. It was just at the point when the Lord’s rejection comes before Him, “Who do men say that I the Son of man am?” Then we have Peter’s confession, “Thou art ... the Son of the living God”, and immediately upon that the Lord forbids them to say anything more; and judgment comes in consequent upon that. He comes out in a new light and in connection with that the new connections come [p. 322] in; that is really what comes before us in these scriptures.
These parables come in in connection with the Lord’s coming up to Jerusalem to suffer — as we have it in the parable the husbandmen said, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours”. In the beginning of this chapter (21) He comes into Jerusalem as the Christ, and He claims the inheritance, the way in which He claimed it was by the testimony, and had they been in intelligence as to the mind of God or as to Scripture they would have been quite contented that He should have had His inheritance. The Lord Jesus Christ comes into Jerusalem under the title of Son of David, and claims the inheritance according to His proper line after the flesh, He claimed what was His properly as after the flesh.
You must take all these chapters in conjunction, so if you will look on to chapter 24: 29, 30, we get “the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory”, then in chapter 25: 31 again, “The Son of man shall come in his glory”, etc. These two chapters are taken up with the coming of the Son of man, “They shall see the sign of the Son of man”, etc., the kingdom of heaven comes in between but still the great subject of the two chapters is the coming of the Son of man; then in chapter 25 in regard of Christendom you have the “Son of man shall ... sit upon the throne of his glory”, and all nations are gathered before Him.
Now, my beloved friends, we have two things in these chapters — Christ entering Jerusalem as the Son of David — and as such His title was rejected, they disowned Him at once; in chapter 21 from verse 12 onwards the Lord gave a twofold testimony not only by His testimony claiming the inheritance but in the healing of the blind and lame. What I read all these scriptures for is really to prove to you that Christ coming as the “Son of David” His testimony is rejected in spite of the testimony He gave; then [p. 323] again in chapters 24 and 25 you get the judgment He executes on the nations and the power and glory that He will establish; in these chapters you get the substance of what we find in Psalm 2.
Now I will take up the two parables, turn to chapter 21: 38, 39, that brings us to the end of God’s dealings with the responsibility of the husbandmen; they said, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance”, now the Heir was God’s Son, though presented as Son of David, and they had rejected and refused God’s Son. He came to them with adequate testimony and they had refused Him and they were responsible for killing Him — the Son of God — that brings everything to an end on that line. This parable is very plain and their own answer to the Lord’s question as to what shall be done with those wicked men is, “He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen”.
Now, beloved friends, we will turn to the other parable which brings another thought before us — chapter 22 — the first point is it is a similitude of the kingdom of heaven, it fills up the interval between the rejection of Christ and goes on till Christ comes again — it is a similitude of the kingdom of heaven. There is another thing, too, you do not get anything about husbandmen in this parable; in the previous one they occupy a very conspicuous place, but here all that is seen is God’s Son. In spite of all that is contrary God will accomplish everything in His Son — He will accomplish all in His own Son; it is a marriage supper made and the central figure of it all is the king’s son. What is intended to be set forth in this figure is what is true of marriage according to the thought of God — “For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife”. It is Christ entering into connections outside his natural connections with Israel, He has left father and mother and all that, and other connections are formed for Him — the [p. 324] connection of Christ and the church. I am quite aware that it does not come out very plainly but still what you really get in the marriage is a man separated from all his natural connections, that he may form new ones. The first testimony that goes out to the Jew is this, “God has made him, Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ” — that was the apostles’ testimony to the Jews, then too there were festivities in connection with His exaltation; the apostle in Acts 2 urges them to repent, it was a time of festivity at the exaltation of Christ — God had made Him both Lord and Christ; He had made a marriage supper for His Son and they were invited to come in and share His good things. The Jews who had killed God’s Son were invited to come in and share His good things. The whole ground of God’s dealings was changed, it was no longer a question of His testing the husbandmen, but He sets forth His Son in a scene of festivities, and invites man to partake of the good things — other connections had been formed for God’s Son — He was separated from the natural kindred.
