Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Romans. Tonight is study 13 of Romans, chapter 1, and we are continuing to read from Romans 1:3-4:

Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

We have been carefully going over these verses…well, maybe not so carefully because I just noticed something I should have noticed earlier, and it is fairly unusual. I have not seen anything like this as far as the translation of the King James Bible, but we have a translation problem in both verses 3 and 4. And it is really an odd translation. Regarding the phrase, “Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord,” and part that says, “Jesus Christ our Lord,” is not actually found in verse 3 – it is actually found in verse 4.

And that is the way it is found in Jay Green’s Interlinear Bible, as it follows the Greek text: “Concerning his Son which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.” (Notice I did not read “Jesus Christ our Lord,” because it is not found in that verse.) Then it continues in verse 4: “And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead Jesus Christ our Lord.” That is where it is actually found at the close of verse 4. So, again, I am not sure why the translators did this. It is true that to say, “Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord,” does seem to fit better there, as it certainly is part of the thought that is being expressed. But they seem to have done something that I have never noticed in any other verse I have looked at in the Bible. They took a phrase found in a later verse and inserted it into the previous verse. I do not see how it changes anything as far as the meaning goes, but check it out in the original Greek text and in Jay Green’s Interlinear Bible. I noticed it in the word search I have which has the Greek text, and that is when I actually first noticed it, so it is not this Jay Green’s Bible. There can be errors in printing or mistakes made in an interlinear translation, but that is not the problem here. So this is just something to note.

We are going to move on to the first part of Romans 1:4:

And declared to be the Son of God with power…

We spent some time during our last study looking at this declaration that Jesus is the Son of God, and we saw how it has to do with the fact that He was the firstborn from the dead. That is the explanation for this Father/Son relationship within the Persons of the Godhead, the Trinity. There is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. At a point in eternity past, God struck Jesus Christ, the Word, dead as He was laden with the sins of His people. He did die, and then God the Father raised Him up after the Law’s demand for death was satisfied. And as Jesus rose from the dead at that point in eternity past, He was declared the Son of God. “Here is my Son. He is my firstborn from the dead.” Nobody else had died and, certainly, nobody else had resurrected from the dead, so this was an experience of a “new beginning” for He who had no beginning.

You know, there are Muslims that we dialogue with on Facebook in our group, “The Bible Answers Muslims Questions,” and they will occasionally bring this up: “If Jesus is God, how can He be the Son?” In their minds, to be a son means you had to be born and you had to have a beginning, but God has no beginning. He is from everlasting. So how could Jesus be the Son?

You see, the churches and theologians have never had a good answer. They have never had a satisfactory answer for that kind of question. “How is it that Jesus is the Son if He is that eternal everlasting God that you claim Him to be?” The answer is that as God, He died at the foundation of the world and rose, and at that point He was declared to be the Son because He was the “firstbegotten from the dead.” What a beautiful, perfect answer that keeps intact the integrity of the Godhead, and which reaffirms the fact that He is everlasting God who has always been and always will be. He has no beginning as God – He is that eternal deity. And, yet, He became the Son through death and resurrection, as it says in Romans 1:4:

… declared to be the Son…by the resurrection from the dead:

It really is a beautiful, wonderful and glorious teaching of truth that God has revealed to us regarding the Lord Jesus Christ. It harmonizes beautifully with all the Scripture. And as I mentioned before, it provides the answers for why Jesus is the “firstborn from the dead,” even though Moses died thousands of years before Christ was born of the Virgin Mary and entered into the world in that way. It provides answers to why God could save Old Testament saints by applying the blood that had already been shed at the foundation of the world, and at the point of creation, it was already available. It provides answers as to how Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their seed could be heirs and receive inheritance, which has to do with eternal life. And, of course, there is more to that inheritance in the world to come in the new heaven and new earth, but it begins with becoming sons of God as saved individuals. And before that can happen, there had to be the death of the Testator. Again, this truly glorious doctrine gives us the answers for all these things and many more mysteries. But for those who are just quoting theologians that said that Christ died “in principle” and that is why Revelation 13:8 says that He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, can they answer how the blood (salvation) could have been available to the Old Testament saints? No – they just keep repeating, “In principle…in principle.”

What about the death of the Testator? The one who wrote the will needs to die before the will can be activated and granted to the heirs. “In principle…in principle.” You see, all their answers are “in principle.” When God says it, “it is already done, so He could act as if the death was already accomplished when He granted salvation.” And this goes completely contrary to Hebrews 9:22:

… and without shedding of blood is no remission.

Without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness. It is translated as “remission” in the King James, but it is the same word as “forgiveness.” There can be no forgiveness of sin without the actual shedding of blood first, and then there can be forgiveness.

And on, and on…there are just so many parts of the Bible that are impacted by this teaching that God had kept sealed up until the time of the end. It also has helped us in understanding His judgment program as far as the idea of Jesus making a demonstration. And, you see, we are following the pattern as the elect are making a demonstration before the judgment seat. Who could have understood that if we did not first understand Jesus’ demonstration (of judgment) at the cross?

