Paul, a
bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of
God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures,
concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the
flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power
according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus
Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to
bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles in behalf of His
name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; to all who are
beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
“…who was
declared the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the
resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord…”
When we consider
that Paul is writing to people in Rome, the idea of Jesus Christ being the Son
of God takes on more immediate significance that it might were Paul to be writing
to people elsewhere, for “son of God” was one of many titles the Roman emperor
used for himself and of course Rome was the capital city of the empire. We have
much the same thing in Mark, who likely wrote his Gospel while in Italy:
“The beginning
of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (Mark 1:1).
While the Roman
emperor might be declared the “son of God” by the Roman senate, by the people,
or by force of arms; Jesus Christ is proclaimed the Son of God “with power by
the resurrection of the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness.” No
matter the particular emperor, he cannot defeat death, but Jesus Christ has
defeated death and been raised from the dead. As the emperors will discover, no
matter how hard they attempt to defeat Jesus Christ and His People, no matter
how many legions they may mobilize, no matter the economic warfare they might
employ, Jesus Christ and His People, His Church, cannot be overcome – for even
if the People of Jesus have their physical lives taken from them, they will
continue victorious in Jesus Christ.
This is also a
reminder to the Christians in Rome that Jesus, and not Caesar, is the Son of
God; while the Christians in Rome are to pay Caesar the respect due to him, they
are to recognize that his authority is limited, his power is limited, and that
only Jesus Christ is to be worshipped and that only Jesus Christ has ultimate
power and authority. Perhaps this is a good thing for us to remember, when so
many of us have compromised our witness and our faith in the interest of
political power and political leaders. Let us remember that in many instances
Christians were not only persecuted because they believed in Jesus Christ, but
they were persecuted because they would not worship Caesar. Most Romans saw no
inconsistency in worshiping more than one god, just as today many professing
Christians in our own nation see no inconsistency in melding God and country
into one worship, into an indistinguishable allegiance and movement – in the
United States today we are less like the early Christians and more like the
pagan Romans…on a number of fronts, elements of the professing church being one
of them.
The resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead is critical to our lives as Biblical Christians,
for just as the Cross, the Resurrection has many dimensions to it and these
elements call us to much meditation and contemplation and beholding of Jesus
Christ. In Romans 5:12 – 21 we see that through the obedience of Jesus Christ,
an obedience that encompasses His death and resurrection, our souls are moved
out of Adam and into Christ. Note Romans 6:2, “How shall we who died to sin
still live in it?”
Then in Romans 6
we see that in Christ we died, were buried, and were raised with Him, and that “he
who has died is freed from sin” (6:7) and that we are to “consider yourselves
to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (6:11). This is the Way we
are called to think, to view ourselves in Jesus Christ, this is the Way we are
to live – we can hardly know Romans 12:1 – 2 if we are going to reject the Way
we ought to think, if we are not going to cultivate Biblical thinking and supernatural
Biblical perspectives, if we are not going to contemplate the glorious work of
Jesus Christ.
In Romans 7 we
see that we have died to the Law in Christ and that have been joined to Him who
has been raised from that dead. We can only be joined to Him as we are raised
with Him. Then in Romans 8 we see continuing results of our being raised with
Jesus Christ, a life lived in the Holy Spirit in which we grow into the image
of Jesus Christ and learn to dwell in His everlasting love and grace as His
brethren and the sons and daughters of the Living God.
All of the
foregoing hinges on Jesus Christ and our being incorporated, grafted, into Him
in his life, Cross, burial, and Resurrection; all of this in anticipated in the
introduction of Romans.
Let’s ponder
Paul’s desire for the Ephesians:
“For this reason
I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and
your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, while making
mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of
Him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will
know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saints, and what is the boundless greatness of His power
toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the
strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from
the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above
all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not
only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in
subjection under His feet, and made Him head over all things to the church,
which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Ephesians 1:15 –
23.
Then we see in
Ephesians 2:1 – 10 that we were dead in sins, we were made alive in Christ, and
we have been raised up with Christ and seated with Christ in the heavenly
places in Christ.
Can we see how critical
the Resurrection of the Son of God is in our lives, can we see that the Resurrection
of Jesus Christ opens to us a New Way of living in Him?
Are we living in
the power and reality of the Resurrection?
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