T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 3

The Son of Man

READING: Ps. 8:3-6; Heb. 2:5-9; Eph. 4:13; Rom. 2:16, 3:24; Acts 17:31; Luke 9:18-22.

"Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6).

"In the face of Jesus Christ"! In that phrase I see everything that relates to God's eternal purpose and to the Divine intention, both as to man and the universe. It embraces the counsels of the Godhead before the world was - it embraces the creation; it embraces redemption; it embraces the final glory. All that is in the face of Jesus Christ. Indeed, there is nothing which concerns us, as creatures related to God and eternity, which is not to be found in the face of Jesus Christ. God comes to us in the face of Jesus Christ, and all that ever we shall or can know of God is to be found in the face of Jesus Christ. The face is the human medium of communication. The face is the medium of personality. The personality is the character formed in secret, the sum of all secret history, and it embraces itself in the face. Sooner or later, somehow, the personality will betray itself in the face. But in order to read the personality through the face, there has to be a certain amount of qualification. You cannot off hand read a person through their face. You need to have certain ability to do so. If all that is of God is in the face of Jesus Christ, there has to be given revelation in our hearts, as well as in His face. We have to be able to see the face of Jesus Christ.

All that is but a wide and sweeping survey or intimation of what the face of Jesus represents. It must be brought nearer to our hearts in a practical way, but I want to remind you of this before we go further, that it has ever been by reason of a vision of the face of Jesus Christ, that God has secured lives and instruments which have reflected His own glory.

"To this end have I appeared unto thee, to appoint thee a minister and a witness both of the things wherein thou hast seen me, and of the things wherein I will appear unto thee...." (Acts 26:16). Note all the touches as to seeing the Lord in Acts 9, 22 and 26. I think we can truly say that Paul was a fruit of the seeing of the face of Jesus Christ. I am certain that we depend for everything upon a seeing of the face of Jesus Christ. Do not misunderstand. We are not thinking for a moment of any necessity for a literal vision, but we mean that it is absolutely essential to our spiritual life, and to our spiritual service, that by revelation of the Holy Spirit, something of the significance of Jesus Christ, the face of Jesus Christ, should be unveiled to the heart. I am being occupied very much, simply engrossed, in these days with the momentousness of Christ; and it is all gathered up into this phrase, "the face of Jesus Christ."

That phrase is employed to imply spiritual vision, spiritual revelation. It is a figure of speech, and in the main, therefore, not to be taken literally, as we have said. The words have in them the thought of our catching some view, some vision, of our having some spiritual insight as to the significance of Jesus Christ, presented to us as the expression, the countenance of God, in which all that is in the mind and the heart and the will of God is found, and is expressed. I believe it means that the face of Jesus Christ is the Man. If you want to know what sort of a person you are dealing with, if you want to know your man, you do not look at his boots (forgive my putting it in this way) you do not turn round so that you can see his shoulders; you look right into his face; you study his face; you get the proportions of his face. You watch him in repose; you watch him under tension; you watch his face in times of provocation or sorrow; you watch him in changing atmosphere, changing conditions, when things are for and when things are against. You learn the man by his face. If you have any special gifts at reading through the face, when you look at that face, you at once know the man. It is not always possible to do so, but you get a good deal through the face; at any rate, you look to the face to tell you what you want to know. It is in that sense that the statement in the Scripture is made "...the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ"; that statement signifies that that face is the revelation of what lies behind of God - God's thought, God's mind, God's will, God's feelings, God's desires, God's attitudes, God's purposes. All that is written in the face of Jesus Christ.

But the words carry us further than that: The face of Jesus Christ is the face of a Man. It is the face of a Man with God behind it. It is the face of the Man about which we want to meditate at this time. "The Son of Man" is the designation found in one of the passages to which we have referred (Luke 9:22), "I am Jesus of Nazareth...." (Acts 22:8) - His was the face that was seen of Saul on his way to Damascus - "Inasmuch as he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained" (Acts 17:31). The face of a Man with God behind it! We are stressing the significance of the fact that the Lord Jesus was Man, the Man Christ Jesus. I know, and never forget, and I hope you never will for a moment allow the other fact to fall out of your remembrance, that we are dealing with God, utterly and verily, in Jesus Christ; but it is the significance of Christ as Man, "the Man Christ Jesus" that is to me the great wonder, the amazing wonder, that is becoming to me the real meaning of salvation, of sanctification, of glory - the significance of the Man, the face of Jesus Christ.

1. - Man. (1) Man Conceived.

So we are led by the face of Jesus Christ, and the light in that face, back into the Word of God. We find that that light falls upon the counsels of the Godhead before the world was, in which Godhead man was conceived. We see the conception of man in the Divine counsels: shall we say, the thought of there being man originated in the Divine mind, and became a part of the Divine counsels. In some dateless point in the past eternity man was conceived, and before the foundation of the world "foreordained unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ." Do you catch the ray of light? In the face of Jesus Christ! Foreordained unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ! In that face you have the man conceived, foreordained, and the object of the conception and the foreordaining is unto the adoption of sons.