Bible Study Romans Part 13-Son of God WITH Power

Welcome to the program Study in the Chapel.

God's Word is supreme at Chapel Ministries.

We consider it absolutely essential to a proper relationship with God.

We study it, we love it, we rely on it every minute of every day.

The following program is an edited recording of the regular Bible studies we hold, and we decided to share these with you in the hope that you too will be able to find inspiration, encouragement, and ultimately salvation through discovering Christ in Scripture.

Our intention is to travel all the way through the Bible.

It will be a challenging journey, but one that will undoubtedly bring you to a decision.

Through this study, you will be faced with either believing or rejecting what God has said to us.

It is our intention to provide you with enough knowledge to make an informed decision about God and his word.

We strongly encourage you to listen intently and diligently, because though at the moment you may not realize it, these things are truly a matter of life and death.

In fact, these are matters of eternal life and eternal death.

Never treat what God has said lightly.

There's truly nothing more important to you.

Now join us as we seek God's will through his inspired word.

If you've been with us for a while, you'll know that we like to talk about the fact that the entire Bible is talking about one thing.

It's about salvation.

The Bible starts with the fall of man and it ends with the redemption of man.

In between is that plan unfolding.

We have to understand that.

We need to put the Bible into its context, the original context.

God didn't give us the Bible to teach us about how he made the earth.

He didn't give us the Bible to teach us about what he did with the dinosaurs.

He didn't give us the Bible to teach us about how Jesus lived his life from the age of 12 to 18.

That none of that matters to the purpose and the plan of Scripture.

God put it there to teach us about salvation.

And that's one of the reasons why we decided to do two Bible studies a week now, one from the Old Testament and one from the New Testament, because the entire Bible is talking about the same thing.

We have to make sure that we understand that.

And I think the best way for me to demonstrate that is to teach from both ends of the Bible.

You need them both.

Don't let anyone fool you and say, well, you're you're a Christian, you don't need the Old Testament.

You do need the Old Testament.

And even the Jewish people will be told, oh, well, you don't need the New Testament.

Paul wrote most of his letters to convince the Jews that they do need their salvation, that what that God had been planning on, God had been preparing them for for centuries, for millennia, is for the coming of Jesus.

And Paul spends so much time trying to make the connection.

He does a lot of that here in the letter to the Romans, which is what we're studying in our what we call the Sunday night Bible study or Sunday morning Bible study.

We do Sunday morning Bible study out of the book of Romans.

Sorry about that.

Anyway, so we are in, as I said, the letter to the Romans.

We're really just getting started, though we've been at it for a few months.

We are currently studying the first sentence of the letter to the Romans.

We're still on verse four.

We've been here for a little while.

As I said last time, there's so much going on here, and there's no way I can try or would try to make short work of it.

So let's read it again.

I'm talking about reading verse four, but we're going to start at verse one because I have to.

From the beginning of this letter to verse seven, is one big sentence.

And chopping it up too often can cause harm to our understanding of the context.

Here we go.

Romans 1:1.

Romans 1:1

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets in Holy Scripture.

John, you keep missing that word the.

If you were with us about a month ago, we said that the word the, the definite article is not in the original.

I don't know why it isn't, but it isn't.

So when I read it, I skip over that definite article by his prophet in holy scriptures.

Verse three, concerning his son, the gospel is 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.

Those are the first four verses of Romans Romans 1 from the King James.

By the way, the NIV, the New International Version of the English language Bible, is blasphemously incorrect in its translation of this verse.

Now it says, now please do not commit this to memory because it is dead wrong.

It says, and who through the spirit of spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Let me flat out say, Jesus was never appointed the Son of God.

He was the Son of God.

This, by the way, is why you should be very careful about the choice of translation you use.

There are subtle hints about the philosophy of the scholars and the publishers hidden in small places.

And this is exactly why Bible study is so important.

You've heard me say over and over, if if someone gives you a read your Bible in 365-day guide, be polite.

Thank them for it.

And when they've turned the corner and headed home, throw it in the trash.

Recycling bin, of course.

You see, if on day 216 the reading that's assigned includes Romans 1.4, and you just read it out of your NIV and then walked away, you'd have stuck in your head that the resurrection had some power over Jesus.

I mean, according to the NIV, and the NEV, by the way, the New English translation, the resurrection gave Jesus a new or at least updated status.

