When we read the four gospels, we find that Jesus seldom referred to Himself as the Messiah. The phrase He used most often to describe Himself was “The Son of Man.”

The phrase “son of man” by itself, just means “a human being.” But Jesus did not say “I am a son of man”, He said “I am The Son of Man.” 

Jesus was pointing His listeners back to a figure found in the book of Daniel.  

Daniel was an Israelite prophet who was carried away captive to Babylon. Babylon was more than just a pagan empire. In the Bible, Babylon represents mankind’s rebellion against God. Daniel was made to serve in the king of Babylon’s court.

One night Daniel had a prophetic dream. He saw four beasts crawling out of a dark sea. They were grotesque hybrids of different animals. The fourth beast was so terrible, there was no one beast to compare it to. Daniel is told that these four beasts represent four empires.

The images of these empires as beasts are telling us something important about us.

God created animals and humans from the dust of the ground. But He gave humans a special purpose. Adam and Eve and their offspring were to have dominion over the earth and represent God on earth as God’s image bearers. Adam and Eve were tempted by a beast and fell into sin.

They were expelled from the Garden paradise that God had formed for them, and they forfeited their place of ruling as God’s representatives on earth.

As mankind fell further and further away from God, and organized themselves into empires, they became more and more like the beasts of the field. When we rebel against God, we start to act like beasts towards one another. One Babylonian king—Nebuchadnezzar—was lifted up in pride and God humbled him by making him like the beasts of the field.

In Daniel’s dream, he sees God’s throne room, and he sees more than one divine throne. There is one throne that was vacated by the human race—the throne Adam and Eve were to occupy.

Then Daniel sees “One like a Son of Man” riding on the clouds of God’s glory and ascending to God the Father’s presence to take His place on that throne, and rule the world as God’s perfect image bearer.

The beast is then judged and destroyed.

Jesus is the One who has overcome the beast of the garden. He is the One who has succeeded where Adam and Eve failed. He is the One who has overcome evil empires. And how Jesus overcame is the story of the gospel! When we understand how Jesus overcame, we will also understand His calling upon our lives; how we can overcome the beast, and how we are saved!

Lets look at three related topics:

1. Why Jesus used the phrase “the Son of Man” to describe Himself.
2. What the Bible has to say about dominion and domains.
3. What salvation actually is, and what it isn’t.

Topic #1 Why did Jesus us the phrase “Son of Man” to describe Himself?

The Ancient of Days Reigns Daniel 7:9-12

“I kept looking Until thrones were set up, And the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like

white snow And the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, Its wheels were

a burning fire. “A river of fire was flowingAnd coming out from before Him;Thousands upon

thousands were attending Him, And myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; The court sat,

And the books were opened. “Then I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking; I kept looking until the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire.  “As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but an extension of life was granted to them for an appointed period of time.

• The Ancient of Days is God the Father
• This is a judgment scene: rivers of the water of life are not coming from the throne (Rev. 22:1) it is a river of fire/judgment.
• God’s throne has wheels; it is called the “chariot throne” of God–God’s throne appears with wheels in Ezekiel also.

Daniel 7:13-14

13 “I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. 14 “And to Him was given dominion, Glory and ^ba kingdom, That all the peoples, nations and men of every language

Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.” Dan. 7:13-14 This figure is coming “with the clouds of heaven” This is very important symbolism!

God’s presence in the Bible is often accompanied by this “cloud of glory.”

At Sinai,  “The glory of the Lord rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud.”

Ex. 24:16 “The Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord.” Ex. 34:5

At the Mount of transfiguration: “While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” Matt. 17:5

• The Son of Man being carried up with the cloud of God’s glory is telling us something about Him; it speaks of His divinity! The cloud of God’s glory is always associated with God Himself! He is more than a man.

• This vision in Daniel is a vision of Jesus’ ascension into heaven; when He returns He will be riding on the cloud of God’s glory as well:

“For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.” Matt. 24:27

“And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His ^celect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.” Matt. 24:30-31

• When Jesus answered Caiaphas the High Priest’s demand, Caiaphas understood exactly who Jesus was claiming to be:

“And the high priest said to Him, “I ^cadjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God.”Jesus *said to him, “You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Matt. 26:63-64

Topic #2  What does the Bible say about dominion and domains?

In our passage in Daniel, we see that the Son of Man is given a domain—dominion over the earth and over everyone and everything in it.

This concept of domains goes all the way back to Genesis; it is built into the fabric of creation.

