The Son of Man

Q: What does the Bible say about the glorification of Christ?

The Bible speaks of Christ's glorification through His sacrificial death, viewed as an accomplishment and key to our salvation. In Scripture, Christ’s glorification is closely tied to His sacrificial death on the cross, which is portrayed not as a tragedy but as His greatest accomplishment. In John 13:31, it states, 'Now is the Son of Man glorified,' emphasizing that Jesus viewed His impending death as His moment of glory. This glory is revealed in His perfect obedience to God's law and His role as a substitute for sinners, fulfilling the requirement that 'the soul that sins must die.' Through His death, He is fully revealed as the 'I Am,' the God of the Old Testament, which brings about His full glorification both in heaven and among believers.

Q: How do we know that Christ's death was an accomplishment?

Christ's death is seen as an accomplishment because it perfectly fulfilled God's law and secured eternal redemption for His elect. The death of Christ is not merely a historical event but a divinely orchestrated accomplishment that meets the requirements of justice and grace. In Galatians 3:13, we find that 'Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.' His death fulfills the law's demand for justice, making Him the perfect sacrifice that could atone for sin once and for all. Hebrews 9:26 supports this by stating that He appeared to 'put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.' Therefore, His death is understood as the central achievement of the Gospel, guaranteeing salvation for the elect and demonstrating the glory of God’s redemptive plan.

Q: Why is the concept of Christ's obedience important for Christians?

Christ's obedience is essential because it fulfills God's law and serves as the basis for our justification before God. The obedience of Christ is a foundational doctrine in Reformed theology, emphasizing that it is through His perfect life and sacrificial death that we are justified before God. In Philippians 2:8, it states that He 'humbled Himself and became obedient unto death.' This obedience includes both His active adherence to the law throughout His life and His passive acceptance of suffering and death that the law demanded. Without His obedience, we would remain under the curse of sin; thus, His righteous life and sacrificial death are vital for the justification of believers, as they grant us the righteousness needed to stand before a holy God.

Q: What role does the cross play in God's attributes?

The cross is crucial in revealing God's attributes such as love, justice, and wisdom. At the cross, all of God's attributes are profoundly displayed. His love is demonstrated in that He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins (1 John 4:10). The justice of God is manifested as Christ bears the penalty for sin, fulfilling the law’s requirement. Furthermore, God's wisdom is revealed in the unfolding of this salvation plan, deemed foolishness by the world but wise in the eyes of God. As Paul states in Galatians 6:14, the cross is the focal point of divine glory, where God's perfect love, justice, and wisdom coalesce to achieve redemption for His people.

