“ ² which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, ³ concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born 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.” (NKJV)

Verse 2 is a continuance of verse 1. What did He promise before? Looking back at verse 1 we see Paul is referring to the Gospel of God. Paul is establishing evidence through Old Testament references the validity of the Gospel that he is teaching. Paul would refer back to the Old Testament 60 times in his writing to give evidence and assurance that this Gospel is from God. 

The priority of verses 3 and 4 are to show who Jesus is, His deity and His humanity. He is both fully God and fully human. This is necessary for Him to be the perfect sacrifice; able to provide forgiveness and salvation through Him. The Old Testament prophets gave many messianic prophesies that would be used to prove who the Messiah is. Jesus fulfilled them all except for those that will take place at His second coming. 

One of the main prophecies was that He would be a descendant of David, this giving Him the right to sit on David’s throne as King of the Jews. We see one of these prophecies in Jeremiah 23:5-6 which states, 

“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” 

Both Mary and Joseph (His legal father) were descendants of David. What was not understood to the Jews of that day is that God was looking farther than just the Jewish people. The Jews were supposed to be a beacon to the world to bring people to God; but now Christ died for all, and His apostles, disciples, and Christians of all ages would pick up that light to shine it to people of all nations. To show them that God loves them and is calling them to surrender their lives to Him. His goal is to bring all people to Himself. He will sit as King of Kings of the entire world.

“According to the flesh” shows His humanity. “Declared to be the Son of God with power” shows He is God. The resurrection gave ultimate proof that He is God. Paul’s final word in this sentence is “Jesus Christ our Lord.” 

I think a better understanding is needed for what it means for Jesus to be the “Son of God”.  Matt. 26:63-64 “But Jesus kept silent. Then the high priest said to Him, ‘By the living God I place You under oath: tell us if You are the Messiah, the Son of God!’ ‘You have said it,’ Jesus told him. ‘But I tell you, in the future you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ ” Jesus confirmed that He was indeed the Son of God. 

Him being God’s Son is not like us being our parent’s children. We naturally take it in this way. We need to understand how God and the people of that day would. Here for Jesus to be “God’s Son” means that He was equal in nature to God, or of the same nature as God. What this meant is that He was in fact saying, He is God. The Jewish leaders knew this, and this is why they charged Him with blasphemy and seeked to kill Him. We see this in their statement in John 10:33, “ ‘We aren’t stoning You for a good work,’ the Jews answered, ‘but for blasphemy, because You—being a man—make Yourself God.’ ” The Jews knew that Jesus in all that He did and said was saying, showing, and proving that He is God. A person who does NOT believe that Jesus Christ is God in flesh cannot be a Christian.

Devotional written by Sarah Misch | Photo “Light in the Darkness” by Sarah Misch can be purchased at https://www.etsy.com/listing/1879512156/light-in-the-darkness-fine-art?ref=listings_manager_grid