Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man

These days the web is crawling with people who have an ax to grind against Christianity. It's even trendy for people who call themselves Christians to bash Christianity!

One common assertion is that Jesus never claimed divinity for Himself. Skeptics and scoffers of all stripes with no real knowledge of the Bible make much of the fact that Jesus is more often called the "Son of Man" than the "Son of God." Don't be intimidated. Don't be argumentative either, but be aware that the facts are on your side.

To keep things simple, let's use the Gospel of Matthew as a starting point. When Jesus was interrogated by Caiaphas the high priest in Matthew 26:63-64, we read:

And the high priest said to Him, "I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus said to him, "You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven."

There we see Jesus not only indicating that the title mentioned by the high priest (Son of God) was accurate, but also referring to Daniel 7:13-14, which says:

I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations, and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.

Note that by alluding to this verse when He called Himself the Son of Man, Jesus was claiming eternal dominion over all mankind. His use of the title Son of Man was not a denial of divinity, but rather a claim of ultimate authority.

Caiphas' response upon hearing this was to accuse Jesus of blasphemy (Matthew 26:65) because he understood that Jesus was in fact claiming to be the Son of God (Matthew 27:43). Caiphas didn't like what Jesus was saying. It appears that he also didn't believe it. But he understood it perfectly.

If the person you're talking with is a spiritual seeker rather than simply an argument-seeker, this just might give you a good starting point for conversation.