So it is really a gracious and good thing God has done in revealing this glorious doctrine. It also adds to the depth of the love of God in that it helps us to recognize that God has loved us much more than we could have thought. Not only did God love us by bearing our sins and paying for our sins at the foundation of the world, but He also entered into the world to demonstrate and show forth the things that were done before there were any witnesses and before there was mankind. He entered into the world and suffered and died – it was real suffering and real death – to illustrate and to help us understand the things He had done. He was the rock “twice slain,” just as Moses smote the rock two times, as he was representing the Law of God. Who among us would die for someone? Remember how that question is put in Romans 5:6-8:

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

He died to pay for sin, and then later He died to demonstrate that He had paid for sin. It is just incredible! It strengthens the fact that God is due such glory for the things He has done. It takes nothing away, as some claim: “Oh, you are diminishing the cross.” No – it is actually being magnified as we stand amazed that the Lord Jesus Christ would die a second time (without bearing sin), and that is an amazing thing! Who among us would suffer and die simply to make a demonstration? No wonder even the Lord Jesus was shaken, as He was in the Garden beseeching God that the cup might pass from Him. After all, He had already paid for sin, and this was just a tableau or manifestation of what He had done. “And, certainly, Father, if it be thy will, may it pass?” He beseeched three times, but it was the purpose of God. “You must suffer even though you have no sin upon you. You must suffer because this is all part of my Gospel program, and the world must see what you have done and the magnificent salvation you have wrought on behalf of your people.”

And who can say this diminishes the cross? It incredibly and magnificently highlights and magnifies what Jesus did on the cross, and it was done out of love for God as He kept the command of God the Father, and it was done out of love for His people. We can only shake our heads in amazement and in wonder and in awe. And that would be a proper use of the word “awesome,” because it certainly was an awesome thing that Jesus has done on behalf of His people.

Let us go back to Romans 1:4:

And declared to be the Son of God with power…

And that is curious that God would say this. You know, some people look at where it says, “with power,” and they say, “Well, this whole declaration has to do with God declaring it with power, although Christ has always been the Son.” But they do not understand how it is that He was declared to be the Son, and they do not understand in what way that happened. They are not trying to say that at the foundation of the world, He died and rose. They just see it as a name for Jesus, and they do not understand that it is a name full of meaning that teaches us a great many things. They just see it as a name and they say, “But now, you see, He is declared to be the Son of God with power because God is sort of advancing His program of salvation.” That idea is just thrown out there, but that kind of response is not done as a result of careful study. If they would look up the word “power,” they would find some very interesting information.

The word “power” identifies with the work of the Holy Spirit. For example, it says in Romans 15:18-19

For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

You see, by the power of the Spirt of God, the Gospel is preached. Now in our verse in Romans 1:4, we do not read “by the power of the Spirit of God,” but we do read, “according to the spirit of holiness,” and we will look at that part of our verse a little later regarding what that means. But here in Romans 15, we see it says, “the power of the Spirit.” It is the same thing in Acts 1:6-7:

When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons…

This is in the Greek genitive, so it would be better translated, “It is not of you to know.” It goes on to say in Acts 1:7-8:

… which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

It says, “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you,” and so power identifies with the work of the Holy Ghost.

Let us turn back to the Gospel of Luke 24:49:

And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

Spiritually, I think this is actually a reference to “tarrying in the churches.” I think it has a double meaning. It has to do with the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. And, yet, it is also looking ahead to 1994 and the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit (after the church age had ended). And what did we learn about God pouring out the Holy Spirit the second time? Where were the children of God “tarrying” up until then? It was in the churches and congregations, which spiritually can identify with “Jerusalem below,” or with the corporate church that was typified by Jerusalem. So we tarried in Jerusalem until we were endued with power from on high; that is, God the Holy Spirit opened the Scriptures and opened the eyes of our understanding to see that the church age was over and Satan had been loosed and ruling in the congregations as the man of sin. The Holy Spirit had come out of the midst when Christ abandoned the churches. We were commanded to flee out of the churches, but we tarried in the churches until the work of the Holy Spirit went forth, once again. So I think this is a dual meaning that applies to the first coming of the Holy Spirit in 33 A. D. and the second outpouring of the Spirit in 1994 and until 2011.

But, again, the word “power” here ties in with the Holy Spirit. If we go back to the book of Acts, we read in Acts 10:36-38:

The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

Yes, historically Jesus was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power and, yet, we have to keep in mind that the things Jesus was doing in His earthly ministry (in going to the cross and in dying and resurrecting) was to teach us about things that had already taken place. He was showing or making manifest the atonement He had already performed at the foundation of the world. Therefore, when Christ was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power, it was done in time in 29 A. D. when He began His ministry (and we will look at that), but from that point the Holy Ghost was upon Him. Let us look at that right now in Matthew 3:13-17:

Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was baptized, 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.

You see, He was now undertaking the task that God had assigned to Him, and He was beginning His ministry, with the Holy Spirit. But we must look deeper because this is a mini parable. When Christ was baptized of John and came straightway out of the water and saw the Holy Spirit descending upon Him like a dove, that was when He was receiving the power of the Holy Spirit, but what does baptism point to? Remember that great book that Mr. Camping wrote called, “Baptism: The Washing Away of Our Sin.” Literal water baptism was just a sign pointing to the washing away of our sins. Jesus’ baptism by John was pointing to the time in eternity past when Jesus was bearing our sins and had them washed away (through His death and resurrection) at the foundation of the world.