God’s Good News

Transcript

GR 1404
10/04/09
God's Good News
Romans 1:2-4
Gil Rugh


We're studying the book of Romans together and we've just started, so turn in your Bibles to Romans 1. As I come to a book like Romans I am reminded of how greatly we are blessed as God's people today to have a copy of the scripture in our own hand. Think about this book, this letter coming to the believers in Rome and they all gather together and the leader would stand up and say, we've received a letter from the Apostle Paul, I'd like to read it to you this morning. And he starts out reading verse 1, Paul a bond servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle. One he goes for what we have as sixteen chapters. Well that would take a little bit of time to read through that. Then it comes time to close it up, roll it up and people go home. You don't have a copy to take with you. Imagine going out of there and saying, do you remember how ........... What did Paul say when he said he was talking about the gospel was told beforehand, the Old Testament scriptures. Did you remember hearing that? By the time you got to chapter 16 would you be remembering chapter 15? And some of you know what it's like, you've been in situations where sometimes you are listening and all of a sudden your mind goes off someplace. It's just like you come back, but you're down the road. Think what would happen if you tuned out in Romans 2:3 and didn't plug back in until Romans 4:9. What is he talking about?

We are really privileged to be able to have the Word of God in our possession. We carry it in, we open it up, and then when we're done studying together we take it home with us. So a great privilege. I encourage to take time to read the book of Romans regularly while we are going through it. The more you read it, the more you go through it, the more it will get fixed in your mind and then the more the truths we study will stay with you.

This is a letter about the gospel. And the gospel is foundational to everything. The gospel is what brings us salvation, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, Paul says in chapter 1 verse 16. So if you are going to be saved, you must know the gospel and you must believe the gospel, and it will change your life. We sometimes want to oversimplify things and you don't have to have deep theological knowledge to be saved by God's grace through faith in the finished work of His Son, Jesus Christ, His death to pay the penalty for your sin, His resurrection from the dead in victory. But you do have to grow in your knowledge and understanding. When Paul wants to unfold the gospel to the Romans he says there are some things you have to understand in some detail. If you're going to understand the gospel, you have to understand the issue of sin. So he is going to devote a whole section starting this letter to the whole subject of sin and the condemnation it brings to a life. Then if you're really going to understand the gospel, you're going to have to understand something about God's righteousness and how can God credit righteousness to those who are sinful and condemned. And Paul is going to devote a whole section to the whole subject of righteousness and how God provided righteousness for sinful people, and how that righteousness is applied to individuals. If you're going to understand the gospel you must know something of how it changes a life so that now you can live a holy life, a godly life, a new life. He's going to devote a whole section to the matter of holiness and godliness. And you know what? If you're going to understand the gospel, really understand it, you need to know something about God's sovereignty. The biblical doctrine of election and God's sovereignty in salvation causes some people great consternation. And some people don't even like to talk about it because it upset them. But you know what? You really can't understand the gospel that God has given if you don't understand something of His sovereignty in carrying out His plan and program of salvation with the gospel. So Paul is going to devote a whole section, Romans 9-11, to the subject of God's sovereignty in the context of His plan of redemption. And then we like details, and to understand the gospel you need to understand it changes the way you live—what you do. He's going to close the letter with that.

You know I've shared with you before, when I was a seminary student we had a scientist come and lecture to the seminary body. You talk about a hopeless task. People like me with no scientific grasp, coming and lecturing for a whole week to a body of would-be preachers. He was a brilliant man, he had three earned doctor's degrees from three different countries. I must say when I went and hear he was coming I thought that might be a good week to take off, but there were certain requirements so I went. And you know he said something that stuck with me and I've shared with you on other occasions. He says, sometimes people will say, I know it but I just can't explain it to you. He said, if you can't explain it to someone, you don't know it. And he proceeded through the week to go through these matters in such a way that they made sense to me and to others.

And we're sometimes that way with the gospel. We think because we have some basic facts down, that's good enough. I'm willing to leave the details to someone else. But you know there is a reason God gives all the details, it's necessary for us to really understand it and appreciate what it means. And there is no subject any more important than the gospel.

