The Son Of Man

by Toms, A. F. | Category: Christ In Genesis | Apr 1988

On the sixth day of creation God said "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish... the fowl

the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing". So Adam was given absolute control of all God's creation on earth. David refers to this in the 8th Psalm.

He had been considering the greatness of God's vast creation, and he exclaim

"What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? For Thou host made him but little lower than God, and crownest him with glory and honour. Thou modest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet..."

Clearly David was thinking back to Adam's glory in the garden of Eden, but was that all? No, the Spirit of God was guiding him, perhaps into deeper thoughts than David himself realized at the time. For the epistle to the Hebrews says, concerning our Lord Jesus, "For not unto angels did He subject the world to come, whereof we speak". And then the write quotes some of these very words of David from Psalm 8. He makes it very clear that it is to the Lord Jesus he is referring, for he says,

We behold Him, who hath been made for a little while lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the s'4fering ~ death crowned with glory and honour, that by the grace of God He should taste death for every man.

Most people when they read that verse think about our Lord Jesus crowned with glory and honour when He returned in resurrection to His place at God's right hand. And so He was. But in the context of this verse I believe it refers to the Lord Jesus in the glory and honour of perfect Manhood. When He took to Himself our humanity He occupied the place Adam had forfeited through sin. God set Him over the work of His hands and all things were subject to Him. When He was in the wilderness, you remember, being tempted of Satan, He was with the wild beasts but they did Him no harm, for they were under His control.

And in that glory and honour of perfect Manhood He one day took a heavy cross upon His back and went to Calvary and died for us. Had there been anything at all to mar His perfection, then His offering of Himself would never have atoned for sin. But there was not. In Him was no sin. And in that glory and honour of absolute perfection He tasted death for every one of us.

Toms, A. F. | Apr 1988
Christ In Genesis