Footsteps #224

“God promised this Good News long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures. ” NLT (Rom.1:2)

V2 tells us that the entire OT pointed to Christ and His work. From Genesis 3:15, where God promised that the seed of the woman would eventually defeat the devil, to Mal.4:5, which promises the forerunner of the Messiah. This Gospel is the key to understanding the entire OT. 

That Jesus died for each and every human being – that He died our death, that we might have His life – stands at the very foundation of Paul’s understanding of the gospel. The fact that the OT prophetically and comprehensively promised the Messiah provides one of the major themes of many sermons in the NT. We see this in Peter’s Pentecostal sermon of Acts.2, Paul’s preaching in Acts.13 and Philip’s dialogue with the Ethiopian official concerning Isa.53 and the sheep led to slaughter (Acts.8:32,33). Jesus Himself helped His followers on the road to Emmaus recognise that the OT pointed to His work, “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (Luke.24:27.) This would become the evidence for their faith. 

“³ The Good News is about his Son. In his earthly life he was born into King David’s family line, ⁴ and he was shown to be^[a] the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit.^[b] He is Jesus Christ our Lord. ⁵ Through Christ, God has given us the privilege^[c] and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.” NLT (Rom.1:3-5)

 In vs3-5 we have Paul’s 6-point preliminary analysis of the Gospel: it came from God, the OT predicted it, and Jesus is the focal point. Who is Jesus? Jesus is the son of David – His humanity. But who is this Jesus? Paul answers that question here. The first part of his answer is that Jesus is David’s Son, “according to the flesh.” This veiled allusion appears in the meaning of the words referring to His human nature. Paul reminds us of the fact that Jesus was not merely a human being, the Son of David, but also the Son of God. One of the great teachings of the Gospel of Matthew is that Jesus was Mary’s son but not Joseph’s – that is, He was the son of Mary and the Holy Spirit (Matt.1:18). Thus Jesus was not exactly like other human beings. He was both human and divine, or as Matthew puts it, “God with us” (v23). As a result, the incarnate Jesus was in a position to “save His people from their sins” (v21). Son of David – Son of God! He was the God-Man!