Charles E. Whisnant, Manuscript from Romans 1 on 10 04 09

1. Charles E. Whisnant, Pastor/Teacher 2009 Romans 1:4 “AND DECLARED TO BE THE SON OF GOD WITH POWER, ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT OF HOLIESS, BY THE RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD.” Kjv It was at the time that He became a human being, Paul says, that Jesus was declared the Son of God. Though the plan was eternal, the title Son is reserved as an incarnational term, applied to Jesus in its fullness only after He put on the robe of humanity. Last week we talked about this matter of God the Son or / and Son of God. We could spend a few weeks on this topic. Here is where theology comes in to view. “Theology is To take God as source and end of all that exists and happens, and to hold such a view immersed with warmth of genuine devotion, stands not only related to theology as the fruit stands to the tree: it is by reason of its essence a genuine theological tree of life.
(The Pauline Eschatology, p. 61) Geerhardus Vos 1862-1949 WHAT IS THEOLOGY? Biblical theology thinks about the revelation of God in Scripture as it unfolds or develops through history. Revelation possesses a genetic linkage as it progresses through history. Perhaps a few illustrations will help. The first revelation of the new order of salvation for fallen man is contained in Genesis 3:15 (the so-called protevangelium or
first gospel
). Adam and Eve are told that a human being will bring about a reversal of Satan’s apparent victory over fallen man. As the Scriptures unfold from Genesis to the Gospels, we learn that this man-child will be a Hebrew (from the seed of Abraham), a Judahite (of the tribe of Judah) and a Davidide (son of David). Thus the unfolding picture of the coming deliverer becomes more specific as we approach the incarnation. Our preaching is Theocentric because what we read in Scripture is God disclosing himself. We must remind our people that they meet God in the preaching moment. God himself has broken into the fallen world and in Scripture he initiates revelation of his very own being, his very own character, his very own transcendent arena. If our preaching is dominated by
self-help
and
how-to
and endless anecdotes, it is because we have forgotten the theocentric character of the Word of God. Preaching which does any less is bankrupt. For anything less than an exaltation of God in his glory, or the Son of God in his mercy, or the Spirit of God in his heavenly motions–anything less is the promotion of the earthly agenda of the preacher. Well, anyway, Paul is giving us a glance at the gospel that was foretold from Genesis 3:15 onward. What we are learning in these first verses of Romans, This Gospel of God is the good news that Jesus Christ is Lord that Paul is speaking about has seven fundamentals that are part of his statement here in Romans 1:1-7. The Preacher, is Paul. Paul is used by God as the human means to transport the Gospel. The Promise we see in the O.T. of the goodness of God . The Person who will bring salvation is Jesus Christ the Lord. The Provision that comes with the good news is Christ’s riches. And we see the result of those who love the Son. Then the Proclamation, if you love the Son, you will tell others about the Son. And we will see three Privilege believers have as a result of the good news and the Purpose of the Good News of salvation But today I want to look in to Romans 1:4. Let us look at this verse again. “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” Those who receive the message set forth in these verses, those who will love the Lord Jesus with all their heart, soul, spirit, and mind will receive the riches of God. We who love the Lord will inherit all the riches of the Father . The wealth of God’s riches to the believers are beyond imagination. HERE ARE BUT A FEW THINGS WE WILL RECEIVE NOW IN THIS LIFE: A faithfulness that will not be removed. A life that will never end. A spring of water that will continue to bubble up within us A gift that will never be lost. A hand out of which the resource will never end. A chain that will never be broken. A love which we can never be separated. A calling that will never be provoked. A foundation that will never be destroyed. An inheritance that will never fade away. (Note the outline for today - give the meaning of the phrases. Charles you can do this. Vs 3 “Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh, vs 4 and declared to be the Son of God with power. While there are two views on this matter of the Son of God or God’s Son, I will give you my view. While I believe in eternity past, God the Son has always been, here is what I believe. (I think.) He was the Son of God in the sense of oneness of essence and in the role of devoted, loving submission to the Father in His self-emptying incarnation. There is, of course, no question that He is eternally God and eternally the second Person of the God-head. But Paul says He was declared God's Son when He was supernaturally conceived in Mary and was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh. Thus could say, then, that Christ was the Son of God from eternity in expectation and was declared God's Son in fulfillment at the incarnation and forever. Horizo (declared) carries the basic idea of marking off boundaries. From that term comes our English horizon, which refers to the demarcation line between the earth and the sky. In an infinitely greater way, the divine Sonship of Jesus Christ was marked off with absolute clarity in His incarnation. Quoting Psalms 2:7, the writer of Hebrews explains that in that text God was declaring to Christ, the Messiah, “Thou art My Son, today I have begotten Thee.” In the succeeding passage from 2 Samuel 7:14, the Father goes on to say of Christ, “I will be a Father to Him, and He shall be a Son to Me” (Hebrews 1:5). Both verbs in the last quotation are future tense, indicating that, sometime after the psalmist's time, Christ one day would assume a title and role He had not had before. In the sense of the role He was going to take as Saviour. Psalms 2:7 is also quoted by the apostle Paul in Acts 13:33. This passage points to the resurrection as the announcement of that Sonship. This is not a contradiction. From God's viewpoint He was begotten as Son when He came into the world. The reality of that oneness with God and the perfection of His service to God was publicly declared to the world by the fact that God raised Him from the dead! Christ was given and took upon Himself the fullness of the title of Son of God when He took away some of the status or power of Himself of the independent use of His divine