The Son of Promise

Because in my study of these
past weeks, I genuinely feel that in a great measure that
the church in America and to a degree, even us, we have lost
our way. With regards to God’s great plan
of redemption, with regards to what our priorities should be,
we have lost our way, at least our eyes are off mark In place, the church has largely
filled it with programs and pursuits, causes and activities that take
us further off of God’s intended plan. And as I realized, I didn’t intend
it this way, but in a very real sense, the Book of Romans is
the fix, perhaps in Paul’s case in writing to the Roman Church,
Paul sensed that they too could be pulled off mark. They too
could be philosophized. That they too could be overwhelmed
with good causes that took them off of God’s intended plan. And
as I began to study, I found it to be true that Paul here
offers a fix for that. Because the entire book of Romans
is about the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is God’s priority. That is to be the church’s focus. But the sad truth is it is not.
The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is not the church’s primary
focus in this day and age. Instead, as I said, we’re caught
up in far too many things. And I pray that our study of
the book of Romans, not only over its course, but even piecemeal
as we walk through it, would help us to focus our hearts on
God’s plan of redemption and focus our hearts on what God’s
priorities are, what God would have of us. And in order to do
that, if you would go back to Romans chapter one. In Romans chapter one, we began
there last week. Paul introduced himself. We pick
it up in verse one, reiterating that introduction. 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 by the resurrection from the dead according to the
spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have
received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience
of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake, 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. We were introduced to
Paul, a chosen instrument last week. where we looked at the
features, as it were, of the tool in God’s hand, that imagery
taken from Paul’s conversion there in the book of Acts, where
Paul was literally seized by God, taken up, in a sense, into
God’s hand, where God called him an instrument, a tool, a
weapon, if you will, in his hand to accomplish his cause. As we
looked at Paul, we saw that He was one who was prepared for
use by God as a slave yielded to his master. He was a bond
servant. He was one who was positioned
by a divine summon. He was put in place by God himself. He was called as an apostle and
he was directed to a particular task. He was set apart in a very
real sense, sanctified to the cause. And the cause was the
great cause, God’s cause. The cause was the gospel of God. It’s called many things in Scripture,
isn’t it? Usually it is called, it is referred
to with reference to Christ, the gospel of Christ, the gospel
of Jesus Christ, the gospel of salvation, the gospel of hope,
the gospel of heaven. But in this particular case,
it is referred to as the gospel of God. That gospel of God is laid out
simply before us. The gospel, of course, is God’s
announcement, it is good news to humanity, good news regarding
man’s greatest problem, the problem with sin. The good news, this
good news that he speaks of includes the pardon of sin because of
what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross. Because of that,
we are restored by faith in Christ. God initiates the renewal of
our natures and all the while we cultivate the hope of resurrection
to eternal life. That indeed is good news. Like
I said, it is the gospel. The little word, the gospel,
just means good news, to announce good news, to proclaim good news. In the Greek translation of the
Hebrew scriptures, that word is used to announce just basically
good news. As opposed to bad news, First
Kings 142, while he was still speaking, behold, Jonathan, the
son of Abiathar, the priest came, then Adonijah said, Come in,
for you are a valiant man and bring good news. He wasn’t coming
with the gospel per se. He was coming with good news
just in general. Often it was used of good news
regarding victories, battle victories for Samuel 31 9. They cut off
his head, stripped off his weapons, sent them throughout the land
of the Philistines to carry the good news to the house of their
idols and to their people. Good news for everybody, but
the Philistines, I suppose. But in a particular way, this
word is used in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the
Hebrew scriptures. of things that have to do with
God intervening in human history with regards to redemption or
salvation, some great moment of vengeance or vindication. Psalm 49, verse 9, I have proclaimed
good tidings of righteousness in the great congregation. Behold,
I will not restrain my lips, O Lord, Isaiah 52, 7, which verse you
will be immediately familiar with, even if you don’t know
the address. So Isaiah 52, 7 says, how lovely. On the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace
and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation and says
to Zion, your God reigns. But the message of which Paul
speaks goes beyond even that. It encompasses all of those Hebrew
allusions to the good news of God’s plan of redemption, but
it gets very specific. And Paul, in this very passage
this morning, is going to tell us about the gospel. He’s going
to extol the virtues of the gospel, the benefits and blessings and
particulars of the gospel. The message of the good news
that Paul has to proclaim is God’s authoritative word because
it is. From God. And we’re picking this
thought up, as it were, midstream, as I told you, we introduced
it last week, but as you know, it’s always best and if you know
my habit, it’s always best to identify in these big sections
the simple sentence that helps. Pick out the simple sentence
in the passage you’re studying, and that’s what we’re doing is
working through this simple sentence. That’s where we find ourselves.
