76 – GOD SPEAKS TO THE ROMAN CHURCH
September 15, 1963
Henry F. Kulp
Romans 1: 1 - 4 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 the 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:
Here we have, first of all, Paul as the writer of this epistle—and he talks about himself first of all and says that he is a servant, a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ—He is an apostle—a sent-one by Jesus Christ. Than the third thing we see is that he was separated unto the Gospel of God. Here you have separation—there is no question about it – God calls His people to separation. How we can go along with those who do not have the Gospel of God, is beyond me.
1/ Notice the last four words of that first verse—the Gospel of God and then link them with the first three words of vs. 3 for the second verse is in parenthesis—so you have this—the Gospel of God concerning His Son. That is the Gospel—that is what Paul was to preach,
2/ The Gospel means good news. For that is the meaning of the word, and God’s good news is about Christ Jesus. I wonder if you recognize that God has no other good news other than the good news concerning His Son. God has nothing good to say to any man except, Jesus Christ died for you. Have you received Him as your Saviour?
3/ The Gospel of God. In these days we have so deluded the Gospel in order to make it simple that we have all-together failed to get the meaning of the Gospel of God. Only too frequently we think of the Gospel only as a means by which we are saved and we go to Heaven and we will not spend eternity in hell, and so this interpretation of the Gospel is occupied with the benefits that the sinner gets, and the sinner is inclined to become occupied with just the mercies of God and the grace of God that flows into him. The Gospel of God, then, is not simply the way whereby I am saved—it is far more than that. It is the Gospel of God concerning Jesus Christ God’s Son and our Lord. The central object of all this scene is not the sinner and the sinner’s blessing, but Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.
4/ Notice two things that are said of Christ. First of all it tells of His humanity Vs. 3 Concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh. Now there is no doubt the humanity of Jesus Christ by birth is important for us. Then notice, it says here, which was made—it should be who was born of the seed of David. It is necessary for us to see that Jesus Christ was a real man. I suppose a better word would be “true man” instead of “real man”. Jesus Christ was a true man. Jesus Christ said He was a man.
John 8: 39, 40 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
Here Christ was debating with the Jews as to whether or not they were the children of Abraham. He said if ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. And He brings out the fact here that He is a man.
5/ Paul was sure of the real humanity of Jesus Christ.
I Corinthians 15: 21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
Here he writes to the church at Corinth and he says, for since by man came death, by Man came also the resurrection of the dead. Here he is bringing out the humanity of Jesus Christ – He was true man.
6/ I Timothy 2: 5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;
Any man who reads the Scriptures with honesty in his heart will soon be convinced that Jesus Christ was a man.
7/ Then the next thing that is said about Him is His deity 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.
This is a declaration of Christ’s deity. This declaration is that of the Holy Spirit, and the proof of the declaration is in the resurrection. Thus, we have the birth and burial of Jesus Christ linked together—He Who was divinely born was divinely raised. He who was born in a virgin’s womb was raised from the tomb. It is generally assumed that this verse means that Christ was raised from the dead, and was proved to be the Son of God by this resurrection. But this doesn’t seem to be the meaning here. I will read the 4th verse as you have it in the margin of your Scofield Bible. And declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness that the resurrection of such as were dead—in other words, the resurrection of dead ones. He was declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection of some who were dead.
8/ I want you to turn to the Book of Matthew, and it throws some light on what I mean.
Matthew 27: 51 - 53 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
Remember, He was proved to be the Son of God by the resurrection of dead ones. Remember when Jesus Christ was on the cross there was a supernatural darkness for three hours.
Matthew 27: 45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
Now from the sixth hour there was a darkness over the land until the ninth hour. You realize no one saw what happened on the cross during those hours when Jesus Christ bore our sins. No one saw the agony, and the excruciating pain and torture of His body that Jesus Christ went through before He died, for there was darkness.
Then we read, Matthew 27: 51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
There was an earthquake, and the rocks were rent and broke all over the country. Supernatural happenings are all about.