Turn to John 13, titled this message, The Son
of Man. That is the title that he uses,
The Son of Man. That is his identification with
us. He was truly a man, bone of our
bones, The flesh of our flesh. He was a man in every way except
He knew no sin. But truly a man. Now, this is
at the supper. And all the writers of commentaries
that I read on this, all of them say that this was not the Lord's
supper. This was a supper that was in
Simon the leper's house Someone would think it was in Lazarus'
house. But this was not the Lord's Supper at this particular time.
So that's the setting of this. But they are at a supper. Now,
our Lord speaks of His death. And He speaks of
it as being a glorification. His glorification. Now is the
Son of Man glorified. He is about to be betrayed by
Judas into the hands of the chief priest and be crucified. He knew what was going to happen
to him. He knew what was going to happen. Nothing took him by
surprise ever. Nothing ever took him by surprise.
As God, He knew all things. And He knew, as we saw last week,
that He came from God And he was going back to God. But looking upon his death, he
speaks of it as glory, as being glorified. When our Lord was
on the Mount of Transfiguration, and he met Moses and Elijah there,
and three of the disciples, Peter, James, and John, they were there.
And they saw Him transfigured and they saw Him in His glory.
But what was it that they spoke of? Did they speak of His miracles? Did they speak of the glory that
He would once again have with the Father before the world was? They spoke of the death that
He should accomplish. That's what they spoke of. When
he was transfigured and he stood there and spoke to Moses and
Elijah, they spoke of the death that he should accomplish. Calvary was not a tragedy. It
was not a tragedy. It was an accomplishment. An
accomplishment. It was not an attempt. It was
an accomplishment. He does not speak of it as being
a martyr or as being disgraceful. He speaks of the cross. When
He says, Now is the Son of Man glorified, He's speaking of the
cross. And He speaks of it as an accomplishment
and as His chief and greatest glory. His cross. His cross. Therefore, verse 31, When he
was gone out, when Judas was gone out, he was gone out. And of course, they thought he
was going out to give something to the poor or to buy something
that they needed. But he was going out to the chief
priest. The Lord said, what you do, do
quickly. Do quickly. So he went out and met with the
chief priest and made the deal to betray the Lord. And when
he was gone out, Jesus said, now, now is the Son of Man glorified. Now my hour has come. That's
what he says over in John 17. Father, the hour has come. How
many times before that he said, mine hour is not yet. Mine hour
is not yet. But now, he says, it's come.
Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. I asked myself this question
as I looked at this this past week. How is the Son of Man glorified
in such a death? How can He be glorified in dying
such a death? The death of the cross was a
death for the worst offenders. It was a death for criminals.
That's the kind of death it was. It was a cursed death. He's going
to the cross and He's going to die a cursed death. And He says,
now is the Son of Man glorified. Listen to Galatians 3, verse
13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made
a curse for us. How can that be such a glorious
death? How can He be glorified in such
a death? It says, For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. How can he be glorified in dying
such a horrible, cursed death? Well, first of all, I wrote down
some things here. In the death of the cross, Christ
is fully revealed, that is where He is fully seen and revealed
to be the I Am, the Jehovah of the Old Testament. Look over in verse 19. He says,
Now, or from henceforth, I tell you before it come, that is,
before it comes to pass, Before I go to the cross, I tell you
about it, that when it comes to pass, you might believe that
I am." That word he is supplied by the translators. But he's
saying here, when this happens, when I go to the cross and I'm
lifted up, you're going to see, you're going to understand who
I am. You're going to see and understand
that I am. Moses said to God, he said to
the Lord, whom shall I say sent me? He said, you tell them I
am that I am sent thee. And Christ said, when I'm lifted
up, when this comes to pass, you are going to believe that
I am. I am Jehovah. I am God, very
God. And then he's glorified in his
obedience. The righteousness of Christ is
not just his obedience to the law while he walked on this earth. If that had been the end of it,
the law had not been fully obeyed. Because the law says, for him
to fully obey the law, he's got to do all that it says. And the
law says, the soul that sinneth shall surely die. Now, if he
does not die, if he does not go to the cross, Peter said,
no, you're never going to die. You're not going to go to the
cross. If he does not do that, righteousness cannot and will
not be established. Because his righteousness that
is imputed to us, not only includes his obedience as he walked every
day on this earth, but it includes the death that he died. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. And for him to be a proper substitute, he's got to die my death. Because
this soul, this soul has sinned. And the souls I'm looking at,
you believe the gospel. Those of you who believe the
gospel, you have sinned, you know it. I'm not telling you
something you don't know. I'm just repeating something
you know. Well, He has to die in order to establish that righteousness
in which God accepts us, includes the death of the cross, as well
as His obedience in His life. Listen to this. And being found
in fashion as a man. This is in Philippians 2.8. And
being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became
obedient unto death. Now listen, not just any death. He didn't die of sickness. He
did not die of old age. He was a young man, 33 years
of age. It had to be this particular death. It had to be a curse of
death. Because that's the death that