If you glance down at the diagram passage, as we saw in verse one,
it tells us who Paul is and it ends with the third of three
identifiers. You see that? That he was set
apart for the gospel of God. But the sentence, the simple
sentence isn’t ended yet. As I said, we’re in midstream.
Having introduced the thought of the gospel, Paul wishes to
explain that in much greater detail. In verses three through
five, but the core of what Paul wishes to explain. We’ll cap
off our simple sentence and we get it tidbit by tidbit, little
by little. And what I’ve done in that handout
is put it in boldface to help it jump off the page. The gospel is that which he promised
concerning his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, that’s the simple sentence.
Well, it’s not so simple, but that’s it. The gospel is, if you look at
verse two, that which he promised beforehand through his prophets
in the scriptures. Wasn’t the first. The God had
spoken of the gospel by the time we come to the New Testament,
God had been speaking good news and and alluding to the gospel
and to the elements of the gospel for thousands of years. In a
very real sense, God proclaimed the gospel, the good news, the
hope of some kind of salvation, even in the garden. Paul has already briefly defined
the gospel for us. He says it is of God. It is the
gospel of God. It’s God’s news. It’s God’s plan
of redemption. But Paul presses further. He
goes on to say that this gospel is long promised from God. It is the long promised message
from God. It is the mystery that has been
hidden for ages, but now is open. And he says that his servants,
the prophets, foretold of this great news. And because of this,
our confidence in the trustworthiness of the news that we take to the
world must increase. If we don’t have confidence in
the news that God has given to us, we’ll never share it. And
that’s my great fear, is that a great portion of the Christians
that we know have no confidence in this message. They have no
confidence in the news of redemption. They have no confidence in a
savior who died on the cross. They have no confidence in the
fact that Jesus’ sacrifice was adequate. As one said at the gospel of
which Paul was sent to preach was the same system of grace
and truth which from the beginning had been predicted and partially
unfolded in the writings of the Old Testament. One of the strongest
proofs of the divine origin of the gospel is found in the prophecies
of the Old Testament. This is where we gain our encouragement. The advent, the character, the
work, the kingdom of the Messiah are there predicted, and it was
out of the scriptures that the apostles reasoned to convince
the people that Jesus is the Christ. We can be encouraged
also By the fact that not only did the prophets speak generally
of the good news, but they spoke of the preaching of the good
news. That it was to be disseminated, that it was to be proclaimed.
And just a note on these prophets that are alluded to by Paul.
We shouldn’t draw the line only on the major prophets, Isaiah,
Jeremiah and others, nor can we even stop if we add in all
of the minor prophets. Jonah, Malachi and the rest.