That's why Paul started out in verse 1 identifying himself as the writer. Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God. He said three things about himself. He was a bond servant of Christ Jesus, he's not doing his will, he's not on his own mission. He is there carrying out the will of his master. And that puts him in the line of the great Old Testament saints that were used to carry out God's work on the earth. He is called an apostle. That word called, a key word, gets us into the whole area of God's sovereignty. Going to come up three times in the salutation of this letter, he'll use it again down in verse 6, again down in verse 7. We'll talk more about it as we get down there. That's God's sovereign work in calling people to Himself. Paul was a called apostle as we noted. God called him to His salvation, He called him to a life of service for Him, serving as an apostle. And the particular focus of Paul's life and ministry as an apostle would be he was set apart for the gospel of God. You know the gospel filled Paul's heart and mind. So much so that you really don't get back on target until verse 7 of chapter 1.
Paul starts out as they did in letters in those days identifying himself as the writer, which makes more sense. Today you get a letter, you have to flip it over if you didn't look at the return address and say, who wrote it. Paul puts it right out front, you put who wrote it. Then you put who you are writing to. That doesn't come until verse 7. Paul in verse 1 is writing to all who are beloved in Rome. What happened? He mentioned the gospel, he is set apart for the gospel. So you know what he does now in verse 2-6? I have to talk about the gospel. The whole letter is going to be about the gospel. You know what? I have to give you a condensed overview. Right up here at the beginning of this letter, what would be called the salutation, Paul take off on the gospel.

So really, verses 2-6 you could say are a parenthesis because he is going to expand the gospel. I'm set apart for the gospel of God, let me tell you about that gospel and the wonder of it. I mean, Paul has been in ministry for years, he's traveled telling people the gospel. But he never tires of it, it never becomes commonplace, never becomes mundane, never becomes a chore in that sense. So he is excited. I'm set apart for the gospel of God. That started us off. This is God's gospel, it's not Paul's gospel. It's Paul's gospel in the sense that it was entrusted to Paul to pass on, but it comes from God. That ought to spark the interest of every single person. God has given a message and He says it is good news. I need to know what God said. I don't care what Paul thinks, I don't care what the preacher thinks, I don't care what other people think. But I do have an intense concern what God thinks and says. And that's what the gospel is, it's the gospel of God. It was promised beforehand.

And we move on. You see that which? We're off now to talk about the gospel. It's the gospel that God has given, it's the gospel which God had promised beforehand through His prophets in the Old Testament. One person put it this way, the gospel is good news, it's not new news. Because you know what? The gospel had been promised hundreds of years earlier in the Old Testament. So this is not new, it's the fulfillment of what God had promised through His prophets. And when he says He promised beforehand through His prophets, he's not just limiting himself to men like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and others. But really all the Old Testament scriptures are included here. Moses was a prophet and identified as such. These are those to whom the Word of God was entrusted and then they were directed in the writing of it and so he is talking about the Old Testament scriptures. This is what He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy scriptures, the holy writings. They are holy because they partake of God's character, they are God's words. The God who is holy has spoken and so now we have His holy word, the holy scriptures. Here he is talking about the Old Testament scriptures.

God promised them through the prophets. You know what we find consistent in the gospels during Christ's earthly ministry in the writings of the New Testament is an absolute confidence in the Word of God. God's Word doesn't go out of date. Paul doesn't say, Moses was 1500 years ago, times change, the world has changed. I mean, we live in a new world, Rome rules the world, we have a language, Greek, that we can speak in so much of the world. The Romans have developed the road system, we can travel the world. This is a new day, we don't need that old book. I mean, this is not where people are. But you know what? There is an absolute confidence that God's Word is true, it is reliable. What He promised in the holy writings long ago, here we are. And you know what? We have prophecies yet to be fulfilled and we have that same confidence. Nothing changes because our God doesn't change. His Word is sure. The church would stay out of so much trouble if they would just say, this is the Word of God, this is where we plant ourselves, this is where we focus our ministry, this is what we are about—we are the pillar and support of the truth because God told Timothy through Paul that's what the church is. It's the pillar and support of the truth and God's Word is truth. So it's what was told in the Old Testament scriptures.

