rom 1, 4

The Risen Christ: Rom 1:3-4
Introductory Thoughts
God
Jesus is the Son of God—Jn 3:16, John 1:1-18
Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed One—Jn 20:31
Jesus is Lord—Rom 10:9
Jesus is Eternal God—Jn 1:1-3, Jn 8:58
Man
Jesus was born of the seed of David—John 1:14


Rom 1:3
Declared—from the word for “horizon.” Jesus WAS and IS the eternal and unique Son of God, but He was “marked out,” “declared” to be Who He Is by the Resurrection.


Declared:
Luke 22:22 ""And truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined…”
Acts 2:23 ""Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God…”
Acts 10:42 ""…it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead."
Acts 17:26 ""… has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,"
Acts 17:31 ""because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world…”
Heb 4:7 "again He designates a certain day, saying in David, "Today," after such a long time, as it has been said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.""

He is the Son of God—so called 44 times in the NT
John 20:31 "but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name."
Gal 2:20 ""I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
1 John 3:8 "… For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil."

THE Son of God: Rom 1:4

Mat 4:3, Mat 4:6, Mat 14:33, Mat 26:63, Mat 27:40, Mat 27:43, Mat 27:54, Mark 1:1, Mark 3:11, Mark 15:39, Luke 1:35, Luke 3:38, Luke 4:3, Luke 4:9, Luke 4:41, Luke 22:70, John 1:34, John 1:49, John 5:25, John 9:35, John 10:36, John 11:4, John 11:27, John 19:7, John 20:31, Acts 8:37, Acts 9:20, Rom 1:4
2 Cor 1:19, Gal 2:20, Eph 4:13, Heb 4:14, Heb 6:6, Heb 7:3, Heb 10:29, 1 John 3:8, 1 John 4:15, 1 John 5:5, ,1 John 5:10, 1 John 5:12, 1 John 5:13, 1 John 5:20
Rev 2:18.

(monogenes)
In a related term, Jesus is the Only Begotten, or Unique Son
Luke 7:12 "… the only son of his mother…”
Luke 8:42 "…an only daughter…”
Luke 9:38 "… he is my only child."
John 1:14 "… only begotten of the Father…”
John 1:18 "… The only begotten Son… declared Him."
John 3:16 ""… He gave His only begotten Son…”
John 3:18 ""…the only begotten Son of God."
Heb 11:17 "…Abraham… his only begotten son,"
1 John 4:9 "… God…sent His only begotten Son…”

With power

1. Declared to be—Rom 1:4

a. Jesus Christ is THE Son of God, not by adoption, as we are sons of God, but by nature. Phil 2:6 “…Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,…”
b. He is the Son of God and God the Son (Jn 1:1, 1 Tim 3:16, Jn 20:28, etc.)
c. Jesus knew Who He was—Jn 8:58 “…Before Abraham was, I AM…”
d. The Father knew Who He was— Heb 1:8 “…Thy throne, oh God is forever…..”
e. The Angels knew Who He was—
(1) Heb 1:6 “…let all the angels of God worship Him…”
(2) Rev 5:11-14
f. A few people knew Who He was—Anna, Simeon, John the Baptist, eventually Simon Peter
g. Even the demonic powers knew Who He was—Luke 4:34
h. But in the resurrection, God was making a statement to the universe because all do not know—Acts 17:30-31
i. The sacrifice of Christ has been accepted; Natural Law has been suspended; Life is taken up again by One who had been dead
j. The Holy Spirit was intimately involved in the resurrection, just as He was in the Cross: Heb 9:14

2. God’s way of declaration:

a. Power! This is dunamis, God’s dynamic power.
(1) Not “dynamite,” though that is a popular illustration—dynamite was not invented for a long time to come, and Paul knew of NO explosive materials, because there were no explosive materials.
(2) The word expresses the power to do supernatural things—of the 123 references using this word in the New Testament, all but one or two of them have to do with performing miraculous works of power. Some Examples:

Mat 11:20-21 "Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works(dunamis) had been done, because they did not repent: 21 "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works (dunamis) which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes."

Mat 11:23 ""And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works [dunamis] which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day."

