Why is Jesus called “the Son of God” and “the Son of Man”?

The Lord Christ often used the title “the Son of Man” to emphasize His incarnation out of His love for humanity, as a fully human being. Jesus asked, “Who do men say that I, Son of Man , am?” (Matt. 16:13). The Jewish leaders were well aware of the background of the expression “Son of Man” in the book of Daniel: “I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed” (Dan. 7:13–14).

And when they asked Jesus, “If you are the Christ, tell us” (Luke 22:67), He answered that He is indeed the Son of Man. “Then they all said, ‘Are You then the Son of God?’ So He said to them, ‘You rightly say that I am.’ And they said, ‘What further testimony do we need? For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth’” (Luke 22:70–71). The Lord Christ connected these two titles, as we see in His response to Nathanael when he said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God ” (John 1:49) and He responded, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man ” (John 1:51). St. Hippolytus of Rome says, “He showed all power given by the Father to the Son, who is ordained Lord of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth, and Judge of all: of things in heaven, because He was born, the Word of God, before all (ages); and of things on earth, because He became man in the midst of men, to re-create our Adam through Himself; and of things under the earth,

726 Origen, Exhortation to Martyrdom 5.28 (ACW 19:168–169). 727

From the Offering, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. The Divine Liturgy of St. James .

728 St. Jacob of Sarug, Homily 65 About Pride (Text by Paul Began & Behnam Sony). For Wednesday of the second week of the Holy Lent, Coptic.

because He was also reckoned among the dead, preaching the Gospel to the souls of the saints (1 Pet. 3:19), (and) by death overcoming death.”⁷²⁹

In Him we became children of God: in the beloved only Son of God we obtained adoption, and became children, with a right to partake in the inheritance. But there is a huge difference between the beloved Son, the only-begotten; and the adopted children. St. Augustine says, “The Father has made us co-heirs with His Only Son; not begotten them like Him of His Own Substance, but adopted by Him out of His Own family.”⁷³⁰ St. Gregory of Nyssa urges us to yearn to be like angels through Christ’s work of salvation within us. He says, “And the consequence of being crucified with Christ is that we shall live with Him, and be glorified with Him, and reign with Him; and the consequence of presenting ourselves to God is that we shall be changed from the rank of human nature and human dignity to that of Angels; for so speaks Daniel, that a “thousand thousands stood before him (Dan. 7:10).”⁷³¹

He called the Father, “Abba”: in all the conversations of the Lord Christ with the Father, He used the term “Abba,” except for His words on the cross where He wanted to direct our attention to Psalm 22 so that we would understand that His crucifixion did not come about by chance, but rather to fulfil the prophecies. He cried out, using the opening words of that psalm that refer to the crucifixion: “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?”

J. A. Fitzmeyer says that the word “Abba” at that time was not the equivalent of today’s “Daddy,” for it was not the language of a young child with his father, but the language of a mature son who speaks with a spirit of dignity and commitment to His Father.⁷³² If the Son is the delight of the Father, and One with Him in essence, who calls Him “Abba”; then, when we become one with Him as members of His body, He grants us — through baptism — to be children of the Father, and the words of the apostle rightfully apply to us: “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father’ ” (Rom. 8:15). That is how the incarnate only Son brought us into the bosom of the Father, to converse with Him in the language of mature children, committed to fulfilling the will of their Father with joy and delight, led by the Holy Spirit of God. St. Augustine reflects that the apostle’s use of the two words, “Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15) indicate that he is addressing first the people of the circumcision in their own language (“ Abba ,” Aramaic), and then the gentiles in their own language (“Father,” pater in the Greek New Testament). The Lord Christ has united the Jews with the gentiles so that even if they

729 St. Hippolytus of Rome, Treatise on Christ and Antichrist 26 (ANF 5:209).

730 St. Augustine of Hippo, Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament , Volume 2 , trans., R. G. Macmullen (Oxford University Press, 1845) 76.9: p. 547, amended.

731 St. Gregory of Nyssa, On Virginity 24 (NPNF II/5:371).

732 Joseph A. Fitzmeyer, “Abba and Jesus' relation to God,” in A cause de l'Evangile: études sur les Synoptiques et les Actes: offertes au P. Jacques Dupont, O.S.B. à l'occasion de son 70e anniversaire. Lectio divina ; no. 123 (Paris: Publications de Saint-André, 1985) pp. 57–81.

use their own native languages, all may speak together with their Father in the one language of children and find favor with Him.⁷³³