The term ‘Son of Man’ is a very interesting term for Jesus to describe Himself. It’s a term that He used often when He spoke with people, Matthew 8:20 / Matthew 9:6 / Matthew 11:19 / Matthew 16:13 Matthew 20:28 / Mark 8:38 / Luke 18:8 / John 1:51 / John 5:27.
The term ‘son of man’ can simply refer to a human being, Numbers 23:19 / Job 16:21 / Ezekiel 3:1 / Ezekiel 3:17, but with Jesus, He wasn’t only a human being, John 1:1 / John 1:14, He was also the Messiah, Isaiah 9:6 / Matthew 16:15-16 / Luke 2:11.
To discover the importance of Jesus being the ‘Son of Man’, we need to go back to the Old Testament. In Daniel 7:13-14, we read about ‘someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He is a person who is distinct from God, that is, the Ancient of Days, but He clearly is a fully Divine Being.
Notice Daniel sees the thrones were set in place and the Ancient of Days taking his seat, Daniel 7:9. Note that ‘thrones’ is plural; this is important, and I’ll say more about this in a moment. This is One who has lived ever since anyone can remember, and longer than anyone can remember. The ancient of Days implies God’s eternal nature, Psalm 90:1-2 / Isaiah 57:15 / Micah 5:2.
Notice also that Daniel sees one like a son of man, coming in the clouds of heaven, Daniel 7:13. The son of man is clearly a reference to Jesus, Matthew 8:20 / Matthew 9:6 / Matthew 16:27-28 / Matthew 26:64 / Revelation 14:14.
Whitcomb, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Although Messiah had already been named as God’s ’Son’ in previous prophetic utterances, 2 Samuel 7:14 / Psalms 2:7 / Psalms 2:12 / Proverbs 30:4, He is now given a name that emphasises His true and total identification with mankind.’
Cornerstone Verses, says the following.
‘According to Daniel 7:27, the everlasting kingdom and dominion are given to the Most High, but in Daniel 7:14, they are given to the Son of Man. The Son of Man is the Most High yet distinct from the Ancient of Days. The term Most High in Aramaic is ‘elyonin’, and it is plural, meaning that the literal translation is ‘the Most Highs.’
You can also see the same in Daniel 7:22. This makes sense since in Daniel 7:9, thrones (plural) were placed, and two divine figures, the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man, possess the everlasting kingdom. In the passage, only the Son of Man has the kingdom, but you can’t argue that the Ancient of Days also doesn’t rule since He sits on a throne. He is clearly a divine King.
In Daniel 7:26, Daniel uses singular and plural forms when discussing ‘the Most High.’ In ‘And he shall speak great words against the Most High,’ he uses the singular form, and in ‘and shall wear out the saints of the Most High,’ he uses the plural form. Daniel could have used the singular form in both of these times, but he chose to use both singular and plural. This is compelling evidence that Daniel was aware of God’s multi-personal nature.’
When you read Daniel 7:18 / Daniel 7:22 / Daniel 7:27, notice the similarities between this Son of Man and Yahweh God. When you read Zechariah 9:9-11 / Zechariah 9:14-16, notice again the similarities between this Son of Man and Yahweh God. When you read Zechariah 14:9 / Zechariah 14:16-17, notice again the similarities between this Son of Man and Yahweh God.
Notice that Yahweh is also the One who rides the clouds, Psalm 68:4 / Psalm 104:1-3 / Isaiah 19:1. And so, when we read about the ‘son of man’ in Daniel’s account, we read that He rides the clouds like Yahweh. He rules over all creation forever like Yahweh, and He is worshipped by all the nations like Yahweh.
Christ’s kingdom is made up of people from all nations, Acts 2:38-39 / Mark 16:16 / Hebrews 12:28 / Revelation 1:5-6. He will reign over an everlasting dominion, Matthew 28:18, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.
This clearly speaks about the kingdom of God, Daniel 2:44 / Mark 14:60-64 / Mark 16.19 / Acts 1:9-11 / Acts 2:32-36. It is spiritual in nature, not having those carnal elements which cause other kingdoms to decay.
The writer of Hebrews quotes from Psalm 8, in Hebrews 2:5-9, and a difficult question arises with this quotation. Is the author referring to people, or is he referring exclusively to the Son?
First, the word ‘man’, in Hebrews 2:6, is a translation of the Greek word ‘anthropos’, which means ‘human beings’; it has no reference to gender. ‘Son of man’ is the same thing; the son of a person is a person.
This psalm praises the Lord for His glorious creation, Psalm 8:3-4. Now carefully look at Psalm 8:5-8, and notice that the psalmist is talking about humans. God has made humans a little lower than the heavenly beings, Psalm 8:5. God has crowned humans with glory and honour, Psalm 8:5 / 1 Corinthians 6:3 / Revelation 20:5.
Further, God has given humans dominion over the works of God’s hands, and all things are under the feet of humans, Psalm 8:6 / 1 Corinthians 15:27. This praise reflects the teaching in Genesis 1:28-30 / Genesis 9:2, where God gave dominion to humans over every created thing.
Now, some think that this psalm about humanity is being altered by the writer of Hebrews and is now applied to Jesus as the Son of man. But I don’t think that’s right, and let me show you why. Back to Hebrews 2:5-9, the writer is borrowing from Genesis 1, and Psalm 8, to remind the audience that God has placed humans on the earth to rule over the creation, and all things are subject to humans.
Hebrews 2:8, wraps up by pointing out that we cannot even begin to comprehend all that this point entails. We do not fully see all that God has placed under our feet. We are so short-sighted and so unable to comprehend the great dominion that God has given us on this earth.
Everything under our feet reflects that the whole created world is in subjection to humans. But there is something that we do see, according to Hebrews 2:9, in fact, it is ‘a someone’, but ‘we do see Jesus’. He also became a human for a little while.
This is the thrust of the argument, the Son is superior because He became human, John 1:1 / John 1:14. If the quotation in Psalm 8, is referring to Jesus, then Hebrews 2:9, does not make sense. What makes sense is to use the psalmist’s argument about the dominion of humans over the created world and then point out that the Son became human.
Therefore, the Son also has dominion; we see Jesus, and we can see His dominion because He was crowned with glory and honour after tasting death for everyone. We have victory, deliverance, and dominion because of Jesus.
Now, this ties back to Hebrews 2:5, because the author is speaking about the ‘world to come’, that is, the Messianic kingdom. We cannot begin to fully see the dominion and rule we have.
In fact, the writer has already pointed out that angels were created, at least for one purpose, and that is to serve those of us who are inheriting salvation, Hebrews 1:14. We cannot see that, and we cannot see the inner workings of the spiritual realm and our place in that, but we do see Jesus. Jesus was made human, and He was crowned with glory and honour; we do see that.
When we take into account all of the above passages, we can see that when Jesus uses the term ‘Son of Man,’ He isn’t only referring to His humanity, but He is also speaking about His Deity and His Messiahship.
Jesus Himself clearly associated Himself with Daniel’s ‘son of man’ in Matthew 26:63-64, and so, Jesus openly confessed His deity right in front of Caiaphas, the high priest. Jesus is the Son of God, He is also the Son of Man and the Messiah.