No. 1.
THE few remarks here written down are in the way of suggestion and inquiry as to the use in scripture of some of these names in the Evangelists, and in the Apostolic writings. The names are Jesus, Christ, Son of God, Son of Man, Son of David, Lamb, and Lord.
Assuredly these names are never arbitrarily employed, but whether two or even three be used together, or one alone selected, there is meaning in the selection. It is in the peculiar relationships of our Lord towards the Church now, and towards Israel and the world now or hereafter, that they become of value to the student of scripture.
To begin with “Jesus.” It is His human historical name, given to Him by the angel of the Lord (Matt. 1:21) previous to His birth, and means Saviour. The name is found in the Old Testament in an enigmatical way, with a view to His future bearing of it, in the word Joshua (comp. Heb. 4:8, margin), and in almost every word rendered into English by “Salvation.” It is strictly individual as distinct from that of “Christ” or “the Christ,” which is or may be, as we shall see, a corporate name. It is His own person or Himself individually, as born into the world of a virgin of the Jewish race. He bears the name still in heaven, and to it every knee shall yet bow. (Phil. 2:10.)
“Christ” is the name by which our Lord is known to the Church as united to Him risen and ascended. As Christ He sheds His unction upon us, and makes us Christians. It is in this name that we are united to Him. The descendants of Abraham were always in expectation of this Messiah, (“Christ” being the Greek translation of that word) even to the woman of Samaria. (John 4:25) The astonishment of the Jews, even of His disciples, was that he should appear as the carpenter’s son. (John 1:45, 46, 47.) Faith received Him (John 1:12-13), and got all the blessing of the true Christ, although in a different way from what was expected, as it introduced these disciples into the heavenly portion and glory of the Church, whilst they lost that of the Jew. The Jews in rejecting Jesus as their Messiah, have for the present lost Him who was to bless them, whilst we as Christians are partakers of whatever blessing He has to give. Let us glance at two or three instances in which the individual name of Jesus is distinguished from that of Christ, or rather, I may say, changed into it consequent upon His resurrection. Among others we have (Acts 17:3,) “Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.” In the earlier chapters of the Acts, where it was a question of preaching to Jews only, the difficulty still was, as it had been in the gospels, to make them understand that Jesus was the Christ, in other words that He was characterized as being the Christ prophesied of in their scriptures. (Comp. Acts 2:30, 31, 32; 4:26-27; 18:5-28, with John 1:41, 42, 45.) But to continue (Rom. 8: 11): But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by (or “because of”) his Spirit that dwelleth in you. “This is an important passage for our subject. Jesus, the individual raised from the dead, becomes the Christ, so that He sends down the Holy Spirit now to indwell us (as hereafter by His power our bodies shall be quickened). The moment this took place, that is, the descent of the Holy Ghost the Church became corporately a part of Christ, in fact, “the Christ.” (1 Cor. 12:12.) There is another passage in Eph. 4:20, 21, 22, “Ye have not so learned (the) Christ, if so be ye have heard him, and been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man,” &c. We learn the Christ, as the truth is found to be in Jesus, viz., the putting off of the old man and putting on the new. Finally then, whilst Jesus is the individual name, a name still known in heaven (Acts 7: 55-59, 9:17), and to be known forever, it is in His condition (if I may use the term) as the Christ that the Church comes in for her proper christian blessing.
“Son of man” is a remarkable, title, full of import, yet perhaps that with which the Church hast least to do. It is probably imported from Daniel 7:13, “One like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven;” whilst Psalm 8, where the same title is employed, is once and again used of the Lord by the apostle Paul in the words, “Thou hast put all things under his feet.” (See Eph. 1:22; 1 Cor. 15:27-28; Heb. 2:8.) Eventually this title will apply to His wide spread dominion over creation, and embrace more than that of Messiah; in fact He is to inherit that entire dominion which the first Adam lost. There is one needful remark on this name; it is, that He usually applies it to Himself when predicting His death. Let us notice in this respect Mark 8:29-31, compared with Luke 9:18-22, and Matt. 16:20-21. In all these passages the Lord charges them to tell no man that He was the Christ; but immediately afterward we have the words, “And he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things,.... and be killed, and after three days rise again.” Atonement being necessitated, (blessed be His name,) He would conceal His Messiahship and accept His death as the Son of man. How else, indeed, could He stand for the human race, and meet sin with all its consequences? (Comp. Rom. 5:12-21.)
As we have said that this title has perhaps least doctrinally do with the Church, it is well to explain that in two censes we have to do with it; first, inasmuch as Psalm 8, is used in Eph. 1, as of the Son of man being Head over all things to the Church, (as Head of it, He is “Christ,”) that is, the Church owns Him as such, although the title be in abeyance as to His public worldly rule, and is used only on the Church’s behalf. Secondly, in the book of Revelation we find out Lord (chap. 1:13) judging the Churches with this title as responsible to His Father. Speaking in a general way, “Son of man” would imply authority and rule in all its phases. “He hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man. (John 5:27.)” This rule is first put in exercise towards the Churches. (Rev. 2. 3.)