No, you can include all of the inspired writers that spoke of
a coming Messiah, even if vaguely. The word essentially applied
to anyone who spoke by inspiration as the ambassador of God, which
includes all the Old Testament writers. Moses, David, Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Samuel, The New Testament constantly encourages us to look
back into the Scriptures, to look back to the prophets. Romans 3.21, apart from the law,
the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed
by the law and the prophets. Romans 10.11, the Scripture says,
whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed, pointing
us back to a quote from Isaiah 28.16. Luke 24, 44, he said to them,
these are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with
you, that all things which are written about me, that is Jesus
Christ in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must
be fulfilled. Look, he says. And when we arrive
at the Old Testament, we find it to be just as they described. And I take only just a few from
the book of Isaiah itself. Isaiah chapter 40, verse 9, just
listen. Get yourself up on a high mountain,
O Zion, bearer of good news. Lift up your voice mightily,
O Jerusalem, bearer of good news. Lift it up, do not fear. Say
to the cities of Judah, here is your God. Hope is offered,
promised to them. Isaiah 52.7, which verse we’ve
just read, how lovely. On the mountains are the feet
of him who brings good news. News of peace and salvation.
Isaiah 60, verse six. Isaiah 61, verse one, the spirit
of the Lord is upon me, as Jesus quoted, because the Lord has
anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent
me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives
and freedom to the prisoners. The news is there. The news of
the gospel, even the gospel of Jesus Christ is there in the
prophets. The gospel is not only that which
he promised beforehand, but it is that which is concerning his
son, if you look at the text. And if you take it all the way
down to verse four, he tells us exactly who that son is. And
I’ve made it easy by boldfacing the type, because otherwise it
wouldn’t be it would be pretty easy to get completely lost here,
wouldn’t it? especially if it weren’t diagrammed and laid out.
Paul is speaking of the gospel, which he tells us immediately
was promised. Verse two, and that it concerns
his son, verse three, and then finally, at the end of verse
four, he identifies who that son is. Jesus Christ, our Lord. As one said, Paul concludes the
definition of the message of the good news, which he has been
appointed to proclaim by adding the full title of him who is
its content. The title designates the glorified
Christ, the incarnate son of God, placed close to the father
and at the right hand of his majesty, to whom his believers
render adoring worship. As a result of that, He says
Jesus is called Savior, refers to his his calling to come and
to save his people from their sins. He is referred to as the
Messiah, the anointed one. Jesus Christ. Which ties him
directly to all of those promises given in the Old Testament as
a coming Savior, and he is called Lord. Lord is typically, as you know,
in the Old Testament, it applied to God himself. But here used
of Christ, it speaks of. His lordship. To which he has
been exalted because of his resurrection by God, seated at the right hand
of God, all things placed under his authority. As one said on
the lips of Christians, Lord denotes the idea of sovereignty
primarily over themselves as the society believers, but also
over all creation. Not only is he Lord of our lives,
which is a popular way to describe him. I accepted him not only
as savior, but as Lord. A questionable description. He is indeed Lord of our church,
but it goes far beyond that. not only Lord of Fort Collins
and Lord of the United States and Lord of the earth, He is
Lord of all. Any created thing, angels and
demons, everything is subjected to Christ as we will see when
we come to Ephesians. And with that brief introduction,
let us consider the Gospel. The news of God’s promised Son. And I want to look this morning
at what I called what I referred to as monumental seasons. In
the history of Jesus Christ, these monumental periods. Of Jesus Christ’s life, which
will stir us to a faithful witness, if this doesn’t encourage our
confidence in the great gospel of God, there isn’t much that
will. The gospel, the news of God’s
promised son contains these monumental seasons in the history of Jesus
Christ, which stir us to a faithful witness. The first one that I
want to look at this morning is his royal birth, his royal
birth. Paul, a bondservant of Christ
Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Scriptures,
concerning his son, who was born of a descendant of David, according
to the flesh. He was born of a descendant of
David. As pertains to his human nature,
Jesus was born in the line of David as part of the seed of
David. If he had not been a descendant
of David, he could not possibly have been the Messiah. According
to the Hebrew Scriptures, the prophecies concerning him had
to be fulfilled. And what Paul points to here
was A basic element of Christ and his coming was that he was
in the Davidic line. He was a direct descendant of
David. And it is in full agreement with
other parts of the New Testament, as we’ll see, but it begins in
the Hebrew Scriptures. Isaiah eleven one, a shoot will
spring forth from Jesse and a branch will from his roots will bear
fruit. Now, that is that is very symbolic
language. And we could just step back and
think of that as merely speaking of a tree. Except that the whole rest of
the scriptures clearly utilize that image. To point to the Lord
Jesus, Jeremiah 23, five, behold, the days are coming, declares
the Lord when I will raise up for David a righteous branch,
there will be a member of his family down onto into the eons
of future and he will reign as king and act wisely and do justice
and righteousness in the land. It’s Jesus Christ that he’s speaking
of. No wonder Matthew, when he opens
his gospel, the record of the genealogy of Jesus, the Messiah,
the son of David, the son of Abraham. How simple can it be? Then Matthew proceeds to lay
out the genealogy. Remember your favorite section
of Scripture that we preached a couple of years back, all those
names, you know, just bewildering as you’re overwhelmed with all
of these names. But the names, if you unpack them, are really
fascinating. Abraham, it starts, was the father
of Isaac, Isaac, the father. I’m not going to read them all.
Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac, the father of Jacob, Jacob,
the father of Judah and his brothers. Jesse was the father of David,
the king. David was the father of Solomon
by Bathsheba, who had been the wife of Uriah, and then we pick
it up in verse 16. Jacob was the father of Joseph,
the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born. It is a simple,
I mean, a child could do the math on this. A child could draw
up the family tree of the Messiah himself. Simple. Matthew 120 says it again, Joseph,
son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. Luke Luke’s Gospel also alludes
to it. Luke Chapter one, verse 30, the
angel said to Mary, Do not be afraid for you have found favor
with God. Behold, you will conceive in
your womb and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus and
he will be great. He will be called son of the
Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father,
David. What? His father was Joseph. At least in
an earthly sense, no, it wasn’t. Ultimately, he traces his lineage
all the way back to David. It must be. Luke one sixty nine, he is raised
up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David, his servant. Look to for Joseph went up from
Galilee, the city of from the city of Nazareth to Judea to
the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of
the house and the family of David. David was David’s royal line. that Jesus had to come from.
Acts 2.29 lays it out very clearly. And if you have a moment, just
turn to this passage. Acts chapter 2. Of course, you have a moment.
We have almost 22 moments. Acts chapter 2, and we pick up
in verse 29. Brethren, I may confidently say to you
regarding the patriarch, David, that he both died and was buried
in his tomb is with us to this day. Essentially, he’s saying,
did David’s royal line die there? No. And so because he was a prophet
and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to see one of
his descendants on his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of
the resurrection of Christ. This is amazing. that He was
neither abandoned to Hades, nor did His flesh suffer decay. Jesus didn’t die and just be
buried in a tomb to undergo decay like the rest
of us. But God stepped in. This Jesus,
God, raised up again to which we are all witnesses. Therefore,
having been exalted to the right hand of God and having received
from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured
forth this which you both see and hear. The Holy Spirit, for
it was not David who ascended to heaven, but he himself says,
the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make
your enemies a footstool for your feet. Therefore, let all
the house of Israel know for certain that God has made in
both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified. Jesus had
to be in the family lineage of David. The Jews knew that. And Jesus fulfills every point
of it. Paul speaks. Regarding this gospel
and his royal birth concerning his son, look at verse three,
he was born of a descendant of David, according to the flesh.
Now, amazingly, there are those commentators that say that, you
know, Jesus took on sinful flesh. It doesn’t even have to be that
way. Paul uses the word in that way many times. that we are not
to cater to the flesh. The flesh is not to have its
way in our lives, although it has a tendency to do so. Paul
just points to the word flesh to point to human flesh, a body. He took on humanity. First Timothy
316 says this by common confession, great is the mystery of God,
godliness. He who was revealed in the flesh. That’s how we saw God, remember?
