The Hero Of The Gospel (Rom. 1:2-7)

Romans 1:2 NKJV

which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures,

Hero Of The Gospel

Romans 1:2-7

I. The Anatomy Of Our Hero (Rom. 1:2-4)

A. Jesus is the promised one

Verse 2:

the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. That is to say, although God revealed the gospel to the apostles, it did not come to them as a complete novelty, because he had already promised it through his prophets in Old Testament Scripture.

There is, in fact, an essential continuity between the Old Testament and the New.

Jesus himself was quite clear that the Scriptures bore witness to him, that he was the son of man of Daniel 7 and the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, and that, as it had been written, he had to suffer in order to enter into his glory.

In the Acts we hear Peter quoting the Old Testament in reference to Jesus’ resurrection, exaltation and gift of the Spirit.15

We also watch Paul reasoning with people out of the Scriptures that the Christ must suffer and rise, and that he was Jesus.

He similarly insisted that it was ‘according to the Scriptures’ that Christ both died for our sins and was raised on the third day.17

It was thus that both the law and the prophets bore witness to the gospel (3:21; cf. 1:17).

We have reason, then, to be thankful that the gospel of God has a double attestation, namely the prophets in the Old Testament and the apostles in the New. Both bear witness to Jesus Christ, and this is what Paul comes to next.1

1 John R. W. Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 48–49.

  This passage is indeed very important. It shows us how Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wants us to regard the Old Testament.

He clearly views the old and the new dispensation as belonging together. He regards (a) the Old Testament and (b) the good news of salvation as proclaimed by Jesus and his messengers, as being a unit.

Speaking by and large we can say that the Old Testament contains the promises; the New Testament shows how these promises had been, were being, and were going to be fulfilled.

When Paul says “his prophets” he has reference, of course, not only to such holy men of God as Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc., but also to Moses, Samuel, David, etc. To speak in language which even children can understand.

The New is in the Old concealed,

The Old is by the New revealed.

What Paul writes here is exactly what Jesus also proclaimed; and this not only in those well-known passages:

Luke 24:25–32, 44–48, to which reference is often made in this connection, but certainly also in Luke 4:21 (in the context 4:16–30),

“Today, in your very hearing, this passage of Scripture is being fulfilled,” and in Luke 22:37, “For I tell you, what has been written must be fulfilled in me: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors.’

The point to be emphasized here is that both Jesus (see John 10:35; 17:17) and Paul esteemed the Old Testament very highly. They deemed it to be sacred. When a person rejects the Old Testament, he is therefore also rejecting Jesus and Paul!1

1 William Hendriksen and Simon J. Kistemaker, Exposition of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, vol. 12–13, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1953–2001), 40–41.

B. Jesus is the Perfect one (Rom 1:3-4)

The gospel is “centered in God’s Son” (Goodspeed). In him are brought into focus all the hopes of God’s people in the Old Testament (v. 3).

God’s Son is the Father’s “game plan” for the reconciliation of lost humanity. God’s Son enters the scene of history by natural descent.

He belonged to the lineage of David.7 His human nature resulted from genuine participation in the human family. He was truly man. His blood line may be traced back to David.

The AV inserts the final clause from v. 4 at this point, “Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Translators apparently were anxious to assure readers that while Jesus as to his human nature came from David, he was at the same time “Jesus Christ our Lord.”1

1 Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 60–61.

the heart of the gospel is the Son of God as descended from David. Actually, there are two points in verse 3: his preexistence and his earthly existence.

His preexistence is seen in that the Son “came into being” (genomenou—niv, was) as a human. His earthly existence shows his royal messianic status. This is part of a movement from descendant of David (v. 3) to Son of God (v. 4).1

1 Grant R. Osborne, Romans, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 30.

He was genuinely human too, as His tie with David and His resurrection from the dead show.

That resurrection declared Him to be the Son of God because it validated His claims to deity and His predictions that He would rise from the dead (John 2:18–22; Matt. 16:21).

This declaration was made through (lit., “in accord with”) the Spirit of holiness. This is the Holy Spirit, and not, as some have suggested, Christ’s human spirit.1

1 John A. Witmer, “Romans,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 440.

“So the resurrection is the turning point in the existence of the Son of God.

Before that he was the Son of God in weakness and lowliness. Through the resurrection he becomes the Son of God in power” (italics his).

His sonship is now defined in terms of cosmic Lord with authority over heaven and earth (Mt 28:19).

So the idea of power is important to the message, and it prepares for verse 5, where the gospel to the Gentiles is inaugurated by the “Son-of-God-in-power.”

It is also connected with the later statement that the gospel is “the power of God for salvation” (1:16).1

1 Grant R. Osborne, Romans, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 31.

Notice the comparison between the 2 verses. What Christ “was made to be” and “declared to be”

Christ’s Humanity Christ’s Deity

“born” (3) “declared to be” (4)

“according to the flesh (3) “according to the Spirit” (4)

“seed of David” (3) “ Resurrection from the dead” (4)

“a child is born (Isa. 9:6) “ a Son is given (Isa. 9:6)

“born under the law” (Gal. 4:4) “ God sent forth His Son (Gal. 4:4)

This incredible passage tells us that the Gospel is all about Jesus—Messiah, Son of God and Lord of all creation.

To paraphrase J. B. Phillips’s famous book, we must say that for most Christians “your Jesus is too small.” We need to see Jesus not just as our friend and helper but also as God and Lord of all.1

1 Grant R. Osborne, Romans, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 32.

C. Jesus is the Powerful One (Rom. 1:4)

 Some commentators point out that ‘Spirit of holiness’ was a natural Hebraism for the Holy Spirit, and that there were obvious links between the Holy Spirit and the resurrection,

both because he is ‘the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead’ and—more important—because it was the risen and exalted Christ who demonstrated his power and authority by pouring out the Spirit,26 and who thus inaugurated the new era, which is the age of the Spirit.