Mat 13:54 "And when He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, "Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works?"[dunamis]

Mat 14:2 "and said to his servants, "This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers [dunamis] are at work in him.""

Acts 1:8 "But you shall receive power [dunamis] when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

1 Th 1:5 "For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, [dunamis] and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake."

(3) Dunamis expresses the power to supercede the natural and do the supernatural. Dunamis makes dynamite look like a popgun compared to a hydrogen bomb!

b. The Supreme Supernatural act: The Resurrected Christ

(1) Unless Jesus returns first, everyone in this room will die someday.
(2) Death is the way of the human race, as the Bible says, "It is appointed unto men once to die..." All must leave this life, never to return--all, that is, except One.
(3) The joyous victory shout of the Christian church is ,"Christ is risen!" The equally joyous answer to that shout of victory, "He is risen indeed!" So have believers greeted each other on Resurrection Sunday for nearly 2,000 years, and so we shall greet one another until He returns!
(4) Without the resurrected Savior, Christianity is useless and foolish. Have pity on those liberal theologians who either do not believe in a literal resurrection, or who use existential philosophy to say it is not important whether or not the resurrection was literal--it is a pointless exercise to have a "Christianity" without a risen Christ.
(5) The Bible teaches that His resurrection was a literal bodily resurrection. He was not a phantom; His resurrection was not "spiritual" only; His resurrection is not an allegory in celebration of life, or any other such nonsense. He literally rose from the grave in a body that was real and physical. You could touch Him, He was recognizable to those who had known Him before the crucifixion and He still bore the scars of His torment Lk 24:36-42 tells how He appeared to two of His followers; indeed, each of the Gospels has several factual incidents about His resurrection and His appearances afterward.

c. So, the basics of the faith, and the witnesses to them—1 Cor 15:1-4
(1) The heart of the Gospel, the central part of the message, and the hope of the believer concerns the events of that week in Jerusalem nearly 2,000 years ago.
(2) The Gospel is based on eyewitness testimony—1 Cor 15:5-11

d. The Futility of Christianity Without the Resurrection—1 Cor 15:12-19
(1) If there is no resurrection, Christ is not risen—
(2) If He is not risen, the Faith is meaningless—(empty = void of all power and meaning, void of all reality and Truth.)
(3) If He is not risen, He is not the Son of God and God the Son.
(4) If He is not risen, the apostles and the other witnesses are all liars—
(5) If there is not a resurrection, we are not justified, we are not saved—
(6) The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the other side of His death on the Cross--as Paul said in Romans 4:25, "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification."

(a) Jesus Christ was crucified in our place--He bore our penalty, took our sins upon Himself, and laid down His life for us.
(b) In the resurrection, however, is the proof of God's acceptance of His Son's sacrifice. "...and who through the Spirit of Holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom 1:4)
(c) As Paul makes plain in his beautiful and powerful defense of the doctrine of the resurrection in 1 Cor 15, "...if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. " (1 Cor 15:17)

(7) Bottom Line—If there is no resurrection, then Christianity is a joke—

3. The Resurrection and the Dominion of Christ—15:20-28
a. “But now….”
(1) One of Paul’s favorite sayings. In the Greek, it can be translated, “As the matter actually stands…..” 15:20 “…But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep…”
(2) Christ is the first fruits—Col 1:18, Rev 1:5, Phil 3:20-21
b. Adam and Christ—1 Cor 15:21-22— “…for since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive…”

This is the reason why Adam was the cause of death, and why Christ is the cause of life. We die by means of Adam, because we were in Adam; and we live by means of Christ, because we are in Christ. Union with Adam is the cause of death; union with Christ is the cause of life. (Charles Hodge)

c. There will be an unfolding of events leading up to the resurrection, and this will culminate with full restoration and setting right. 1 Cor 15:23-28, Rev 20:11-15


d. If there is no resurrection, Christianity is a joke—1 Cor 15:30-32

e. Paul says, “if there is no resurrection, why do we who claim to be witnesses of the resurrection risk our lives?” If there is no resurrection, why do the apostles live lives of self-sacrifice?

f. But there WAS a resurrection, we know that from eyewitness testimony, and we know that He also ascended, and the eyewitnesses reported that after His ascension, angels promised that He would return—Acts 1:11.