Turn over to 1 Corinthians 15. Paul is talking about the gospel again. He was set apart for the gospel and this consumed him. So here he is writing to the Corinthians. Verse 1, now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you. I mean, remember when I came? What did I do? I preached to you the gospel. You believed it and that's where you are planted now. Look at verse 3, for I delivered to you, now he's going to talk to them and remind them of what the gospel is. What did I preach to you? I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. That's the same thing he told the Romans. It's the gospel of God which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy scriptures. Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, He was buried and He was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. It's just what God promised would happen and now it has been carried out. The gospel was not revealed in all of its fullness in the Old Testament with the clarity that comes with the coming of Christ and then our New Testament scriptures. But the basic facts were revealed there, beginning with His birth in Isaiah 7—born of a virgin. His suffering and death, Isaiah 53 is as full a development of that as you could expect to find, even to the point that after His cruel suffering and death He would be buried in the tomb of a rich man. I mean, just details. His resurrection in Psalm 16 clearly foretold.

So Paul says, what I'm telling you, I'm filling in details perhaps but the basic facts are exactly what God promised. Now with the revelation of what we have as our New Testament, that is complete. That's why the Old Testament was able to make you wise to salvation. Paul wrote to Timothy in II Timothy 3:15 and said, from a child you have known the holy scriptures, referring to the Old Testament, which are able to make you wise to salvation. What's God's Word, what's God's truth.

Now the clarity of the gospel and how it would be carried out, accomplished, awaited the coming of Christ. Turn over to 1 Peter 1. And Peter is talking about the gospel and God's marvelous work of salvation. We'll pick up in verse 10, as to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you. You see he's talking about the same thing. The Old Testament writers prophesied about God's grace in salvation that would come during Peter's lifetime, if you will, and his readers' lifetimes. But they made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating. You see it is God's Word, it was the Spirit of Christ in those Old Testament writers that was giving truth, truth concerning God's plan of salvation. But it was confusing because the Spirit of God had them prophesy about a Messiah who would come and rule and reign in glory and suffer and die and be resurrected from the dead. And they couldn't quite put it together. How can He come and suffer and die and rule and reign in glory. And it was revealed to them, verse 12, they were not serving themselves but you in these things, which now have been announced to you through those who preach the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which the angels long to look. You'll note that the gospel was preached to you by the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven. Keep that in mind because that's where Paul is going in a moment as we move on in Romans 1, in those opening verses. The work of the Holy Spirit in the context of the gospel, the finished work of Christ.

You see Abraham was saved by God, he'll become the example of salvation by faith when we get to Romans 4. But you understand Abraham could not have been saved by God 2000 before Christ if the plan of God did not include the death of His Son on the cross to pay the penalty for Abraham's sin. So Old Testament saints were saved by believing what God had said but not fully understanding how He would accomplish the salvation that He promised. But they took God at His word and believed Him, and God credited it to them as righteousness. But it would take the coming of the Son of God to earth to pay the penalty for sin to put things together. And now for us we have the completed scriptures with the New Testament, now things are clear to us. We look back, of course the Messiah was coming, He was going to suffer and die, then He'd be raised and ascend to heaven and then at a future time He'll come to earth again and then He'll rule and reign in glory. How could you miss it? But it's like for all of us. We're going through something and it's confusing. We get done and we look back and we say, I can see how it all fits together. And when God completed the revelation, now it fit together. We are blessed to understand it in a way that Isaiah did not because God chose not to make it all clear to him.

Come back to Romans 1. So the first thing we know, the scriptures come from God, the end of verse 1. Then they were prophesied in the Old Testament scriptures so there has been no change in God's plan of salvation. This is important because some of the Jews were confused, they thought they were saved by the Mosaic Law. That never was the case in the Old Testament. They were confused, we are saved by faith always and God had prophesied how His salvation would be accomplished.

