concerning his Son, who was born of the offspring of David according to the flesh,
Parallel Translations
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concerning his Son, who was born of the offspring of David according to the flesh,
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that make mension of his sonne the which was begotte of the seed of David as pertayninge to the flesshe:
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Concerning his Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord (which was made of the seede of Dauid according to the flesh,
Examined in Scripture Analysis
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Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (62)
Passages linked to Romans 1:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Galatians 4:4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law,
- Matthew 1:1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
- Jeremiah 23:5-6 “Behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and he will reign as king and deal wisely, and will execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely. This is his name by which he will be called: Yahweh our righteousness.
- John 1:14 The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
- Luke 1:31-33 Behold, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son, and shall name him ‘Jesus.’ He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. There will be no end to his Kingdom.”
- Matthew 1:20-23 But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She shall give birth to a son. You shall name him Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.” Now all this has happened that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall give birth to a son. They shall call his name Immanuel;” which is, being interpreted, “God with us.”
- Isaiah 9:6-7 For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on David’s throne, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.
- Amos 9:11 In that day I will raise up the tent of David who is fallen, and close up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old;
- Genesis 3:15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”
- Psalms 2:7 I will tell of the decree: Yahweh said to me, “You are my son. Today I have become your father.
- John 1:49 Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are King of Israel!”
- 1 John 4:9-10 By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
- Psalms 89:36-37 His offspring will endure forever, his throne like the sun before me. It will be established forever like the moon, the faithful witness in the sky.”
- Luke 1:35 The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God.
- Jeremiah 33:15-17 “In those days and at that time, I will cause a Branch of righteousness to grow up to David. He will execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell safely. This is the name by which she will be called: Yahweh our righteousness.” For Yahweh says: “David will never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel.
- Jeremiah 33:26 then I will also cast away the offspring of Jacob, and of David my servant, so that I will not take of his offspring to be rulers over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to be reversed and will have mercy on them.”
- Matthew 1:16 Jacob became the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, from whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
- John 10:30 I and the Father are one.”
- John 20:28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
- Romans 9:5 of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.
- 1 Thessalonians 1:10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead: Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
- 1 Corinthians 1:9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
- 2 Timothy 2:8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of the offspring of David, according to my Good News,
- Matthew 1:6 Jesse became the father of King David. David became the father of Solomon by her who had been Uriah’s wife.
- Matthew 3:17 Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
- Matthew 9:27 As Jesus passed by from there, two blind men followed him, calling out and saying, “Have mercy on us, son of David!”
- Matthew 12:23 All the multitudes were amazed, and said, “Can this be the son of David?”
- Matthew 15:22 Behold, a Canaanite woman came out from those borders, and cried, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, you son of David! My daughter is severely possessed by a demon!”
- Matthew 22:42-45 saying, “What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “Of David.” He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?’ “If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”
- Matthew 26:63 But Jesus held his peace. The high priest answered him, “I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God.”
- Matthew 27:43 He trusts in God. Let God deliver him now, if he wants him; for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ”
- Luke 1:69 and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David
- Luke 2:4-6 Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to David’s city, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David; to enroll himself with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him as wife, being pregnant. While they were there, the day had come for her to give birth.
- John 5:25 Most certainly I tell you, the hour comes, and now is, when the dead will hear the Son of God’s voice; and those who hear will live.
- John 10:36 do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God?’
- John 20:31 but these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
- Acts 2:30 Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne,
- 2 Samuel 7:12-16 When your days are fulfilled, and you sleep with your fathers, I will set up your offspring after you, who will proceed out of your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men; but my loving kindness will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you. Your house and your kingdom will be made sure forever before you. Your throne will be established forever.” ’ ”
- John 1:34 I have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
- John 3:16-18 For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
- John 3:35-36 The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand. One who believes in the Son has eternal life, but one who disobeys the Son won’t see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”
- John 7:42 Hasn’t the Scripture said that the Christ comes of the offspring of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?”
- Acts 3:13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up, and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had determined to release him.
- Acts 8:36 As they went on the way, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Behold, here is water. What is keeping me from being baptized?”
- Acts 9:20 Immediately in the synagogues he proclaimed the Christ, that he is the Son of God.
- Acts 13:22-23 When he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, to whom he also testified, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will.’ From this man’s offspring, God has brought salvation to Israel according to his promise,
- Romans 1:9 For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the Good News of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers,
- Romans 8:2-3 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh;
- Romans 8:29-32 For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified. What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?
- Colossians 1:13-15 who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
- 1 Timothy 3:16 Without controversy, the mystery of godliness is great: God was revealed in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, and received up in glory.
- 1 John 1:3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us. Yes, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
- 1 John 3:8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed: that he might destroy the works of the devil.
- 1 John 3:23 This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he commanded.
- 1 John 4:2-3 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit who doesn’t confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God, and this is the spirit of the Antichrist, of whom you have heard that it comes. Now it is in the world already.
- 1 John 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him, and he in God.
- 1 John 5:1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Whoever loves the Father also loves the child who is born of him.
- 1 John 5:5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
- 1 John 5:10-13 He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. He who doesn’t believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. The testimony is this, that God gave to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has the life. He who doesn’t have God’s Son doesn’t have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
- 1 John 5:20 We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding, that we know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
- 2 John 1:7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who don’t confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist.
- Revelation 2:18 “To the angel of the assembly in Thyatira write: “The Son of God, who has his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like burnished brass, says these things:
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (22 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 3. Concerning his own Son, etc. — This is…
3. Concerning his own Son, etc. — This is a remarkable passage, by which we are taught that the whole gospel is included in Christ, so that if any removes one step from Christ, he withdraws himself from the gospel. For since he is the living and express image of the Father, it is no wonder, that he alone is set before us as one to whom our whole faith is to be directed and in whom it is to center. It is then a definition of the gospel, by which Paul expresses what is summarily comprehended in it. I have rendered the words which follow, Jesus Christ our Lord, in the same case; which seems to me to be most agreeable with the context. We hence learn, that he who has made a due proficiency in the knowledge of Christ, has acquired every thing which can be learned from the gospel; and, on the other hand, that they who seek to be wise without Christ, are not only foolish, but even completely insane.
Who was made, etc. — Two things must be found in Christ, in order that we may obtain salvation in him, even divinity and humanity. His divinity possesses power, righteousness, life, which by his humanity are conveyed to us. Hence the Apostle has expressly mentioned both in the Summary he gives of the gospel, that Christ was manifested in the flesh — and that in it he declared himself to be the Son of God. So John says; after having declared that the Word was made flesh, he adds, that in that flesh there was a glory as of the only-begotten Son of God. (John 1:14.) That he specially notices the descent and lineage of Christ from his ancestor David, is not superfluous; for by this he calls back our attention to the promise, that we may not doubt but that he is the very person who had been formerly promised. So well known was the promise made to David, that it appears to have been a common thing among the Jews to call the Messiah the Son of David. This then — that Christ did spring from David — was said for the purpose of confirming our faith.
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He adds, according to the flesh; and he adds this, that we may understand that he had something more excellent than flesh, which he brought from heaven, and did not take from David, even that which he afterwards mentions, the glory of the divine nature. Paul does further by these words not only declare that Christ had real flesh, but he also clearly distinguishes his human from his divine nature; and thus he refutes the impious raving of Servetus, who assigned flesh to Christ, composed of three untreated elements.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain By declaring the sum of the doctrine of the…
By declaring the sum of the doctrine of the Gospel, he stirreth up the Romans to good consideration of the matter whereof he entreateth: So then he showeth that Christ (who is the very substance and sum of the Gospel) is the only son of God the Father, who as touching his humanity, is made of the seed of David, but touching his divine and spiritual nature, whereby he sanctified himself, is begotten of the Father from everlasting, as by his mighty resurrection manifestly appeareth.
This is a plain testimony of the person of Christ, that he is but one, and of his two natures, and their properties.
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Which took flesh of the virgin, David’s daughter.
As he is man: for this word Flesh, by the figure Synecdoche, is taken for man.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which…
3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;
Ver. 3. Concerning his Son] Here is a lofty and lively description of Christ’s sacred person. The whole Epistle being the confession of our Churches, as Melancthon calleth it, who therefore went over it ten different times in his ordinary lectures (Scultet. Annal.): the Epistle being such, as never can any man possibly think, speak, or write sufficiently of its worth and excellency. Mr Perkins adviseth, in reading the Scripture, first to begin with the Gospel of John, and this Epistle to the Romans, as being the keys of the New Testament. And for this Epistle to the Romans, Cardinal Pole adviseth to begin at the twelfth chapter, and read to the end; and practise the precepts of repentance and mortification, and then set upon the former part of the Epistle, where justification and predestination are handled.
