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The sermon teaches that humanity is lost both in Adam and through personal sin, unable to rescue itself through morality, reform, or religious effort. Christ became the Son of Man and died as the suffering Savior whose redemptive purpose cannot fail. Spurgeon emphasizes particular redemption and sovereign grace: Christ seeks sinners before they seek Him and effectually brings His people to salvation. The hearer is urged to confess spiritual helplessness, look to the crucified Christ, and believe in Him for everlasting life.
Theological center: Christ’s particular redemption is effectual: the incarnate Son’s atoning death certainly accomplishes the salvation God intended for His people, whom sovereign grace first seeks.
Applications: Confess Your Lost Condition · Look to Christ Crucified · Believe on Christ · Consider the Meaning of Lost
Primary texts: Luke 19:10 · John 5:40 · Mark 16:16
“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10 How fond our Master was of the sweet title, the “Son of man”! If He had chosen, He might always have spoken of Himself as the Son of God, the Everlasting Father, the Wonderful, the Counselor, the Prince of Peace. He has a thousand gorgeous titles, resplendent as the throne of heaven, but He cares not to use them. To express His humility and let us see the lowliness of Him whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light. He calls not Himself the Son of God, but He speaks of Himself evermore as the Son of Man who came down from heaven. Let us learn a lesson of humility from our Savior. Let us never court great titles, nor proud degrees. What are they, after all, but beggarly distinctions whereby one worm is known from another? He who has the most of them is a worm still and is in nature no greater than his fellows. If Jesus called Himself the Son of Man, when He had far greater names, let us learn to humble ourselves unto men of low estate, knowing that he that humbles himself shall in due time be exalted. Methinks, however, there is a sweeter thought than this in that name, Son of Man. It seems to me that Christ loved manhood so much, that He always desired to honor it. And since it is a high honor, and indeed, the greatest dignity of manhood, that Jesus Christ was the Son of Man, He is wont to display this name that He may as it were put rich stars upon the breast of manhood and put a crown upon its head. Son of Man—whenever He said that word He seemed to put a halo round the head of Adam’s children. Yet there is perhaps a more lovely thought still. Jesus Christ called Himself the Son of Man, because He loved to be a man. It was a great stoop for Him to come from heaven and to be incarnate. It was a mighty stoop of condescension when He left the harps of angels and the songs of cherubim to mingle with the vulgar herd of His own creatures. But condescension though it was, He loved it. You will remember that when He became incarnate He did not become so in the dark. When He brings forth the only begotten into the world, He says, “Let all the angels of God worship him.” It was told in heaven. It was not done as a dark secret which Jesus Christ would do in the night that none might know it. But all the angels of God were brought to witness the advent of a Savior a span long, sleeping upon a Virgin’s breast and lying in a manger. And ever afterwards, and even now, He never blushed to confess that He was man—never looked back upon His incarnation with the slightest regret, but alway…