The Whole of History - Part II

Romans 1:3, 4

We’ve seen that God plucked Paul out of his own rebellion to appoint him to be a deliverer of God’s good news – even to us!

In these verses we begin to see the contents of that good news: The gospel is “concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord…”

First we see that the Gospel is about the Son of God – Jesus. The good news is good because of Jesus, who has a unique relationship with the Father: he is THE Son of God. Isn’t it easy to lose focus on Jesus? Even in spiritual things? Think about your own spiritual life. Do you sometimes forget him? When you sing, do you always remember Jesus? When you read? When you talk about spiritual things with other Christians?

But to forget Christ is certainly not Christian. This good news is about him, after all!

This Jesus was the Son of God – but he was also the son of David. He was a human, born into the world. And more – born into David’s kingly line. That’s important, because if you look at 2 Samuel chapter 7, you’ll see that God promised David that his kingly line would last forever. And David’s kingdom was characterized by peace, prosperity, and the pursuit of obedience to God!

But it was not perfect. It was certainly better than the political and natural strife that existed in the day, but it was just a little taste of something good.

Jesus is descended from David. He was born – a real human – into a broken world - with a promise that his Kingdom would last forever...

But what’s this ‘according to the flesh’ thing mean? And what does it mean that Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection”?

Consider Isaiah 31:3 - The Egyptians are man, and not God,
and their horses are flesh, and not spirit.
When the LORD stretches out his hand,
the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall,
and they will all perish together.

And consider the Lord’s own words in John 3:6 and 6:63 - "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."

And

"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life."

And Romans 8:9 says this: "You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him."

There are countless verses about the flesh-Spirit contrast. But the key is this: The “Flesh” is the old world. It’s unsaved, unredeemed, and bears the curse of sin. It’s controlled by it.

THAT’S the world the Son of God was physically born into as the heir to David’s throne.

It’s good news that Jesus, very God(!), entered our evil, suffering world. But he didn’t just do that. He died and rose again in the ‘Spirit of holiness.’ Well, the Spirit in this whole contrast is the new world. It’s the world in which Jesus bears authority – or ‘power’ in this verse. It’s the world in which he’s acting as Lord. (The Holy Spirit - very God - came and marked out the beginning of this new world 2,000 years ago!)

And what does Jesus do with his authority? “the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” (Mark 2:10)

Jesus, by rising from the dead, became King of a new world in the midst of an old world controlled by death. He is the acquitter of our many rebellions and the giver of eternal life. And if we’ve believed, he is indeed our Lord; he has given us entry into his new world.

Sometimes life sucks, doesn’t it? We’re still in this old world. But Jesus entered into it, and he began a new world by rising from the dead – a new world where he is King, forgiver of sins, and granter of eternal life with him.

Praise Him!