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According to the flesh] i.e. Either his body or his human nature, called a swift cloud (as some will have it), Isa 19:1; "Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt." And the habitable part of God’s earth, Pro 8:31. For the Word dwelt among us, Joh 1:14. And here was habitatio Dei cum carne, God dwelling with flesh, which the magicians held impossible, Dan 2:11. It was much for God to "pour out his Spirit upon all flesh," the best thing upon the basest, Joe 2:28. But it was more, for the fulness of the Godhead bodily to inhabit it, Col 2:9. {See Trapp on "1Co 1:2"} St Paul seems to have learned of the holy angels, thus to salute, Luk 2:14. {See Trapp on "Luk 2:14"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord: this phrase…
Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord: this phrase either respects the Holy Scriptures, mentioned immediately before in Rom 1:2; the sum and substance of them is, concerning the Messiah, the Son of God: or else it respects the gospel, that was spoken of in the Rom 1:1,2 being only a parenthesis, as was before hinted; then the meaning is, that the apostle Paul was separated to the gospel of God, which only or mainly concerns his Son Jesus Christ. And this seems to show the excellency of the gospel, that it doth not treat of vulgar and ordinary matters. as of the gods of the Gentiles, or the actions of Alexander, Caesar, the Scipios, or such like heroes; but of the Son of God himself.
Which was made; i.e. as he afterwards expresseth it, according to the flesh, or his human nature: in regard of his Divine subsistence, he was begotten and not made; in regard of his manhood, he was made and not begotten. When he says the Son of God was made, & c., it is undeniably implied, that he did exist before his incarnation, and was the Son of God before he was the Son of man. This place proves clearly these two truths:
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1. That in the person of Jesus Christ there are two natures.
2. That there is between these a communication of properties; here the Son of God is said to be made of the seed of David; and elsewhere the Son of man is said to have come down from heaven: see Joh 3:13; cf. Joh 6:62; Act 20:28; 1Co 2:8.
Of the seed of David; i.e. of the virgin Mary, who was of David’s lineage and posterity; the promise was expressly, that the Messiah should be of the fruit of his loins, Act 2:30, compared saith Isa 11:1; Jer 23:5; Eze 34:24. Yea, this promise was so fully known to the Jews, that when they spake of the Messiah, they called him the Son of David: see Mat 21:9; 22:42; Mar 10:47,48; Joh 7:42. Hence it is that the evangelists, Matthew and Luke, are so careful and industrious to prove, that the virgin Mary, and Joseph to whom she was espoused, did come of David’s line and race.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain The apostle having told us in the foregoing verses,…
The apostle having told us in the foregoing verses, that he was particularly called to, and by God set apart for, the preaching of the gospel, in the verses before us he declares that Jesus Christ was the main subject of that gospel which he preached, and describes him by his two-fold nature, by his human nature, ver. 3. by his divine nature, ver. 4.
According to his human nature, he was made of the seed of David; that is, descended from David, and one of his posterity by the mother’s side, who was of that house and line, according to the flesh; that is, the weakness, frailty, and mortality, of his human nature.
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Where observe, 1. That our Lord Jesus Christ had a being, even an eternal existance, before his incarnation, or manifestation in our flesh and nature. He was the Son of God, before he was the Son of man; hence he is said to be made of the seed of David, intimating that he was then made what he was not before.
In regard of his divine nature, he was begotten, not made; but in regard of his human nature, he was made, not begotten.
Observe, 2. That Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, did in the fulness of time assume the true and perfect nature of man into a personal union with his God-head; the human nature was united to the divine nature of miraculously and extraordinarily, by the overshadowing power of the Holy Ghost, Luk 1:34-35 and also integrally and completely; that is to say, Christ took a complete and perfect human soul and body, with all the faculties of the one, and all the members of the other, that thereby he might heal the whole nature of that leprosy of sin, which had siezed upon, and diffused its malignity into every member, and every faculty.
Next, we have a demonstration of Christ’s divine nature, ver. 4. Declared to be the Son of God with power, &c. As if our apostle had said, that our Lord Jesus Christ, though according to the faculty and weakness of his human nature he was the seed of David, yet in respect of that divine power of the Holy Ghost which manifested itself in him, especially in his resurrection from the dead, he was declared to be the Son of God with power; that is, mightily and powerfully demonstrated so to be.
Learn hence, 1. That the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, by the Holy Ghost, is a powerful and convincing demonstration that he was the Son of God. Christ as man is nowhere said in scripture to be the Son of God, but with relation to the divine power of the Holy Ghost, by whom he had life communicated to him from the Father, both at his conception and at his resurrection.
At his conception he was the Son of God, by being conceived by the Holy Ghost; but this was secret and invisible, known only to the mother of our Lord. Therefore at his resurrection, by the Spirit of holiness, that is, by the immediate power of the Holy Ghost, God thought fit to give a visible and public demonstration to the whole world, that Jesus was his own Son, the promised and true Messias, and consequently did thereby give testimony to the truth and divinity of our Saviour’s doctrine and miracles.
God did now publicly own his Son, in the face of the whole world, and freed him from all suspicion of being an imposter or deciever; for it is not supposable, that God should put forth an almighty power to raise him from the grave, if he had by robbery assumed that glorious title of the Son of God, therefore saith the Father of him in the morning of the resurrection; Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee: that is, in the words of our apostle here, declared and made thee conspicuously appear to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
Yet observe, 2. That though Christ was raised from the dead by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, yet did he certanly raise himself by his own power as God, according to his own prediction, Joh 2:19, Destroy this temple of my body, and in three days I will raise it up; and according to St. Peter’s assertion, 1Pe 3:18 Being put to death in the flesh, that is, in his human nature, but quickened by the Spirit; that is, by the power of his Godhead, or divine nature, quickening himself; for had he been only raised by the power of God, and not by his own power, how could his resurrection have been a declaration that he was the Son of God? What had more appeared in Christ’s resurrection than in other men’s? for they were raised by the power of God as well as he. But here lies the difference; Christ rose by a self-quickening principle, others are raised by a quickening principle derived from Christ, with respect to which he is called resurrection and the life, Joh 11:25 that is, the principle of quickening life, by which the dead saints are raised.
Observe, 3. That the apostle doth not say, Christ was made or constituted the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead, but declared so to be: Multa tunc fieri dicuntur quando facta esse manifestantur, according to the phrase of scripture; "Things are then said to be when they conspicuously appear." Nothing can be more evident than that Christ was the Son of God before his resurrection; yea, before his incarnation, being the Father of eternity, Isa 9:6.
