A gift for Mindy😊Set apart, As promised, In power

Romans 1:1 - 4

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, ² which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, ³ concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, ⁴ who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,

At the core of what Paul is writing… is a person: Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Which is the theme of all Paul's epistles.  

Our union in Christ is the central theme.

As we’re told in Colossians 1:27, "Christ in you, the hope of glory," That is the great truth from which all others flow.

Often certain truths seem to be emphasized, such as justification by faith, or sanctification. But these themes all stem from the One central theme… our union with Christ.

We are not merely followers of a philosophy… we are followers of a savior, a redeemer, a person… and He [Christ] must be central in all things.

Notice in today’s scripture (v2), that the Lord was promised to us.

And He came as predicted in the Old Testament.

The gospel was promised beforehand through the "prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son."

It’s important for us to understand that our faith comes to us through the anticipation and prediction of centuries of teaching and preaching.

It is not a new religion. It is the fulfillment of an old religion. The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. What He was preparing and promising then, He fulfilled in the coming of Jesus.

Also, verse 3 points to the deity of Him who "was declared the Son of God in power."

The phrase, "the Son of God,” unmistakably declares the deity of our Lord.

There were three things that marked the deity of Jesus: First, there was power; He came by power. This is a reference to the miracles that he did.

Second, He came by the Spirit of holiness.

This is saying that when Jesus came, He was a whole person. He demonstrated humanity… humanity as it was intended to be… That is how we are called to live, in holiness.

The Good News is that God's goal for us is to make us whole… so that we are able to walk through the pressures and the turmoil and the tragedies of this world and be able to deal with them… as Christ supplies us in Himself.

And third is the mark of Jesus' deity was the resurrection.

His deity was authenticated "with power by the resurrection from the dead.”

That is where our faith rests.

The key phrase here is “with power.”.

For at the resurrection, Christ moved from being Son of God in lowliness and human limitation to being the Son of God with power.

This is what Jesus meant after the resurrection when he said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18).

It’s what’s meant in 1 Corinthians 15:25–26 about the risen Christ, [that] “He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death.”

In other words, Jesus is the Messianic king. He is reigning now over the world. He is putting all his enemies under his feet.

There will come a day when He breaks forth out of his invisible rule with visible glory and will establish His kingdom openly and in glory on this earth.

That is what our scripture means by “Son of God in power.”

That He, Jesus Christ, is ruling now. He is working his purposes out through his Spirit and his church. And the day will come when Christ will defeat every enemy, and every knee will bow and confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:11).

To which we say, “Amen, come Lord Jesus.