Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Exposition of Chapter 1: The Gospel of God
Chapter Eight

Romans 1:3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh

Verse 3 about Jesus’ humanity. Verse 4 about Jesus’ divinity.

‘Concerning his Son Jesus Christ’

The gospel is concerning God’s Son. That is the nerve, the very heart of the gospel. Take away Jesus and there is no gospel.

Moses was not essential to the law, God could have given it to someone else. You can have the law without him. Not with Jesus. Take away the Person and there is no message at all.

‘was made the seed of David according to the flesh’

‘was made’ can be translated ‘became’. He was – He became. He began to be ‘the seed of David according to the flesh’.The Son of God was there in eternity, then He began to be something that He was not before – not that He has begun to be, or that He has now come into existence.

The Word became flesh. He entered into full manhood, into a complete human nature.

Contradicting Genealogy?

The genealogies in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 seem to contradict… different parents, different lines?
Matthew: Genealogical tree of Joseph
Luke: Genealogical tree of Mary
In both instances, the Scriptures are careful to tell us that He was not the son of Joseph, He was the son of Mary. Mary was a descendant of King David, thus the great promises of Isaiah are fulfilled:

Isaiah 9 ‘He shall sit on David’s throne’
Isaiah 11 ‘And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse’ (David’s father)

The incarnation

We may think this is Irrelevant, but the first 3 or 4 centuries of the Christian ere were spend very largely inthe infant church fighting for this very thing! Heresies arose denying our Lord’s humanity or His deity; or denied that He came truly in the flesh, or that He really suffered. If these are lost, the gospel is lost, and there’d be no salvation of gospel to preach.

More from Romans

Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Exposition of Chapter 1: The Gospel of God
Chapter Five

Romans 1:1 the gospel of God

Gospel means ‘Good News’
Has the gospel come to us as good news?
The law is not good news. Paul is ‘herald’ of good news, the announcer.

The gospel is not primarily an appeal for us to do anything. It is an announcement, a proclamation to us of what God has already done.

Isaiah 35 & 55 The lame leaping like an hart! Every man singing and rejoicing!
Luke 2:1-20 Shepherd have ‘good tidings of great joy’ for you.
Good tidings- the gospel!

Has it comes to us like that?
If not, we ought to be very doubtful we are Christians at all.

i) An inadequate understanding of our sinfulness is probably the greatest single cause of our failure to rejoice in the Lord always, and to realise that its message is the greatest good-news that the world has ever received.

ii) An inadequate realisation of the consequences of sin. If we detract from our bleief in the punishment of sin, so we are detracting from the good news of the gospel.

Gospel of the Trinity

Romans 1:1-4 “The gospel of God…concerning His Son…according to the Spirit of holiness”
Some see gospel solely in terms of:

i) the Father. All you must do is turn in and examine yourself, and look into yourself that God is in you. Mystics, Buddhists, New Age..

ii) the Son. Have the impression that God the Father is reluctant to forgive us, picturing Jesus has having to please with His Father to forgive us.

iii) the Holy Spirit. Interested in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit withought seeing the absolute necessity of the atonement. Conscious of their need for new life and power but by-pass the cross.
All three are subtle and dangerous.

The Father is the Centre.
The whole purpose of the work of the Son is to bring us to God the Father. Christ suffered for our sins to bring us back to God the Father. 1 Peter 3:18. It was his sending (John 3:16). If our account of salvation stops here, if we don’t go on to glorify the Father, our conception of salvation is very inadequate.

Define: sin.
The essence of sin is to fail to glorify God.
People quantify their sinfulness by their ’sins’, not by their failure to glorify God with their whole beings all the time.

The doctrine of the Trinity is the heart of Christianity.
All three Persons are absolutely necessary to the gospel. It cannot work with any of them missing. It is the thing that makes the whole gospel absolutely unique.

Oh! May God enable us to see the primacy and the centrality and tha all-importance of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

More from Romans

I’m away for two days at an annual Songwriters Consultation that Graham Kendrick runs,  there are about 60 of us here from the UK and further. Having a great time. Today we had Jim Wallis talk about remembering the poor, justice and compassion. It was hugely challenging to be honest… Followed by a Q&A session with Jim, Martin Smith and Tre Shepherd.

I guess it’s easy to think that caring for the poor is what the ’social justice’ people do, or just a few projects we do on the side. But the truth is, it’s at the heart of the gospel. The first words Jesus proclaimed in public are quoting Isaiah 61 – ’sent to the poor’ (see Luke 4:16-20). Also, remembering the poor is quite a clear theme through scripture – which obviously climaxes with Christ, the One who became poor to save the poor.

Anyways, heard a lot of stuff today but here’s some thoughts for songwriters… There are three types of compassion/justice songs:

1) Songs that inform us about the poor and injustice. Eg the verses to Delirious’ Our God Reigns

2) Songs that help us worship in the place of poverty, injustice. Eg It is well with my soul

3) Songs that commission us to go to the poor. Eg God of Justice

But all of these MUST be in the context of the gospel – The God of justice sent His son to the poor to bind up their brokenness and bring freedom to the captives, and by extension we carry on this Kingly work of Christ as His hands and feet, as His church. Our motivation for mission and source of compassion is the gospel, and the agent for God’s mission is not a charity but the Church. Yes!

I’m challenged as I haven’t written any songs in either of these 3 camps. Hmmm. Well there’s my thoughts for the day. Over and out

C.J. Mahaney answers the question, “Why sing so many cross-centered songs in corporate worship?” at Bob Kauflin’s WorshipGod conference. Absolutely worth all 8 minutes 35 seconds. Phenomenal.