Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
A few Sunday’s ago we were singing in church and I noticed the following phrase in the hymnal, “the Son of God and the Son of man.” The writer capitalized the word Son and God. He did not capitalize the word man. This reflects the sad truth of how most people think of the Savior. It shows the pervasive influence of the decisions made at the Council of Chalcedon[1]. If the writer had understood the title the Son of Man he would have capitalized the word man. For the word man in this title is not a reference to the human side of Christ, as is commonly believed, it is in fact a reference to God the Father.
Mankind tends to think of the term man as referring exclusively to humans. God doesn’t. The term man is a name that is first and foremost a name for God. We are created in the image of the True Men – God the Father and His Son[2].
The invisible God created the world in such a way as to bare witness of Himself. His creatures are like they are for a reason, and ultimately the reason tracks back to the person of God. When God created lions He did so to portray specific characteristics of His person. A lion is a strong ruler and protector of his pride, a being to be feared. Knowing what a lion is gives the meaning to the title the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, a title that Christ bears. God just didn’t happen to find this analogy in His creation; rather He created lions as they are to reflect this aspect of His glory.
Men were created to reflect certain things about God as well. Men were to rule the earth, just as God rules over the creation. Men were to be fathers and have sons that bear their characteristics, just as God has a Son that is the express image of His person. Men were to be fruitful and multiply upon the earth, just as God multiplies His seed upon the earth through the new birth. Adam was to lead and care for a wife that was fashioned from his rib, just as Christ leads and cares for the believers and will ultimately give his bride a body that is bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh[3].
The point of all of this is that God is the true Man – created men bare witness of this aspect of God’s person. So to find God the Father referred to as the Man which is in heaven, something we will study in the next section, should not surprise us. It is no different than referring to Him as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah or the Lamb of God. We do this with the understanding that these names are referencing back to the nature of the invisible God. He is the original Man, He is the original Lion, and He is the original Lamb.
The Son of the Man which is in heaven…John 3:11-19
John 3:16 is often used as a simple statement of God’s salvation, yet few speak of these verses in context. The context, as Jesus gave it, is that God the Father gave His Son from heaven.
John 3:11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.[4]
John 3:12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
John 3:13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of the man which is in heaven.
John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
John 3:15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
John 3:18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil
In verse 12 Jesus tells Nicodemus he is about to speak of a heavenly thing and that He doubts Nicodemus is going to receive it. In verse 13 He begins His explanation of this heavenly thing by teaching Nicodemus about a man that comes down from heaven. This is the context, the foundation for, John 3:16.
Notice above that in John 3:13 I have inserted the article the in front of the word man. That’s because in the Greek the article is present. Here’s how the phrase looks in Greek. I have underlined the articles[5].
o uioV tou anqrwpou o wn en tw ouranw
the son of the man the one which is in the heaven
Notice that in the Greek the title the Son of Man contains two definite articles. There is a “the” in front of the word Son, and there is a “the” in front of the word man. This is the way this title is normally written when referring to Christ in the New Covenant[6]. The second “the” is not translated in the King James Bible but it should be to complete the sense. So the literal translation of this title is the Son of the Man.
According to Greek grammar, this construction could be a generic reference to mankind, or it could be pointing out a specific individual, a specific man. God hasn’t left us to make this interpretation on our own. John 3:13 clarifies the meaning of the title the Son of Man because it tells us who the man referred to in this title is. It says the Man which is in heaven. The man which is in heaven is God the Father. This makes perfect sense when you understand, as we discussed above, that God is the original and true Man.
The title the Son of the Man is in fact a very strong statement about the divinity of Christ. The Greek article was “originally derived from the demonstrative pronoun [this, that]… and always retained some of the demonstrative force[7]” and “the presence of the article as a rule draws attention to or defines more precisely the person or thing denoted by the word it modifies[8].” So the title the Son of the Man is pointing out in a very definite way that Christ is the Son of a particular man, and as John 3:13 teaches us, that man is the Man which is in heaven – God the Father. This is the opposite of how this title is commonly taught. Most teach the title Son of Man is a reference to Christ’s humanity. It isn’t. It is a reference to that which is most important about Christ. He is the Son of the Heavenly Father.
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God is the original Man. He has a Son. The title the Son of the Man highlights this truth. When Jesus used this title to refer to Himself He was laying claim to being the Son of God. He wasn’t identifying with the men of this world as the writer of the hymn referenced at the beginning of this section thought. John 3:16 was given with this as the context. The Son of the Man that is in heaven came down from heaven and died for the sins of the world.
Let the scriptures speak.
[1] See The Council of Chalcedon and Today’s Beliefs.
[2] Genesis 1:26-27
[3] See section entitled Because of the Resurrection Body We Hope For
[4] This witness is the witness of the Father and the Son. See John 8:17-18, Matthew 16:13-17.
[5] The articles are spelled differently because this is how case is communicated in Greek grammar. Case refers to the usage of a noun. For example, if a noun is used as a subject it is said to be in the nominative case. If a noun is used to describe something it is in the genitive case. An article modifying a noun in the nominative case is spelled “o” and an article modifying a noun in the genitive case is spelled “tou.”
[6] I counted 81 times where Christ is called the Son of Man in the New Covenant. There is only one instance where both articles are not present. This occurs in John 5:27 where Christ says, “And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man.” In Greek, the absence of the article in a construction where you would normally expect it places emphasis on the qualitative idea of the noun. In John 5:27 Christ is saying that because He is the Son of this True Man (God the Father), inheriting all of His qualities and making Him one and the same as the Father (John 5:18), then He can judge in omniscient righteousness just as the Father and consequently the Father has granted Him this authority. The qualitative aspect of God the Father as the righteous Man and source of Christ’s being is being emphasized and the absence of the article is appropriate.
[7] Dana & Mantey, 1955, p.136
[8] Vaughn & Gideon, 1979, p. 84