was passed upon me. Even the death of the cross. That's what he had to die. And
then He's glorified in His perfect sacrifice. Now, He says, now
is the Son of Man glorified. He's glorified in that He's fully
now revealed and understood to be the I Am to those whom He
reveals Himself. He's glorified in His obedience. And then He's glorified in His
perfect sacrifice. All the blood of the bulls and
the goats could not and did not put away one sin. Not one. Not one. However, by the one sacrifice
that the Lord Jesus Christ made, sin was put away forever. All my sins, all the sins of
all of God's elect were put away in one fell swoop at Calvary. Gone. God said, I'll remember them
no more. You know why? Because they don't exist anymore.
They don't exist anymore. They're gone. As far as God's
concerned, they have been dealt with. They're gone. Listen to Hebrews 9.26. For then
must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world,
but now once, In the end of the world, hath He appeared to put
away sin by the sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice of Himself. He's glorified in His perfect
sacrifice. And then at the cross, He's glorified
the Son of Man. Satan came in to the Garden of
Eden. Tempted Eve. She went to Adam. And by man, by man, sin entered
this world. And death by sin. And that put
us in the situation we are in. That brought us under condemnation.
But another man came along. The second Adam. The Lord from
heaven. He came along. And he crushed,
he crushed Satan's head. The Lord said to him in the garden,
you shall bruise this seed, speaking of the seed of the woman, you
shall bruise his heel, but he will bruise your head. Where
did that happen? When did that happen? Has it
happened? Yes. It happened 2,000 years
ago at the cross. His head was crushed. Crushed. And then he's glorified in this.
He reversed what the first Adam did. He reversed it. The first Adam brought in death. The second Adam brought
in life everlasting. He reversed it. He brought in
eternal life. Look over in John 17 here. Over in John 17, he reversed
what the first Adam did. Over in John 17, look at these
first two verses. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, That He should what? Give eternal life. The first Adam gave us death.
The second Adam has given us eternal life. That He should give eternal life
to as many as Thou hast given Him. He reversed what the first
Adam did. Now, one scripture I want you
to turn over to. How is He glorified over in Daniel
chapter 9? How is He glorified? To sum it
up, to put it as simply as I can, He is glorified in the accomplishments,
in the achievements of the cross. And we are given that in a verse
in Daniel chapter 9 verse 24. He says, Seventy weeks are determined
upon thy people. Now, that's 490 years. I think a week represented 70
years here. And it's 490 years in which it
came out to be that. Seventy weeks are determined
upon thy people and upon thy holy city to listen, to finish
transgression. Now, you know what that word
means? If you look over in your margin, number seven, if you
have the same kind of Bible I'm reading from, it means to restrain. To stop it from overtaking His
people. He has restrained. He has put
a check on transgression that it will not overtake His elect. To finish! What did He do at the cross?
He finished. He restrained transgression.
Here's the second thing He did. And to make an end of sins. He
put an end to it. By His blood, He washed it away.
He washed it away. And then here's the third thing
He did. To make reconciliation for iniquity. God was in Christ
reconciling the world to Himself. He hath reconciled us to God.
By the death of the cross, by His blood, by His righteous obedience,
He has reconciled us to God. I'll tell you what, it will make
a sinner shout for joy. We may not let it come out and
disturb the service, but it makes your heart leap. Do you remember
when Elizabeth came in She came to Mary's house, or vice versa,
one of them went to the other one's house, and when she walked
in the room, it said the babe leaped in her womb. When you
hear the gospel, when the Holy Spirit takes the gospel and He
applies it in power and enables you to hear it, don't you feel
your heart just leap within? He made an end to sins and make
reconciliation for iniquity. And listen, here's what he did.
And to bring in everlasting righteousness. That's what he did. What does
that mean, everlasting righteousness? That just means justification.
He justified us. We were justified in Christ before
the world began. We were justified in Christ at
Calvary. We're justified in Christ when we believe. Justified. He's
brought in everlasting righteousness. And listen, and to seal up. To seal up the vision and the
prophecy. What's He saying? To seal it
up. To make it sure to God's people. To make salvation. To make all that has been spoken
of here To make it sure. To put an end to transgression.
To put an end to sin. To finish transgression. To make
reconciliation. To bring in an everlasting righteousness.
To make it sure. To make it sure. And to anoint
the Most Holy. This is my beloved Son. Wherein is the Son of Man glorified? in the accomplishments that he
achieved at the cross. I must, I must suffer. He said,
I must die. I must. And then how is God,
how is God glorified in him? He said, now is the Son of Man
glorified and God is glorified in him. How is this so? How is
this so? First of all, every attribute
of God was magnified and glorified in the Lord Jesus Christ at the
cross. Wisdom? Can you not see the wisdom
of God in Calvary? A lost man cannot see that. A
lost man calls it foolishness. But a believer sees the wisdom
of God in Christ, in the cross. Love? Has there been a greater display
of love than at the cross? Justice? Was there ever a greater
display of justice than at the cross? God put Him to death,
His own Son? When sin was laid up on Him,
He spared not His own Son? A great display of justice there.
Impeccable. He magnified it. At the cross, listen, He said
this, having loved His own, He loved them to the end. He has
