THE MAN

In our text, Pilate is bearing witness to the humanity of the Lord Jesus. His deity had been asserted a short time earlier when He said, ‘I AM’. He never ceased to be God. When He became a man, He became what He had never been before, without ceasing to be what He ever was.

Pilate presented to the nation a Man. His name was Jesus, the Nazarene. The writer of the Hebrews used the name Jesus repeatedly. This use of His human name is consistent with the stated qualification for priesthood, ‘every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God’, Heb. 5.1. Pilate rightly referred to Him as the Man.

The Hebrew writer presented a Man who, after the order of Melchizedek, would be King and Priest. In that treatise, the name Jesus is used alone first in chapter 2 verse 9, ‘But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels ... that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man’. His manhood was necessary if He were to procure deliverance and provide propitiation. The name Jesus is used alone again, ‘Consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus, who is faithful to him that constituted him, as Moses also in all his house’, Heb. 3. 1-2, JND. His humanity was a prerequisite to apostleship and priesthood. We see that because of the things He suffered, He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, Heb. 4.15. Later, we read concerning the Christian’s hope that it is sure and steadfast and ‘which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec’, Heb. 6. 19-20. He has secured a place. As a man He has become the guarantee of the new and better covenant, Heb. 7. 22. In Him, we have ‘boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus’, Heb. 10. 19. In Him, we have a pattern as ‘Jesus the author and finisher of our faith’, Heb. 12. 2. He is ‘Jesus the mediator of the new covenant’, Heb. 12. 24. Finally, we read that ‘Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate’, Heb. 13.12.

What a Man!