Concerning His son Rom 1:3-4
Paul here give us an eloquent summation of the gospel, which he will set out to explain throughout the book of Romans. The gospel of God has to do with the on of God
Concerning his Son
The gospel is about Jesus. The person and work of Christ are the rock upon which the Christian religion is built. If he is not who he said he was, and if he did not do what he said he had come to do, the foundation is undermined and the whole superstructure will collapse. Take Christ from Christianity, and you disembowel it; there is practically nothing is left. Christ is the center of Christianity all else is circumference. (John Stott). It is not that way in other religions: In Buddhism and Confucianism is the teaching and principles, not the person upon which the religion is built. Take either of them away and the religion can still exist. It is also true in Islam. Even though Muhammad was said to have received the revelation of Allah from Gabriel, it is the message not the messenger that is important. As hard as it may sound to Muslims, Islam can exist without Muhammad. But that is not so with Christianity, It cannot exist without the sinless life, sacrificial death and supernatural resurrection of Jesus. There is no “Christless” Christianity. We are taught that the whole gospel is included in Christ, so that if any removes one step from Christ, he withdraws himself from the gospel (Gal 1:8) (Calvin) The Gospel of God concerns His Son. The whole of it is comprised in the knowledge of Jesus Christ; so that whoever departs one step from Him, departs from the Gospel. (Hodge). This is why it is so important to preach teach and proclaim Christ- the gospel “concerning His son”Jesus, who is God, became a man a point in time in history and remains the God-man eternally. This is seen as Paul expresses both the deity and humanity of Jesus. According to the flesh . . . the spirit of holiness. The first referring to his humanity and the second his deity. We see two aspects descended from David and declared to be the son of God.
The Pedigree of Jesus , descended from David
The word ginomai to arise, appear in history, come upon the stage also translated “was made” or here “descended” means usually “to be,” or “to become.” Jesus is both born of a woman and before Abraham was (born) (Gal 4:4, John 8:58) The promise to David was that there would be a man to sit on this throne; (1 Kings 2:4; 8:25; 9:5; 2 Chron 6:16). This promise referred to the Messiah so the gospel is about all the Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah through the line of David (Luke 1:27; Matt 9:27; 15:22; 12:23; 21:9, 21:15; 22:42, 22:45; John 7:42; 2 Tim 2:8). Since the Jews believed that the Messiah would be descended from David (John 7:42), the sacred writers make it out clearly that Jesus of Nazareth was of that line and family. (Barnes) The gospel has but one center and that in Christ, Christ alone is the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, the embodiment of all Jewish hopes, the willing sacrifice, the sin-bearer, and the atonement. He, and he alone, is the architect of the crucifixion, the deliverer of God's redeeming word; indeed, he is that Word which was in the beginning with God, and which was God (John 1:1). The dual nature of Christ, both his divinity and humanity, are affirmed by Paul here. As for the body that Jesus took when he decided to enter our earth life, it was descended through David, as attested by the genealogies of both Matthew and Luke, It was only the humanity of Jesus that descended through David. In his totality, Christ descended from no man but was co-existent with the Father. He had an existence before assuming a human body (Heb 2:14-16) (Coffman) In regard of His Divine subsistence, Jesus Christ was begotten, not made; in regard of His manhood, He was not begotten, but made of the seed of David, John 1:14; Galatians 4:4. (Haldane) He was the Messiah, the Christ (John 5:17-18). The importance of this lay in the fact that it connected Him with all the promises concerning the coming Davidic king contained in the Scriptures, (2 Sam 7:16, Isa 9:6-7; Isa 11:1-5; Isa 55:3; Jer 30:9; 33:14-26; Ezek 34:23-24; 37:24-28; Micah 5:2). The question of the cursed line of Solomon through Jehoiakim (Jer 22:30), and the line through Solomon’s older brother Nathan. The line of Solomon produced Joseph (Matt 1:7), and the Jesus was not a descendant of Joseph or he would have inherited the curse, but through the line of Mary through Nathan (Luke 1:31). So Jesus being born of the Virgin Mary is of the uncursed line of David. Jesus is the true Messiah and there will never be another who can lay claim to that throne since Jesus had no children. Even his earthly brothers couldn’t make a claim for the Messianic throne because they are the cursed line from Joseph.
