Sermon Tone Analysis

Tuesday May 15, 2007

Romans: Romans 1:3-4-The Subject of the Epistle, Jesus Christ

Lesson # 8

Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 1:1.

Last Thursday, we began a study of Romans and in particular the salutation that appears in Romans 1:1-7, which identifies the writer as Paul (verse 1) and the recipients of the letter as being believers in Rome (verses 6 and 7) and the subject as being Jesus Christ (verse 1:2-5).

On Thursday, we studied Romans 1:1 in which Paul identifies himself to his readers by giving a three-fold description of himself.

Then, on Sunday morning we studied Romans 1:2, in which Paul further defines the gospel that he proclaimed as the fulfillment of prophetic expectation in the Old Testament.

This evening we will note Romans 1:3-4, which identifies to Paul’s readers the subject of the epistle, who is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 1:1-3, “Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh.”

In Romans 1:3, the apostle Paul further defines the gospel of God, which he first mentioned in Romans 1:1 and identifies that the content of the gospel concerns the Lord Jesus Christ and so the gospel centers upon His unique Person.

The phrase “His (God’s) Son” emphasizes the deity of our Lord whereas the phrase “who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh” emphasizes the human nature of Jesus Christ, which descended from King David.

Together, these two phrases express the uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the God-Man, which theologians define as the “hypostatic union” of Jesus Christ.

“Who was born” is the verb ginomai (givnomai), which means, “to enter into a new condition or state, to become something you weren’t before,” thus the word is used of God the Son entering into the human condition through the virgin birth.

This entrance into the human race refers to the “incarnation” of the Son of God, which in the context of Christian theology refers to the fact that the eternal Son of God became a man two thousand years ago in Bethlehem.

The virgin birth or virgin pregnancy was “the means” by which God accomplished the incarnation of the Son of God.

The incarnation produced the “hypostatic union,” which is a technical theological term describing the fact that Jesus Christ is undiminished deity and true sinless humanity in one Person forever or in other words, He is 100% deity and 100% perfect sinless humanity.

The term “hypostatic” comes from the Greek word hupostasis, which refers to the “nature of something” and so therefore, the “hypostatic union” teaches that the divine nature of Lord and His human nature are permanently united (See Romans 8:3; Colossians 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 2:14-15; 1 John 1:1-3).

John 1:14, “And the Word (Son of God) became flesh (a Man), and dwelt (“tabernacled, pitched His tent”) among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only uniquely born One from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

The phrase “a descendant of David according to the flesh” is a reference to the fact that Jesus Christ in His human nature descended from David.

“According to” is the preposition kata (katav), which in context denotes the relationship between the human nature of Christ to His unique Person and means, “with respect to.”

Therefore, the expression “a descendant of David according to the flesh” could be translated “a descendant of David with respect to his human nature.”

Revelation 22:16, “I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.”

This is why He is identified in the Gospels as the “the Son of David” (Matt.

1:1; 20:30; Mark 10:47-48; Luke 1:32; 2 Tim.

2:8; Rev. 3:7; 5:5; 22:16), which is a royal title referring to the fact that He is the Ruler of Israel (Matt.

1:1; 20:30; Mark 10:47-48; Luke 1:32; 2 Tim.

2:8; Rev. 3:7; 5:5; 22:16).

The expression “a descendant of David according to the flesh” also is a reference to the “Davidic” covenant, which deals with the dynasty that will rule the nation of Israel and refers to God’s promise to David that a descendant of his would sit on his throne forever, which will be literally fulfilled by Jesus Christ during His millennial reign.

(See 2 Samuel 7:16; Psalm 89:34-37).

During our Lord’s First Advent it is important to understand how the human and divine nature of Christ functioned in relation to each other and the Father’s plan for His life.

The Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily denied Himself of the independent function of His divine attributes in order to execute the Father’s plan of salvation, which is called in theology, the “kenosis” of Christ.

Philippians 2:5-8, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

“He existed in the form of God” means that Jesus Christ has a divine nature and is therefore equal to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, which is denoted by the phrase “equality with God.”

“Emptied” is the verb kenoo (kenovw), which does “not” mean that our Lord emptied Himself of His deity since Paul says that the expression of His deity was a fact after His incarnation, implying that our Lord has a divine nature.

