13. " His [God's] 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." (Rom. 1:3, 4.)
The connection of this verse with the substance of the Epistle is very close. The Epistle might be entitled, to distinguish it from the other Epistle, as " a vindication of Christianity," for it not only presents a most comprehensive summary of all the doctrine connected with the dispensation, but also meets and answers all the difficulties which might arise upon the first observation of the entirely new ground taken by the dispensation. The epistle naturally divides itself into parts. The first, contained in chapters 3 to verse 10, shows the entire fall, bankruptcy, and condemnation of nature. The second (containing chapter 3:19 to end, and chapters 4, 5.) argues the grace of God, through faith, as the mode God had chosen in which to show out His love. Part third (comprised in chapters 6, 17) argues the question of law as bearing upon one so found by faith of grace. Part fourth, chapter 8, the blessing, in all its fullness, into which such an one is brought. Part fifth (that is, chapters 9, 10, and 11.), the bearing of this upon dispensation, in which it is shown that the Jewish dispensation passed, though the remnant according to the election in
it stood, and that so this dispensation likewise shall pass, making way for another, though God will not forget His own in it, thus establishing the difference, all important as it is; between God's objects in revealing grace upon earth, for time, and for eternity. He reveals it among men, and in time it proves how irreparable man is-no dispensation which grace has formed in man's hand has stood or will stand; but though such be in time the issue, in eternity it will be found that they that were in Christ have stood, and are there presented as fruits of its blessing. And then the epistle closes with part fifth, a beautiful outline of the duties of the saved. To many a high-minded self-sufficient Gentile, it never may have occurred that there was a difficulty, and that a very great one, likely to occur to any mind, as to God's dealing to all with the Gentiles upon an equal footing with the Jews. Alas, so high-minded are many that they would monopolize the whole interest of the Spirit in scripture to self, and entirely forget, not only God's ancient people, whose are the covenants, but the Lord Himself also, and hardly look at or care for any of His work, save that which bears upon self. Yet to one who knows how the Old Testament prophets are full of the testimony of the earthly glory of Messiah, in connection with the house of Israel and the land, surely the heavenly blessing now thrown open to both Jew and Gentile alike, must be a strange, and a new, and a wondrous thing. The case is argued at length as to dispensation in chapters 9, 10, and 11, but the whole principle of the answer as to God, and Israel, and us, is presented in these short words, "Jesus Christ.... 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."
Messiah, a Jew of the royal family of David, dead. And how so? Rejected by Israel-and in His death that glory bursting forth, which plainly told that He was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. For in death His glory shone forth as one that had life in Himself; and that He was the very Son of God was declared by the resurrection from the dead. Of none, save Him, could it ever be said, " Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." Of no one could this ever be said save of Him, who being indeed Son of man, was at the same time very and indeed Son of God. Jesus rose not in the power of that life which is in the blood, but in the power of that which was and is His own as Son of God -as the life-giving Spirit. And this is what is referred to here; for though as man He was called " the Son of the Most High," as having been conceived by the virgin Mary, by the overshadowing of the power of the Holy Ghost-it is not that which is here referred to in this passage, but that deeper, and fuller, and more wondrous glory which was His, as the eternal Son-one in the Trinity; one with the Father and the Holy Ghost; God over all blessed for evermore: and His resurrection distinctly marked Him off from all others as the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness-His in Sonship. His being dead who was the heir of David's throne, showed the ground of Israel's rejection, while His resurrection set Him in a position to deal in grace with all whom He would; in that there was no kindred tie with earth, and though, indeed, the sure mercies of David were thus, and thus alone, secured; this was simply because Israel lay in the purpose of God to bless them; for the position obtained by resurrection was one binding Him by ties alone to God, and His purposes. I would notice, also, that the effulgence of the divine glory here brought out in Him, according to the spirit of holiness, was inseparable from the church's true standing. His death closed the door, for a time at least, on Israel; His resurrection set Him in a new place, where he could deal with things, not according to earthly order, but in prerogative grace, and that to Gentile equally with Jew; while that Son-ship, according to the spirit of holiness, herein manifest, was the basis and formative principle of the church's hope, standing and blessing, as is most largely seen in chapter 8 of this epistle, and in the whole of the Ephesians.
Thus it was death which became the Lord's path into the position in which we know Him, and, in His victory over it, the means of manifesting that divine power and glory in Him, without which the church has no place, or portion, or even being.