We may experience and enjoy Christ not only as God but also as a man-the Son of Man (Matt. 4:4; 19:28; 26:64; 24:37, 39, 44). However, not many Christians have a particular and fine experience of Christ as a man. It seems that it is easier for us to experience Christ as God than as a man.
In His humanity Christ is the Son of Man. Because the Lord Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit, He is the Son of God. Because He was born of a human virgin, He is the Son of Man. On the divine side, He is the Son of God; on the human side, He is the Son of Man. To accomplish God’s purpose, it was necessary for Christ to become a man. Without man, God’s purpose cannot be carried out on earth.
In Matthew 4:3 the Lord Jesus was tempted by the devil with respect to His humanity. “The tempter came and said to Him, If You are the Son of God, speak that these stones may become loaves of bread.” For forty days Christ had fasted in His humanity, standing on the ground of His being a man. For Him to accomplish His ministry for the fulfillment of God’s purpose, He had to defeat the enemy, the devil, Satan. This He had to do as a man. Hence, He stood as a man to confront the enemy of God. The devil, knowing this, tempted Him to leave the standing as a man and assume His position as the Son of God. If He had assumed this position before the enemy, He would have lost the standing to defeat him. For this reason, the Lord Jesus “answered and said, It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out through the mouth of God’” (v. 4). The devil tempted the Lord Jesus to take His position as the Son of God, but He answered him with the word of the Scriptures, “Man,” indicating that He stood in the position of man to deal with the enemy.
The Lord Jesus faced a similar temptation when He was judged by the Sanhedrin. “The high priest said to Him, I charge You to swear by the living God to tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said to him, You have said rightly. Nevertheless I say to you, From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matt. 26:63-64). The high priest asked the Lord if He was the Son of God, but He answered with “the Son of Man,” the same way He had answered the devil. This indicates that the Lord was the Son of Man on earth before His crucifixion, that He has been the Son of Man in the heavens at the right hand of God since His resurrection (Acts 7:56), and that He will be the Son of Man even at His coming back on the clouds (Matt. 24:30).
Furthermore, Christ as the Son of Man came in His humanity to seek and save the lost sinners (Matt. 18:11; 9:13; Luke 19:10). He ate and drank with the tax collectors and sinners (Matt. 9:10-11; 11:19; Luke 7:34), making friends with them. He visited and lodged with a sinful man, a tax collector named Zaccheus (Luke 19:5-7). As the Son of Man, Christ came not to destroy men’s lives but to save them (Luke 9:56). As the Son of Man, Christ had no place to lay His head (Matt. 8:20; Luke 9:58), not even as the foxes having holes nor as the birds of heaven having roosts. By enjoying Christ as the Son of Man, we have to learn to suffer poverty in this way.
The Lord as the Son of Man also sowed Himself, in His humanity, as the good seed into man to grow Him (Matt. 13:3-9, 37). Christ came in His humanity, not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28; Mark 10:45). Christ gave, in His humanity, the food which abides unto eternal life (John 6:27, 53). As the Son of Man, Christ was delivered into the hands of the chief priests and scribes and was crucified by them (Matt. 17:22-23a; 20:18-19a; 26:2). His being lifted up on the cross as the Son of Man was so that people may know that He is the great I Am (John 8:28) and that He may draw all men to Himself (12:32, 34). Christ as the Son of Man was buried in His humanity in the heart of the earth three days and three nights as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish (Matt. 12:40; Luke 11:30). As the Son of Man, Christ resurrected in His humanity on the third day after His burial (Matt. 17:23b; 20:19b), being glorified with the Father’s glory (John 12:23; 13:31-32; 7:39; Luke 24:26). As such a Son of Man, Christ accomplishes God’s purpose. Hence, we need to experience and enjoy Christ as the Son of Man.
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