Rather, the verb kenoo means that our Lord voluntary “denied Himself of the independent function of His divine attributes” in order to execute the Father’s will (See Matthew 4:1-11).

Corrected translation of Philippians 2:5-8: “Everyone continue thinking this (according to humility) within yourselves, which was also in (the mind of) Christ Jesus, Who although existing from eternity past in the essence of God, He never regarded existing equally in essence with God an exploitable asset.

On the contrary, He denied Himself of the independent function of His divine attributes by having assumed the essence of a servant when He was born in the likeness of men.

In fact, although He was discovered in outward appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by having entered into obedience to the point of spiritual death even death on a Cross.”

Romans 1:4, “who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Corrected translation of Romans 1:4: “The One demonstrated as the Son of God by means of divine power with respect to a nature characterized by holiness because of the resurrection from the dead ones, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

“Who was declared” is the definite article tou (tou~) and the masculine singular aorist passive participle form of the verb horizo (o(rivzw), which means, “to set forth distinctly, to demonstrate, to make evident.”

Marvin Vincent commenting on this word, writes, “As respected His divine essence, He was declared.

The idea is that of Christ's "instatement or establishment" in the rank and dignity of His divine sonship with a view to the conviction of men.

This was required by His previous humiliation, and was accomplished by His resurrection, which not only ‘manifested or demonstrated’ what He was, but wrought a real transformation in His mode of being.

(Vincent’s Word Studies of the New Testament, Electronic Database.

Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)

Therefore, the resurrection “demonstrated” that Jesus of Nazareth was who He claimed to be all along, namely the eternal Son of God.

The verb horizo implies the preexistence of Jesus Christ and expresses the fact that Jesus was unique among men in that His birth did not mark His origin, but only His appearance as a man on the stage of time.

John 1:1, “In eternity past the Word has always existed and the Word has always existed face to face with the God (the Father) and the Word has always existed as God.”

The Lord Jesus Christ did not become God’s Son at the incarnation or when He rose from the dead but rather the resurrection demonstrated that He was the eternal Son of God who has no beginning.

The phrase “the Son of God” refers to the fact that Jesus Christ is the second member of the Trinity and is co-equal, co-infinite and co-eternal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit and denotes that inherent in Him are all the attributes that composed the character and nature of both the Father and the Spirit.

“With” is the preposition en (e)n), which functions as a marker of means indicating that the omnipotence of God was “the means by which” Jesus Christ was demonstrated to be the Son of God.

“Power” is the noun dunamis (duvnami$), which refers to the exertion of the inherent power in all three members of the Trinity called “omnipotence.”

The omnipotence of all three members of the Trinity was exercised at the resurrection of Jesus Christ since the human nature of our Lord was trichotomous meaning He had a body, soul and spirit and thus His physical death was unique as well because of this: (1) His physical body went to the grave (Luke 23:50-53).

(2) His human spirit went to heaven (Luke 23:46; John 19:30).

(3) His human soul went into Paradise a compartment of Hades (Luke 23:43; Acts 2:27; 2:31; Eph.

4:9).

The Lord was brought back from the dead by three categories of divine omnipotence: (1) Omnipotence of God the Father sent back our Lord’s human spirit to the body in the grave (Acts 2:24; Rom.

6:4; Eph.

1:20; Col. 2:12; 1 Thess.

1:10; 1 Pet.

1:21).

(2) Omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit sent back our Lord’s human soul to the body in the grave (Rom.

8:11; 1 Pet.

3:18).

(3) Omnipotence of God the Son raised His physical body from the grave (John 2:20; 6:39-40, 54 10:17-18).

The phrase “according to the Spirit of holiness” is composed of the preposition kata (kataV), “according to” and the noun pneuma (pneu~ma), “Spirit” and the noun hagiosune (a(giwsuvnh), “holiness.”

The phrase “according to the Spirit of holiness” does “not” refer to the Holy Spirit since if Paul meant the third member of the Trinity, he could have simply used the genitive expression pneumatos hagiou (pneuvmato$ a(givou), “Holy Spirit,” which he employs in Romans 5:5, 9:1, 14:17, 15:13, 16.