priviledge or rights and the full expression of His majesty, graciously humbling Himself and becoming fully subservient to the will and plan of the Father. Now to what roll the Son has in eternity either way, back or forward is where some have other thoughts. In this message its not necessary to fully understand the mystery. In his letter to the church at Philippi, Paul explains that, “Christ Jesus,…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,…being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:5-8). In His high priestly prayer Jesus said to the Father, “Glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee,” and a few moments later implored, “Glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:1, 5). Christ has existed from all eternity. “He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:2-3). But in accord with the divine plan of redemption, which He Himself planned with the Father and the Holy Spirit, Christ “became flesh, and dwelt among us”. He still possessed some of His divine glory, the “glory as of the only begotten from the Father”, but the glory He retained was a glory veiled in human flesh that could not be observed with human eyes. As Paul goes on to explain, the most conclusive and irrefutable evidence of Jesus' divine sonship was given with power by the resurrection from the dead (cf. Acts 13:29-33). By that supreme demonstration of His ability to conquer death, a power belonging only to God Himself (the Giver of life), He established beyond all doubt that He was indeed God, the Son. According to the spirit of holiness is another way of saying “according to the nature and work of the Holy Spirit.” It was the Holy Spirit working in Christ who accomplished Jesus' resurrection and every other miracle performed by Him or associated with Him. In the incarnation, Jesus Christ was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of holiness. John Piper says: But why does Paul use this unusual expression,
Spirit of holiness
(found nowhere else in the New Testament)? Here's my suggestion. Dealing with the dead was dirty business. When King Saul wanted to commune with the dead he went to the Witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28:7ff), and it was a secretive and illicit business. Mediums and diviners and sorcerers were an abomination in Israel. When the dead are dead, you leave them alone and don't have dealings with them. Seances were and are unlawful for believers. Dealing with the dead has been a kind of black magic, not a beautiful, clean, holy thing. Anything but. Talk of an executed dead man being raised from the dead must have sounded to many ears absolutely horrible and gross and dirty and unclean, like dark sorcery and black magic. Over against this Paul lays stress on the exact opposite: Christ was raised from the dead in accord with the Spirit of holiness, not a dark spirit or an evil spirit or a defiled spirit, but the very Spirit of God himself who is marked above all by holiness. He was not defiled in raising Jesus. It was a holy thing to do. It was right and good and clean and beautiful and God- honoring, not God-belittling. It was holy. What do you think of that? Right away after Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist, “the heavens were opened, and he [John the Baptist] saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, ‘This is My beloved son, in whom I am well-pleased’” (Matthew 3:16-17). All members of the Trinity were eternally equal in every way, but as mentioned above, in the incarnation the Second Person of the Trinity willingly separate from Himself of the expression of the fullness of divine glory and the privilege of deity. During His humanity on earth He willingly submitted to the will of the Father (cf John 5:30) and to the power of the Spirit. The fall of the Holy Spirit upon Him at His baptism was Jesus' initiation into ministry a ministry totally controlled and empowered by the Spirit, so much so that Jesus characterized willful rejection of Him as blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:24-32). At this juncture, then, is the Person of the good news. He is fully man (a descendant of David) and fully God (declared to be the Son of God). All the way through His ministry, both Jesus' humanness and His divinity were portrayed. When asked to pay taxes, Jesus complied. He explained to Peter that, as God's Son and the rightful ruler of the universe, including the Roman Empire, He was rightfully exempt from taxation. “But lest we give them [the tax collectors] offense,” He went on to say, “go to the sea, and throw in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a COIN. Take that and give it to them for you and Me” (Matthew 17:37). In His humanness He willingly paid taxes, but in His divinity He provided the payment supernaturally. As He hung on the cross, Jesus was bleeding and in severe agony because of His humanness. Yet at the same time, in His divinity He was able to grant eternal life to the repentant thief who hung nearby (Luke 23:42-43). JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD Charles note your outline This Son of God and Son of Man who was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit was Jesus Christ our Lord, Paul declares. Jesus means Savior, Christ means Anointed One, and Lord means sovereign ruler. He is Jesus because He saves His people from their sin. He is Christ because He has been anointed by God as King and Priest. He is Lord because He is God and is the sovereign ruler of the universe. That touching story illustrates God's provision for fallen mankind. Anyone who loves and receives His Son, Jesus Christ, will inherit the heavenly Father's estate, as it were. The good news of God is that everyone who receives His Son by faith is blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Eph 1:3). That is why Paul could exult, “You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Corin 8:9). Quoting Isaiah, the apostle declared that the Christian's riches include “things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corin 2:9 cf Isa 64:4, 65:17). In Christ, the believer has riches beyond any imagination. The Christian has life that will never end (John 3:16), a spring of spiritual water that will never dry up (John 4:14), a gift that will never be lost (John 6:37,39), a love from which he can never be separated (Rom 8:39), a calling that will never be revoked (Romans 11:29), a foundation that will never be destroyed (2 Tim), and an inheritance that will never diminish (1 Peter 1:4-5). Reference Notes: I always start with John MacArthur, other technique books, LKGNT, Greek Word Study.