The third thing he says about this gospel. It comes from God, it is promised in the Old Testament, and it concerns His Son. The gospel is about Jesus Christ. Now keep that in mind. How often do you say, I talked to someone about the gospel but you never mentioned the name of Christ. Well I talked to them about God. It's important to have God in our lives, it's important to trust God. Not that those things are wrong, but that's not the clarity of the gospel. The gospel is about the Son of God, Jesus Christ. I haven't presented the gospel to them if I have not talked to them about Christ because the gospel of God, verse 3, concerns His Son. So when I present the gospel to someone I must be presenting to them the truth concerning God's Son, Jesus Christ. That is the content of the good news, it's about His Son.

So he's going to tell us about His Son. And His Son was born a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord. Concerning His Son. You know Jesus Christ did not become the Son of God when He was born at Bethlehem. He was the Son of God throughout all eternity. There was a unique relationship within the members of the trinity and it has always been, God the Father and God the Son. Now what happened is God has His Son come to earth to become a descendant of David. And so we're going to have now the dimension of God beginning to fulfill the promises of the Old Testament when His Son will leave glory, come to this earth, take to Himself humanity and now the work of redemption is underway and will be accomplished then through His death and resurrection.

Turn over to Galatians 4. I like the way this is put. Verse 4, when the fullness of the time came God sent forth His Son. He sends forth His Son and this Son will be born of a woman, born under the law so that He might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. But it's the Son of God who comes to earth and now becomes the Son of Man. We'll see the title Son of God in a moment in Romans 1. But first we're going to talk about the fact He's the Son of Man, in particular the Son of David. But you understand He was the Son of God before He came to earth because He has always been the Son of God. This is part of the relationship John 1:1 begins, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And this is what the Jews had a problem with, with Christ when He declared that God was His Father. They were ready to stone Him. Why? Because in making God His Father He declared that He was equal with God, partook of the same nature as God. They understood that. It's not just His humanity here but His deity. So you have in John 1:1, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. And He created everything.

But then you come down to verse 14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw His glory, glories of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. That's the connection. He was with God but He became flesh.

So when you come back to Romans 1 it says it concerns His Son, and His Son was born a descendant of David. He doesn't use the normal word for born here. The word he uses can be translated born and used that way, but it's not the normal word, the word used in the vast majority of cases for the physical birth. It's not this word. And so some translators have it who came to be a descendant of David, connecting the fact the Son of God came to be a descendant of David. Now He came to be a descendant of David through physical birth with Mary. But He is unique in that He was a Son before He was born to Mary. But the stress he has here then, He is born a descendant of David according to the flesh. Physically speaking. But there is more to Christ than just His physical birth. If you say I was born of my line according to the flesh, you'd say, what else is there to you. I mean, of course, physically, now what else. It's the only way you've ever been. That's right. But for Christ He was born a descendant of David according to the flesh. We're talking about now His physical line. You have to keep this in mind. He has always been God, He has always been the Son of God. Certain things have always been true of Him, will always be true of Him. But when He takes upon Himself humanity, becomes a descendant of David, now something new is added. The eternal Son of God now is also Son of Man. He's not only deity, He is humanity, the God/Man. He is a descendant of David because to fulfill Old Testament promises and Old Testament prophecies He had to be of the line of David.

Now we'll just take one passage, there are a number of them, but go back to Isaiah 11. And this reflects something of the problem the Old Testament prophets had. Isaiah 11. This prophecy begins, then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him. This is a prophecy of the coming Messiah, the Jews understood that. He comes from the line of David to fulfill the covenant given to David in II Samuel 7. He is from the line of Jesse, the father of David. Down in verse 4, with righteousness He'll judge the poor, He'll decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth, He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth. With the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked. Verse 6, and the wolf will dwell with the lamb and the leopard will lie down with the young goat. And verse 9, they will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain. For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. You see He will be of the line of David. Now you can see the problem, while we're here, that we referred to earlier, the Old Testament prophets. Here Isaiah gets this word from the Lord, he doesn't know that there is a break here in these verses of some 2000 years. Jesus Christ has not struck the earth with the rod of His mouth and slain the wicked with the breath of His mouth, as verse 4 says. The Spirit of the Lord rested upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. All of a sudden, wait, in the plan of God He didn't reveal to him.

