The Church with is His Body IV - Son of God, Son of Man

The Church which is His Body IV – Son of God, Son of Man

“Matthew 16:13-18 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? 14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. 15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? 16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” 

 

In simplistic form, Son of God refers to Jesus being born of God.  While Son of Man indicates He is born of man, or in man.  In John’s Gospel Jesus said that He came forth of God and came into the world, and that He was leaving the world and going back to the Father.  I believe He is speaking of His birth.  The way He came into the world was as the Son of Man.  He was born of Man, “a virgin shall conceive.”  That which was born of Her was of God.    

 

The reason Jesus was born of man goes back to the beginning of the creation of man.  God gave dominion to man in the earth.  Through man came sin, and death by sin, which passed upon every man.  All mankind was bound to that which was in man.  Jesus had to be made in the man to redeem us from the state of being of man, Galatians 4.  Without His redemptive act, we would have no escape from the man that we were born into.  

 

David illustrates this in Psalms 51.  He cries that he was born in sin and shapen in iniquity.  This was the state of being in the first man.  He was a man of sin.  As Son of Man, Jesus put this man to death.  He took Him to the cross and crucified the first man.  We were baptized into His death, that we may live in His Life. His death was to the Man of Sin.  His Life is as Son of God, the Life out from God.  Our salvation is in Jesus, Son of Man and Son of God.  We die with Him in His death, and we Live as One of with Him in His Life. 

 

Jesus as Son of Man paid the penalty for man.  Sins and iniquities were placed upon Him.  “He that knew no sin became sin for us, that we could be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  We are made righteous in Him, who was raised out from the dead.  In Acts 13:33, the writer quotes Psalms 2. “ 32And we bring you good tidings of the promise made unto the fathers, 33 that God hath fulfilled the same unto our children, in that he raised up Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.”  Notice this closely.  Jesus is proclaimed the Son of God in the resurrection from the dead.  Here is where we are made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, in that He raised Jesus from the dead, and we share in His eternal and incorruptible Life.  Glory to God!