But the glory of his divinity was much clouded, darkened, and eclipsed, by the frailty of his humanity, by the miseries of his life, and the ignominy of his death. But by his resurrection God rolled away his reproach, and freed him from all the aspersions and accusations of his enemies, who charged him with blasphemy, for affirming that he was the Son of God: and thus our Jesus, in whom we trust, was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord,.... These words…
Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord,.... These words are in connection with "the Gospel of God", Rom 1:1, and express the subject matter of it, the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord; for Christ, as the Son of God, the Saviour of sinners, the only Mediator between God and men, who is Lord both of the dead and living, is the sum and substance of the Gospel: he is here described by his relation to God, his Son, of the same nature with him, equal to him, and distinct from him; by his usual names, "Jesus Christ", the one signifying a "Saviour", the other "anointed", and both, that he was anointed of God to be the Saviour of his people; and by his dominion over the saints our Lord, not merely by creation, but by redemption and grace, and happy is the person that can claim interest in him, as is here done; and by the distinction of natures in him:
which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; this respects Christ in his human nature, who was made flesh, and of a woman; and shows his existence before his incarnation, and the immediate power and hand of God in it; and which was done, not by transmutation of him into flesh, but by an assumption of human nature into union with his divine person: he is said to be made "of the seed of David"; this points out the family from whence he sprung; designs the posterity of David, particularly Mary; has regard to the promise made to David, which God fulfilled; and shows the royal descent of Christ: it is added, "according to the flesh"; that is, according to his human nature; which phrase does not denote the corruption, but the truth of that nature; and supposes that he had another nature, otherwise there would have been no need of this limiting and restrictive clause.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Who was of the seed of David according to…
Who was of the seed of David according to the flesh - That is, with regard to his human nature. Both the natures of our saviour are here mentioned; but the human is mentioned first, because the divine was not manifested in its full evidence till after his resurrection.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. Concerning his Son] That is, the Gospel…
Verse 3. Concerning his Son] That is, the Gospel relates every thing concerning the conception, birth, preaching, miracles, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed-royal, being, as far as his humanity was considered, the son of David, and then the only rightful heir to the Israelitish throne.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Rom 1:3-6. Concerning his Son Jesus Christ — The…
Rom 1:3-6. Concerning his Son Jesus Christ — The gospel is good news from God, concerning the coming of his Son to save the world. The Son of God, therefore, is the subject of the gospel, as well as its author: who was made — Gr. του γενομενου, who was, or, who was born, as the word also properly signifies; of the seed of David according to the flesh — That is, with regard to his human nature. Both the natures of our Lord are here mentioned; but the human is mentioned first, because the divine was not manifested in its full evidence till after his resurrection. And declared — Gr. του ορισθεντος, determinately marked out; the word signifies, to fix the boundaries of a thing, and consequently to make it appear what it is; to be the Son of God — In a peculiar sense, in a sense in which no creature, man or angel, is or can be his Son; see Heb 1:2-12; according to the Spirit of holiness — His holy, spiritual, divine nature. “The phrase, κατα πνευμα αγιωσυνης, according to the Spirit of holiness,” says Mr. Locke, “is here manifestly opposed to κατα σαρκα, according to the flesh, in the foregoing verse,” and so must mean his divine nature; “unless this be so understood, the antithesis is lost.” With power — Powerful evidence, or in the most convincing manner; by the resurrection from the dead — That is, by his own resurrection, not by his raising others. Jesus being put to death as a blasphemer, for calling himself the Christ, the Son of the blessed, God would not have raised him from the dead, if he had been an impostor; especially as he had often foretold his own resurrection, and appealed to it as a proof of his being the Son of God, Joh 2:19. His resurrection, therefore, was a public testimony, borne by God himself, to the truth of our Lord’s pretensions, which put the matter beyond all doubt. By whom we — I and the other apostles; have received grace — Enlightening, pardoning, and sanctifying grace; and apostleship — The apostolical commission to preach grace, and salvation by grace, to Jews and Gentiles. Some, by grace and apostleship, understand the grace, or favour of apostleship. But that rendering is not literal; and it is certain that Paul did receive grace to enlighten his mind, pardon his sins, and subdue his heart to the obedience of Christ, and fit him for the ministry of the gospel, before he received the apostolical commission, whenever we suppose that commission to have been dated. For obedience to the faith among all nations — That is, that all nations may embrace the faith of Christ; for his name — For his sake, out of regard to him, or on account of his being the Son of God. For name may here signify the character of Christ, as the Son of God, and Saviour of the world. This name Paul was appointed to bear, or publish, before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel, Act 9:15; and it is on account of this name or character, that all men are bound to obey him. Among whom — The nations brought to the obedience of faith; are ye — Romans; also — But the apostle gives them no pre-eminence above others; the called of Jesus Christ — Invited by him into the fellowship of his gospel, and a participation of all its invaluable blessings.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Concerning his Son - This is connected with the…
Concerning his Son - This is connected with the first verse, with the word “gospel.” The gospel of God concerning his Son. The design of the gospel was to make a communication relative to his Son Jesus Christ. This is the whole of it. There is no “good news” to man respecting salvation except what comes by Jesus Christ.
Which was made - The word translated “was made” means usually “to be,” or “to become.” It is used, however, in the sense of being born. Thus, Gal 4:4, “God sent forth his Son made of a woman,” born of a woman. Joh 8:58, “before Abraham was (born), I am.” In this sense it seems to be used here, who was born, or descended from the seed of David.
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Of the seed of David - Of the posterity or lineage of David. He was a descendant of David. David was perhaps the most illustrious of the kings of Israel. The promise to him was that there should not fail a man to sit on this throne; 1Ki 2:4; 1Ki 8:25; 1Ki 9:5; 2Ch 6:16. This ancient promise was understood as referring to the Messiah, and hence, in the New Testament he is called the descendant of David, and so much pains is taken to show that he was of his line; Luk 1:27; Mat 9:27; Mat 15:22; Mat 12:23; Mat 21:9, Mat 21:15; Mat 22:42, Mat 22:45; Joh 7:42; 2Ti 2:8. As the Jews universally believed that the Messiah would be descended from David Joh 7:42, it was of great importance for the sacred writers to make it out clearly that Jesus of Nazareth was of that line and family. Hence, it happened, that though our Saviour was humble, and poor, and obscure, yet he had that on which no small part of the world have been accustomed so much to pride themselves, an illustrious ancestry. To a Jew there could be scarcely any honor so high as to be descended from the best of their kings; and it shows how little the Lord Jesus esteemed the honors of this world, that he could always evince his deep humility in circumstances where people are usually proud; and that when he spoke of the honors of this world, and told how little they were worth, he was not denouncing what was not within his reach.
According to the flesh - The word “flesh,” σάρξ sarx, is used in the Scriptures in a great variety of significations.
(1) It denotes, as with us, the flesh literally of any living being; Luk 24:39, “A spirit hath not flesh and bones,” etc.
(2) The animal system, the body, including flesh and bones, the visible part of man, in distinction from the invisible, or the soul; Act 2:31, “Neither did his flesh (his body) “see corruption.” 1Co 5:5; 1Co 15:39.
(3) The man, the whole animated system, body and soul; Rom 8:3, “In the likeness of sinful flesh. 1Co 15:50; Mat 16:17; Luk 3:6.
(4) Human nature. As a man. Thus, Act 2:30, “God hath sworn with an oath that of the fruit of his loins according to the flesh, that is, in his human nature, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne.” Rom 9:5, “whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever.” The same is its meaning here. He was a descendant of David in his human nature, or as a man. This implies, of course, that he had another nature besides his human, or that while he was a man he was also something else; that there was a nature in which he was not descended from David.
That this is its meaning will still further appear by the following observations.
(1) The apostle expressly makes a contrast between his condition according to the flesh, and that according to the spirit of holiness.
(2) The expression “according to the flesh” is applied to no other one in the New Testament but to Jesus Christ. Though the word “flesh” often occurs, and is often used to denote man, yet the special expression, “according to the flesh” occurs in no other connection.
In all the Scriptures it is never said of any prophet or apostle, any lawgiver or king, or any man in any capacity, that he came in the flesh, or that he was descended from certain ancestors according to the flesh. Nor is such an expression ever used any where else. If it were applied to a mere man, we should instantly ask in what other way could he come than in the flesh? Has he a higher nature? Is he an angel, or a seraph? The expression would be unmeaningful. And when, therefore, it is applied to Jesus Christ, it implies, if language has any meaning, that there was a sense in which Jesus was not descended from David. What that was, appears in the next verse.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Who was made to him of the seed of…
Who was made to him of the seed of David, according to the flesh. The sense is, that God promised, that he who was his true and only Son from eternity, should also become his son, as man; that the same son should be man, as well as God, when the word was made flesh, or when that divine person should be united to our human nature. Thus the same person, who was his only begotten Son from eternity, being made man, and of the seed of David, by his incarnation, was still his Son, both as God, and also as man. (Witham) --- The Greek text has not the particle ei, (to him) but only Greek: tou genomenou ek spermatos David. But St. Irenæus, (lib. iii. chap. 18.) St. Ambrose, St. Jerome read, Qui factus est ei. And also St. Augustine in his unfinished exposition of the epistle to the Romans; though before in his book against Faustus, (lib. xi. chap. 14.) he reads it otherwise. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord--the grand burden…
Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord--the grand burden of this "Gospel of God."
made of the seed of David--as, according to "the holy scriptures," He behooved to be. (See on Mat 1:1).
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according to the flesh--that is, in His human nature (compare Rom 9:5; Joh 1:14); implying, of course, that He had another nature, of which the apostle immediately proceeds to speak.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. Concerning his Son—Depending on Gospel—the Gospel concerning his…
3. Concerning his Son—Depending on Gospel—the Gospel concerning his Son. The good news about the Messiah, for it should never be forgotten that, whereas Jesus is a name, Christ is a title. (See notes on Mat_1:1, and Joh_4:25.)
Seed of David—(See note on Mat_1:1.)
