Verse by Verse

3 Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;

4 and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.

Paul packs a lot into these two short verses.

Concerning — Refers back to the gospel of God in verse 1. The gospel concerns Jesus Christ.

His Son Jesus Christ our Lord — God’s Son (therefore, God) Jesus Christ (referring to His humbling and rejection as well as His exaltation) our Lord (referring to His position as sovereign over us).

Which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh — This was in fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies that from David would come the Messiah/King (2 Samuel 7:13; Jeremiah 33:17). It also shows Jesus Christ’s humanity. He was made (literally “born”), becoming something He wasn’t — human.

And declared to be the Son of God — This shows His deity. He was made to be human, but He was declared to be God. The Greek word translated “declared” means “marked by unmistakable signs.” The same sense of “made human” and “declared to be God” can be seen in Isaiah 9:6 — For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given. And again in Galatians 4:4 — But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. As a human, Jesus Christ was made, born of a woman, born in the flesh. As God, He was declared, given, and sent by the Father.

With power — With the power of God. It was in God’s power that Jesus Christ was made human and declared to be God.

According to the Spirit of holiness — There is some question whether the “Spirit” in this verse refers to the Holy Spirit or Christ’s own spirit, but either way it doesn’t change the meaning. Christ was holy — sinless. Romans 1:4 describes two things that prove beyond doubt that Jesus Christ is God. The first is His sinless holiness. Everyone born of man is sinful. Christ was born of the Spirit and is holy.

By the resurrection from the dead — This is the second proof that Jesus Christ is God. Death is the result of sin. Jesus Christ was sinless. He volunteered to take our sins, but because of His own sinlessness and His deity, His resurrection was His Divine prerogative, not a result of Divine favor. The resurrection from the dead doesn’t just refer to His own resurrection. Because He rose and lives, He can raise us up to life after our death — yet more proof that Jesus Christ is God.

2 (Which He had promised afore by His prophets in the holy Scriptures.)

I believe Paul sometimes uses the word “gospel” to refer to a more general good news that God promised in the Old Testament and then delivered through Christ. At other times, Paul uses the word “gospel” to refer more specifically to those aspects that are part of the mystery that was given to him and to nobody else.

Which is Paul referring to in Romans 1:2? I think it’s the more general sense — good news promised but not detailed. In 1 Corinthians 2:9, Paul quotes Isaiah 64:6: But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. Isaiah was one of God’s prophets, the book he wrote is part of the holy Scriptures (a term that is almost always referring to the Old Testament). Isaiah prophesied wonderful things, good news, but he didn’t get into specifics because he didn’t know the specifics.

In John 5:46, Jesus Himself talked to the Jews about the Old Testament prophecies that were about Him: For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me.

The Jews (as a nation) rejected Christ. They didn’t see Him as the fulfillment of the O.T. prophecies.

So a new, more specific, more detailed message was given to Paul. Right after the verse in which he quotes Isaiah, Paul wrote: But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God (1 Corinthians 9:10).

God’s good news concerning His Son, the Redeemer, was promised in the Old Testament, but it wasn’t fully explained until it was given to Paul.

1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.

I can’t think of anything to say about this better than what Donald Grey Barnhouse wrote in Man’s Ruin, his commentary on the first chapter of Romans. All of the following is his.

The Greek word that is translated “separated” is … aphorizo, and if you look at it closely you will see that it contains our word “horizon.” The prefix is such that the word could be transliterated and would make good sense. It would be off-horizoned.

I had an experience that … will illustrate perfectly the sense of the word. On one of my earlier crossings of the Atlantic Ocean I was on the British liner, Majestic. I got to know one of the junior officers and through him was able to visit most of the ship. I asked him if it would be possible for me to go to the very peak of the crow’s nest, where a look-out can have the widest view. It was arranged that I should go up with him one morning, just at dawn. I climbed the narrow ladder, never looking down until I had reached the topmost height. Then I gasped — the ship seemed so small beneath me and the ocean so vast. In every direction I could see the horizon, a complete circle of sea and sky. No land or ship was in sight — nothing but the wide circle of ocean and heaven.

A strange thought came to my mind that made me laugh out loud. I remembered a time when I was a small boy and my mother was making cookies. The dough was spread out on the marble, and she allowed me to take the cooky cutter and cut out all the cookies. The object was, of course, to cut the circles very close together so that there was very little dough left between the circles. I remember taking the cut cookies from the marble and leaving these white circles and noting how each cooky left an entirely different circle.

Suddenly, on the crow’s next of that ship, seeing the round ocean about me, I began to think of that incident and of those circles. I realized that beyond the blue horizon there were other circles of ocean with other ships, and that all over the world there were different circles, and different horizons.

Thus it was with Paul. He had been brought up in one circle, and his thinking had been circumscribed by that circle. All of his life had been lived within a horizon that comprehended the total vision which he was able to have from that point. Now God had saved him. He had been lifted out of the circle where he had lived and put into an entirely different circle. It had a different center and therefore a different horizon. And the new center was so far removed from that in which he had lived before that there were no segments overlapping. He was off-horizoned. He was separated unto the gospel of God.

1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.

The word “called” means appointed or invited. Paul’s calling had nothing to do with his own initiative. He was on his way to Damascus to persecute followers of Jesus when that same Jesus appeared to him in a totally convincing way.

What, exactly, is an apostle? The word means ambassador or messenger. When He was on earth, Jesus chose 12 men to travel with Him and learn from Him. His purpose was to have them go to all the nations to preach the message of the risen Messiah, and then when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matthew 19:28). In Acts 1:21-22, when the 11 remaining apostles were choosing Judas’s replacement, they had these requirements: Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day that He was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of His resurrection.

