One Like Unto the Son of Man
“And I turned to see.” Everything in this Book betokens its character as a revelation. It is something that had not been before, something quite new in character. Mary at the sepulcher “turned herself back, and saw” (John 20:1414And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. (John 20:14)); “She turning round says” (v. 16). This action portrays the unexpected, unlooked-for nature of the manifestation. Seven golden candlesticks are seen, not one candlestick with seven branches as in the tabernacle, but seven separate light-bearers, each representing a church, of which it could be said to Ephesus, “I will remove thy candlestick.”
“One like the Son of Man.” In Daniel, the Son of Man is seen as brought to the Ancient of days. Here He possesses all the characteristics of the Ancient of days, but with other characteristics in relation to the church which was a “mystery hid” in Daniel’s vision. These other characteristics are brought out in relation to the various churches, as we shall presently see. But all of them show how intimately His person is connected with the churches and their representatives, whom He is shown as holding in His right hand.
None could live in the presence of such a One, and John falls at His feet as dead. He who had lain in the bosom of the Son of Man come in grace, is at dead before the same Son of Man as judge. His authority on the ground of redemption has, however, enabled Him to give confidence. Perfect love casts out fear. He was alive, became dead, and is now alive for evermore. As first and last, everything is met in His holy Person. The keys of death and hades are in His safe keeping, no longer at Satan’s disposal or in his power.
The Son of Man is a title the Lord delights in. In eternity with the Father, His delights were with the sons of men. In prophecy He applied it to Ezekiel a hundred times, and of Himself in the Gospels He uses it eighty times. No one ever uses it of Him save Stephen, who sees Him in that character standing at God’s right hand. He has passed by angels to take up His glories as Man! and in and among men are these glories to be manifested both in heaven and on earth. Distinct spheres of blessing they are, and yet through Him to be intimately related in blessing. This title, then, has a very wide and far-reaching significance. It is not only that He condescended to become a Man that He might make reconciliation, but that as a Man He might bring many sons to glory, and that they might be His companions there. The thought is so vast that the creature, except divinely prepared and divinely endowed, could not―and in many cases does not―grasp it.
“Write the things which thou hast seen”; namely, that which we are now considering, the glorious characteristics of His Person, in their judicial aspect, which are the foundations of everything in this Book. It was John’s special function in his Gospel to speak of Him in His character as “Son.” But there it is Son of God who has come down into the world in grace to make the Father known to all such as, believing in Him, had authority to become sons of God, even to such as believed on His name, being born of God. In that same Gospel (v. 27) He has authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. The glories of His Person, therefore, are the sum and substance, pith and marrow of Holy Scripture, from beginning to end, natural or spiritual, temporal or eternal.