He was vindicated in the spirits. As one said here, it is best
understood as meaning a man. Jesus became a man, he took on
flesh so far as his human nature is concerned. By using that image,
Paul implies the fact of Christ’s human nature in respect of which
he has just said is true. It is not the whole truth of
him. The words born of a descendant of David are used of the Son
of God and respected as human nature. Philippians 2 7. He emptied
himself, taking the form of a bond servant, being made in the likeness
of men. He took on flesh. Galatians 4
4 When the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son, born
of a woman, born under the law. He took on human flesh. John
1.14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw his
glory. Glories of the only begotten
from the Father, full of grace and truth. There’s no sinfulness
in the Lord Jesus Christ just because he took on human flesh. That whole heresy. That all flesh
is evil was the Gnostic heresy that essentially wanted to do,
you know, do all kinds of evil things to the body merely because
it was flesh. As we look at the first of these
monumental seasons in the history of Jesus Christ. The royal birth
of the Savior. gives us great confidence in
the gospel that was prophesied thousands of years before it
came to be revealed right before our eyes in the person of Jesus
Christ. We have been told of it for thousands
of years, and then all of a sudden there Jesus is in the flesh right
before our eyes as a descendant of David. We can take confidence in the
gospel. This isn’t something that some group cooked up. This isn’t something that mere
men thought up. This isn’t something that developed
over time as a theory or a philosophy. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ,
and it is rooted in the truth of God’s word anchored there.
Point two. Considering the gospel, the news
of God’s promised son, the second monumental season in the history
of Jesus Christ, which stirs us to a faithful witness is his
confirming resurrection. Essentially, God’s stamp of approval.
Look at ultimately verse four. Set apart for the gospel of God,
verse one, 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 by the resurrection from the dead, according to the
spirit of holiness. Now, when you just know it. One
of the most difficult weeks At the outset, as I looked at the
week laid out before me with this jury duty and all the other
duties that I have and all the other things and responsibilities. And all of a sudden I come into
this passage and I read this, this clause contains an unusually
large number of problems. Do you think? What does the phrase
with power modify? What is that pointing to? When
he says with power at the end there of that clause, is he saying
that the Son of God was with power or was he declared with
power? Was it powerfully declared or
was the Son of God the powerful one? Certainly, both things are
true. What is the meaning of the word
declared? Is that when Jesus became a son? OK, you’ve done
a good job, Jesus, down there dying on the cross. I’ll make
you my son. Is that what that says? What
is the meaning of the spirit of holiness? I can’t even tell
you how many views there are. Well, yes, I can. Maybe not in
15 minutes. Verse four, he was declared with
he was declared the son of God with power by the resurrection
from the dead. The question is, do we attach
the prepositional phrase with power to the son of God or to
that verb declared powerfully declared? Some believe that you
have to attach it to the son, the son of God with power, the
powerful son of God. I don’t I don’t see it. I don’t
think it’s necessary to do that. You attach it to the declaration,
which is attested voluminously. We know that Jesus Christ is
power. We know that all authority has been given to him, but he
was powerfully declared. To be God’s son. The resurrection of Jesus Christ,
as we see in many places of Scripture, was a great exercise of God’s
might. It was God’s almighty power put
forth toward his son. First Corinthians 6, 4, 14 says
it this way. God has not only raised the Lord,
but will raise us up through his power. It was an act of God’s
might. to raise up the Lord Jesus. Second
Corinthians 13 14. He was crucified because of weakness. Yet he lives because of the power
of God. Ephesians. And this verse should
do it. Paul was praying for the Ephesians.
One of the things he prays for them is that they might know
the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.
He wants us to know how strong God is. How powerful. How mighty. And he goes on to say that these
are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might.
Three times he uses words that indicate power. Working strength
might. When did he show it? 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 the right hand of God in heavenly places. It was an act of almighty God
that raised up Jesus Christ, it was an affirmation, a confirmation That said, what does it mean
then that Jesus was declared the son of God by the resurrection?