• God formed His creation be creating domains and then filling them—the heavens, the sky, the sea, and the land: filled withstars, birds, sea creatures, animals and mankind on the land.
• Domains are everywhere! Our houses are domains; if someone crosses the threshold, they are entering into our domain. Streets are domains; it you cross over the line to oncoming traffic, you have entered the domain of the traffic going the other way and bad things can happen!
• Land boundaries, city boundaries, counties, states, and countries are all domains.
• The garden in Eden was a domain. Adam and Eve had freedom within that domain.
• There was a domain within the garden, that belonged exclusively to God—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
• To transgress (sin) is to violate God’s boundaries; God’s domains. It is to cross over a line.
• Adam and Eve took something from God’s domain and were expelled from the safety of their own domain in the garden, living under the rule of God. They were cast out to the place of the wild beasts, outside the garden. They were exiled from the land.
• The Son of Man left His own domain—heaven—to come to where we are and bring us back into the domain of God—paradise—His kingdom.

Topic #3 What is salvation? What is not salvation?

How does Jesus, the Son Of Man bring us back into His domain? Into paradise?

• The Apostle Paul uses a mysterious new phrase in His letters: He refers to followers of Jesus as being “in Christ.”As we were all in a sense “in Adam” when he sinned, so are we who have been born of the Spirit of God “in Christ” in His death and resurrection!
• Just as Jesus overcame the beast through death and resurrection, so we overcome the beast through our death—to sin and to self—and our resurrection with Him. His death becomes our death; His resurrection becomes our resurrection!
• Salvation is not about being “good enough” to go to heaven. It is being united with Jesus in His death and resurrection! (Phil. 3:7-14)
• We don’t have to fully understand all of this to experience it!
• We are united with Him in His death and resurrection through repentance, self-denial, and surrender to do His will! When we realize that we cannot save ourselves, and call upon Him!

• Repentance is not reforming; it is not, “I made a mistake, I promise I will do better.”
• Repentance is realizing that we have sinned, and that we are fully responsible for the sin
• It is realizing that we cannot “make up” for our sin; sin is a stain that we cannot remove.
• Salvation is what happens when we put our trust in Jesus; that He has done something for us on the cross that we could not do for ourselves.

How do we apply these truths to our lives?

1. Just as this vision gave hope to Daniel and God’s people in captivity—the beasts will be overcome and destroyed, so this vision gives us hope for the future! We know that when we see nations act like beasts, we also know that they will come to an end, and Jesus’ kingdom will outlast and replace them forever!
2. When mankind turns its back on God, we start to become like the beasts of the field. One of the characteristics of beasts, is that they never “look up” to heaven. They only have one perspective—live life to satisfy their immediate need—no eternal perspective. Are you living life from an eternal perspective? Or are you only living for the moment, or are you living life with the Age to Come in view?
3. The first step towards living life from an eternal perspective is repentance. If the Lord has brought to your mind sin in your own life; make the decision to confess it to Him and turn from it.
4. Make the word of God the “lens” through which you see the world. This means intentionally making time to read the Bible and pray every day.
5. Make the decision to surrender to the will of God as He reveals it to you through the word of God.
6. We, like Daniel, are living in a state of exile; we are absent from the paradise we were made for. We are living among the “beasts.” We need the word of God and the Holy Spirit to navigate life in this world until we are brought back into the land that God intended for us–Paradise!

“Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His

judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His

counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and

through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” Rom. 11:33-36

The Hebrew Bible paints a picture of a coming Messiah who will hold a combination of three offices, that of Prophet, Priest, and King. It is the last office, the office of King, that I want to focus on in this article.

One of the reasons I want to focus on Jesus’ role as King, is because I think we tend to focus more on Jesus as Priest; Jesus as our intercessor; Jesus as our Savior. And I do not mean in any way diminish the importance of this role. All three offices are of equal importance!

But since we do not live under the rule of a king in the 21^st century, and we may think of Jesus as king of the Jewish people only, I think we may tend to miss the importance of this aspect of who He is.

Let’s look at:

1. Jesus’ role as King.
2. Our call to follow Him.
3. The meaning of grace.

Jesus’ Role As King

• Understanding Jesus’ role as our King is vital to our understanding of His plan of salvation!
• Understanding Jesus’ role as our King is vital to our understanding of what heaven is!
• Understanding Jesus’ role as our King is vital to our understanding of what grace is!

