Required reading
Christ's doctrine of the atonement by George Smeaton (Available from Amazon or free here) - Continue Chapter 3 by reading Section XVII.
My summary
This week Smeaton teaches us that the name for Jesus, the Son of Man, shows him as the sin-bearer.
Smeaton himself sums up the argument of the section with the following: ' We think it will be found, on a full and accurate examination of all the several passages, that the following elements are contained in this title : true humanity or the real assumption of our nature by the Son of God; the idea of the second man or second Adam; the abasement, grief, and shame with which He was acquainted during His earthly lot. '
What grabbed me
I felt that Smeaton's thesis was forced in the chapter when he tried to exclude the Son of Man from referring to Christ's eminence.
He even appeared to contradict himself two pages apart.
Firstly Smeaton said: 'It must strike every one who attentively examines our Lord's use of this title, that we never find it used after His resurrection.'
Yet he goes on to say: 'And when Stephen on one occasion uses the phrase, " Son of Man," he nearly quotes our Lord's own words, before the same council, at His trial (Acts vii. 56). And when John, in Revelation, says, " I saw one like unto the Son of Man," it may be only a quotation of Daniel. '
Both Stephen and John have no problem referring to Christ as the Son of Man after his resurrection.
Next week's reading
Continue Chapter 3 by reading Sections XVIII to XIX.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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