But why another apostle? The nation of Israel rejected the Messiah again after the resurrection, culminating in the stoning of Stephen and the persecution led by Paul. The kingdom prophesied in the Old Testament was set aside for a time and a new message was to be given to the world. The message of the kingdom that the 12 apostles were teaching wasn’t discontinued, but it was delayed.

It wouldn’t make sense for the original 12 apostles to change what they were teaching. So God called a new apostle to bring the new message. That new message is the main topic of the book of Romans, so I’ll get into it a lot more later. But one more word here to show that something changed between the time Jesus Christ ascended to heaven and the time of Paul’s ministry. Remember what Jesus Christ told the apostles — to preach to the entire world (Mark 16:15).

In Galatians, Paul writes about a conversation he had with James, Peter and John (some of the same men that Jesus Christ had given His Mark 16 instructions to). Here’s what Paul says: And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision (Galatians 2:9). No longer were the original 12 going to the entire world — they were concentrating on Jews. It was left to Paul to be the apostle to everyone else.

1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.

The Greek word translated “servant” is actually the word for bondservant. In the Law of Moses, there was provision for someone who was in debt and could not pay. He became the property — the slave — of his creditor. But every seven years, all slaves were to be released, their debt wiped out.

But there were slaves who realized that they were much better off under their masters than they would be on their own. They were aware of the very-real possibility that their freedom would only lead to more debt, perhaps under a less kind master. A slave in this position had the option of choosing to become a permanent slave — a bond slave. He would be taken to the tabernacle where a priest would stand him up against a doorpost and knock a hole in his hear with an awl. His slavery was now permanent. It was a voluntary submission.

This is the title Paul uses to identify himself — a voluntary slave of Jesus Christ.

The order of the titles Jesus Christ and Christ Jesus is always significant: “Christ Jesus” describes the One who was with the Father in eternal glory, and who came to earth, becoming Incarnate; “Jesus Christ” describes Him as the One who humbled Himself, who was despised and rejected, and endured the cross, but who was afterwards exalted and glorified. “Christ Jesus” testifies to His pre-existence; “Jesus Christ” to His resurrection and exaltation. — Vine

1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.

So what happened on the road to Damascus? We know that Saul was struck blind by a light from heaven. … He fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? (Acts 9:4). It must have been a pretty convincing occurrence. This man Saul made it his primary business in life to arrest and persecute anyone who professed to believe in Jesus Christ. He was in fact traveling to Damascus for that very purpose. And then there’s the light and the voice, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks” (Acts 9:5). (Incidentally, the second half of that quote doesn’t appear in most manuscripts and, in fact, is left out of the NIV and NASB, but it does appear in Acts 26:14 in the exact same context.)

Anyway, that voice was all Saul needed to hear. Ananias came and healed him, Saul hung around with the disciples in Damascus a few days, then began preaching Christ. But as I studied this I had some questions: Why did Ananias have to be involved? Couldn’t God have just healed Saul Himself?

Here’s what I think — Saul was known and feared. Who would stick around long enough to listen to him? But because of Ananias, he had a reference, a man of God, a known believer who was there, who was acting on instructions from God, who healed Saul and saw the Holy Spirit fill him. It was official and public, and not just Saul’s word.

What about Saul? Did he have free will in all this? I think so. But Jesus Christ made His presence and power so obvious and magnificent that Saul would have had to have been a lunatic to reject Him. Saul knew who Christ was, although evidently he’d never seen Him when He was on earth. Saul knew Jesus Christ had been put to death, but now here He was — Alive

Why Saul? The Lord said to Ananias, “he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15).

But why Saul in particular? Paul explains in 1 Timothy 1:16: … For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting. Jesus Christ came to earth as Israel’s Messiah. They rejected Him and put Him to death. That should have been the end of it for them, but Christ asked for pardon for them on the cross. After He rose from the dead, He sent His apostles to Israel, but again they rejected Him (Acts 8:1).

God always keeps His promises, and Israel will get their promised Messiah in the future. But God set them aside for a time. He revealed a new message, a new dispensation — salvation by grace for Gentile and Jew alike.

And as His representative of that new message, He chose Saul — one of the very leaders of Israel who was working so diligently to reject Him. He chose one of the worst of His persecutors to display His patience and to be a pattern for everyone who would believe after that — a pattern of individuals who were sinners saved by the grace of God and by the grace of God alone with no work or effort or deserving on their part. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me (1 Corinthians 15:9-10).

1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God.

The author of Romans identifies himself right off. His name is Paul. But that wasn’t always his name. He first appears as Saul, in Acts 7:58, at the end of the scene where Stephen is stoned. [They] cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.

Why was this young man standing there? Why didn’t he join in the stoning? Acts 8:1 tells us that Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death.

“Does this mean that he was a member of the Sanhedrin? … It was a great exception for a young man to be made a member of the Sanhedrin. Yet in Galatians 1:14, he later testified:” I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. — Stam.

The Sanhedrin was an aristocratic council with a hereditary leadership that exercised authority under Herod and under Rome. If Saul was a member, that would explain his authority to do what we next find him doing: As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison (Acts 8:3).

After a while, Saul must have exhausted the city of Jerusalem and decided to look for followers of Christ in other places. Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem (Acts 9:1-2).

And that’s the first appearance of this man who would figure more prominently in the New Testament than anyone other than Jesus Christ. Young, aggressive, determined and, I imagine, pretty scary. I know I wouldn’t have wanted to see him heading for my front door.