Romans 1
3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;
4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
There are two ways in which the gospel of God is expressed concerning Christ in the scripture. It tells of His work and His person. Much preaching today is given to the work of God and peace and comfort that embodies this truth can bring joy to our souls. However, over the last one hundred years, teachings about who God is, His very person, has been lacking to say the least.
When I started writing this column, it was my goal to lift up the personhood of God. We see many works on inspiration and application nowadays, but only a smaller group of writers actually address who God is. It continues to be my goal, to dig as deep as my limited knowledge of God will allow me to reach and examine the very nature of God, and rightly proclaim it, in hopes that others will know God better and move them into their own study of this vast subject. Such movement should bless you and me alike.
As we the church have set aside the learning about God as less important then telling others about God, we have also seen a increase in cults and heresies in teachings. Not only do church members not know much about the nature of God, in addition Churches are sending out believers to tell the world of a God they don’t know much about. This only leads to more heresies and a proclamation of fiction or at best feelings of how they think God should be.
One contributing factor to this decline in our knowledge of God is that many churches have felt that the old creeds and confessions are nothing but religious baggage that need not be carried. Granted, some may have placed creeds on the same level as the Bible and this is wrong. Creeds and confessions fall under the same authority, as the men that wrote them, that authority, being the Bible. However to eliminate confessions that are based purely on the word of God, led to theology chaos and the spread of a false gospel.
You may find on a Church sign statements such as "No book but the Bible -- No creed but Christ." Statements such as this show ignorance of not only for truth, but for the word “creed” and the benefit of it. The word creed simply means "belief." All Christians have beliefs, regardless of whether they are written down or not. The creeds of the early Church were nothing more than scriptural statements of faith put into a systematic format.
f orerunner.com reports..
The emphasis on creeds and confessions suffered a blow at the end of the last century, when conservative evangelicals reacted against Protestant denominations which fell into liberalism. "Dead orthodoxy" became a term to describe churches that officially held to the creeds and a confession of faith, yet had little fruit to testify to the genuine salvation of their members. ……..The evangelical and fundamentalist movements were bulwarks against liberal apostasy. They did away with most of the public reading of Scripture, creeds and confessions. Liturgical services were abandoned in favor of a less formal, "seeker-friendly" type of evangelical meeting. There is certainly nothing wrong with this. But in abandoning the liturgy, they forgot to teach new church members the core elements of the faith found in the creeds and confessions. De-emphasizing the public reading of creeds was intentionally good, but it had disastrous consequences
Much of the church slipping into full-blown pelagianism over the last one hundred years has its links back to not knowing who God is. The idea of first knowing who God and it’s importance before sharing the gospel is supported in the Bible. At Paul’s conversion, before he said ”Lord. What wilt Thou have me to do?” he first said..”Who art Thou Lord?”
To say you believe in Christ means nothing if one does not believe in the Christ of the Bible. Many cults teach a Christ, but on close examination we see a false Christ, which turns their faith into nothing but a waste of time. So what think ye of Christ? Your creed of Christ is also how you answer this question. In our text, we find that answer.
Please notice in the text “made of the seed of David according to the flesh;” found in verse three and compare to this statement “declared to be the Son of God” found in verse four. Christ was both “made” and “declared.” The word “made” has caused some cults to stumble, thinking this shows Christ is not God. But nothing further can be found from the truth.
This “made and declared” is but a union we find throughout scripture. In Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:” Made/Born and declared/given carries the same idea. This is what theologians call the hypostatic union or the two natures of Christ.
Though this passage is not set to prove the hypostatic union but rather proclaim the truth, it can be shown in many places throughout the Bible. Jesus is indeed 100% God and 100% man, yet one Christ.
When you think about it, this passage also supports the virgin birth. For without the virgin birth, Jesus would have been born with a sin nature, making Him not God at all.
We also find the death of Christ in this passage when it says “by the resurrection from the dead.” Christ’s death is at the very heart of the gospel and is the purpose for which Christ came. This too shows great insight into who God is.
Isaiah 53:10
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
This “bruising” found in Isaiah 53 is speaking of the death of Christ. Yes, God the father was pleased by Christ’s death, for it paid the price of sin. This of course restored a relationship with a holy God and his redeemed people. The Lord saw pleasure in this.
We also see the crowning moment of our faith and one that no other faith can claim. The resurrection of Christ also in this short creed is found in the first chapter of Romans, and very much part of who Christ is.
John 11:25-26
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”
A Swiss theologian named Karl Barth said, "Without the belief in the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ there is no salvation."
The resurrection is the guarantee to us of Christ’s work on the cross. We know He has the power over sin and death, for he proved it by coming forth from death.
The final truth I wish to point to in this creed is the word Lord. Our text tells us: Christ is the Son of God, the Son of Man, born of a virgin, died and through His resurrection has joined the believers to the risen Lord. The name Lord is but another look into who Christ is.
Lord, as in the object of our worship. We should live with a respect of Christ’s will and desire to follow His ways over our own. Jesus addressed a great gathering of people in a open plain, and said"Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" (Luke 6:46). The teaching of Christ here is clear. If one says they recognizes Jesus Christ as their Lord, then such a person should be obedient to his Lord. This is when we show our faith buy putting actions to our words.
We give this obedience to Christ because of the authority that was granted to Him. Jesus said, ". . .All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." (Matthew 28:18).
I’m not saying we should act is if the creeds and confessions are scripture for they are not. Yet they can be used as a guide to point out error in a cult. They also will give a new believer an over all view of our faith.
Today, we have more options than ever before of claims on the right view of the Bible. Modern preachers and church leaders make all sorts of wild claims and assertions which are not orthodox. I believe that some have propagated these ideas due to their ignorance or carelessness in what they have written and preached.
Is this Christ, found in this passage of Romans, the Christ that you know? It’s a creed you can count on to be true.