This is the second book

Jesus as The Son of Man

The records we have of our Lord Jesus in Scripture are so important, He did many, many miracles only a few of which we have record of, He must also have given many teaching sessions, I would suggest that only some of them are on record, our Lord Jesus must have spoken frequently, we not having an account of them all. However enough is recorded that we might understand who He is. The last verse of the gospel of John covers the matter just mentioned, it is stated in the AV, that enough is recorded in the gospels about our Lord Jesus for us to understand who He is, the only begotten of the Father. Now in Mark c9 v31 we have Jesus' words, it is a statement about Himself that is most important, it goes The Son of Man is going to be betrayed� into the hands of men. They will kill Him, after three days He will rise' so let us consider these words

In Mark's Gospel the title of the Son of Man or one very similar is recorded a total of fourteen times, reference to Jesus as the Son of God does not occur quite so frequently. Now when I think of this title, I often go back to the Old Testament Scriptures for help. There are two books of romance in the O.T, the one is the Song of Solomon which is very special, if correctly understood the bridegroom as being our Lord and the bride the church, the company of the redeemed. The other book of romance is Ruth, it is only about five chapters so does not take long to read, this book points to our Lord Jesus as the Son of Man, let me explain

In th

e book of Ruth we have Elimelech, Naomi, their two sons Mahlon and Kilion who left Bethlehem and went to the country of Moab, there the two sons married Moabite women Orpah and Ruth. Now Elimelech and the two sons died, so Naomi decided to return to her home town as there was a good supply of food and Elimelech, during his life, had land there and it was possible, in the thinking of Naomi, that she could return to claim the land and live off it for the rest of her life. Now this land had to be bought back for Naomi, only a kinsman could do it

So Naomi returned to Bethlehem and she had Ruth going with her as there was such a wonderful relationship between them both, those famous words of Ruth's when she said, Where you go I will go, your people shall be my people, �your God will be my God and where you die I will die'. So they returned and got back to Bethlehem at harvest time and it so happened that Ruth went to glean in the fields of Boaz who was a relative of Elimelech, I say it so happened' but this was all in the hands of our Lord. As Ruth went to glean, Boaz told his workmen not to pester the young lady and to leave a good helping of wheat for her, and it was so, indeed I think that Boaz was attracted to Ruth and his feelings were reciprocated by the young lady. Now thinking of gleaning, that is what we are doing now from the Word of our God at this precise moment, gleaning from its content, that will help us to a fuller understanding of our Lord

Naomi had some land through her late husband and she wanted it redeemed, in those days only a kinsman could do this. The closest relative of Elimelech did not want to redeem the land so Boaz was given the chance as he was the next relative who could qualify for the family, he redeemed the land and as a sign of the contract he passed to his neighbour one of his sandals, as this was the method of legalising the transaction. Now in this deal Boaz became the kinsman-redeemer of Naomi. We know that Boaz fell in love with Ruth and the young lady reciprocated, much to his joy, they got married, had children of which line our Lord Jesus was born and they must have lived happily ever afterwards

In the statement given by our Lord Jesus in Mark's Gospel He is refers to Himself as the Son of Man, He became man so that He could be our kinsman, He became one of us, born of a woman, He was the seed of the woman and not the seed of the man as is understood in the writings of Genesis. Our Lord Jesus became our kinsman so that He could redeem us$, this redemption meant the giving of His life on the cross, He paid the price to redeem us and that price was in paying the penalty of our sins at Calvary, yes and yes again our dear Lord Jesus became the Son of Man that He might become our Kinsman-redeemer, there are the words

What condescension, bringing us redemption,

That in the dead of night, not one faint hope in sight,

God, gracious, tender, laid aside His splendour,

Stooping to woo, to win my soul

In what we are considering from Mark's Gospel of our Lord Jesus He said, He is g�oing to betrayed into the hands of men', now this was very true but The Cross was not panic stations as far as our God was concerned, indeed our Lord Jesus knew every step of the way before hand, indeed we are told that He, Set His face steadfastly to go up to Jerusalem', from the statement we are considering, He knew full well what was going to be accomplished. In the earlier life of our Jesus we are told that at times He just walked away from a situation, I believe that He could have just walked away from The Cross at any time if He had so desired. Such was the love of our Father God for us, this love being so wonderfully expressed in the person of our Lord Jesus, that He came into time, went through The Cross that we might be redeemed. Now I t hink, as has been said, that Jesus had the power to walk away from Calvary had He so desired but He did not, now can we take this a little further; our Lord Jesus actually gave thanks for it. We have the record in Corinthians, at the Feast of The Passover when our Lord Jesus met, possibly at the home of John Mark's dad, He, our Jesus at that feast introduced the Lord's Supper, as He took bread, Jesus knowing what was going to take place in a few hours time gave thanks, then He took the cup with the wine and gave thanks for that, I wonder what you or I would have done in the same situation? He gave thanks that the sin problem was going to be dealt through Himself, He gave thanks that through the giving of Himself at Calvary our sins would be forgiven as we seek su�ch forgiveness from the hand of our Father God, at the name of Jesus, and He also gave thanks for the fact that one day we would be with Him in glory. Yes Calvary was all in the plan of our God, in Acts c2 v23 we are told that the Calvary work of our Lord Jesus was all in the plan and purposes of our God

