Romans 1: 3 - 7
Jesus:
The Man
1)
In Roman 1:3 Paul establishes the Messiah (who was promised beforehand and later find out
is Jesus Christ) was descended from the seed of David according to the flesh.
2)
What does this
mean? The Messiah would in fact be a
human being. Through the lineage of King
David the Messiah would come and this was promised by God throughout the
O.T. Below are a few prophecies found in
the O.T. concerning the Messiah
a) 2 Samuel 7:12 –
17 (God promises the Messiah would come through David’s lineage.)
b) Isaiah 11:1 – 5
(One of the most well known prophecies concerning the Messiah coming through
the line of David).
c) Jeremiah 23: 5
– 6 (God promises the chosen one will come from the lineage of David).
3)
In Douglas
Moo’s commentary on Romans he writes, “According to the flesh denotes being or
living according to the merely human.”
He continues, “The phrase here, then, while obviously far toward the
neutral end of the spectrum, also suggests that we have not arrived at the full
understanding of Jesus if we look at him from the standpoint of ‘the flesh’”[1]
4)
What Moo is
essentially saying is that it is important for us to know the Messiah
(Jesus) was a human, but his human(ness) did not merely qualify him to be Messiah it is only a part
of the equation.
5)
The Messiah was
to be a human but he was also to be of divine origin.
6)
So “According
to the flesh” establishes first off that he was a descendant of David. A human being. This is one of the attributes of the Messiah.
Jesus:
The Divine
1)
Not only was
Jesus the descendant of David but he is also the Son of God.
2)
He was
“declared” the Son of God in the “power of the Holy Spirit”.
3)
The word
“declared” means appointed, ordained, decree – a divine oracle.
4)
Jesus was
appointed the Son of God according to the Spirit and according to his
resurrection.
5)
Being appointed
does not mean the resurrection is what made him the Son of God. According to Charles Hodge, “Christ was not predestined
to be the Son of God. He was such from
eternity.” [2]
6)
In other words Jesus did not become the Son of God after he rose from the dead, he has alwats been the Son of God from eternity past, remains the son of God in the present
and continues as the Son of God in the future.
7)
I think what
the text implies is that Jesus was publicly
declared the Son of God through the resurrection. We now can accept, acknowledge and draw near
to God as a result of the resurrection of Christ.
8)
The death of
Christ is imperative to our Christian faith however we cannot stop at his
death. The story does not end there it
continues with the resurrection.
9)
Without the
resurrection the plan of salvation is not complete.
10) The Spirit
publicly declares Jesus divine but scripture tells us that he has always been
divine.
11) Jesus thus, is also divine in nature or to be more
specific is equal to God according to scripture.
a)
John 5:17 – 31
(Jesus calls God his Father and also claims equality to God.)
b)
According to John
5:17 - 31 Jesus…
1.
Does as the
Father does
2.
Does all in the
Father’s accord
3.
Knows what to
do because the Father shows him.
4.
Gives life
5.
Does nothing on
His own
6.
Judges
c)
John 10:30 – I
and the Father are one
d)
There are
numerous more scriptures that point to the divinity of Jesus Christ. I would encourage you to get a concordance
and do a study on all the times Jesus made an “I am” statement and this should
help you better understand his divinity.
12) Not only does the resurrection from the dead declare
him the Son of God but also the Spirit of holiness.
13) The Spirit’s characteristic is holiness
14) The Spirit proclaims Jesus’ sonship.
15) The Spirit
proclaims He is the Son of God and the resurrection validates all he taught and
said.
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