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. concerning his Son, &c.] The connexion is with…
3. concerning his Son, &c.] The connexion is with the close of Rom_1:2 : the “promise through the prophets” was “concerning the Son of God.” In the Gr., the order of words in this verse and the next is peculiar and emphatic: concerning His Son, who was made [lit. who came to be, who became] of the seed of David according to the flesh; who was marked out as the Son of God, in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, in consequence of the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.
of the seed of David] The N. T. begins with this assertion (Mat_1:1), and almost closes with it (Rev_22:16). In 2Ti_2:8, St Paul, at the close of his ministry, again recites it as a foundation-truth.
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according to the flesh] Flesh-wards, i.e. “on the side of His manhood.” This is said in contrast to the next words, “declared to be the Son of God.” Cp. Rom_9:5 for an important parallel, where the full significance of the title “Son of God” appears. For another use of the phrase “according to the flesh,” see Rom_4:1.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3, 4) Who, on the human side—as if to…
(3, 4) Who, on the human side—as if to show that the prophecies were really fulfilled in Him—was born of the seed of David, the rightful lineage of the Messiah; who, on the divine side, by virtue of the divine attribute of holiness dwelling in His spirit, was declared to be the Son of God, by that mighty demonstration, the resurrection of the dead.
According to the flesh.—The word is here used as equivalent to “in His human nature, in that lower bodily organisation which He shares with us men.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Which was made; or, was born. But the word…
Which was made; or, was born. But the word in itself, genomenou , need only mean that he became a Man of the seed of David; implying, it would seem, a pre-existence of him who so became. This, however, is more evident from other passages, in which wn , or uparcwn , is opposed to genomenov . (cf. Joh_1:1, 14 Php_2:6, 7; cf. Gal_4:4, Exapesteilen o Yeomenon ek gunaikov) Of the seed of David according to the flesh. Kata sarka is here, as elsewhere, contrasted with kata pneuma . Here kata sarka denotes the merely human descent of Jesus in distinction from his Divine Being. (cf. Act_2:40 Rom_9:3, 5 2Co_5:16) His having come humanly "of the seed of David" is suitably noted here, where "the Son" is being set forth as fulfilling the Old Testament promises; for they uniformly represent the Messiah as thus descended, and it was essential to the Jewish conception of him that he should be so. (cf. Mat_22:42Jo Mat 7:42; and for the stress laid by the writers of the New Testament on the fact that Jesus was so of which fact no doubt was entertained cf. Heb_7:14, prodhlon gar , etc. See, among many other passages, Mat_1:1 Luk_2:4, 5 Act_2:30 Act_13:23 2Ti_2:8) Meyer, commenting on the verse before us, goes somewhat out of his way to set forth that only Joseph"s, not Mary"s, descent from David was in St. Paul"s mind, saying that "the Davidic descent of the mother of Jesus can by no means be established from the New Testament," and also that "Paul nowhere indicates the view of a supernatural generation of the bodily nature of Jesus." As to the first of these assertions, it may be observed that, in the opening chapters of our Gospel of St. Luke (representing certainly the early belief of the Church) our Lord seems to be regarded as actually descended from David not legally so accounted only though, at the same time, his supernatural generation is distinctly asserted. (comp. Luk_1:32 with Luk_1:35) Hence we are led to infer Mary"s, as well as Joseph"s, descent from David, whether or not either of the genealogies given in St. Matthew"s and St. Luke"s Gospels represents hers. Further, with respect to those two genealogies (evidently independent ones, and both probably got from genealogical records preserved at Jerusalem), a probable way of accounting for the two distinct lines of descent through which Joseph seems to be traced to David, is to suppose one of them to be really Mary"s, the legal representative of whose family Joseph had become by marriage, so as to be entered in legal documents as the son of her father (see art. on "Genealogy of Jesus Christ," in "Dictionary of the Bible," W. Smith, LL.D.). As to Meyer"s second assertion above alluded to, it is true that St. Paul nowhere refers to our Lord"s supernatural conception spoken of in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke. But it does not follow that it was not already included in the Church"s creed, or that St. Paul himself was unaware of it or disbelieved it. This is not the place for enlarging on the evidence, at the present day increasing in force, of the early origin of our existing Gospels, and of their being a true embodiment of the Church"s original belief. St. Paul"s silence as to the manner how the Son of God became incarnate may be accounted for by his not having had occasion, in his extant Epistles, to speak of it. He is occupied, in accordance with his peculiar mission, in setting forth the meaning and purpose of the Incarnation rather than its mode, and in preaching rather than catechetical instruction; and on the essential idea involved he is sufficiently explicit, viz. the peculiar Divine paternity of Christ, notwithstanding the human birth.
Vers. 3, 4. The theme of the gospel.
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Observe how the apostle"s mind is burdened with the one great subject of his ministry. He has proceeded only a very few words with his Epistle, and behold! already he is introducing, by the force of an overmastering impulse, a full statement of the main facts and doctrines regarding the Lord Jesus Christ.
I We have here a complete and concise DESIGNATION OF THE BEING who was the theme of the gospel which Paul preached. The human name, "Jesus," "the Salvation of the Eternal," is followed by the official name of the Mediator, "Christ," "the Anointed of God," and this by the title denoting his just relationship to his Church, "our Lord.
II The HUMAN NATURE of Christ is clearly asserted. If, according to the flesh, he was born of the seed of David, he was
(1) of human descent. His humanity began to be at his birth. He was "very man," passing through human experiences, and undergoing human weaknesses and griefs, though sinless. But we are here reminded
(2) that he was of royal lineage. This was in accordance with the predictions of Old Testament Scripture. And, as he himself assured the people, he was not only David"s Son, but David"s Lord.
III The DIVINE DIGNITY of the Saviour is simply but gloriously affirmed. In the very same sentence in which he is called the Son of an earthly king, he is designated "Son of God." This he was manifested, declared, as being. We cannot fathom this mystery; but. it may be reasonably received, and cannot be reasonably rejected. This combination of the two elements in our Redeemer"s nature renders him an all-sufficient Mediator between God and man.
IV Here is SUPERNATURAL ATTESTATION to Christ"s nature and mission boldly asserted. Resurrection from the dead was not only a miracle wrought by him as an accompaniment of his mission; it was exemplified in his own Person, for he was the Firstfruits of them that sleep. Spiritual resurrection is the pledge of that which is bodily; and the resurrection was always mentioned by the first preachers of Christianity, in connection with the authority and Lordship of Christ. The lesson is pointed by the added clauses, "with power," and "by the Spirit of holiness.
APPLICATION.
1. Let us take a just and complete, not a partial, inadequate view of our Saviour"s wondrous nature.
2. What a justification and encouragement may be found in this representation for the sinner to commit his eternal interests to One so qualified, so sufficient, to care for and to save the believing soul!
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom_1:3-4
Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
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Christ, Gods Son
I. In what sense.
1. Not--
(1) As angels (Job_38:7).
(2) As Israel (Exo_5:22; Hos_11:1).
(3) As Adam and men in general (Luk_3:38; Act_17:29).
(4) As kings and rulers (Psa_82:6).
(5) As the godly and regenerate (Gen_6:2; Joh_1:12; 1Jn_3:1).
2. But in an entirely peculiar sense (Joh_5:17-18).
(1) Gods own Son (Rom_8:32).
(2) Only begotten Son (Joh_3:16).
(3) Equal with God (Php_2:6; Joh_5:18).
(4) One with the Father (Joh_5:30).
(5) The brightness of His glory, and express image of His person (Heb_1:3).
(6) With God from eternity (Joh_1:1-2; Pro_8:22-23).
(7) God Himself (Joh_1:1; Rom_9:3).
II. By whom declared.
1. By prophecy (Psa_2:7).
2. By the Father (Mat_3:17; Mat_17:5).
3. By Himself (Mat_26:63-64; Joh_9:35; Joh_9:39; Joh_10:30-36).
4. By the apostles (Act_3:13; Act_9:20; 1Co_1:9; 1Co_15:28; 2Co_1:19; Gal_4:4; 1Th_1:10; Heb_1:2; Heb_5:8 : 1Jn_4:9). (T. Robinson, D. D.)
Christ as Lord
He was promised as such (Psa_2:6; Psa_2:9; Psa_110:1; Psa_011:2; Isa_9:6-7; Mic_5:1-2), and assumed as by right the title (Joh_13:13; Joh_20:28). He was made so by the Father (Act_2:36; Php_2:11; Eph_1:22), and the universal confession of the fact will constitute His mediatorial reward (Php_2:11). Now He is confessed as such by men only through the Holy Ghost (1Co_12:3). As Lord, Christ.