Reading it like that, you'd think it all out, and then you'd come to the conclusion that while Jesus hung on that cross, he was something other than the Son of God, because the resurrection hadn't come yet.

And this despite the fact that while in the midst of the crucifixion, you know, before the resurrection, Jesus said, Father, forgive them.

They know not what they do.

Luke 23, 34.

Well, who was he talking to?

According to the NIV, it couldn't have been God since he wasn't the Son of God yet.

And how about all those other times Jesus prays to someone he calls his father or refers to someone as his father?

Was he talking to and about Joseph?

That's the only conclusion you could come to if you read your NIV alone.

Listen to me.

You must study your Bible, not just read it and then meditate on it all the while praying over it.

Now, if on day 2.16 you want to read Romans 1.4 from NIV, go ahead.

But I'm hoping that you'd find it a bit odd to think that it was only at the resurrection that Jesus became the Son of God, that somehow without the resurrection, he would have been an orphan.

I hope you find that strange enough to investigate it, go to a reputable resource, and discover that the word a point is wrong.

John, aren't you laying it on a bit thick?

Listen to me.

If I have to, I'll fight for every word in the Bible.

I will not let humans with an agenda change how you look at anything written here.

It's plain and simple heresy to think that Jesus was anything other than the Son of God when he got here and stayed that way when he left and is that way now.

The resurrection was the mechanism by which the world was put on notice that Jesus was the Son of God.

Not everyone has gotten that message yet, or if they have, they've chosen to ignore it.

Now, I'm sure some smart person out there will refer me to one of the Greek lexicons and inform me that the original word horizo can be translated a point.

And yes, I will concede that.

But that definition does not fit the context.

And as we've said so many times before, the goal of any translation is to convey the message and not just the world.

You see, the world doesn't like to think that Jesus was the Son of God when he got here.

We like to think of him as that cute little baby.

So the word a point fits very well with our modern concept of what Jesus actually is, the historical Jesus.

If we say that he he couldn't have been, this wasn't a plan that God had all along.

It just sort of happened.

God found this guy, Jesus.

He seemed to be a good guy.

He thought, you know, why don't I use him to pass on a message?

And then when he dies, I'll reward him somehow by, yeah, you know what, I'll make him the son.

That's what the world wants you to think.

They don't want you to think that Jesus was anything more special than you are.

So it was the resurrection that made the difference.

He had to go all the way through that life and then die a horrible death before God would actually throw him a quarter or two.

A point is an accepted translation of the word horizo, but it's not always acceptable and not always appropriate.

Remember, context is king.

And listen to me, no foundational English language Bible, by that I mean in none of the oldest versions of the Bible in English has ever had any other word besides declared.

The King James declared.

The Geneva?

Declared.

The so-called Great Bible, the first authorized English language Bible, declared.

The Bishop's Bible, declared.

The Tyndall New Testament, declared.

By the way, the Tyndall New Testament is really the resource that all of the other Bibles relied on.

It was a very old version.

It was really one of the first English language, complete English language New Testament, and the word declared is there.

The Whitcliffe, who actually became, came before the Tyndall.

It wasn't complete.

The Wycliffe was the word declared.

And as far as I can tell, there are only two well-known, off-used editions that say anything else.

And unfortunately, they're incredibly popular.

The NIV and the NEV.

Therefore, given the message of the entire New Testament, a point is wrong.

We are not to allow any spurious interpretation of Harizo to dissuade us of one simple fact.

Jesus has always been the Son of God, and it took the resurrection from the dead to make that fact plain to mankind.

Thus, because of how important the resurrection is, we must conclude that the resurrection is the most central event in human history.

Not just to us Christians.

You see, in order for us to be redeemed, and every human being on earth, past, present, and future, needs to be redeemed.

In order for any of us to be redeemed, we must believe that our sins have been dealt with adequately.

And the fact that they are is only partially effective toward this end.

We must believe they are in order for us to be saved.

And it's the resurrection of our Savior that provides, listen to me, this is what Paul is saying.

The resurrection of Jesus provides the physical proof we need in order to generate the faith, the believing power on the fact that our sins have been forgiven.

Never ever forget, listen to me, that God does not expect you and I to believe blindly.

He always provides us with some tangible mechanism on which we can believe.