Or, he simply could have just used the noun pneuma, “Spirit” to refer to the Holy Spirit, which he uses in Romans 8:1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 23, 26, 27, 15:19, 30.

In Romans 1:4, the expression kata pneuma hagiosunes, “according to the spirit of holiness” parallels the expression kata sarka in Romans 1:3, “according to the flesh,” which refers to the human nature of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, the noun pneuma refers to the “divine nature” of Jesus Christ in contrast with His impeccable human nature.

The Lord Jesus Christ speaking to the woman at the well declared to her that concerning the nature of God, He is spirit (Jn.

4:24).

John 4:23-27, “But an hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers, will worship the Father spiritually, yes, by means of truth.

In fact, the Father intensely desires such worshippers of Himself.

God, as to His nature, is spirit and those worshipping Him must worship spiritually, yes, by means of truth.’

Paul describes the pneuma, “divine nature” of Jesus Christ with the noun hagiosune, which means, “holiness.”

Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines “holiness” as “the quality or state of being holy; sanctity” and they define “sanctity” as, “sacred or hallowed character.”

One of the definitions that Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary gives for the adjective “holy” is, “entitled to worship or profound religious reverence because of divine character or origin or connection with God or divinity.”

One of the definitions for the noun “character” that Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary provides that applies to the context of our passage is the following: “the aggregate of features and traits that form the apparent individual nature of some person or thing.”

If we paraphrase these definitions, we would say that the term hagiosune, “holiness” emphasizes “the aggregate (i.e.

sum total) of perfect features and traits that form the divine nature of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Therefore, the term hagiosune, “holiness” refers to the absolute perfection of the character of the Son of God, expressing His purity of His character or moral perfection and excellence.

Thus making Him totally separate from sin and sinners and this refers to His “impeccability,” which is the state or condition of being free from fault or blame, to be flawless.

The Lord Jesus Christ was impeccable because as God, He is “not able to sin” since it is impossible for deity to sin since sin is contrary to His character and nature (James 1:13).

In relation to His human nature, Jesus Christ was impeccable because He did not have a human father to pass down the sin nature (See Romans 5:12-19) and He was “able not to sin” because He always obeyed the Father’s will and which obedience was motivated by His love for the Father.

1 John 3:5, “And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.”

The noun hagiosune, “holiness” is the object of the preposition kata (katav), “according to,” which in context denotes the relationship between the divine nature of Christ to His unique Person and means, “with respect to.”

The noun hagiosune, “holiness” is a “genitive of description” describing the noun pneuma, “spirit,” thus the expression pneuma hagiosune, “according to the spirit of holiness” should be translated “with respect to a nature characterized by holiness.”

The phrase “resurrection from the dead” should be translated “because of the resurrection out from the dead ones” since the expression is composed of the preposition ek (e)k), “because of” and the noun anastasis (a)navstasi$), “resurrection” and the plural form of the noun nekros (nekrov$), “dead ones.”

The preposition ek is a marker of cause or reason indicating that Jesus Christ was demonstrated to be the Son of God “because of” His resurrection from the dead.

He was “not” the Son of God because of the resurrection but rather the resurrection demonstrated who He claimed to be all along, namely, the Son of God.

The plural form of the noun nekros, “dead ones’ refers to members of the human race who have died physically.

The expression “the resurrection out from the dead ones” implies that Jesus Christ is different from members of the human race in that He is the first one to be raised from the dead (See 1 Corinthians 15:20-23; Colossians 1:18).

The foundation of Christianity is built upon the resurrection of Christ since the integrity of our Lord is at issue and as attested by many witnesses He did rise from the dead as He said He would (Acts 1:22; 4:2, 33; 17:18; 23:6; 1 Cor.

15:14).

The Lord Jesus predicted several times that He would rise from the dead on the 3rd day in fulfillment of the Scriptures (Matt.

16:21; 17:9, 23; 20:19; 26:32; 27:63f.

28:6f; Mark 14:28; Luke 9:22; Mark 8:31; 9:9, 31; 10:34; Luke 18:33; 24:7, 46) and openly declared that He was the resurrection (See John 11:25-26).

C.S. Lewis wrote, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.

He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell.

You must make your choice.

Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.”

(Mere Christianity, page 41; New York: Macmillan)