I. Is the Sovereign of the universe; men, angels, and devils, are subject to Him (Eph_1:21).
II. Is Head of His Church and King of saints (Eph_1:22; Eph_4:15; Rev_15:3). All other headship is usurpation.
III. Abolishes the Old Testament economy (Mat_11:6; Joh_4:21; Joh_4:23; Heb_12:26-27; Rev_21:5).
IV. Sends down the Holy Spirit (Act_2:33-36).
V. Gathers men into His kingdom (Joh_10:2-4; Joh_10:14-16; Isa_55:4-5).
VI. Commissions His apostles to preach with that object (Mat_28:18-19). VII. Appoints what is to be done in His Church (1Co_9:14; 1Co_11:23; Mat_28:19-20). (T. Robinson, D. D.)
Which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.
Christ the seed of David
Christs descent from David gave Him a claim upon the Jews as a descendant of their ancient kings; and as a scion of the stock to which the future royalty was promised (Jer_23:5; Psa_132:11). (Prof. J. A. Beet.)
Christ the seed of David
Messiah to be descended from David (Psa_132:11; Mat_22:42). He was Davids seed by Mary (Luk_3:23), also by Joseph, His adoptive Father (Mat_1:18). The promised Saviour.
1. The seed of the woman and therefore a man (Gen_3:15).
2. The seed of Abraham and therefore a Jew (Gen_22:18; Rom_15:8).
3. The seed of David and therefore a king (Psa_89:29; Luk_23:3; Joh_1:49). (T. Robinson, D. D.)
The Incarnation of God (a sermon for Christmas Day)
I. Such an event as that can have nothing like it, or parallel to it, while this world lasts. It is the turning point in the history of the world. The gospel of Christ has made the Incarnation of the Eternal Son what St. Paul made it--the centre of all teaching, worship, obedience, and morality, the fulfilment of all that was old, the starting point of all that was new--the gospel of Christ refuses to compromise with any view of religion which puts this tremendous truth in any less than its sovereign place. God has been with us, and seen our life, what we are, what we do, all our sin and all our need--seen it with the eyes of a man, with a heart as human in its sympathy and brotherhood as it was Divinely perfect in its love and righteousness. God has unveiled Himself to us here, to be as man the restorer of mankind. Is it possible that such a thing could be, and not that all things else be changed by it?
II. The Incarnation was the turning point in the history of the world; and, as a matter of fact, we have before our eyes the consequences which have followed from it. For each man, as for the world, the Son of God was made man to enable each man to reach the perfection for which he was made. His Incarnation has been made known to us, not only for the public creed of the Church, but for the personal hope and stay of each of our souls. And to know what it means, to realise what it is to us, is the turning point of each mans belief. To think that He who loved with such self-sacrifice is He of whom all may be said that the mind of man can conceive of the everlasting God--this is a revelation to a mans spirit which, whether it comes gradually or suddenly, is one of those things which lift him up out of the common places of routine religion, one of those things which bring him face to face with the real questions of his being--with those fateful alternatives, the choice of which decides the course of life and its issues. We may overload and cloud it with subordinate doctrines, with the theories and traditions of men, with a disproportionate mass of guesses on what is not given us to know--of subtleties and reasonings in the sphere of human philosophy. We may recoil from it as something which oppresses our imagination and confounds our reason; but we may be sure that on the place which we really give it in our mind and heart depends the whole character of our Christianity, depends what the gospel of Christ means to us.
III. We see in the Incarnation how God fulfils the promises He makes, and the hopes which He raises, in ways utterly unforeseen and utterly inconceivable beforehand, utterly beyond the power of man to anticipate; and, further, we see exemplified in it that widely prevailing law of His government, that in this stage of His dispensations with which we are acquainted--which we call this world and this life--that which is the greatest must stoop to begin from what is humblest, the greatest glories must pass through their hour of obscurity, the greatest strength must rise out of the poorest weakness, the greatest triumphs must have faced their outset of defeat and rebuke, the greatest goodness start unrecognised and misunderstood. Is it not something almost too great for the mind to endure--the contrast between what the eye of man really saw and what really was; between what was to be, and its present visible beginning? When wonder, adoration, and thanksgiving, if it were possible, without bounds, have had their due, there remain the practical impressions to be laid up for the serious work of life. You are the heirs--you cannot doubt it in presence of that manger cradle--of a hope which passes measuring here. You are the object of a Divine solicitude, interested in an economy of grace and recovery, of which human language is absolutely incapable to reveal the fulness. But, in the meanwhile, you are men and women, with your appointed parts to play on this earthly scene--with time to waste or to elevate, with the risks of unfaithfulness, with the sure rewards of self-discipline, with a character to fashion after the mind of Christ, with an allotted and fast shortening term to finish your work. What can you learn for your own guidance from the mystery of His Incarnation? Is it not, surely, that we must begin our eternal work, as He was pleased to begin His, according to that law which He has laid down for the kingdom of God, by which those who are to reach the highest must have known and welcomed the humblest and the lowest. Except ye become as little children, is His characteristic word, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. Let us think of ourselves as children in the presence of that supreme mystery with which all our destiny is bound up--children before the incalculable humiliation of the Son of God, before the infinity of His greatness and His love; children on the brink and threshold of that vast, unchanging life, to which this one is but a play time and a trial ground, knowing nothing except in part, yet with the fortunes of an eternal existence in our hands. (Dean Church.)
The necessity of Christs Incarnation
Whenever the Saviours character can be understood there is a felt adaptation. We do not know Him as a Jew any more; we know Him as the Son of Man, as the Saviour, as the Great Representative of the human race; we know Him as having something in common with everything that is human; we know Him as being more nearly related to human beings than any human being is to another, feeling every throb--shall I say?--every emotion, and every anxiety of every human creature with an interest, a depth, and a nearness of sympathy that no mother ever felt for her child. This is wonderful! It is an amazing provision for human want. All humanity cries out for an Incarnation. Did you ever think that the very idols which the poor heathen hath prepared throughout the whole world, wherever the gospel has not gone, are the product of the groaning there is in the human heart after God incarnate? They are groping in the dark, and yet they are reaching out after the light of heaven. It is the want of humanity reaching after something that is more tangible, more accessible, and more within the grasp and conception of human character than an invisible, intangible, inappreciable, all-pervading and infinite Spirit. It is strange that men shut themselves off in a vacuum when this wonderful provision is brought to them--God manifested in the flesh. (C. Kingsley.)
And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.--
Christ evinced by the resurrection to be the Son of God
His resurrection then did not constitute Him the Son of God, it only evinced that He was truly so. Jesus Christ had declared Himself to be the Son of God, and on this account the Jews charged Him with blasphemy, and asserted that He was a deceiver. By His resurrection, the clear manifestation of the character He had assumed, gloriously and forever terminated the controversy which had been maintained during the whole of His ministry on earth. In raising Him from the dead God decided the contest. He declared Him to be His Son, and showed that He had accepted His death in satisfaction for the sins of His people, and consequently that He had suffered not for Himself, but for them, which none could have done but the Son of God. On this great fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ Paul rests the truth of the Christian religion, without which the testimony of the apostles would be false, and the faith of Gods people vain. (R. Haldane.)
Christs resurrection a proof of His Divinity
I shall--
I. Explain the words.
1. Declared may signify decreed or determined. But with what propriety could Christ be said to be decreed to be that which He was from eternity. That which is the proper object of decree or destination is something future; but that which was eternal cannot be imagined in any period of time to be future. Those who deny the eternal godhead of Christ, and date His Sonship principally from His resurrection, are great friends to this exposition. But the word also means to declare, show forth, or manifest, and this signification carries a most fit and emphatic opposition to He was made of the seed of David, which word imports the human constitution that did not exist before; but here, since He had from eternity been the Son of God, it is not said of Him that He was made, but only declared or manifested to be so.
2. With power; which, though some understand of the power of Christ, as it exerted itself in His miracles; yet here it signifies rather the glorious power of His Divine nature, by which He overcame death, and properly opposed to the weakness of His human nature, by which He suffered it (2Co_13:4).
3. According to the Spirit of holiness. Christs Divine nature--in opposition to His human nature (Joh_4:24; 1Ti_3:16). This qualification of holiness is annexed because Paul considers not the Divine nature of Christ, absolutely in itself, but according to the relation it had to His other nature. For it was His Divinity which consecrated and hypostatically deified His humanity.