Christianity is not a leap of faith in the dark, it is an ascension to the fact of the resurrection.

Okay?

Though I don't want to, we have to move on.

It's not that I want to just hang around for no reason.

It's just that as usual, I just don't think I did a sufficient enough job of explaining yet another critical verse.

Nonetheless, I have to leave it between you and the Holy Spirit because honestly, the Holy Spirit is really the teacher.

I'm not.

So we're actually not even halfway through verse four yet.

That's why we have to keep moving.

Listen, don't blame me.

Blame Paul.

He's the one that can stack up the doctrine.

So let's get back to it.

Romans 1:1.

Romans 1:1

Again, Paul, he's servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by the prophets and holy scriptures 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.

He was all of those things before.

It was the resurrection that put the world on notice, if you will.

So Paul points out that the resurrection declared Jesus to be the Son of God, but it's more than that.

He says that the resurrection declared Jesus to be the Son of God with power.

Now, to properly understand this statement, we need to go back to the previous verse.

Let's read up the verse three again.

No groaning.

We have to go backwards for just a minute.

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets and holy scriptures, concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Here's the important part.

Well, it's all important, but this is what we're going to talk about, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh.

Now, the natural way that verse three reads is that God's son, Jesus Christ, was something else before being made the seed of David according to the flesh.

He went from something to the flesh in the form of the seed of David.

That's the way that sentence is structured purposely.

He was made the seed of David.

He was made flesh.

Now, let me point out once again how spoiled we Christians are.

We hear this statement, and we're so used to it that we no longer sense its grandeur, its magnificence, its eternal mystery.

The very Son of God put on human flesh.

First of all, that has to be the greatest miracle in the Bible.

I mean, just stop and think about he was what he was before he was the seed of David.

The Apostle John says that Jesus was the speaking agent of creation.

He puts it this way in his gospel, chapter one, verse three.

All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

Now just take a moment to think about the most incredible sight you've ever seen.

In my mind, I'm thinking of the Alps.

The first time I saw the Alps, I was spellbound, mighty and imposing and beautiful and terrifying.

Jesus made those.

Somehow he put the right materials together in the right combination under the right conditions, and out came the Alps.

John, the Alps were formed over millions of years as the African and Eurasian tectonic plates ran into each other, causing marine sedimentary rocks to rise and fold into high mountain peaks.

Yeah, I know.

That's what I said.

All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

One of the ones I love the most is what is labeled the pillars of creation.

It's from the Eagle Nebula.

And it's capturing, have you seen it's up on the screen?

Have you seen that?

It's capturing red protostars, whatever those are.

It's a mesmerizing picture.

It almost looks like a giant hand reaching toward this incredible, densely filled scattering of stars.

Jesus made that.

The giant whales that cruise the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick, Canada.

Jesus made those.

The giant sequoias in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, Jesus.

He did all of this before he was made the seed of David according to the flesh.

The incredible, intricate eye of a common everyday barn owl.

Jesus made that.

The skull of a woodpecker that's in essence a living shock absorber.

It's made up of bone that is at the same time strong and sponge-like.

But not only that, but the inside of that skull is designed so that there's almost no extra space, an absolutely vital condition for a woodpecker, because it prevents the woodpecker's brain from jostling around, preventing injury that would certainly result from the head frequently and forcefully striking a tree in an action that the bird is only going through to get its next meal.

A perfect design.

When we're talking about Jesus, there's no room for fairy tales.

So it's best to just let the grown-ups talk.

What's your point with all this?

When I think about all of that powerful divinity being crammed into a weak as water human life, there isn't anything more incredible than that.

But, and with this I'm getting to why I brought all this up.

Now I almost never talk about this, but can there be any more helpless creature than a baby in a manger?

And to think that this is the son of God, even in that state.

In that state, lying in that manger, that little baby was the son of God.

Well, some people can only think of him as that vulnerable little thing.

They can never get over that image.

And to be honest, I get it.

His entire life was characterized by weakness.

Yes, he performed mighty miracles, but even he himself in his lifetime would tell us it wasn't he that was doing it.

He said, John 5, 30, I can of mine own self do nothing as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which has sent me.

Paul is still describing the gospel of God aforementioned by the prophets in holy scriptures.

This is still the gospel Paul's been separated unto.

