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This expression, which is Jesus' favorite self-designation in Matthew and Luke, sparkles with a variety of possible meanings. Throughout the Bible, "son of man" sometimes means "human being" -- one who descends from mortal flesh (Num. 23:19; Ps. 8:4). God addresses the prophet Ezekiel this way more than 90 times. Indeed Jesus' humanity is an important New Testament theme, especially in Luke and in Hebrews, but long before Jesus the expression "Son of Man" had taken on special spiritual significance regarding a very particular "human being."
For that insight we look to the End-Time vision recorded in Daniel 7:9-28, where the exiled prophet viewed the very throne room of God himself -- the Ancient of Days (v. 9-10). Daniel describes God's splendor in language which John later borrows to portray the Risen Christ (Rev. 1:13-17). From God's throne, surrounded by millions of attendants, flows a river of fire (Dan. 7:10). Just as the Jordan River culminates in the Dead Sea, so this fiery river apparently flows eventually into a Lake of Fire, which is the Second Death (Rev. 20:14-15). As Daniel watches, court commences and Judgment begins.
Suddenly another person enters the courtroom -- "one like a Son of Man" -- and is led to God himself. God gives him dominion, glory and an everlasting kingdom (Dan. 7:13-14). Later in the vision, God issues judgment in favor of "the saints of the Highest One," God's own people, who are represented by the glorified Son of Man (v. 21-22, 26-27).
Throughout his ministry, Jesus identifies himself with this "Son of Man," this messianic, End-Time figure, who brings salvation to God's people in his own journey to glory. It is a hidden claim in a sense, not obvious in its meaning, but Jesus' adversaries understood it well enough to be horrified and outraged when he used it (Matt. 26:63-68). This scenario is not unfolding as they had ever expected!
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Daniel described God's messianic figure as "Son of Man" 500 years before Jesus was born. As Son of Man, Jesus would eventually receive dominion, power, glory and an eternal kingdom -- for himself and for all God's people. What no one but God knew in advance, whether prophet, king, sage or heavenly angel, is that the Son of Man would first suffer and die, then rise again. The Messiah, this "man of God's own choosing" as the hymn puts it, scandalized even his inner circle when he began to tell them that (Matt. 16:13-28).
Pious prophetic speculation abounded among the Jews during the 400 years between Malachi and Matthew, resulting in a vast body of apocalyptic literature contained in the Apocrypha, Pseudepigrapha and the Dead Sea Scrolls. But none of that literature pictures a Messiah who suffers and rises back from the dead ones. The Old Testament prophets had spoken cryptically of these matters, but it remained for Jesus himself to reveal it plainly, just days or weeks before the actual events.
As the prophetic Son of Man, Jesus would ascend to heaven (John 3:13; 6:62) -- in the clouds, as Daniel foretold (Acts 1:9). But the Son of Man, the risen and glorified Jesus, will come again one day, also in the clouds of heaven (Acts 1:10-13). Heaven has now received him "until the period of the restoration of all things," and then he will return (Acts 3:18-21). That will be a coming for judgment -- on behalf of his people and against all God's enemies (Dan. 7; Matt. 13:40-43; 25:31-46; Lk. 21:36; 2 Thess. 1:6-10).
By grace, we who trust God through Jesus Christ may know that we will be among that victorious number. Then, just as Daniel foretold some 2,500 years ago, the Son of Man will confess us before his Father -- and God will give us the kingdom forever (Lk. 12:8, 32).
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