4. By the resurrection from the dead cannot, as some suppose, mean the general resurrection, because that was future, and the apostles design here is to demonstrate the Divinity of Christ by something already done and known. It must be understood therefore of His personal resurrection.
II. Show that Christs resurrection is the greatest argument to prove Him the Son of God.
1. The foundation and sum of the gospel lies within the compass of this proposition, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. For that which properly discriminates the Christian religion from the natural, or Judaical, is the holding of Christs Deity. Of course Christ is capable of being called the Son of God in several respects.
(1) According to His human nature, He had no natural father, but was produced in the womb of His mother by the immediate power of God.
(2) For His resemblance to God; it being proper to call Him the Son of God, who does the works of God (Joh_8:44).
(3) From His having the government of all things put into His hands upon His ascension. Yet here we are to consider the principal cause of His being called so; which is from the eternal generation that He was the Son of God in such a way as proves Him to be God Himself.
2. Now this super eminent Sonship ought in reason to be evinced by some great and conclusive argument; and such a one is supplied by His resurrection.
(1) But you will naturally reply, How can His resurrection, which supposes Him to have been dead, prove Him to have existed from all eternity, and so could not die? The answer is that we must consider it with relation to His doctrine, affirming Himself to be the Son of God, and as the seal set to the truth of that doctrine.
(2) It is much disputed, whether Christs resurrection is to be referred to His own power, or only to the power of the Father. But it is not material, for both equally prove the same thing. If Christ raised Himself, He must have done it by virtue of a power inherent in another nature, which was Divine; if the Father raised Him, it still proves Him to have been God; for the Father would not have exerted an infinite power to have confirmed a lie.
3. The resurrection is the principal proof of His Divinity, The ordinary arguments are--
(1) From the nature of the things which He taught.
(2) The fulfilling of prophecies in His person.
(3) The wonderful works that He did, which were the syllogisms of heaven, and the argumentations of omnipotence.
(4) Yet over these Christs resurrection had a vast preeminence.
(a) All His miracles, supposing that His resurrection had not followed, would not have had sufficient efficacy, but His resurrection alone had been a full and undeniable proof. The former part of the assertion is clear from 1Co_15:14; 1Co_15:17. Now before Christs death all His miracles were actually done, and yet the apostle states that if He had not risen the whole proof of the gospel had been buried with Him in the same grave. And for the other part of the assertion, that appears upon two accounts; first, that the thing considered absolutely in itself, according to the greatness of it, did transcend all the rest of His works put together. Secondly, that it had a more intimate connection with His doctrine than any of the rest; and that not only as a sign proving it, but as enabling Him to give being to the things which He promised, viz., to send the gifts of the Holy Ghost upon His disciples to fit them to promulgate the gospel, and to raise up those that believed in Him at the last day, which are two of the principal pillars of His doctrine. But for Him to have done this not rising from the dead, but continuing under a state of death, had been utterly impossible.
(b) His miracles did not convince men so potently, but that while some believed, more disbelieved, and assigned them to some other cause, short of Divine power, either devilish or magical (Mat_12:24). But now, when they came to His resurrection, they never attempted to assign any cause besides the power of God, so as to depress the miraculousness of it; but denied the fact, and set themselves to prove that there was no such thing; allowing, tacitly, that, if real, His Godhead could not be denied. Their scepticism in regard to the other miracles arose from--first, the difficulty of discerning when an action is really a miracle; i.e., above the force of nature, and therefore to be ascribed to a supernatural power. For who can assign the limits beyond which nature cannot pass? Then, secondly, supposing that an action is fully known to be a miracle, it is as difficult to know whether it proves the truth of the doctrine of that person that does it, or not. For it is by no means certain but that God may suffer miracles to be done by an impostor, for the trial of men, to see whether or no they will be drawn off from a received, established truth (Deu_13:1-5). But now neither of these exceptions take place against the resurrection. For first, though we cannot assign the determinate point where the power of nature ends, yet there are some actions that so vastly transcend it, that there can be no suspicion that they proceed from any power but a Divine. I cannot tell, e.g., how far a man may walk in a day, but I know that it is impossible for him to walk a thousand miles. Now reason tells us that the raising of a dead man to life in reference to the force of natural causes, that is not in their power to do it. And secondly, should God suffer a miracle to be done by an impostor, there is no necessity hence to gather that God did it to confirm His words; for God may do a miracle when and where He pleases. But since Christ had so often laid the stress of the whole truth of His gospel upon His resurrection, and declared to those who sought for a sign that it was the only sign that should be given to that generation, God could not have raised Him but in confirmation of what He had said and promised, and so have joined with Him in the imposture. In a word, if this does not satisfy, I affirm that its not in the power of man to invent, or of God to do any greater thing to persuade the world of the truth of a doctrine and he who believes not upon Christs resurrection from the dead would scarce believe, though he rose from the dead himself. (R. South, D. D.)
The resurrection of Christ: its evidence, and its bearing of the truth of Christianity
I. It was predicted beforehand. In the Old Testament (Psa_16:9-10; Isa_26:19), and by Himself (Mat_17:9; Mat_17:23). This was not understood by His disciples (Mar_9:10; Luk_18:33-34), and they were slow to believe the tact when it took place (Mar_16:11-14; Luk_24:21; Luk_24:25).
II. It occurred under circumstances which rendered imposture impossible.
1. Christs death was real.
2. The story of the Jews in regard to the resurrection is absurd.
III. The idea of falsehood is contradicted by the whole life and conduct of the apostles.
IV. The existence of Christianity the proof of Christs resurrection. The institution of the Christian Sabbath is due to it, and all its other institutions and distinctive doctrines stand or fall with it. The resurrection is true, or Christianity is built on a lie, to believe which requires greater credulity than the resurrection itself. (T. Robinson, D. D.)
The secret of the success of Christianity
The theophilanthropist Larevellere Lepeaux had laboured to bring into vogue a sort of improved Christianity, which should be both a benevolent and rational religion. He went to Talleyrand, and, with expressions of mortification, he admitted that he had failed, for the sceptical age would have nothing to do with religion. What, my friend, shall I do? he mournfully asked. The wily ex-bishop and diplomat hardly knew, he said, what to advise in a matter so difficult as the improvement of Christianity. Still, said he, after a moments pause, and with a smile, there is one plan you might try. His friend was all attention, but there was a somewhat prolonged pause before Talleyrand answered. I recommend to you, he said, to be crucified for mankind, and to rise again on the third day! It was a lightning flash, and the reformer stood, at least for the moment, awed and reverent before the stupendous fact suggested by the great diplomat. (W. Baxendale.)
Christs Holy Spirit
The word spirit is in contrast with flesh, and according to (Gr.) limits the assertion who was marked out as Son of God to the spirit which animated the body born of Davids seed. Looking at the material of His body, we call Him Davids Son; looking at the Spirit which moved, spoke, and acted, in that human body, we call Him Son of God. In every man there is a mysterious linking together of two worlds, of that which is akin to the clay, and that which is akin to God; of flesh and Spirit. In Christ on earth we have this in a still higher degree. The flesh of Christ was ordinary flesh; and therefore needs no further description. But the Spirit which animated that flesh is altogether different from all other human spirits. Spirit of holiness is chosen, perhaps, to distinguish the personal Spirit of Christ from the Holy Ghost, and to show that it was a personal embodiment of holiness (Psa_51:11; Isa_63:10), i.e., absolute devotion to God is a great feature of the nature of Christ, that of Him every thought, purpose, word, act, points directly towards God. This agrees with the words of Jesus about Himself (Joh_4:34; Joh_5:19; Joh_5:30; Joh_6:38). With Him holiness was not accidental or acquired; but was an essential element of His nature, arising directly from His relation to God (Rom_5:19). When we look at Christs body, we find Him like ourselves; and we call Him Davids Son; but when we look at the Spirit which moved those lips and hands and feet, which breathed in that human breast, and when we see that Spirit turning always and essentially to God, we declare Him to be the Son of God. (Prof. J. A. Beet.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 3. Concerning his Son. The Son of God is…
3. Concerning his Son. The Son of God is the very center of the gospel, and the promises are all concerning him. Born of the seed of David. The two natures combined in the Son, according to the flesh, are pointed out in this and the next verse. As to his human body, he was a descendant of David, his mother being of David's lineage.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Rom_1:3. To the flesh.—σάρξ denotes a living being in…
CRITICAL NOTES
Rom_1:3. To the flesh.—σάρξ denotes a living being in distinction from the dead, which is κρέας. It denotes also body as distinguished from mind (Stuart). Our Lord.—Supreme Ruler of the Church.