This is a concern. And it didn’t get any easier
as I began to study it. Because the word there came to
be used usually as to fix or establish, to determine, to appoint
no help there. And in that sense, almost every
occurrence in the New Testament, that’s the that’s the sense that
you have. Look, twenty two, twenty two,
it has been determined. Actually, twenty three, which
first you’re familiar with by the predetermined plan. Of God,
acts ten, forty two, one who has been appointed by God, acts
eleven, twenty nine, seventeen, twenty six, having determined
their appointed times. One said it this way, however.
The word means to distinguish or mark off one object from others
by drawing a line between them like you would in drawing boundaries
on a map. Here, the line is drawn by the
act of God in raising Jesus from the dead that marked him off
from other men and indicated consequently his true character,
not only as David’s son, but as the son of God. The word does
not mean simply that he became the son of God, but that his
unique sonship, his relationship to God Almighty then became absolutely
clear. Christ did not become the son
of God, he had been the son of God from eternity. From all eternity,
said one, he was the son of God. But during his period of humiliation,
his power in the fullest degree was hidden from view. Most men,
as they looked at him, even as Isaiah said, had no stately form
or majesty that we would be drawn to him. We didn’t know by looking
at him that he was God. That God’s power in its fullest
degree was put forth by means of his glorious resurrection,
his investiture with power not only was enhanced, but it began
to shine forth in all of its glory. He was declared in the
resurrection and it wasn’t something that God hadn’t done before.
He did it at his baptism. Remember the Mount of Transfiguration? God declared this is my beloved
son. Listen to him. He was declared the son of God
with power is powerfully proclaimed in the resurrection from the
dead. The verse goes on to say that it was done according to
the spirit of holiness. Of course, this was encouraging
midway through the week, difficulties encompass every interpretation
of this expression. Great. It occurs nowhere else
in the New Testament, so you can’t go anywhere else for help.
Since it is parable parallel to that little phrase, according
to the flesh in verse three, according to the flesh, according
to the spirit, and since that refers to the human nature of
our Lord, it has been supposed that the term in question must
have in view the divine nature. Well, not everybody agreed. Big surprise there, right? It
referred to the human spirit, said one. So he’s saying that,
you know, in the flesh, he was one thing in the human spirit,
though. He was another. We can set that one aside. Another
one said it refers to divine nature. One said it this way,
the nature of the contrast must be defined by the context. The
sense seems to be, as regards flesh, Christ was born of the
seed of David, but as regards spirit, that which in him was
a spirit of holiness, perfectly pervaded and animated by the
Holy Spirit. So, in other words, Jesus’ spirit
was so holy, his own personal spirit. And there still were
others who believed that it points directly to the Holy Spirit,
just another way of saying the Holy Spirit, the spirit of holiness.
And if you, depending on what translation you have, perhaps
spirit is capitalized, pointing or giving you a clue, at least
to the direction that your translators were leaning. Well, that is the
particular view I would lean to here. It is indeed a difficult
passage, but I think. Dr. Bruce summed it up aptly
when he said there is an obvious antithesis between according
to the flesh and according to the spirit. It’s plain, it’s
right there in the text. The spirit of holiness is the
regular Hebrew way of saying the Holy Spirit. He does not
allude to the two natures of our Lord, but the two states
of humiliation and exaltation. It is one and the same Son of
God who appears in humiliation and ultimately in exaltation
alike. And so not only are we stirred
to a faithful witness by Jesus’ royal birth. We are stirred to
a faithful witness by a gospel that is marked with the greatest
exhibition of God’s power ever shown. Even beyond the creation
of the world, Jesus raised from the dead because of what it accomplished.