To understand why the Messiah would be a king we have to go back to the beginning of the Bible, the book of Genesis. There we find God’s plan for the human race was to dwell in fellowship with God, in an ever-expanding paradise, and have dominion on earth as God’s image bearers. Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden/temple—which is called paradise–because of their sin. Rather than expanding God’s rule over creation, Adam and Eve’s offspring spread sin, violence, and death.

The Bible tells the story of God’s plan to return the human race to paradise.

What is paradise? What is heaven?

Heaven is the kingdom of God, sometimes called the kingdom of heaven. It is the place where God rules; it is the place where God’s will is accomplished perfectly.

God’s plan of salvation for the human race is to return us to paradise/heaven. God’s plan of salvation includes the forgiveness of our sin, and His enablement to live out His will for our lives! To enable us to live in paradise–and desire to live in paradise–living under His rule! That is what the Bible means by the phrase, being under grace, or saved by grace.

Heaven is the garden paradise that we were expelled from!

We don’t have to speculate too much about what it is. We can read a description of it in Revelation chapter’s 21-22. We will see in the description the Tree of life, God’s throne, water, gold, and the mountain of God! We speak of “going to heaven” but in fact, the Bible shows us in Revelation chapter’s 21-22 that heaven is coming to earth!

There are many prophecies in the Hebrew Bible of the coming Messiah; here are just a few:

God gave Adam and Eve a prophecy that one of her offspring would crush the head of the serpent, and in the process would be crushed Himself (Gen. 3:15).

Abraham’s son Jacob prophesied (Gen. 49:10-12) that a ruler would come from the tribe of Judah—the Messiah—and all people—the Gentile nations–would pay homage to Him.  

God promised king David that He would raise up one of his descendants and establish the throne of His kingdom forever (2 Sam. 7:12-13).

The angel Gabriel told Mary the mother of Jesus:

“Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” Luke 1:26-33

What will the King do?

As Jesus was raised from the dead, so He will raise all who have followed Him to eternal life in His Kingdom when He establishes it in the New Heavens and Earth: (Note: I have said “follow Him” rather than “believed in Him” for a reason which I will explain.)

The Apostle Paul wrote:

“But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep. For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.” 1 Cor. 15:20-28

• Interpretation: The resurrected Son is reigning now as Lord; the Father will subdue the enemies of the Son under His feet; the Father is excepted from this–He is the One who does the subjecting. Once the Son’s enemies have been subjected under His feet, the Son will subject all things to the Father, so that God may be “all in all.”

• All those who have “died” with Christ, ie., repented of their sins and given Him their lives—lost their life of living for themselves—He will raise up with Him in the resurrection.

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.” Matt. 16:24-27

Our Call To Follow Him

Jesus has called all people everywhere to “Follow Him.”To follow Him means to become His disciple. To become His disciple means to follow His example and obey His commandments. To be His apprentice.  

In fact, Jesus’ call to follow Him as a disciple includes some aspect of each of the offices of prophet, priest, and king that I have just described!

He has called us to a prophetic ministry—that of making disciples, being His witnesses, and warning others of the wrath to come. The Apostle Peter, in his sermon at Pentecost (Shavuot), stated that the result of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that they were witnessing was the fulfillment of a prophecy in the book of Joel: that of God’s Spirit being poured out empowering all of God’s people to prophesy!

“For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day; but this iswhat was spoken of through the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams; Even on My bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit And they shall prophesy.” Acts 2:15-18

He has called us to be a kingdom of priests:

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” 2 Pet. 2:9-10

He has called us to a kingly ministry—to rule and reign with Him: 

“‘Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. ‘He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’ ” Rev. 3:19-22

Jesus is God’s anointed One, His Messiah, His King. He will only come into our hearts and lives if we embrace Him as King—desiring His rule over our hearts and lives. Anything less than this is just pretending to be a Christian.

The Meaning of Grace

To understand the importance of Jesus’ role as king and life lived in the kingdom God, it is vital that we understand grace as the Bible defines it. I am afraid that some in the church have drifted from a Biblical understanding of grace to a perversion of it. The perversion goes something like this:

“When I asked Jesus into my heart, He forgave me of all my sins. I still sin, but since I am under grace, God just looks the other way and accepts me anyway. “Following commandments” and that kind of language is “legalism.” Since I am under grace, God makes no demands of my life. Being a Christian basically means just trying to be a good person.”