loved us with an everlasting love. While we were yet what? Sinners. Christ died for us.
It says in 1 John 4.10, Herein is love. Not that we love God. We ought to love God. Can you
imagine not loving God? Well, there was a time we didn't,
but we ought to love God. He gives us our daily bread.
He gives us our breath. He gives us all the things that
we enjoy. God gives them to us. But herein
is love, not that we love God, but He loves us and sent His
Son to be the propitiation for our sins. That's how God is magnified
in Him. And if God be glorified, magnified,
exalted in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself and shall
straightway glorify Him. First of all, if God be glorified
in Him, this is a certain fact. God is glorified in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He glorified the Father. He glorified
Almighty God in His conduct, in His obedience, in His death.
He glorified Him. Every time Christ is preached
every time God is glorified. Every time. Every time Frank stands here
with the Bible class, I stand here and we teach the gospel,
preach Christ, God is glorified. That's how God is glorified in
His Son. And God shall also glorify him
in himself and shall straightway glorify him. How did he do that? God shall also glorify him in
himself by raising him from the dead.
That's how God glorified him. It says in Psalm 1610, For thou
wilt not leave my soul in hell. Neither wilt thou suffer thine
Holy One to see corruption." God glorified Him in Himself,
and He said in a straight way, that means immediately. He was
only in the grave three days. His body saw no corruption, it
says. And then He shall glorify Him
by seating Him at His own right hand. This Man, this Son of Man,
that shall be glorified is glorified right now. He is seated right
now at the Father's right hand. A man, flesh and bones. He said,
touch me. A spirit has not flesh and bones.
Touch me. There is a man in flesh and bones seated at God's right
hand. The man Christ Jesus. And then he shall be glorified,
or he shall glorify him by giving him a name that is above every
name. Every knee is going to bow to
this man, either now or in judgment. Every knee shall bow, and every
tongue shall confess. Those who confess now, willingly,
and those who refuse to confess, will confess that he is Lord
to the glory of God the Father. God shall glorify him. And then he glorifies him by
giving him all the promises of the covenant. They're all his. He earned them. He earned them. Salvation is
not something you and I earned, but I tell you what, he earned
it. He earned it. And then notice our Lord's tender
care here as He deals with His disciples. He says, little children,
I can tell you this. It does not matter how old your
children grow. They're still your children.
I don't care. You never ask someone who's old. You say, how many men and women
do you have? You say, how many children do
you have? They're always your children. Always your children. And we are always, no matter
how old we grow in the faith, we are always God's little children. If you had a little while, I'm with
you. I'm with you for a little while. And it was just a little
while, like 24 hours or 48 hours. And it was... Then he would kneel
to the cross. And you shall seek me. As I said
to the Jews, when I go, you cannot come. So now I say to you, I
say to you this, notice here that the Lord did not address
them as little children until Judas left the room. You read
back through that. He says, that thou doest do quickly.
And he got up and he went out. And then the Lord began to teach
them all this. All are not God's little children. Not all. Not all. As Christ said
in verse 18, I know whom I have chosen. I know whom I have chosen. He knew the ones He chose out
of those twelve. He knew eleven of them were His.
And that one was the son of perdition. And He knows all His elect. He
said, I know whom I have chosen. And He lets them know that He'll
be taken away from them for a little while. He says, whether I go,
you cannot come. Not now. Not now. He must accomplish the salvation
of God's elect. He's about to enter a realm Where no man can go, no mere
man can go and come back from. If they knew where he was going,
if they really knew what was going to happen, where he was
going at that time, they wouldn't have said, let us go with you.
They wouldn't have said that because no man can go where he
went and come back. Can't do it. That rich man who
lifted up his eyes in hell, he's still there. Our Lord is about
to go take the hell of God's wrath that everyone of His elect
deserved. And you can't go there right
now. He's saying to His disciples, you can't go there with me right
now. You can't go where I'm going. Not now. Not now. Not now. You can't do that. But I'm going
to leave you a new commandment before I go. Well, Spurgeon said, there's
really 11 commandments. Someone said, how many commandments
are there? He said, 10 commandments. Spurgeon said, this is the 11th
commandment and this is the best. A new commandment I give unto
you. You reckon they perked up? He's
saying, I'm getting ready to leave. And they understood that
because Peter You know, Peter over here, he says, no, you're
not going anywhere. He completely missed this. You
know, he says, I'm going to go for a little while, I'm going
to come back. But Peter just, you know, he didn't catch that. A new commandment I give unto
you that you love one another. This is the glue that holds the
family together. Satan's going to come, Satan's
going to try you, the sheep are going to be scattered, but you
love one another. And I promise you, that'll hold
you together. Nothing holds a family together like this, love. That's
it. That's the glue that'll hold
a family together, that you love one another. And he calls it new. It's not
new because it is. The Scriptures teaches, back
in the Old Testament, in the commandments, thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy mind. It teaches
that. But we have a new example. We never had an example like
this. Having loved his own, he loved them to the end. We have a new example. Put into
