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"In the beginning was the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was God"
(John 1: 1).
John was careful to avoid this, giving Christ the title of the Word before His birth.
The title of the Son is found in a variety of associations:
(1)
The Son (Matt. 28: 19).
(2)
The Son of God (Matt. 4: 3).
(3)
The Son of David (Matt. 9: 27).
(4)
The Son of Man (Matt. 8: 20).
(5)
The Son of the Highest (Luke 1: 32).
(6)
My Beloved Son (Matt. 3: 17).
(7)
His only begotten Son (John 3: 16).
(8)
The Son of His love (literally Col. 1: 13).
Every reference in the N.T. to Christ as the Son of Man goes back to Psa. 8: and
the great prophetic use of the title there showing us He was truly Man. By comparison
with I Cor. 15: 23-28, Heb. 2: 5-9 and Eph. 1: 22, 23, we see the Lord as the second
Man and the last Adam with all things finally under His feet as enemies, or under His
Headship of the universe as redeemed. The Son of God emphasizes His divine origin,
teaching us that He had no human father, thus being free from the taint of sin and making
it possible for Him to become the Saviour of sinners. The two titles, the Son of Man and
the Son of God are complementary. Neither can he held apart from the other.
It is the fusion of His human nature with His Deity that becomes the great problem for
our limited understanding:
". . . . . no man knoweth the Son (that is completely), but the Father . . . . ." (Matt. 11: 27),
and truly Christ is the secret (mystery) of God (Col. 2: 2 R.V.). The Bible makes no
attempt to explain this great secret, but it is there in the Word of truth for our faith and
acceptance even if we cannot fully comprehend it. Sometimes the Scriptures stress His
Deity and sometimes His humanity as the Sent One, the perfect Servant. The danger
comes when anyone stresses one at the expense of the other or ignores one and
concentrates solely on the other. This is bound to lead to a defective view of God and is
dangerous indeed for the believer.
There are at least two reasons why the Lord Jesus became man. One is that God
"Who only hath immortality" cannot die, yet death was the penalty He had prescribed for
sin (Gen. 2: 17), and if ever man was to be saved and death abolished, this penalty must
be paid. So, in His infinite love, He took upon Himself a sinless human body so that it
could be said with truth that the Lord "laid on Him the iniquity of us all" (Isa. 53: 6) and
that `through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil'
(Heb. 2: 14).
Another reason is that sin and death make a yawning chasm between man and God
that no created being can ever bridge. It needed someone who was both God and man, to