Now Isaiah, part of this will be fulfilled when My Son come to earth as a descendant of David, and then it will be at least 2000 years before we get to the second part. So the Old Testament saints didn't know how to put this together. Later Isaiah has a revelation from God, Isaiah 53, the suffering and death of the Messiah. But how to fit that back into the revelation that God gave in chapter 11 wasn't clear to him. So he had these pieces but he didn't know how they go together. And what happens now that Christ is come, the Spirit of God has clarified the plan of God in this. But here what you see in this is that He will be a descendant of David.

Now when you come back to Romans 1, concerning His Son, born a descendant of David according to the flesh. This is His physical lineage. There will be more to Him than His physical lineage, but that is crucial. Over in Romans 9 Paul is talking about being an Israelite and the blessings of being an Israelite, a Jew. And then he says in verse 5, whose are the fathers, from whom is the Christ according to the flesh. This is not the beginning of Christ, the beginning of His life. This is simply now we're talking about Christ in the context of His humanity. Keep his in mind. It becomes crucial to understanding things and not getting confused. This is why some cults don't believe in the deity of Christ. They fail to appreciate what the Bible is talking about when He talks about His beginnings at Bethlehem. But He didn't begin at Bethlehem because He is the One who dwelt in eternity, the Old Testament prophets said. But He is also the One to be born at Bethlehem. So He had prior existence.

So back in Romans 1. Look at verse 4. We are elaborating the gospel is concerning His Son, verse 3, then you are elaborating on the Son. He was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, but verse 4, He was declared Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. So this Son became a descendant of David but here, as my translation says, He was declared Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. We need to look a little bit more closely at this.

He was declared Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. That's a possible way to translate this but it has some problems. The Greek word translated declared, used several other times in the New Testament, but never does it have the meaning of declared. Often it is taken that this verse means Christ was declared or shown to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. In other words the proof of Christ being the Son of God is His resurrection. I have no problem with the fact the resurrection does demonstrate He was who He claimed to be, He was the Son of God. But I'm not sure that's what this particular verse is saying. I think it's better, that word declared, normal meaning, and it's never used any other way in the New Testament is to appoint or install. I take it what he is saying here is the gospel concerns His Son who was a descendant of David according to the flesh, but was appointed Son of God with power or in power by the resurrection from the dead. In other words we are on the human line and what is the result of his becoming a descendant of David with His death and subsequent resurrection, He is appointed Son of God in power, or with power. You say, He has always been the Son of God, the Son of God always had power. No argument there. But there is something that had to take place. To accomplish the work of redemption, salvation, and enable you and me and others to be saved by believing the gospel, what had to happen? The Son of God had to come to this earth, become a descendant of David, suffer and die on the cross and be raised from the dead. Without that God would not save anyone, because the penalty for sin is death. And without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sins.

So the Son of God with power to forgive and cleanse is a result of the finished work of the Son of God on earth as the God Man. That comes up down in verse 16 when Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel. Why? For it is the power of God for salvation. Without Christ's coming to earth, His work on the cross and His resurrection there would be no power for salvation. There are some things God cannot do—He cannot save a sinner without righteousness, the demands of righteousness being satisfied. It would be a violation of His character. And He never violates His character, God cannot sin, God cannot lie. There are things God cannot do. And He cannot save sinners without satisfying the demands of His own righteousness.

So Christ is appointed Son of God with power through the resurrection from the dead, because it's the resurrection of Christ that brings to completion the work of redemption. I Corinthians 15, Paul says without the resurrection of Christ there is no salvation, we are still in our sins, we are still lost. We need the resurrection. So you see it's the plan of God promised in the Old Testament being accomplished. How did He save Abraham? By faith. But the wages of sin is death. Yes, and God saved Abraham on the basis of faith like He saves you and me, and He saved Abraham on the basis of the fact when Abraham believed God, God would make provision, He had made it in His eternal plan. And that was the coming to earth, the suffering and death and resurrection of His Son. So as a result of that finished work Christ has now been installed as Son of God in power. The work that had been prophesied has been accomplished.