The Apostle Paul explains to us that being “under grace” means being free from sin, not free to sin. “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with (made powerless), so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Rom. 6:1-14

• Being “under grace” means being set free from the guilt and the power of sin, and being empowered to become an “instrument of righteousness” in the hands of God through our death and resurrection with Jesus!
• The New Covenant is God fulfilling His promise to write His Law (Torah) on our hearts, and His enabling us to live according to His commandments by the power of the Holy Spirit! (Jer. 31:31-34, Eze. 36:25-37).

Why did I say “follow Him” instead of “believe in Him” earlier?

If I were to ask you the question, “Which is more important: trusting the Lord or obeying the Lord? How would you answer? If you answered, “There is no difference; they are one and the same.” You would be correct. They are two sides of the same coin. You cannot trust without obedience. Adam and Eve knew God’s commandment and will for them; they did not trust God, so they did not obey Him.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans that the goal of his apostleship was to bring about “the obedience of faith” among the Gentiles (Rom. 1:5). To have faith is to obey.

Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.” Matt. 7:21

How does this apply to us?

The passage we read earlier from Revelation, “Behold I stand at the door and knock” in context, has Jesus standing outside the door of the church at Laodicea. Think of it; Jesus standing outside the door of a church, knocking to see who will invite Him in a as Lord of their lives. Jesus is doing the same thing today. Will you invite Him in as King?

The call to follow Jesus as our King is a radical call! How do we answer that call?

God reveals His will for us through His word, the Bible.

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” 2 Tim. 3:16-17

Here is a list of questions that we should know the answer to, or be seeking the answer:

1. What should be my relationship with my Bible? (Ps. 119:9-11) It is our most valuable possession!
2. As a father, what is my relationship to my wife, my children, supposed to be? (Eph. 5:25-30, 6:4)
3. As a wife, what is my relationship to my husband supposed to be? (Eph. 5:22-24)
4. As a young person, what is my relationship with my parents supposed to be? (Eph. 6:1-3)
5. As an employer, how am I to treat my employees? As an employee, how am I to do my job? (Eph. 6:5-9)
6. What spiritual gifts has the Lord given me? How am I to use them? (1 Pet. 4:10-11, 1 Cor. 12-14) Don’t be a person who attends church for decades, and does not know what his or her spiritual gifts are, because they have never been willing to serve others in the church which is absolutely necessary for spiritual growth!
7. What should my prayer life look like? What should I pray for? (read the Psalms, the prayers of Paul)
8. How does the Lord want to use me as His witness to others? Sharing the gospel? (Matt. 28:18-20)
9. What is God’s will for me regarding church attendance? (Heb. 10:23-25)
10. What does the Bible have to say about money? (Matt. 6:2-4, 2 Cor. 9:6-7) Jesus had a lot to say about money!

May the Lord bless you and empower you to live for Him!

“Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” Heb. 13:20-21

The Apostle Peter wrote: “As obedient children, do not be conformed to to the desires of your former ignorance but as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’  1 Peter 1:14-15 HCSB

We understand that God wants us to be like Him; He is in the process of re-creating us in His image from within. But it’s easy to get off track in our thinking as to why God wants us to be Holy, set apart, and pure, for Him.

The answer lies at the heart of the Pentateuch. The first five books of Moses tell the story of creation, fall, flood, and the formation of the people of God. God chooses the descendants of Abraham, forms them into a people for Himself, brings them to Mt. Sinai, where He reveals Himself to them, gives them the Torah, and enters into a covenant with them.

At the center, or “summit” of the Torah is Mt. Sinai, and the 16th chapter of the book of Leviticus–which gives the Laws concerning the Day of Atonement. It shows that God’s plan for cleansing His people from the guilt of their sins, is so that God may dwell with His people! With the completion of the sacrificial offerings, and the construction of the Tabernacle, God’s presence, His shekinah glory, comes to dwell in the very heart of the Hebrew camp! You could sum up the entire story of the Bible by saying that it reveals God’s purpose and plan for His creation; the heavens and the earth were created to be a “temple,” a “house,” in which God will dwell with His people!

It’s easy to misunderstand why God wants us to live holy lives. We have a tendency to think that personal holiness is like a scorecard that God will add up at the end of our lives and give us a grade based upon our degree of holiness. But that’s missing the point; the reason God wants us to live holy lives is so that He can dwell with us, and we can dwell with Him! To dwell with Him means that He will reveal Himself to us, and we will dwell in a loving relationship with Him–in this life, and even more so–in the age to come!