In the next part of the statement that we are considering it says, They will kill Him', now this was true but I want to open it up a little, so let us continue. Our Lord Jesus was not murdered at Calvary, His life was not taken from Him but rather He gave it. In those terrible moments, those hours when our dear Lord Jesus was on The Cross, when He bore, in His divine being, the penalty of my, of our sins, when He became sin for us and because of �our sin His Father God could not have fellowship with Him He cried out, My God, My God why hast Thou forsaken Me'. Now at that time, at that precise moment there was the mighty quake in Jerusalem and area, evidence of which is there today so I understand, there was darkness over all the land and the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. Now just let us stop for a moment to think what these things meant..........at that moment I think He, our Lord Jesus, called out in a shout of victory, It is finished', His Father God said Amen, put His seal upon the work of our Lord and on the third day Jesus rose from the dead in the power of an endless life, the old spiritual economy had come to an end, not that I am speaking against it, it was all in the plan of our God in preparation for the lifes work of our Lord Jesus. Then the new spiritual economy was introduced, continues to this day until our dear Lord Jesus comes again and what a day� that will be! After the shout of our Lord Jesus on The Cross, the shout of victory, we are told in the Scriptures that He gave up the ghost'. Jesus gave fully His life a ransom for many, His life was not taken from Him, when the soldiers came to check that those who had been crucified were dead, they broke the legs of the two thieves, as this was the practice, to ensure that they were dead, but when they came to our Lord they saw that he was dead already so they did not touch Him, this being a fulfilment of Scripture where it said, Not a bone of His body was broken', yes He GAVE His life a ransom for many

Now finally there are the last words in the text that we are considering, it says after three days He will rise'. Let us dwell on these because I do so delight in the victory over sin and death by our Lord Jesus, Jesus did not go into death, He went through it, it is prophetically said in the Psalm about our Lord that He, Went through the valley of the shadow of death', yes He went through this to the wonder and glory of the resurrection on the third day. Our Jesus appeared to Mary and the others in the Garden of Joy, the Garden of The Resurrection, she thought He was the gardener and then the Master called her name and she recognised Him, saying Rabboni. He appeared to the disciples often, entered a sealed room, where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, they had just put to death their leader, they were young men, valued their lives, had responsibilities and they thought they were the next for the chop but our risen Lord entered this sealed room and said, Peace be unto you'. At another time He had a meal with them and then walked with those two dejected disciples on the road to Emmaus, He opened �to them, from the OT Scriptures, from the writings of Moses, the Psalms and the prophets in, things concerning Himself', what a journey that must have been and then our Lord Jesus made Himself known to them in the Breaking of Bread', at this point they would have seen those precious hands that had been pierced by those cruel nails. At the end of the time when our Lord was with the disciples in His resurrected form He ascended to be with the Father, He now sits down, indicating a finished work, at the right hand of the Father, He now is there interceding for us, for all His people and He is crowned with resplendent glory, this brings, to my own heart and mind, such joy! Let us also understand that our Lord Jesus is coming agai]n to Planet Earth at a time only known to the Father, or He will call us to be with Himself, to behold Him in all the fullness of His glory, and in a measure, we will be like Him, but not identical as He will always be supreme - what a day that will be! We will worship our great eternal triune, loving God in a way that we have never understood while here in time, we will sing those eternal songs of joy that salvation belongeth to our God and His Christ, we will see again our loved ones who have gone before and understand them in a way that we never did while here in time - what a day that will be!�

Just to finish off may I quote some words of a dear man of God, whom I respect, words about our Lord Jesus and I might comment about them as we go along, we will just see how it goes

We believe that a person called Jesus of Nazareth was consciously alive before He was conceived. Yes we are told in Scripture that, In the beginning was the Word' this means that when time started the Word, our Lord Jesus was there already

He was not then human, but one of three persons of the Spirit we call God. In the beginning there was our great triune God, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit

He has always been there, fully sharing in the making and maintaining of our universe and all life in it. We are told� in the Scriptures that, He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together'

He chose to come into our world, being born as a baby, all His divine nature was embodied in flesh. We are told that, In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, He never lost anything of what He was in what He became,

God became as a baby some 18 inches long and 6 to 7 pounds in weight, when time and eternity met, spirit and flesh converged, visible and invisible combined, God and man were brought together, all through our dear Lord Jesus. Just think of that for a moment, what a miracle!

When He became a man He did and said things that only God could do. He spoke and there was power within the words to accomplish that for which they were sent

Put to death as a dangerous impostor, His claims to be God were proved right, when God the Father, on the third day, brought Him back to life with a new body. Our Father God put His seal upon� His ministry, His Amen to the mighty work

He has since returned to the place from which He came taking with Him His human nature and experience, there is a man in heaven today called Jesus

His place on Planet Earth has been taken over by His Holy Spirit, who has no body but lives in Christians, we are His body. As we believe fully in our great triune God we become new creatures in Christ Jesus and our bodies, yes yours and mine become the temple of His Holy Spirit, as we are taught in Corinthians

One day our dear Lord Jesus will return to Planet Earth, give all His friends a new body, like His glorious body, then for us to be with Him for ever and ever. Or we will go through death which will be far better, far better than anything we have experienced on Planet Earth. Death we fear and understandably so, but let us look beyond as we will, Pass through the gates of pearly splendour, victors, we rest in Him through endless days'

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This is the second book