Go back to Acts 10. Let's look at the word translated appointed or declared. In Romans 1:4 it says who was declared. As I've said, I think there is almost universal agreement in current commentaries that that's not a valid translation of the word in the New Testament. And we get the English word horizon from this word, haridzo, horizon, the marking of the line. Back in Acts 10, and here Peter is presenting the good news, the gospel. It's the message of Christ and so here he is at the house of Cornelius. And it's about, verse 36, preaching peace through Jesus Christ. And he tells them something about Jesus' earthly ministry and the power that was displayed through His earthly ministry that showed that He was who He claimed to be. Verse 39, we are witnesses of these things . . . . They put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross. God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He should become visible. So you see the death and resurrection of Christ, the One who came and was the descendant of David, Jesus of Nazareth, the Jewish Messiah. He became visible to witnesses. Not everybody saw Him, but those who God appointed would be eyewitnesses of the resurrection. And then verse 42, He ordered us. He didn't ask us, He ordered us to preach to the people and solemnly testify that this is the One who has been appointed. There is our word, haridzo, translated declared in Romans. But see what it is here. He has appointed Him as judge of the living and the dead.

Well as the Son of God, as God through eternity past, He always had the authority to judge, didn't He? I mean Isaiah 6 presents Christ in His preincarnate glory sitting enthroned in heaven. And the seraphim of heaven crying out holy, holy, holy, the Lord God Almighty. John 12:41 tells us Isaiah was writing about Christ when he recorded that vision. I mean, He was God. God by very fact He is God has the right of judgment. Well then why did Christ have to become a man, suffer and die and be raised from the dead so that God the Father could appoint God the Son Judge? Good question. I don't know. No, we know. Why? As Judge apart from the work of redemption He could have functioned, only to sentence every single man, woman and child to an eternal hell. Right? But now He sits as judge to discern between the redeemed and the lost. And deem the redeemed judged by Him as forgiven and cleansed, those who clothed in His righteousness to be part of a kingdom He will establish on the earth for eternity. Because you understand there could have been no kingdom without His becoming a man, suffering and dying and being raised from the dead. And now having the sovereign power to bestow salvation as the result of a finished work and to judge between the righteous and the unrighteous.

So He is appointed as judge in the context of His having become man and thus being the God Man who suffered and died and was raised from the dead and now can sit in judgment. Before the judgment would have had to be just send them to hell. But because the plan of God included the provision of redemption, now the judgment involves a separating between the sheep and the goats in one of the judgments, for example. So He is appointed judge as a result of the resurrection.

Turn over to Acts 13. Now we have Paul presenting the gospel, he is on his first missionary journey in Acts 13, and Paul is giving an overview of Old Testament history in a concise form. Verse 22, he talked about David the son of Jesse, referring to Old Testament scripture. And then from that line, verse 23, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus. And it's according to the promise He gave. So this is rooted in God's word in the Old Testament. The New Testament doesn't change the Old Testament, it brings the realization much of what is promised, and enables yet future things to be realized because of the finished work of Christ. And he talks about the ministry of Christ.

Come down to Acts 13:28, they asked Pilate that He be executed. So they crucified Him, took Him down from the cross, laid Him in a tomb. But verse 30, God raised Him from the dead. And verse 32, so we preach to you the good news, the gospel, of the promise made to the fathers. Sounds like what Paul is writing to the Romans, right? I'm just preaching to you what God promised He would do through the prophets, through the fathers. And you have here in verse 33, God raised up Jesus. And Psalm 2 says, you are My Son, today I have begotten you. Well that wasn't the beginning of Christ. No. But the resurrection establishes His Son as the Redeemer, the One in whom salvation occurs. Now we understand how God could save Abraham by faith when the penalty for sin is death. God was providing a Savior. Now it has become clear.