According to the flesh He was born. The work he had to do - the mission he was on - required that he take on human nature, along with his divine nature. God did not choose a man and make him his son; he chose to make his eternal, one-and-only Son a man. (Piper). He was not only just a human being. In His human nature He was born of the seed of David, but He is now to be revealed as a greater than David, and as having pre-existed David. (Pett). According to the flesh is not something you would say about someone who is born, because the only way you can some into existence is according to the flesh. The text is affirming both the pre-existence of Jesus and that he had a fleshly body. It was necessary that he had a fleshly body like you and I to accomplish our redemption. Jesus has always been the son of God, but he became the son of man. In the text we see that expressed in two words: descended (ginomai) and declared (horizo). It was necessary that Jesus become human and more specifically to be born as a baby of a virgin (the question of the immaculate conception of Mary and the sinlessness of Jesus Luke 1:35). Wayne Grudem gives several reasons for the necessity of the humanity of Jesus: 1) He is our representative and obeyed for ys where Adam had failed (Luke 4:1-13, Gen 2:15-3:7). He obeyed God on our behalf: Rom 5:18-19) He is the last Adam and the second man (1 Cor 15:45-47) 2) He is our sacrificial substitute (Heb. 2:16-17): If he had not been made a man, he could not have died in our place and pay the penalty that was due us. He died for sin in our place. Jesus was made a man not an angel, because God was concerned with saving men, not angels. Jesus had to be made a man in every way from conception to death so that he might become the sacrifice that was an acceptable substitute for us. 3) He is the one mediator between God and man. Mediator: Because we are alienated from God because of sin, we need someone to go between us and God to reconcile us to God. We need an appropriate mediator to represent us to God and represent God to us (1Tim.2:5). To be the mediator, Jesus he had to be fully man and fully God. 4) He is the sympathetic priest: If Jesus had not been a man, he would not be able to know by experience what we go through in our temptations and struggles in life. But because he has lived as a man, he is able to sympathize more fully with us in our experience (Heb. 2:18). ( there remains the question of omniscience, did he gain additional knowledge or personal experience by becoming a man?). 5) He is our example to follow in life: We are to walk as he walked (1 John 2:6), we are to be changed into his likeness (2 Cor 3:18) to be conformed into the image of his son (Rom 8:29). Our goal should be to be like Christ all our days (1 Peter 2:21) up to the point of death, and to die with unfailing obedience to God, with strong trust in him, and with love and forgiveness to others (Jude 24). 6) He is the pattern for our redeemed bodies (1 Cor. 15:42-44). The new resurrected body that Jesus had when he rose from the dead is the pattern of what our bodies will be like when we are raised from the dead (“first fruits” 1 Cor 15:23, as he is the first of what the other fruit will look like) 7). He Fulfilled God’s original purpose for man to ruler over creation: So that a man (God’s image) might rule over creation: (Heb. 2:8, Eph 1:22), Jesus had to be a man in order to fulfill God’s original purpose that man rule over creation. (rev 3:21).Jesus took on flesh at a point in time to fulfill the plan and purpose of the Father in our redemption (John 1:14, Gal 4:4, 1 Peter 1:18-20, Phil 2:5-11) (The question arises as to the immutability of God, did God change with the addition of a body). The resurrected Jesus will be a man forever Luke 24:39, Acts 1:11 , 7:56 , Rev. 1:13, 19:9, Matt. 26:29
