Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/43

 self to be spoken of as the Son of God, yet it was as the Son of man that He was to be seen in His power coming in the clouds of heaven.

It has been supposed that the title. Son of man, was intended to express the idea of His birth from a human mother. But this could not have been the case; for He never, under any circumstances, acknowledged Mary to be His mother. She was sometimes so spoken of by others, but she was never thus recognised by Himself. Moreover, it is plain that the title was intended to refer to something else, for He said, "No man hath ascended up to heaven but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven." In this passage the Son of man is said to have come down from heaven, and also to have been in heaven at the very time the words were spoken in the world. It may be plain, therefore, that the term, Son of man, was not employed to express that nature which was derived from Mary, and in which He was naturally seen by men in the world. That did not come down from heaven; that was not in heaven, and it was to prevent such a mistaken view of the subject from being adopted, that Paul and the other apostles always spoke of the Lord as the Son of God, and never as the Son of man. This, however, was the title under which, as we have said, the Lord, for the most part, spoke of Himself. Thus He inquired of His disciples, "Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?" and by this He plainly indicated His solicitude that men should know Him under that name. It was as the Son of man that He suffered and was raised from the dead; for He said, "The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men, and they shall kill Him, and the third day He shall be raised again;" it is as the Son of man that He is Lord of the Sabbath; it is as the