Part IV
After identifying himself as a slave of Jesus and a commissioned messenger, Paul briefly introduces the subject of his message—the gospel. This good news, which the rest of the letter will unpack in detail, centers on Jesus, the Son of God, the Messiah, and the Lord of all. Paul describes Jesus as a descendant of David “according to the flesh.” It’s tempting to pair this immediately with the following phrase, “according to the spirit,” to emphasize the dual truth that Jesus is both fully man and fully God. While this is true, Paul’s immediate focus is on Jesus’s mission as a human and his redemptive work in covenant faithfulness.
Jesus as David’s Descendant
When Paul speaks of Jesus being a descendant of David “according to the flesh,” he highlights Jesus’s humanity and his rightful place in God’s covenantal promises. As a descendant of David, Jesus qualifies for the everlasting kingship promised to David’s lineage. This fulfillment establishes Jesus as the human King over God’s people.
However, Jesus also fulfills another crucial aspect of God’s covenant. Where humanity failed to trust God for his provision of truth, goodness, and beauty (TGB), Jesus succeeded. His perfect covenant faithfulness—his righteousness—was demonstrated by his resurrection. Jesus’s death was not due to any sin or guilt of his own. As Acts 2:27 reminds us, God would not allow his Holy One to see decay. Jesus’s resurrection proved his sinlessness and upheld God’s justice. It was “according to the spirit of holiness” that Jesus, set apart from sin, was resurrected and declared “the powerful Son of God.”
Understanding Jesus as the Son of God
To fully grasp Paul’s description of Jesus as the Son of God, we must focus on his humanity. While Jesus is divine, the term “Son of God” emphasizes his role as the perfect image bearer. In human terms, we often describe sons as being “just like” their fathers, reflecting their likeness and character. Similarly, Jesus, as the Son of God, perfectly reflects the Father’s image, fulfilling humanity’s intended role as image bearers.
The Covenant and Redemption Plan
Before creation, God covenanted with himself to make image bearers for everlasting love relationship. He created humanity with the capacity to understand, assent to, and communicate TGB, relying on him to provide it. But humanity broke this covenant, failing to trust God, and came under the penalty of death—eternal separation from him.
This failure created a tension: humanity’s just punishment for breaking the covenant jeopardized God’s righteousness in fulfilling his own covenant purpose. Revelation 5 vividly illustrates this dilemma. No one in creation could take the scroll—the covenant plan for Zion’s everlasting relationship with God—and fulfill it. John weeps until the Lamb appears: God himself, stepping in to redeem humanity.
Unable to find a qualified human representative, God became human. Jesus, born of a virgin to signify his divine origin and separation from Adam’s cursed lineage, entered the world as both fully God and fully human. His deity ensured his freedom from sin, but his humanity allowed him to act as our kinsman in the covenant.
Jesus: The Perfect Human Representative
As the second Adam, Jesus accomplished what Adam failed to do. He perfectly fulfilled the covenant obligation to trust God entirely for TGB. In his relationship with God, Jesus was the ideal human image bearer, and in his relationship with us, he provided what we could not: an undeserved death. Jesus, without sin or guilt, voluntarily laid down his life. His resurrection proved his righteousness, demonstrating that he bore no guilt of his own.
This unjust death now becomes a gift to us, removing the covenant consequence we would otherwise face. Through Jesus, our souls are made righteous, our bodies will be redeemed, and we are restored to life with God. In this new covenant relationship, faith in Jesus secures our union with God.
Jesus as Lord of All Creation
Humanity was originally created to have dominion over creation (Genesis 1:26–28), but sin disrupted this purpose. In fulfilling God’s righteousness, Jesus becomes the true and only image bearer, the “only begotten of the Father.” As the perfect image bearer, Jesus is Lord of all creation. He is the rightful King, not only of Israel but of the entire world. The gospel declares this profound truth: Jesus—the true Son of God—is Lord.