Day 3: Immanuel: Son of Man and Son of God

Jesus was the Son of Man, but also the Son of God. It portrays a unique combination of humanity with divinity. Jesus is perfectly God, but He's also perfectly man.

This was predicted in various places in the Old Testament. For instance, in Isaiah 7:14:

“Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” (NIV)

Immanuel, means God with us. So this child born of a virgin, though he's a human child, is also God with us. That title, Immanuel, is not two words it's one, which beautifully betrays humanity and divinity blended into one person. And then a little further on, Isaiah 9:6:

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he [this child] will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (NIV)

So here's this person, born as a child, but given as the eternal son, and yet this child is also the mighty God. So there we have Baranush - human frailty and yet divine authority and might, blended in the same person.

This is also beautifully brought out in the genealogy of Jesus. For instance in Luke, chapter 3, where his genealogy is given in the fullest form, he's traced right back to the ‘Son of Adam, the Son of God’. He was the representative of the whole human race. He became totally identified with all humanity, not merely with his own Jewish people. Interestingly in Matthew, which is a gospel primarily addressed to the Jewish people, his genealogy is traced back only to Abraham. But in Luke, which is the message in a sense to all humanity, his genealogy is traced back to Adam the Son of God.

And then in 1 Cor. 15:45, Paul bestows upon Him this exciting title which contains so much in it. He speaks about Him as the Last Adam. What does that mean? As the last Adam, first of all, he's perfectly a member of the human race, he's totally identified, he's perfectly human, and then he's the last - not the last in time because millions and millions of descendants have been born since the time of Jesus. But he's the last in a sense that when he died on the cross, all the sins, all the frailties, all weaknesses, all the problems that stem from the sin of Adam and all his descendants, both past and future,. all that came upon Jesus when he died on the cross. He became our substitute. He was the Son of Man, he was the last Adam. And when he died it was all terminated. It was finished, it was dealt with by the death of Jesus on the cross.