“Then Jesus declared, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27-28 BSB)
“So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does.” (John 5:19 NLT)
“Jesus shouted to the crowds, “If you trust me, you are trusting not only me, but also God who sent me. For when you see me, you are seeing the one who sent me. I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark. I will not judge those who hear me but don’t obey me, for I have come to save the world and not to judge it. But all who reject me and my message will be judged on the day of judgment by the truth I have spoken. I don’t speak on my own authority. The Father who sent me has commanded me what to say and how to say it. And I know his commands lead to eternal life; so I say whatever the Father tells me to say.” (John 12:44-50 NLT)
“how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38 NKJV)
“And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” (Luke 2:52 NKJV)
“Jesus replied, “Is it not written in your Law: ‘I have said you are gods’? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken— then what about the One whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world? How then can you accuse Me of blasphemy for stating that I am the Son of God? (John 10:34-36 BSB)
“because those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, for Him to be firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29 BSB)
The Bible makes it very clear that Jesus was, is, and always will be, the eternal “Son of God.” The religious leaders of His day on more than one occasion cried out for His death because of the way that He made himself equal with God. However, while Jesus made it clear that He was aware of His position in deity, He made it equally clear that He recognized His humanity.
Jesus never called Himself the “Only Son of God.” This is HUGELY important! He expressed his sonship in a way that not only avoided denying his deity, it also allowed him to express his humanity, and keep from contradicting the truth that he was the first born of many brothers. Jesus referred to Himself as the “Son of Man” in order to make it clear that while He was the predicted Divine Messiah, He was not living from His deity while on earth.
Jesus lived, ministered, and died as the “Son of Man” (100% human). All of the miracles, signs, and wonders that He did were done as a man completely submitted to the design and desire (Will) of the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit. He did it all out of his humanity, NOT his deity. Jesus was not a schizophrenic demigod that was a man one day, and a god the next. The mystery that my mind (apart from the “Mind of Christ) will never grasp is that Jesus was not part human, part God; or just all man or all God. He was, and is, 100% God and 100% man. Another mind boggler is that without losing His deity, when He came to earth, Jesus laid His deity aside completely from the point of conception through His resurrection, and lived and died as 100% man.
The reason that Jesus could confidently proclaim that I (his disciple) will do the works that he did, and do even greater works than he did, is because everything He said and did was as a man just like me (with the single exception that unlike me, He never sinned). He never reached into His “bag of deity” to perform supernatural feats of wonder. He performed every miracle, healed every sick person, cast out every demon, as a “normal” human being (that statement will either shock you, infuriate you, or get you dancing).
The fact that Jesus lived and died as a man is also why I can confidently claim this truth and perform miracles, signs, and wonders in Jesus Name.
I don’t know about you, but that makes me want to dance!!
Jesus’ primary reason for demonstrating the Kingdom of Heaven through miracles, signs, and wonders was not to give evidence of His deity. While these things did give credibility to His claims, His main motivation was demonstrating the compassion of His Father. He only did what He saw the Father doing, and only said what He heard the Father saying. He came to reveal the Father to a fatherless generation. Jesus reached out in compassion to a lost and dying human race with the offer of reconciliation to a good and loving Papa. As a man He demonstrated what that relationship looked like.
As I stated, while He was, is, and always will be, God; Jesus came to this earth as 100% man as the second Adam. If He was living in the earth as God, functioning from deity, the Bible would not claim that He ” increased in wisdom,” and there would have been no need for Him to be “anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power.” Everything He did was done as a man acting in complete submission to the design and desire (Will) of His Heavenly Father by the power of the Holy Spirit. He lived and ministered as the Son of Man to demonstrate what could be done by ANYONE who lives and ministers in submission to the Father by the power of the Spirit (let that rock your boat of religion, it did mine).
When I see Jesus heal the sick, deliver all who are oppressed of the devil, feed the hungry, raise the dead, break the bondage of poverty off the poor, show compassion to the downtrodden and outcast, forgive those who have been bound by sin, I am seeing clearly the demonstration of the heart of the Father. I am also clearly seeing what should be my heart’s desire as Jesus’ brother. In seeing this, I am also seeing that like Jesus, I am anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power to carry out the Father’s heart desires.
The Holy Spirit blew away a whole lot of religious baggage when He taught me this lesson.
The Body of Christ (disciples of Jesus Christ) needs a fresh revelation of the Son of Man. That is the purpose of…
…Eric’s Life Lesson # 113: “Only when I truly see Jesus am I able to accurately see the Father, myself, or those around me.” Part 3: Son of Man