Jesus coming as that fragile little infant and then being declared the Son of God in power is all good news for us, every bit of it.

All of this was done for our salvation.

What Paul is emphasizing, that the one who was known to the world as that helpless babe in the manger, who grew to be an impoverished, probably fatherless biased teens carpenter to a homeless, itinerant preacher who seemingly couldn't stop his own execution as a criminal, though judged to be innocent and undeserving of that execution.

That one who presented to the world as a powerless man was raised from the dead, and that resurrection declared, demonstrated, heralded to a badly mistaken world that he was the Son of God who had power.

Now there's nothing more powerful than a person in a position who could use his power to get him out of that position who doesn't.

Through his life, he could have used his power to change all of it.

He could have destroyed all of his enemies, and he said that.

He said, Don't you think I could pray to my father and that he would bring legions down?

There's nothing more powerful than a man who doesn't use every bit of power at his control.

If you don't find Jesus powerful through all of the rest of it, that showed his power all the way through because he had power over himself.

That's powerful.

Though the world didn't recognize him as that, he was the son of God.

And the resurrection showed that.

And what the resurrection did from a perception standpoint was to indicate that he was something he had been for a long time, long, and that was he was the very powerful son of God.

Listen, the resurrection just wasn't just for you.

The resurrection wasn't conceived by the Father and executed by the Son just so that you could cruise into heaven.

I mean, it does that, but it doesn't do that only.

The resurrection made clear to the whole universe that Jesus was everything he said he was.

The resurrection made clear that the Messiah was everything the Bible said he was.

And listen to me.

One more thing this resurrection does, it serves as a witness.

And it will be a witness both for the defense as well as a witness for the prosecution.

The resurrection is evidence put forth that says that he's the perfect man who died for the sins of the world.

And those of us who believe have already presented that evidence in order to exonerate ourselves.

It's not only exhibit one for the defense, it's exhibit one and only.

The resurrection is what leads to our not guilty verdict.

Listen quickly.

In exchange for faith in the work of Christ, we receive righteousness.

That means we are judged righteous because we are clothed with Christ's righteousness.

He's waiting to put that robe of righteousness on you.

You just have to take it and put it on.

It's not ours, it's his.

But that doesn't matter because it's how God sees us.

And therefore, the charges leveled against us by our past and loudly amplified by the accusations of the devil are dismissed.

But listen to me.

As wonderful as that evidence is for us who believe, it's devastating for those who don't.

Now it may not feel devastating to them at the moment, but it will.

Listen to me.

By the time you're standing in front of the judge, it's too late.

Don't fool yourself.

Don't think you can put this off.

There is nothing more dangerous than playing fast and loose with God.

Do not expect leniency at your sentencing hearing.

The possibility of leniency, well, it's not really leniency, but nonetheless, a stay of execution was offered to you throughout your life.

As long as you have breath in your lungs, that stay of execution possibility exists.

God has been willing to accept accept someone else's work on your behalf every moment of your time on earth.

If you would have accepted that deal, God could have given you another fate, but you refused to accept it.

The declaration has been made.

Jesus has come and he's been shown to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection.

Listen to me, nothing gets me more worked up than the outrageous efforts even the church puts forth to stay concentrating on that babe in the manger.

Yes, it's lovely.

Yes, it's sweet, but it isn't the message.

Jesus becoming a man is not the message.

The message is that Jesus became a man and then lived a perfect life and then died and then rose fully and completely, demonstrating to a world in desperate need of a savior, that he is the promised Son of God who has all the power necessary to wipe away your debt.

As usual, I want to stay talking about this longer because I don't feel satisfied that I've said it all.

But I lean on the Holy Spirit because we have to move on.

Now, of course, you'd think that when I said it's time to move on, that I meant it's time to go to the next verse, especially given how much time we've already spent on it.

But uh there's still more, there's still more to talk about.

There are a couple more things to discuss in verse four.

Listen, there's a lot here.

But having said that, I think we can probably just pick it up right there next time.

Hopefully, we can make a little progress.

Fingers crossed.

See you then.

We hope this study has blessed you.

God's word is a great treasure, and it's our belief that a thorough, purposeful study of it will bring all of God's children to an understanding of his eternal plan of redemption.

It is our prayer that this will be so for all of our listeners.

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