Come on down. He talks about the resurrection, the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. So what he said in just a statement, the gospel was prophesied in the Old Testament scriptures, the holy scriptures. Here he is giving scripture for that, and you can read through this. Christ didn't undergo decay, He was raised from the dead. Verse 38, the conclusion, therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is preached to you. Only through Him. I never present the gospel to someone unless I make clear to them it is through Christ you have forgiveness of sins, and no other way. Through Him everyone who believes is freed from all the things which you could not be freed from through the Law of Moses. That's the pattern. You see the order and the pattern.

Go to Acts 17. So here is a result of His death and resurrection—forgiveness of sins can be proclaimed to all men. I'm not ashamed of the gospel, it is the power of God for salvation. He was appointed Son of God in power as a result of the finished work. Acts 17:31, again Paul is on Mars Hill here and he tells them about the work of Christ, the resurrection. Verse 30, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed. There is our word again, incidentally, haridzo. He appointed Him having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead. Coming judgment will take place through one man. God the Father has given all judgment to God the Son. John 5, Jesus said, the Father judges no man, He has given all judgment to the Son. Why? Because He is the God Man. The One who has provided redemption and the One now who is appointed to be judge of all men. And He has been appointed Son of God in power, power to save, power to judge, and ultimately power to establish a kingdom on the earth over which He will rule and reign.

I want to go to Philippians 2:9. And in the context here look at verse 6. Christ existed in the form of God, He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. You'll note what that is saying—He is God. He dwelt in eternity in a relationship of equality with God. The same worship offered to the Father would be offered to the Son. But He didn't hold onto that. Verse 7, but He emptied Himself. As we've noted on other occasions, the Greek word here kenosis becomes the title for this. Some of you may read that somebody says, what about the kenosis passage. It's just based on the Greek word for emptied, He emptied Himself. Taking the form of a bond servant and made in the likeness of men, found in the appearance of men He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. For this reason God highly exalted Him. You see as a result of the finished work of Christ that He is raised from the death, He will ascend to heaven. God highly exalted Him, bestowed on Him the name which is above every name. Well He had that name in one sense before He was born at Bethlehem. He is God, how much higher can you get? But we need a Redeemer, we need God to be our Redeemer. And so He becomes the God Man. That's why Jesus Christ's favorite name for Himself on earth was not Son of God, but Son of Man. Rarely refers to Himself as Son of God, but many, many times calls Himself Son of Man, because that's what is unique. He has been God for all eternity, but He became man without ceasing to be God, because by very definition God is eternal. But He chose not to hold onto the prerogatives of His that He had as God, but to humble Himself, take to His deity humanity. And so in a unique way that stretches our finite minds to bursting, He becomes the God Man, the theanthropic union.

As a result of His finished work, God has highly exalted Him, bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow. Every knee, every created thing. And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. You see you have to be careful you understand. You can talk about Jesus in His eternal existence, but then you talk about the major event when He became part of humanity so He could accomplish redemption, and the resurrection climaxing that redemption, Romans 5:1, He was raised because of our justification. It was done. Now He is appointed Son of God in power because the work that God had planned from eternity past, prophesied in Old Testament scriptures, has now been accomplished. That's the gospel. So that's why He can be appointed to a position. He had it as God, but now He has it as the God Man who has accomplished the eternal God's plan of redemption.

Hebrews 7. The contrast in Hebrews 7 between Old Testament priests who one followed another. You know why? They died. But Jesus Christ is not a priest after the order of Aaron, He's a priest after the order of Melchizedek. The Levitical priesthood, the Aaronic priesthood no longer operative because Melchizedek is here to carry out his priesthood. They couldn't, they could remind you of sin, they could provide sacrifices that symbolized, pictured the shedding of blood to pay the penalty for sin. But they couldn't provide salvation because the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. But verse 24, Jesus on the other hand, because He continues forever, He is alive. He holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is also able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for us. You see it fits. He is appointed Son of God in power, with power, by the resurrection from the dead. So that is done. You understand the importance of the finished work of Christ, and we're looking at Him not in eternity past as God, but as the God Man who came to this earth and accomplished what only God could do when He became man—salvation for you and me. Now with that finished work accomplished, the Son of God who voluntarily submitted to the Father has full power to bestow salvation and save forever.