a new light. The light of the gospel. And he tells us here how we are
to love. As I have loved you. as I have loved you. And how
is that? I have loved you sacrificially. Sacrificially. I have loved you
to the end. I have loved you through all
of your ups and downs, all your failings. I have loved you. Peter is going to deny Him. I
tell you what, It will not diminish the Lord's love of Peter. All
the disciples are sitting around the Lord's table when he gives
the Lord's table, arguing or debating on who's going to be
the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. As I have loved you. Sacrificially and to the end. And this is the badge. This is
the badge of discipleship. This is the mark This is the true mark now of
discipleship. By this shall all men know that
you're my disciples. If you have love, true, genuine
love to one another. It says in 1 John 4, verse 8, He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. And by this one mark, it's not
how much theology that I know and I can repeat. This is the one mark that you
love one another. That's the badge of discipleship. And then we are given here, and
I'll start winding this down, We are given here a needful fall. There's one here who's going
to betray the Lord. He's going to go and betray Him.
And there's one here who's going to deny Him. And it is a needful
fall. It's a needful fall. Simon Peter
said unto Him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him,
Whether I go, thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt
follow me afterwards. Peter needs this fall. He needs
this fall. And the Lord's going to let him
fall. He's going to let him fall hard. He needs it. He's going to let him fall to
humble him and turn him into a preacher of the gospel. Peter, you're not ready to be
a preacher of the gospel to sinners. You need to be brought down.
You need to be trimmed down. You need to be pruned. You need
to be pruned. Too often, we think too highly
of our spiritual strength. And the Lord has to teach us
From time to time, that without me, you can do nothing. You can't even believe. You can't
believe, you can't even take the next breath without me. And from time to time, the Lord
gives us a needful fall. Especially if you're going to
stand in a pulpit. and preach to sinners, especially. But it gives him a promise. He
says here, you will follow me afterwards.
You see, he's given here. Peter wants to know where he's
going. The Lord says, where I'm going right now, you cannot come. He
said, but afterwards, you can follow me. When I remove the
curse, And when I gain victory over
the grave, and when I crush Satan's head, and when I am seated at
the Father's right hand, Peter, then you can follow me. Then
you can follow me. And Peter said unto him, Lord,
and you'll see why he needed this fall as we finish this up. Peter said to him, Lord, why
cannot I follow thee now? I'll lay down my life for thy
sake. I'll die for you. And he would have. I believe
Peter would have. Peter loved his Lord. He loved
Him. But this is zeal without knowledge
is what this is. Why can I follow thee now? Because,
as I have already said, no mortal can go to this place and come
back. And Jesus answered him, Peter, will you lay down your life for
my sake? Will you die for my sake? Peter, I'm telling you the truth. Pay attention to me. Verily,
verily, this is serious, serious words here. Our Lord never spoke
an idle word. He said, Peter, truly, truly,
I'm telling you that before the cock crows, you'll deny me three
times. And he needed to do that. That
needed to happen. Put it that way. That needed
to happen. And the Lord let it happen. He let it happen. Now, in closing, the death of Christ was and is
his greatest glory. Redemption is God's chief glory. The only place where a holy God
and a sinner can fellowship is in Christ and Him crucified.
Paul said in Galatians 6, But God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for whom the world
is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. But God forbid that
I should glory save in the cross of my Lord. And then the only place where
all the attributes of God are seen and honored and glorified
is in Christ crucified. Now, you can look at creation
and you can see some of the glory of God in it. But I'm telling
you this, apart from Christ and Him crucified, apart from a revelation
and an understanding of God's love in Christ at Calvary, you
look at this world, could you understand the love of God? Could
you understand and see God's love in the pain and the suffering
and the murders and the rapes? Could you understand that? Could
you see God's love in that? Can you look at this world of
wars and all that goes on in this world and say God is love? You have to look at Calvary.
You really have to look at Calvary and see that God is love. That's where you understand sin.
That's where you understand what nature we have. That's where
you understand God's holiness is at Calvary. That's where his
attributes are honored and glorified. And then last of all, Christ
crucified is that which God uses to draw sinners to himself. Listen to this, and I close with
this. In John chapter 3, verses 14 and 15, And as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have eternal life. He said, I must be lifted up,
because that is how God draws sinners to Himself. through a
crucified Christ.

The Son of Man

What does the Bible say about the glorification of Christ?

How do we know that Christ's death was an accomplishment?

Why is the concept of Christ's obedience important for Christians?

What role does the cross play in God's attributes?

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About John Chapman

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The Son of Man

What does the Bible say about the glorification of Christ?

How do we know that Christ's death was an accomplishment?

Why is the concept of Christ's obedience important for Christians?

What role does the cross play in God's attributes?

Sermon Transcript

About John Chapman

Comments

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