The Characterization of The Gospel of God, to Which Paul was Separated
Romans 1:2-4
(Which he had promised before by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)


The awfulness of a commission of doom. Jonah. But to herald forth God's good tidings to a sorrowing world! This is the crown of all Christian ministry. The angels might well sing and be glad when ushering this gospel into the world (Luke 2:9-14); and Paul is rejoiced that he can strike this note of gladness. There might well be preludes to this burst of joy: so the words, "which he promised afore," etc. For all the indications of God's purposes of love, from Genesis 3. to Malachi, did but prepare the way for the completed announcement in "the fulness of the time." And so virtually they all were Divine promises of a fuller gospel. The two main thoughts - God's gospel; its contents.

I. GOD'S GOSPEL.

1. A gospel carries the implication of a want, and, it may be, of a sorrow and a loss. So do the good tidings of God to man assume that man has lost his God, and with God all things good.

(1) Man knew not, surely, the reality of his sin; was deceived by the tempter; but awoke from his dream to find that God was gone! And this is the great loss of the world. Tim voices cry, "Where is thy God?" And he? The Good One - the light, the joy, the song of his creation. So man has blotted out his own heavens, and the earth thereby has lost its lustre and its grace.

(2) But the estranged God is a condemning God. He may not abdicate his essential relationship to the world as God, and if the love be lost it is replaced by wrath! So man's conscience testifies: stricken, sore, and bleeding.

2. A gospel carries the implication of a desire to have the want supplied, the sorrow and the loss removed. So man's sin has not hopelessly ruined him, else there could be no salvation. Room for God to work, and God does work.

(1) The historical preparation: God teaching the world to desire salvation. The Jews by direct dealings, a positive discipline; the Gentiles by indirect, a negative discipline. So, "the desire of all nations."

(2) The individual preparation: God's Spirit in the heart. Only the grace of God can bring us to God. And now God's gospel means, in general, that the condemning God will pardon, and the estranged God be a Father and a Friend again; that the yearnings towards himself which he has called forth shall thus find their full satisfaction, which is nothing other than the peace of forgiveness and the joy of adopting love.

II. ITS CONTENTS. But this general message has special terms. God's love is manifested, proved, accomplished, in his Son.

1. "His Son." For it is God's own love, his other self, which stoops to save us. Let us hold fast to this, for herein is the supreme pledge of our salvation.

2. His Son becomes "Jesus Christ our Lord."

(1) By the assumption of human nature. "Born of the seed of David according to the flesh." That it may be one of ourselves who saves us. (a) A Man, making atonement to God for men; (b) a human High Priest and Captain of salvation, himself "perfect through sufferings," and therefore "touched with the feeling of our infirmities" - the oneness with human-kind necessary for both the Godward and the manward aspects of the redeeming work. A Son of David, according to mere historical lineage and local appearance: "for salvation is of the Jews." But, grander and more royal than this, a Son of man - the Son of man, in his true human fashioning and for his world-wide work (Hebrews 2:14).

(2) By the glorification of human nature. "Declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead." A Redeemer of men must assert their redemption in his own Person first. "We see not yet all things put under him [i.e. man]. But we see Jesus... crowned with glory and honour" (Hebrews 2:8, 9), the archetypal Man. His resurrection, which the apostle here links on to its world-wide correlative and consequence, "the resurrection of the dead," demonstrates the redemptive power of Jesus, who is therefore the Christ, our Lord, and therefore Son of God; for only he who has life in himself can give life to dying men - life from the death of sin, life from all death which sin has more indirectly wrought. Oh, let us hearken to such a gospel! God's good news to a dying world, spoken forth with all the power of One who was God's very Son, and with all the tender sympathy of One who is our very Brother. And for a proper hearkening to this good news may God, in his love, prepare our hearts! - T.F.L.



Parallel Verses
KJV: (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)

WEB: which he promised before through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,




Messianic Prophecy
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