THE KING’S BUSINESS
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man,” the representative man, the One who set forth in His own Person what God’s thought of Man was, the One who could stand for the whole race, He was true man even though He came down out of heaven. Our Lord uses the title regarding Himself many times in John’s Gospel, but in this Gospel it is used less frequently than it is in the three other Gospels. In the last discourse which John re cords it occurs only once (ch. 13:31). In Matthew it occurs 30 times; in Mark 13 times; in Luke-25 times; in John 12 times. Bishop Westcott says, in commenting on this title, “As a necessary conclusion from this view of Christ’s humanity which is given in the title, ‘the Son of man ’ it follows that He is in perfect sympathy with every man of every age and of every nation, all that truly belongs to hu manity. All therefore that truly be longs to every individual in the whole race belongs also to Him.” Our Lord used the title of Himself rather than the disciples using it of Him. Ste phen used it in Acts 7 :56, but there was a specific reason why he used it in that instance. The words “which is in heaven,” though found in both the A. V. and the R. V. are omitted in most of the most ancient MSS. They are, how ever, found in a large majority of the ancient versions. The best tex tual critics are pretty evenly divided as to whether they should be retained or rejected. If retained, the thought is that while the Son of man de scended out of heaven and was now here in the person of Christ on earth, nevertheless, He was still in heaven. Whether we retain them here or not, essentially the same thought is found in ch. 1 :18, which makes it clear that even while here on earth our Lord was really with the Father, in inti mate communion with Him. In any case, the Son of man had been in
and the only one who had been in heaven and so was the only one who was competent to teach heavenly things at first hand as things which He Himself had seen and knew ex perimentally. Gur Lord in this verse proclaims His pre-existence in the most unmis takable terms. He declares that He had “descended out of heaven” (cf. 6:38). Historically it was at His in carnation that He descended out of heaven (ch. 1 :1, 14). The Holy Spirit teaches us through the Apostle Paul that in heaven He had existed in the form of God (Phil. 2:6 See Ameri can Standard Revision). In becom ing a man He had descended out of heaven (Phil. 2:7). In thus descend- out out of heaven and taking upon Him the form of a servant and becom ing obedient unto death ( Phil. 2 :7, 8) He became “the true bread out of heaven” (ch. 6:32, 42). It is a very significant fact that this phrase “de scended,” or “came down,” is used in the Old Testament of various mani festations of God here on earth (Ex. 19:11, 20; Num. 11:17, 25; 12:5). The form of expression “came down from heaven,” or “descended out of heaven” is most suggestive: it sets forth the continuity of our Lord’s per sonal existence: the person who was now seen in Jesus was the same per son who had existed eternally in heaven with the Father. Though He had come down out of heaven, now He was the “Son of man.” Here our Ford sets His real human ity in closest juxtaposition with His Deity. He became the “Son of man” without ceasing to be what He had been through all eternity, the Son of God, “out of heaven.” The title “Son of man” sets forth the relationship not to some family, or nation, or race of men, but to all mankind. The Lord Jesus was not merely the Son of Mary or the Son of David, but “the Son of
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