Matthew 22:45

“If David then calls him Lord, how is he his son?”

That all being so, how can he be called simply David's son? The idea behind the title is therefore to be seen as insufficient for a description of the Messiah. ‘Calls Him Lord' is here to be seen as indicating all that is included in the quotation in Matthew 22:44. Thus David is seen as declaring and proclaiming the supreme power and authority that will be the Messiah's, setting Him far above himself (compare Romans 1:3), and we know from what is previously said that this title Messiah refers to Jesus. The supreme light (Matthew 4:16) is now shining before Israel.

This does not, of course indicate that the Messiah would not be the son of David lineally. It indicates rather that he could not be seen in the way that He was by the Pharisees, as inferior to or simply on a level with David, and as acting in the same way that David did. He must not be equated with David on the same terms. In Hebrew thought ‘son of --' indicated not only relationship, but likeness in standing and behaviour. However, the point here is that there was no way in which David could be seen as the full archetype of the Messiah because the Messiah was so much greater than David. He operated in ways, and with a power, that David could never have dreamed of, in other words, as He Himself did.