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W ho is the most titled man

in history?Throughout the ages, leaderso nations have claimed many august titles. Military o fcershave earned numerous honors.Politicians have served in diversecapacities and boasted strings o o fcial titles. Scholars have accu-mulated multiple degrees.

But there is one man o history whose titles arsurpass all others, both in quantity and quality. Histitles include Prince o Peace, Second Adam, Liono Judah, Everlasting Father, Wonder ul Counselor,Savior, Mighty God, King o Kings, Lord o Lords.

This man is also rightly titled Creator and Sus-tainer: He undergirds all o science and nature, for byHim all things were created, and in Him all things hold together. (Col 1:16, 17)

The universe and all it contains would disinte-grate apart rom the moment-by-moment sustainingpower o this man.

There is no mistaking the holder o so many titles.Jesus o Nazareth is the most titled man in history!Merely to read aloud all the titles o worth, dignity, andhonor ascribed to Him in Scripture takes 45 minutes.

C hrist

The most common title or Jesus in the New Testa-ment is Christ (529 times), meaningAnointed One . Itsthe Greek equivalent o the Hebrew titleMessiah .

This title identifes One appointed by God Al-mighty to rescue humanity rom sin. It was the mostcritical and most di fcult task o history a job no-body else could do.

The task was to pay the penalty or sin by dyingas a sinless man in mans stead. Had it not been ac-

complished, all would be destined or hell. TheResurrection was proo that Jesus success ully completed this mission (Acts 17:31).

L orD

A close second or the most common title isLord , a title once reserved primarily or Godthe Father. This title recognizes Jesus authority over all creation. He will judge everyone at theend o time based on obedience to His Word(John 5:22,27; 12:48).

Jesus rarely used Christ or Lord. He re-erred to both when He asked the Pharisees how

the Christ could be Davids son i David calledHim Lord. This is the question that once and orall extinguished the Pharisees attempts to trapHim verbally, or no one dared from that day on toask Him another question. (Matthew 22:41-46)

t he s on of m an

A distant third in requency is the titleThe Sonof Man . Yet rom another perspective this titleranks #1 , orThe Son of Man is Jesus avoritedesignation or Himsel .

Son o Man occurs 87 times in the Gos-pels. All were by Jesus except once when listen-ers equated Son o Man with Christ andasked who the Son o Man was (John 12:34).

Son of Man is a perplexing title. What did Je-

sus intend to communicate by its use?Yahweh called Ezekiel son o man 93

times to emphasize Ezekiels humanity.

Certainly Jesus use includes re erence to Hisown genuine humanness (John 1:14). But itwas also a claim to something ar more.

The title Son of Man comes rom theprophet Daniel who saw a vision: W iththe clouds of heaven One like aSon of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. To Himwas given dominion, glory and a kingdom,that all the peoples, nations, and men of everylanguage might serve Him. His dominion isan everlasting dominion which will not passaway; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13-14)

Daniels vision was o the court o heaven preparing to judge the world. TheSon o Man was the Judge to whom alldominion, authority, and glory was givenwith an everlasting kingdom. When Jesusidentifed Himsel as The Son of Man ,He was claiming to be this divine personDaniel saw.

His hearers understood this, or Hisuse o the title sometimes enraged them.I Jesus meant simply I am human by call-ing Himsel The Son of Man , no one would havedisputed such a claim or become angry over it, muchless been driven to murderous rage.

Jesus always used the defnite article withSon of Man ,thereby indicating a specifc person. He wasThe Son of

Man rom Daniel, not a son o man like Ezekiel.As The Son of Man He claimed authority to or-

give sins (Luke 5:24), to be mankinds Savior (Mark 10:45), power to rise rom the dead (Mark 10:33-34),authority over angels (Matt 13:41), authority to returnto judge the world (Matt 16:27; John 5:27), ultimate

Kingship (Matt 16:28). These prerogatives which Heclaimed asThe Son of Man are prerogatives o Deity.

As The Son of Man Jesus claimed to beLord of the Sabbath(Luke 6:5). His hearers knew the Sabbathwas instituted by the Almighty at Creation. They would have understood the Lord of the Sabbathwas

the One who created the Sabbath.

Six times in the Gospels Jesusspecifcally re erenced DanielsSon of Man prophecy. In His trialbe ore the Sanhedrin when theHigh Priest asked whether He wasthe Christ, the Son of God , Jesusreplied rom Daniel 7: You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you,hereafter you shall see the Son of Mansitting at the right hand of power,

and coming on the clouds of heaven. (Matthew 26:64)The reactiontearing robes, He blasphemes, He

deserves deathshows the High Priest and Sanhe-drin understood His Son of Manclaim was a claimto Godship. Thats why they charged Him with blas-phemy and condemned Him to death.

Jesus many uses o Son o Man reveal theull, multi-orbed understanding Jesus had o

Himsel , giving insight about how He under-stood His own identity and mission.

Why did Jesus re er to Himsel almost ex-clusively asThe Son of Man ?

I think there are three main reasons. First,it re ected His awareness o being the Messiahwhen discussing His death and resurrection.

Second, Jesus came to redeem man as therepresentative o the human race, the SecondAdam. He called Himsel The Son of Man toconvey pro ound identifcation with mankind.

Third, Son of Man hal -concealed as wellas hal -revealed who He was. Just as Jesus usedparables to conceal truths rom casual listen-ers but reveal them to true seekers (Matthew 13:10-17), so also He was circumspect aboutrevealing His ull identity.

The Son o Man, Creator o heaven andearth, the Lord Christ our Redeemer this isthe Man whose birth we celebrate at Christ-mas. He alone is worthy o devotion, obedi-ence and worship.Soli Deo Gloria.

E-mail Dr. Pelletier at BibleScienceGuy@ woodsidenews.org. Read the Bible-Science Guyblog at BibleScienceGuy.wordpress.com and follow him at twitter.com/BibleScienceGuy.

He who holds the universe together humbled Himself to be born as a man.

WILLIAM T. PELLETIERPH.D.

paINTINg By DUTCHMaN gERaRD vaN HONTHORST, 1637Worlds Most Titled Man

tHe BiBle and sCienCe BY WILLIAM T. PELLETIER, PH.D.[WOODSIDE NEWS COLUMNIST ]

would disintegrate apart from theThe universe and all it contains

moment-by-moment sustaining power of this man.