9/ Another thing, there was a disturbance in the grave yard. Thousands of saints, all the way from the patriarchs who had been buried in Jerusalem, and their graves were broken open. What a night that must have been in Jerusalem. The saints came out of the graves and the people in Jerusalem that night found themselves walking on the streets with people out of the graves. When Jesus died there was a great disturbance among the dead. The graves just wouldn’t stay shut. Notice, Jesus Christ lived as no other man lived, and Jesus Christ died as no other man died. When He died all nature was disrupted. Even the sun went dark, the earth trembled and the earth opened and the saints who lived 1,000 years before were walking among the people of that day.
There is not one atom of reason for any man who has had an open Bible in His hand to doubt the deity of Jesus Christ—He was declared to be the Son of God with power.
10/ Now we must understand that Jesus Christ is both Man and God, there are two verbs that give us the answer to this problem. We read He was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh, declared to be the Son of God with power. The two verbs are “made” and “declared”. The Bible is never afraid to put the twin truths of the humanity and deity of Jesus Christ in the same verse. Our text proclaims He was both made and declared. He is the God-man.
11/ He was a man, because for example, take this account of Christ in the storm. Is there anything more human than the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ tired out and asleep on the boat. You read this portion very carefully and you will find that it is evening time, and it was the time when He was tired and worn out from the day. It was the time when He first pronounced woes upon the city. It was the day when He really went after the Pharisees, it was the day when His family thought He had lost His mind, and He announced that He would never listen to any pleas that came to Him from His mother, Mary.
Mark 4: 35 - 41 And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?
Notice in the 36th verse. They took Him even when He was in the ship—even as He was—it is a phase that shows us there was something about His condition that drew the attention of the disciples. He lay down in the boat and went fast asleep. He was so tired that the wind and the storm and the rush of the water into the boat did not awaken Him. Is there anything more human than a man tired out, fast asleep with the sleep of just shear exhaustion.
The disciples awakened Him and then the scene changes – He arose, rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, Peace, be still – and then you notice that the disciples said, “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the waves obey Him?” Here we have His humanity, and His deity. In humanity He was fast asleep—exhausted. In His deity, He was awakened and He stilled the winds and the waves and they became calm. Yes, He is a Man, He is also God.
12/ I want to set forth one more example of the two natures of the God-man. It is the story of tribute money. The world says there is nothing more sure than death and taxes, and the Romans who controlled the land of promise where Jesus Christ was living, had a tax upon the people, they called it a head tax. And a day came when this head tax was to be collected. The tax collector came to Peter, does your Master pay taxes? The very fact that he asked the question of Peter, showed that even the tax collector recognized there was something in Jesus Christ that was a little different from all the rest of the men that he met. Actually, it was not Peter’s place to answer for the Lord Jesus Christ, but Peter – impetuous Peter – according to his nature agreed that the Lord would pay taxes. When Peter arrived at the house where the Lord Jesus Christ was staying, the Lord took him aside and began to talk to him privately. He asked Peter if he recognized that Kings exempted themselves from paying tax, but they took money from others, and in so doing they were free. Peter agreed that all this was true, and the Lord pointed out that because He, Himself was a King, it should be only natural that He should be exempt from giving taxes. Yet, so no offense might be given to the worldly Peter, He told Peter to go out and pay the taxes. But the method of securing the money is startling—in fact, He said to Peter – Go down to my Sea of Galilee, which I, of course, created, and I’ll have one of My creatures loose a coin in the water, and there is going to be a fish that is going to take in his mouth. You go fishing and I’ll have that fish come to your hook. You can take that fish out of the water and take the coin out of his mouth and it will be a coin of sufficient value to pay my taxes and yours.
It is a human thing to pay taxes, but certainly the divinity of Jesus Christ is seen in His way of paying them. Humanity and deity in the same portion of Scripture. Humanity is subject to the laws of the land—Deity knows the movement of the fish in the sea, knows the whereabouts of a lost coin.
Matthew 17: 24 - 27 And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute? He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.
AMEN
09/15/1962/ 76 - GOD SPEAKS TO THE ROMAN CHURCH / July 2020
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