Pronouncement of Jesus declared to be the Son of God Gk horizo to bound, define, determine, or limit, and hence our word horizon, the line that determines the farthest visible part of the earth, in reference to the heavens. It means to fix or designate the proper boundaries of a truth, or a doctrine; to distinguish its lines and marks from error; or to show, or declare a thing to be so by any action. (Barnes).In this place the word signifies such a manifest and complete exhibition of the subject as to render it indubitable. The resurrection of Christ from the dead was such a manifest proof of our Lord's innocence, the truth of his doctrine, and the fulfillment of all that the prophets had spoken, as to leave no doubt on any considerate and candid mind. (Clarke) it means to determine, constitute; ordain, decree; i, e.With power the proof of Christ's sonship; as if it were said that he was most manifestly declared to be the Son of God, with such powerful evidence and argument as to render the truth irresistible. The ordinary resurrection of a man, like that of Lazarus, would not show that he was the Son of God; but in the circumstances of Jesus Christ it did; for he had claimed to be so; he had taught it; and God now attested the truth of his teaching by raising him from the dead. (Barnes)
The death of Jesus was devastating, because the hope of Israel, the messiah was dead. But this dead Messiah was raised from the dead. This is at the heart of the gospel of God. two things about this resurrection:1) This resurrection from the dead was "according to the Spirit of holiness." Rom 8:11 2) the resurrection of the dead was “with power’ to declare that Jesus is who he said he is “the son of God” and did all that he said he would do “save sinners”..
He was the Son of God, before he was the Son of man; hence he is said to be made of the seed of David, intimating that he was then made what he was not before. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, did in the fullness of time assume the true and perfect nature of man into a personal union with his God-head; the human nature was united to the divine nature of miraculously and extraordinarily, by the overshadowing power of the Holy Spirit Luke 1:34-35 and also integrally and completely; that is to say, Christ took a complete and perfect human soul and body, with all the faculties of the one, and all the members of the other,
At his conception he was the Son of God, by being conceived by the Holy Ghost; but this was secret and invisible, known only to the mother of our Lord. Therefore at his resurrection, by the Spirit of holiness, that is, by the immediate power of the Holy Ghost, God thought fit to give a visible and public demonstration to the whole world, that Jesus was his own Son, the promised and true Messiah, and consequently did thereby give testimony to the truth and divinity of our Savior’s doctrine and miracles. Being put to death in the flesh, that is, in his human nature, but quickened by the Spirit; that is, by the power of his Godhead, or divine nature, quickening himself; for had he been only raised by the power of God, and not by his own power, how could his resurrection have been a declaration that he was the Son of God? What had more appeared in Christ's resurrection than in other men's? for they were raised by the power of God as well as he. But here lies the difference; Christ rose by a self-quickening principle, others are raised by a quickening principle derived from Christ, with respect to which he is called resurrection and the life, John 11:25 that is, the principle of quickening life, by which the dead saints are raise. It doesn’t say, Christ was made or constituted the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead, but declared so to be (expositors). the Resurrection is God’s solemn ‘Amen’ to the tremendous claims which Christ had made. The fact of His Resurrection, indeed, would not declare His divinity; but the Resurrection of One who had spoken such words does. If the Cross and a nameless grave had been the end, what a reductio ad absurdum that would have been to the claims of Jesus to have ever been with the Father and to be doing always the things that pleased Him. The Resurrection is God’s last and loudest proclamation, Either Christ rose again from the dead, or His claims are a series of blasphemous arrogances and His character irremediably stained.
The Son of God, in an act of power which revealed His own power. He was declared to be ‘the Son of God with power’, the Son of God powerful enough to bring about the resurrection. And His true divine Sonship was therefore made known by His immensely powerful resurrection from the dead, a resurrection in which He proclaimed the death of death, having triumphed over it once for all (1 Cor 15:20-28 According to the spirit of holiness.’ This stands in apposition to ‘according to the flesh.’ In His flesh He was revealed as the son of David. In His spirit, a ‘spirit of holiness’, He was revealed as the only Son of God