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Rom_1:4. Declared to be the Son of God, etc.—Endowed with power by sending the Spirit after His resurrection and exaltation.
Rom_1:6. Called of Jesus.—κλητός refers to the external and internal call. Partakers of Christ by the call.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Rom_1:3-6
A short biography.—Some of our modern biographies are prolix, and are not warranted by either the nature of the persons whose lives are depicted or the calls made upon readers in the present day. Solomon must have said prophetically, “Of making of books there is no end.” Who reads right through the ponderous volumes which assume to describe the life-course of a man whose name will not be handed down to a distant future? It is true that the man made a stir in his sphere, but almost before the extended biography is completed the commotion has subsided. The divine Man had a short biography. How much is told and compressed in the four gospels? The extended lives of Christ written in modern days are great tributes to the intellect and industry of their authors, as well as to the influence that the Christ still wields after the lapse of eighteen centuries; but they do not make us speak, walk, and dwell with the living Christ in the land of Palestine, as do the graphic narratives of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The shortest biography is that given by St. Paul in these four verses. How much we here learn of the Saviour’s greatness!
I. Christ was great in lineage.—Man was made in the image and likeness of God, and has thus a noble origin. But Christ is noblest of the sons of men. He was begotten of God before all worlds, being the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express image of His person. As to the origin of His human nature He was great, for, though “according to the flesh,” He was not brought into this world by the ordinary processes of generation. Jesus was born in a stable and laid in a manger, but the place of birth will not either demean the noble or exalt the ignoble. Jesus as to His human nature possessed a noble origin, for kings were His noble ancestors, and kings the best that Israel could boast. He was of the seed of David. Patriarchs gave splendour to the ancestral train. The riches of time and the splendours of eternity combine to give dignity to the compound nature of the God-man.
II. Christ was great in person.—Declared to be the Son of God with power. There is here set forth an unknowable Christ. If we study the personality of the Saviour as here set forth, as well as in the four gospels, we must come to the conclusion that He is more than human, and this must be admitted by the deniers of His divinity. Here then we get something more than human; and what is that something? For our part we cannot rest satisfied with a something which has no definition. He must be to us either supernatural, and therefore divine, or else be rejected. The divinity of Jesus Christ is both an article of our creed and commends itself to our reason. He rises far above the littleness of our nature, and we can believe in an unknowable Christ. Why, even going no higher than that of regarding Jesus as a superior human being He is unknowable, for He is allowed to be something more than human, and therefore is lifted out of the sphere of our knowledge. The vastness of His love, the extent of His self-sacrifice, and His all-consuming zeal for the glory of God are beyond the measures of our experience. His love passeth knowledge, and thus He is unknowable. So that whether we accept a human or divine Christ, if we accept the Christ of Paul, if we accept the Christ of the four gospels, we have to do with an unknowable Saviour. And such a Saviour is the one to command our adoration. A knowable Christ is a Christ reduced to our level and robbed of His greatness. We believe in the essential divinity of Jesus Christ, and accept without reserve the statement that He was declared to be the Son of God with power.
III. Christ was great in titles.—Boast we of titles of honour, of marks of distinction? The carpenter’s Son from the village of Nazareth, who had not where to lay His weary head, and was obliged to beg for a little water to quench His thirst, has titles which overtop the proudest names worn by the sons of man. The Son of God. How much does that imply? God has many sons. All are His sons by creation; some by adoption. Patriarchs are the eldest sons of God in time; the prophets are God’s sons, whose bright pathway glows with divine visions; the apostles are God’s sons, heralding forth with clarion peals the good time coming for a sin-stricken race; the martyrs are God’s sons, staining the earth with their seminal blood, enriching humanity, and reaching forth to grasp the martyr’s crown. Towering above all is the sonship of Jesus. He is the Son of God as no other was or could be. The very name Jesus is attractive. Do we ever tire as we sing, “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds”? Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Christ, the anointed. One man is anointed to be a prophet, another to be a priest, another a king. Jesus is anointed to combine in His one person the threefold offices. Man is anointed by his fellow. This Man of Nazareth was anointed by God. Is that a mere picture? If so, Matthew was gifted with the creative faculty in the highest degree: “And Jesus went up straightway out of the water; and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: and lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, our ruler, the ruler of all things in heaven and in earth. He has the keys of Hades and of death.
“He everywhere hath sway,
All things serve His might;
His every act pure blessing is,
His path unsullied light.”
IV. Christ was great in character.—The spirit of holiness infused the divine nature into the human and raised the human from the dead. The spirit of holiness dwelling in Christ speaks of the immaculate purity of His nature. He was completely good. When we speak of ordinary men and say they are good, the word is not positive but comparative. But Jesus was positively good. Here is no need for comparison. He alone was good—so good that He alone could pay the price of sin. He was good in thought, in word, and in deed. Those who moved near Jesus in private found Him good. His friends adored His goodness; His enemies were forced to declare, I find no fault in Him. His goodness declared Him the Son of God.
V. Christ was great in death.—Other men see corruption, but He of whom David spoke and of whom Paul wrote saw no corruption. Whatever beauty attaches to an ordinary man in his life is removed by the touch of death. There is no beauty in the tomb:
“Youth and hope and beauty’s bloom
Are blossoms gathered for the tomb.”
Jesus Christ saw no corruption. His body rose from the new tomb just as it had been laid there by Joseph of Arimathæa. By divine power the resurrection was accomplished. Jesus led captivity captive. By death He conquered death. The resurrection of Christ is a fact of history. The very story put into the mouth of the Roman soldiers was self-defeating and strongest evidence of the truth of the Resurrection. Was Paul a fool? Some moderns seem to think he was. Honest estimates of Paul surely cannot fall so low as to believe that he would calmly write to people about an event as having recently taken place which was only a cunningly devised fable.
VI. Christ was great in ability.—We here refer not to His power of working miracles, but to the power flowing out of Himself by which men received grace and apostleship. What grace in such men as St. Paul! Grace still from Christ for all receptive natures. From His fulness men and women receive grace upon grace. Let us believe not in a dead but a living Christ. He has gifts of grace still to bestow. We too may receive grace. This grace rightly received will make us obedient to the faith. Obedience is the best test. This ability creates a large number of followers. The obedient ones to the faith are to be found among all nations. Already in the centre of the world’s greatness, in the heart of corruption, are found many called of Jesus Christ. All nations are not yet obedient to the faith. The movement is slow but sure. The nations must come. All roads lead to Rome. All modern movements, all the march and play of present events, lead to Jesus Christ; for in Him shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. God has blessed Him for ever, that He may for ever rain blessings upon mankind. Sometimes it is said “for ever” is a long word, but it is not too long to express the enduring nature of the Saviour’s blessedness. Let us love the Saviour as Paul did, and our love will by its creative force call into existence other loves, and the bright light of a universally pervading love will finally dispel all the gloom, all the darkness, all the discords of humanity.
Rom_1:3-4. Christ’s divinity proved by His resurrection.—Where the construction of the text lies so that we cannot otherwise reach the full sense of it without making our way through doubts and ambiguities, philosophical discourses are necessary in dispensing the word. The present exercise, therefore, consists of two parts:—
I. An explication of the words.—For the scheme of the Greek carries a very different face from our translation, which difference renders the sense of them very disputable. The explication is comprised in the resolution of these four inquiries:
1. Whether the translation rightly renders it that Christ was “declared to be the Son of God,” since the original admits of a different signification;
2. What is imported by the term “with power”;
3. What is intended by the following words—“according to the spirit of holiness”;
4. How those words, “by the resurrection from the dead,” are to be understood.
II. An accommodation of the words to the present occasion, which is in showing:
1. How Christ’s resurrection may be a proper argument to prove His divinity and eternal sonship;
2. That it is the greatest and principal of all others. For this we may observe, that it is not only true but more clear and evident than the other arguments for the proof of the truth of Christ’s doctrine, when we consider them as they are generally reducible to these three:
(1) the nature of the thing taught by Him;
(2) the fulfilling of prophecies in His person;
(3) the miracles and wonderful works which He did in the time of His life. And though these were undoubtedly high proofs of Christ’s doctrine, yet His resurrection had a vast pre-eminence over them upon two accounts:
1. That all the miracles He did, supposing His resurrection had not followed, would not have had sufficient efficacy to have proved Him to be the Messias. But His resurrection alone, without relation to His preceding miracles, had been a full proof of the truth of His doctrine, which appears upon these two accounts:
(1) that, considered absolutely in inself, it did outweigh all the rest of His works put together;
(2) that it had a more intimate and near connection with His doctrine than any of the rest.
