1. Christ as the Son of Man

What I desire is to trace the blessed Lord Jesus Christ as He is presented to us in this gospel, as the Son’ of man come down here—a new kind of Man in this world altogether, totally different from all others. If I turn, for instance, to chapter 2, in the very growing up of the Lord we see that there is a different Person in the world. As we grow up, we grow up in sin. I knew more sin at seven than I did at four; more at twenty than I did at ten. God may come in in grace and convert us early; but the moment we see the blessed Lord we see a vessel filled with grace. “The grace of God was upon Him.” It was the first time it ever could be so said. God had given a measure of grace to one and another, but for the first time He looked down on a perfect vessel of His grace. In John 1:14 we read, “Full of grace.” That grace instantly began to display itself, but we see how little man was able to hold it. A system of things that was legal and adapted to man in the flesh could not hold the grace; it was impossible. So, we get early in Luke the angels saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and upon earth peace.” In chapter 12 it is, “Think you that I am come to give peace on earth?” But is not that what the angels said? A verse or two before, “I am come to send fire on the earth?” Then, if we go onto chapter 19, when the disciples spread their garments in the way and shout Hosannah, we get, “Glory to God in the highest, peace in heaven.” The thing was, peace came, but the son of peace was not here. The Lord told His disciples to say, “Peace be to this house.” If the son of peace was not there, it should return to them. The Lord came bringing peace into this scene, and the son of peace was not here, so His peace returned to Him; that is, so far as man in the flesh was concerned, or the system of things which would have blessed man in the flesh, if it were possible. In the early part of the chapter He is preaching the Word. He came not only to heal men’s bodies, but to deal with their souls. There was moral power too in what he did. In the end of the chapter He brings this truth simply and plainly before us—the new will not fit in with the old. There was a new order of things presented in His person; but man had no relish for it. It could not be put together with the old; and secondly, man had no heart for it, “he saith the old is better.” He prefers the things according to the flesh, whether religious or not, therefore he won’t have the new wine.