All Christianity hangs upon the fact that God’s Son has been rejected here but accepted up above; Christendom wants to blind the eyes of people as to Christ’s rejection — look at the church steeples they set up, they want to pretend that Christ has been accepted here; but the truth remains that He has been rejected here, and man is invited in to enjoy all that has come in in consequence of His exaltation to the right hand of God. When Christ comes again people will not be invited to come in, for Christ will bring salvation with Him, but now God is inviting people to come in and enjoy all that is consequent upon God having been glorified — there is forgiveness of sins for man — and the gift of the Holy Spirit. If Christ is the central figure for God — it is of all importance, beloved friends, that He should be the central figure for us. Everything now as established [p. 325] in Christ is in accordance with and consequent upon the love of God, “Thou art my Son”. I ask all here tonight, is God’s Son to you what He is to God? Is He your central figure? If we have come into the marriage supper, we have come in at God’s invitation, to do honour to God’s Son, and He is to be the central and commanding figure in our souls. He has “translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love”. Beloved friends, a great many things come in to divert our hearts, and to conflict the ground with the Son of God, but the very ground on which we have come in to the supper is to do honour to His Son.
Now one word as to the wedding garment, verses 8 - 14, the only possible title that we can have to come into the supper to share the festivities is this, that Christ is our righteousness — there is no other ground on which God could possibly approve us. Abraham will have his part in the world to come because the Lord is his righteousness. The only title we have to enjoy the good things of God is that Christ is our righteousness, it is, as I said before, the only possible ground on which God can approve us. We have no title to be in the kingdom of heaven other than as having Christ for our righteousness; suppose a man should say, ‘I am quite fit to go in, I can read chapters and I can take part in divine worship, I do not see any particular need to go through exercise of heart’: the wedding garment is a proof of this, that I have gone through exercise of heart, the only ground on which I can come into the kingdom of heaven is as having on an approved righteousness — and Christ is that righteousness.
Now the servants gathered together all, both bad and good, people come into the outward profession of Christianity, but mark this — there comes a moment when the King comes in to inspect the guests; that moment is coming. He looks to see the guests and He sees one man who has not on the wedding garment;
[p. 326] that man is a representative man, the wedding garment was provided for that man but he has not it on. The garment is this — I have no righteousness of my own, but Christ is my appointed righteousness; there is a way of justification for those who own that they have no righteousness of their own, Christ has been “raised again” for their justification. If a man has not Christ in that sense, he is not fit to be in the kingdom of heaven. The man we get here is a representative of very many more.
Now suppose I have the wedding garment — Christ as righteousness now, then I can come into all the festivities of that scene, in which Christ is the object and the central figure; He is to be as much an object to your heart as He is to God; He has made Him the central figure; He has formed connections for Him outside of Israel, and He is the only figure in that scene.
Does every heart here rejoice that in spite of the contrariety of all here, Christ has found an adequate object for His own heart. And in that object God has been pleased to establish all the purposes of His will. I see that when Christ was born into this world the announcement of the angels was “on earth peace, good pleasure in men”. That song was changed when He came into Jerusalem, it is taken up by the children, but what they sing is this, “Peace in heaven”, He is the Object, supreme honour, and there is peace in heaven, and the reason that there is peace in heaven is because He was going to be honoured there, and because He is there, there is peace there. The apprehension in the soul of the place that Christ has is a most wonderful thing. He is coming again in judgment, to establish things in the kingdom according to God; but meantime He is known to us as the Son of God’s love, and the church is His fulness — that is what God has made known to us. We bow to the righteousness of God, and to the sentence of the [p. 327] cross, and so we come into the scene of festivity, and what fills that scene is Himself, and He is to be to us what He is to God. He is the Object of the Father’s heart, and He is to be that to you and to me.
We have in Christ the wedding garment — there is no garment of ours that God could approve; everything of you — every miserable shred of you is to be set aside if Christ is your righteousness, another thing comes in and that is Christ is to be your life, in connection with the “New man ... where there is neither Greek nor Jew ... but Christ is all, and in all”.
Only one word more — it is a solemn thing to think of this Christendom, it will all come under the inspection of the King, and as sure as anything there will be a man there who has not on a wedding garment, “many are called but few are chosen”. Oh, to see what is suitable to the King, and to recognise that we are there in no fitness of our own, but as having Christ for righteousness. If I were invited to a feast I should not only try to be in suitability to it all, but my eye would be on the One who is the central object of the feast. Beloved friends, the Son of God is to be the supreme and commanding object of our hearts even down here.