Come back to Romans 1, the last statement in verse 4, this was according to the Spirit of holiness. He was appointed Son of God in power by the resurrection from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness. And I take it the Spirit of holiness is the Holy Spirit. It is not the usual way. It's very unusual in the New Testament to call Him the Spirit of holiness, He is usually called the Holy Spirit. This is what they call transliteration. In the Old Testament they translate it into Greek, they translate the Hebrew and this is the way it goes—Spirit of holiness. So we're talking about they just transliterate it over, if you will, in form, not in letters. It's the Spirit of holiness, it's the Holy Spirit.

What happened with the resurrection of Christ? Why was it necessary that He die, be raised from the dead and go to the Father? John 14-16, so I can send the Holy Spirit. And so you have paralleled here in Romans 1:3, He was born a descendant of David according to the flesh; He was appointed Son of God in power by the resurrection from the dead according to the Spirit. The according to the Spirit parallels according to the flesh. I mean, here He had to become man. But now He is the God Man who is the Redeemer. And what did He do? Was raised from the dead, ascended to the Father, Acts 2, He sends the Holy Spirit as He promised. And His power is demonstrated. And Paul will go on with the giving of the Holy Spirit, and with part of that comes the gifts. And with the gifts Paul received apostleship and in the next verse, through whom we have received grace and apostleship.

So that power and authority to bestow the Holy Spirit, send Him from heaven in a new and unique ministry is the result of the resurrection from the dead. He is Jesus Christ our Lord. I mean, there is the depth of the truth here. Think about it. If we just read the letter, what the Spirit of God is saying, to plumb the depths of what He has said and who we are dealing with. This is God's good news. He promised it in the Old Testament scriptures, it has now been realized. His Son has come, a descendant of David, physically. So now He is the Son of God who is also a descendant of David, He is the God Man. And as a result of His finished work He was appointed Son of God with power by His resurrection. The work of redemption is done. And so we have the gospel which is the power of God for salvation. We have the Holy Spirit who is given to enable, to empower those who believe, and to gift them that they might serve.

This is the gospel we have. When we talk to people we're talking about the most important thing in all the world. We can talk about sports events, we can talk about political thing, we can talk about international happenings. They all pale in significance to the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can tell people, I can tell you the most important thing in all the world. I can tell you what the eternal God says is the most important thing that you must know. That's what we have. Isn't it amazing, we walk around like we're speechless. You ask me what I think about the President's actions, whether I think he ought to try to promote the Olympics. I have an opinion on everything. I come to the gospel, I'm just not good at explaining those things. We better get good at explaining it. This is what is important to God and I am His servant, right? And His slave. I'm about His work. And I babble on about things that do not matter. They will be washed away and gone, all these things. But there is good news, there is a Savior. He came into this sin-cursed world, came as a descendant of David, born into the human race, died on the cross. Why would the Son of God do that? Because you are a sinner, I am a sinner. There is no other way of salvation, there is nothing to compare with this. There will not be through all eternity. Ephesians tells us we will be trophies of grace to God for all eternity, the result of the marvelous power of the gospel to bring salvation.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the word that you have revealed to us. Lord, it is easy for us to become careless, sloppy, indifferent and maybe even bored with things we have heard many times. But Lord your truth is amazing, it is fresh. Your word is alive and powerful. Your gospel brings your power. Thank you for the finished work of your Son. Thank you that He was born as a descendant of David, took to Himself full humanity in the line of David as you had promised. He suffered and died the horrible death of crucifixion as you had prophesied. But He was raised from the death as you had said He would be, and He has been appointed as your Son with full power and He bestows salvation upon those who believe in His finished work. Some day He will sit in judgment over the living and the dead, over the righteous and the unrighteous. Some day He will rule and reign in glory over the earth under His sovereign authority. Lord, may we be bold with this message, may we never be ashamed of that which you have said concerning your Son. We pray in Christ's name, amen.