It seems then that the two expressions ‘according to the flesh’ and ‘according to the Spirit’ refer not to the two natures of Jesus Christ (human and divine),

but to the two stages of his ministry, pre-resurrection and post-resurrection, the first frail and the second powerful through the outpoured Spirit.

So here is a balanced statement of both the humiliation and the exaltation, the weakness and the power of God’s Son, his human descent traced to David, his divine sonship-in-power established by the resurrection and gift of the Spirit.

Moreover, this unique person, seed of David and Son of God, weak and powerful, incarnate and exalted, is Jesus (a human, historical figure), Christ (the Messiah of Old Testament Scripture), our Lord, who owns and rules our lives.

II. The Authority of our Hero (Rom. 1:5)

Paul now moves from the content of the gospel, to the commission of the gospel “through Christ we receive grace and apostleship.”

While grace is the “kindness and love of God our Savior toward man” (Titus 3:4), the NT makes two statements about Paul that appear contradictory.

First, he was the “chief of sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15), yet he was also a “chosen vessel” for God (Acts 9:15-16).

Grace is the place where God’s unconditional love meets our human unworthiness. Paul had nothing by which to commend himself to God.

Rather, God poured out apostleship by grace upon him. Any authority he had as an apostle had come by grace from God and been validated by Paul’s own obedience.

It is only the gracious love of God that motivates us to be his ambassadors. We are not apostles, as Paul was, but we have a corresponding function.

We are God’s witnesses in this world, and, like Paul, we are to take the gospel to the nations. What will motivate us to do that and will actually keep us at it when the going gets hard?

There is only one thing: remembrance of the grace of God, which we have first received. Paul said this in 2 Corinthians:

“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.…

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:14–15, 18).1

1 James Montgomery Boice, Romans: Justification by Faith, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1991–), 59–60.

III. The Audience of our Hero (Rom. 1:6-7)

A. Their calling: Called to belong to Christ

This is a general description of Christians, which is different from the similar phrase “called to be saints” that occurs in the next verse. What does it mean?

As a result of God’s calling, Christians are attached to Jesus and have their true life in that relationship.

Before, as Paul writes in Ephesians 2:1–3, they were “dead in [their] transgressions and sins” and were “by nature objects of wrath.”

Now, as a result of God’s calling, they have been “made alive with Christ” and given “good works” to do (vv. 4, 9).

This is the essential definition of a Christian (a “Christ one”). A Christian is one who belongs to Jesus Christ.

This is what makes him or her different and why such a one inevitably seeks the company of others who also belong to Jesus. Nothing is more important than this in a believer’s life.

Does this describe you? Do you belong to Jesus Christ? If you do, you will live like it. If you do not, you are no true Christian, regardless of your outward profession.1

1 James Montgomery Boice, Romans: Justification by Faith, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1991–), 64–65.

B. Their Connection: Beloved by God

This love is an electing, saving love. So the statement “loved by God” actually describes how those who are Christians come to belong to the Lord Jesus Christ in the first place.

How indeed? Some think that people become believers by their own unaided choice, as if all we have to do is decide to trust Jesus. But how could we possibly do that if, as we have seen Paul say, each of us is “dead in … transgressions and sins”? How can a dead man decide anything?

Some have supposed that we become Christians because God in his omniscience sees some small bit of good in us, even if that “good” is only a tiny seed of faith.

But how could God see good in us if, as Paul will later remind us: “All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Rom. 3:12; cf. Ps. 14:3)?

Why, then, does God love us? The answer is “because he loves us.” There is just nothing to be said beyond that.

Do you remember how God put it in reference to Israel in the days of Moses?

“The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loved you …” (Deut. 7:7–8).

The only explanation of why the Lord loved them was that he loved them. It is love and love only.1

1 James Montgomery Boice, Romans: Justification by Faith, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1991–), 65.

C. Their Commission: Called Saints

Here “saint” does not mean what it has come to mean in large sectors of the Christian church: one who has attained a certain level of holiness and is therefore worthy of some special veneration or even hearing human prayers.

In the Bible, being a saint or being sanctified always means being separated to God and his work, precisely what Paul said of himself in verse 1 in the words “set apart for the gospel of God.”

Having been loved by God and called by him, the Christians at Rome, like all Christians, were then also set apart to him, to live for him and work for him in this world.

This is why the faith of the Roman Christians was “being reported all over the world,” as Paul says it was in verse 8.

Because they had been called by God and were separated to him, these believers were different from the culture around them. And people noticed it!

They were saints because they were called, and they were called because they were beloved of God.1

1 James Montgomery Boice, Romans: Justification by Faith, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1991–), 67.

Practical Lessons for us

I. Be caught up in the person of Christ

In these first few verses of Romans, Paul demonstrates that his heart has been captured by Jesus. He mentions him by name 5 times in the first 7 verses (1,3,4,6,7).

II. Be committed to God’s people

Paul’s words to describe believers show that the gospel is about God’s commitment to his people:

bondslaves, called, beloved, saints.

III. Be concerned about holiness

Paul talks about the Holy Scriptures, the Spirit of holiness in Jesus, and the saints or holy ones of God. Paul knows that holiness is fundamental to the Christian experience.

IV. Be Compelled by the Great Commission

Paul can’t go many verses without mentioning that the gospel is for “all nations” (5). Paul was a sent one.

V. Be captivated by God’s grace

Paul receives grace in verse 5 and by verse 7 he is already extending it to others. Are we doing the same?