Because it was so glorious and so stupendous, so overwhelming
in its accomplishment, The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
must give us great confidence that we go out to a world that
needs precisely this. They need to know that there
is a God, an all-powerful God, and they need to know that there
is a Savior who is not only crucified for sinners and died and was
buried, but He was resurrected by Almighty God. He was raised. Point three, the third monumental
season in the history of Jesus Christ, which stirs us to a faithful
witness, not only his royal birth and his confirming resurrection,
but his ministry blessings. And admittedly, I. I softened my. Descriptive here. Because there’s this big argument,
as you get down into verse five, through whom we have received
grace and apostleship. It was through the Lord Jesus
Christ, it was through Christ himself that these gifts are
given, whatever they are. We know very clearly there was
at least one gift, apostleship, which Paul points to. We know
what that refers to. What are the gifts? Well, It
seems like the commentators go out of their way to make every
one of these phrases difficult. This one seemed on the face of
it to be simple to me, and yet. I’ll try to introduce the trouble
and unmoddy it all at the same time. One person said this may
be understood either as denoting two distinct things, grace and
apostleship, grace, God’s undeserved favor, the very basis of the
Christian life. and apostleship, or it can be
understood as one thing. It’s called the Hindayatis, where
one thing is referred to in two completely different terms, denoting
the grace or the undeserved favor of apostleship. And there were
those, many of those who pointed to the fact that there is one
gift. Paul’s not talking about salvation
here when he mentions grace. He’s not talking about that at
all. He’s talking about himself. He’s only focused on himself.
He’s only announcing what God had done on his behalf. And there
certainly was evidence to support that, Romans 12, 3, through the
grace given to me. And he’s talking about his apostleship
there in Romans 12, through the grace given to me. Romans 15,
I have written very boldly to you on some points to remind
you again, because of the grace that was given to me from God.
And he’s pointing there to his calling as an apostle and to
the grace that undeserved favor as an apostle that he had received
from God. First Corinthians 310, Galatians
2 9, other verses to consider. Galatians 2, 9, recognizing the
grace that had been given to me, he advances forward in his
calling as an apostle. It’s not a bad way to go. But I do believe that he’s talking
about two distinct gifts, and there’s evidence, clear evidence
here. That he talks about his salvation as a packaged gift
from God, and he talks about his apostleship, certainly given
as a grace gift. But Paul can’t ever get away
with not talking about the grace of God that was shown to him
of all people in salvation. And so he’s talking here not
only about the unmerited favor of God, but also about on top
of it all, that he was called as an apostle. Paul said it this way to 1 Corinthians
15, 10, By the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me did not
prove vain, but I labored more than all of them, yet not I,
but the grace within me. Galatians 115 likewise says,
When God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb, called
me through his grace. I believe there he points not
to his apostleship, but to his salvation. First Timothy one,
even though if this one doesn’t sew it up for you, we can talk
later, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, a
violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly
and unbelief and the grace of God. Our Lord was the grace of
our Lord was more than abundant with the faith and love with
which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement
deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this
reason, I found mercy so that in me is the foremost Christ.
Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example
to those who would believe in him for eternal life. Paul here
is extolling the greatness of salvation and the The great upon
greatness of the apostleship to which he was called. Great
gifts, incredible gifts. We are called and stirred to
a faithful witness of the great gospel that God has given. Not
only by the royal birth of Jesus Christ, not only by the confirming
resurrection that God put his stamp of approval on this Savior,
that also by the blessings of ministry, the fact that we have
tasted of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that we have been afforded
by God’s grace, not only salvation, but the privilege of serving
him in any capacity. If apostleship was given merely
out of God’s grace, then any calling, any calling whereby
we serve the glorious Lord is a grace gift. My question to you as we close, are these indeed monumental seasons? As you look at them in your own
life, do they have the effect of being monumental seasons? Ebenezer’s, if you will, marks
of profound truth. to cause us to march forward
in a difficult world with the great confidence that we serve
a Savior who comes from a long-promised royal line. A Savior who was received by God through
the resurrection. And a Savior who has given us
gifts, not the least of which was our salvation. Let’s pray. A gracious God. We humble ourselves
before you. And we pray that you would grant
us the grace not to be feeble with regards to the gospel. But
to go forth and to tell forth with great power by your grace. Of all that Jesus Christ has
done for us. And all that he has done in dying
for sinners, Grant us your grace, Father, to accomplish your end. Grant us confidence in this great
gospel. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen. So,