2. Because of the general opinion and judgment that the world had of both.
The Jews and unbelievers never attempted to assign any causes of the Resurrection besides the power of God, so as by that means to destroy the miraculousness of it; though they constantly took exceptions to Christ’s other miracles, still resolving them into some cause short of a divine power, which exceptions may be reduced to these two heads:
1. The great difficulty of discerning when an action is really a miracle;
2. Supposing an action is known to be a miracle, it is as difficult to know whether it proves the truth of the doctrine of that person that does it or not. But neither of these exceptions takes place against the Resurrection; for
(1) though we cannot assign the determinate point where the power of nature ends, yet there are some actions that at first appearance so vastly transcend it that there can be no suspicion that they proceed from any power but a divine;
(2) should God suffer a miracle to be done by an impostor, yet there was no necessity hence to gather that God did it to confirm the words of that impostor, for God may do a miracle when and where He pleases.—South.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Rom_1:4; Rom_1:6
“Declared” the right word.—That the word rendered “declared” has in this case that meaning may be argued:
1. From its etymology. It comes from a word signifying “limit” or “boundary,” and literally means “to set limits to,” “to define”; and such in usage is its frequent signification. “To define” is nearly related both to “appointing” and to “warning,” “declaring,” “exhibiting a person or thing in its true nature.” In the New Testament, indeed, the word, as in common Greek, is used generally to express the former idea—namely, that of constituting or appointing; but the sense which our version gives it is in many cases involved in the other.
2. The Greek commentators Chrysostom and Theodoret both so explain the word. So does the Syriac Version.
3. This explanation supposes the word to be used in a popular and general sense, but does not assign to it a new meaning.
4. Reference may be made to that familiar biblical usage according to which words are used declaratively. Thus to make guilty is to pronounce to be guilty, to make just is to pronounce to be just, to make unclean is to declare to be unclean. Hence, admitting that the words literally mean “made the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead,” they may, with the strictest regard to usage, be interpreted “exhibited as made,” “declared to be.”
5. The necessity of the place requires this interpretation, because it is not true that Christ was made the Son of God by His resurrection, since He was such before that event.
6. The passage, unless thus explained, is inconsistent with other declarations of the sacred writers, which speak of Christ’s resurrection as the evidence of what He was, but not as making Him either Son or King. The words “with power “may either be connected adjectively with the preceding phrase and the meaning be “the powerful Son of God,” or, which is preferable, adverbially with the word “declared”—“He was powerfully,” that is, “clearly declared to be the Son of God.” As when the sun shines out in his power he is seen and felt in all his glory, so Christ, when He arose from the dead, was recognised at once as the Son of God.—Hodge.
Christ’s resurrection a sign of power.—But you will here naturally reply, How can this be a proper proof of that? How can His resurrection, which supposes Him to have been dead, prove Him to be such a one as existed from all eternity, and so could not die? Is the grave a medium to demonstrate a person incorruptible? or death to enforce that he is immortal? I answer that this argumentation is so far very right, and that the resurrection, considered only in a bare relation to the person rising from the dead, proves Him only to be a wonderful man, but is so far from proving Him the eternal Son of God that it rather proves the contrary. But then, if we consider it with the relation to the doctrine of that person affirming Himself to be thus the Son of God, and as the seal set to the truth of that doctrine by an omnipotent hand and an unfailing veracity, why thus it is an infallible argument to prove the real being of all those things that were asserted by that person. Christ’s resurrection therefore proved Him to be the eternal Son of God, consequentially—that is, as it was an irrefragable confirmation of the truth of that doctrine which had declared Him to be so.
It is much disputed whether Christ’s resurrection is to be referred to His own power raising Himself from the dead or only to the power of the Father. Those who deny His eternal divinity allow only this latter, stiffly opposing the former. To give countenance to this their opposition they seem to make challenge to any one to produce but one place of Scripture where Christ is said to have raised Himself from the dead and they will yield the cause. To which I answer, Though this is nowhere affirmed in these very terms, representing it in præterito, as done, yet if Christ spoke the same thing in words importing the future the result is undoubtedly the same. And for this I desire to know what they will answer to that place where Christ, speaking of His body, says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Does not Christ personally appropriate the action to Himself and to His own power? Wherefore that exception is a vapour and a cavil, unbecoming a rational opponent. But I add that, as to the proof of the divinity of Christ’s person, it is not material whether His resurrection be stated upon His own power or the power of His Father, for both equally prove the same thing, though in a different manner. If Christ raised Himself, it directly proves that He was God, and so had a divine nature besides His human; for if He raised that, being dead, it must needs follow that He did it by virtue of a power inherent in another nature, which was some divine spirit. But, on the other hand, if the Father raised Him, yet still it proves Him to have been God, forasmuch as He always avouched Himself to be so, and the Father would not have exerted an infinite power to have confirmed a lie or verified the words of an impostor.
That all the miracles Christ did, supposing that His resurrection had not followed, would not have had sufficient efficacy to have proved Him to be the Messias. But His resurrection alone, taking it singly and by itself and without any relation to His precedent miracles, had been a full and undeniable proof of the truth of His doctrine and the divinity of His person. The former part of the assertion is clear from that of St. Paul: “If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain;” “Ye are yet in your sins.” Now before Christ’s death all His miracles were actually done, and yet, notwithstanding all these, the apostle lays this supposition—that in case, then, He had not risen from the dead, the whole proof of the gospel had fallen to the ground and been buried with Him in the same grave.—South.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 1
Rom_1:3-6. The beauty of Christ shown to the faithful student and devout follower.—A sculptor once took a pupil to a statue on which much artistic skill bad been bestowed, and said to him, “Look! Do you see symmetry and expression and beauty there? Do you see accuracy of outline, delicacy of detail, harmony of design, and perfection of execution? Do you see all this? If not, look until you do, for all is there.” So we may say: Do you see in Christ all the glory and beauty which are described by the four evangelists and the apostles? Do you see a perfect humanity and a perfect divinity there? Do you see incarnate love? Do you see earth’s noble man, the God-man, heaven’s choicest treasure? If not, look till you do, for they are all there. Look by prayerfully reading the sacred books. Examine by the way of experience. Oh, taste and see that the Christ is gracious!
Rom_1:3-6. Love to Christ desired.—A Welsh clergyman, the late Rev. William Howells, minister of Long Acre Episcopal Church, once said in his pulpit that a simple-hearted, earnest Christian girl from his own country had preached Christ to him as he feared he never preached Him to his congregation. For to his question, “My dear child, do you love Christ?” she replied, “Love Christ? Yes, sir; my soul clings to Him as the limpet to the rock.”
“May we all enjoy this feeling;
In all need to Jesus go;
Prove His wounds each day more healing,
And Himself more fully know!”
Rom_1:4. Strong Son of God.—St. Paul says that Jesus was “the Son of God with power.” The expression is significant and appropriate, for strength was characteristic of the world’s Christ. And yet while we view the character drawn in the gospels, we must be struck with the fact that He was strong in love. Omnipotence was restrained; omniscience was kept in abeyance; but love never slept. He was strong in love as well when He denounced the Pharisees as when He wept at the graveside of a friend. He was indeed the incarnation of immortal love.
“Strong Son of God, immortal love.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain concerning his Son, who was born of the seed…
concerning his Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh ,
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain See note on the Davidic descent of Christ, (See…
seed
See note on the Davidic descent of Christ, (See Scofield "Luk 3:23").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 1:3-4 In the Greek, these verses are in carefully…
1:3-4 In the Greek, these verses are in carefully structured parallel form; Paul might be quoting an early Christian creed or hymn about Jesus Christ as God’s Son in order to establish common ground with the Roman Christians, whom he had never visited.
1:3 In his earthly life (literally As regards the flesh): Paul often uses “flesh” (Greek sarx) to refer to bodily existence in this world (e.g., 4:1; 8:3). • Paul refers to King David’s family line because God promised that a descendant of David would be the Messiah and would be given an eternal kingdom (2 Sam 7:13-16; see Isa 9:7; Jer 33:15). Jesus was born into David’s line (Matt 1:6; Luke 1:27, 32), so he was qualified to fulfill God’s promise.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.