Romans chapter 1, verse 1. Paul,
a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated under
the gospel of God, which he had promised afore by his prophets
in the Holy Scriptures concerning his 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, by
whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to
the faith among all nations for his name, among whom are ye also
the called of Jesus Christ." We'll stop reading with those
six verses in Romans chapter 1. In this introduction to the
believers at Rome, the Apostle Paul made reference in verse
1 to the gospel of God. It's God's gospel. And then in
verse 2, he says it's the same gospel that God had promised
of four by his prophets, the Old Testament prophets. And then he describes this gospel,
the gospel of God, as concerning God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. And then at the end of verse three,
he makes reference to the incarnation This same one, God's son, Jesus
Christ, our Lord, was made of the seed of David, according
to the flesh. And then in verse four, the emphasis
is on the resurrection and declared to be the son of God with power,
according to the spirit of holiness. by the resurrection from the
dead. There is no mention here, as
you may have noticed, between these two verses, three and four,
of his death. The emphasis, rather, is from
life to life, from God the Son, the eternal eternity to eternity. Of course Christ did die on the
cross, it was absolutely necessary that he die, but a supposed Christianity
with Christ yet on a cross or in a sealed tomb is of no value
to you and I today. And so we rejoice in, our hope
is in, our victory is in, The fact that our Lord did arise
from the dead. He tells us in John 14, it is
only because I live that ye live also. Our Lord put it all together
in his own words in Revelation 118. I am he that liveth. He said that's who I am. This is the great I am. All the
I am's in the New Testament are the same as that great I am back
in Exodus. The God of glory. Father, Son,
Holy Ghost. I am. I am He that liveth. That's not
some pitiful Jesus talking. No. I am He that liveth. I am God. I am life itself. I am He that liveth and was dead. the eternal God that ever liveth,
always have, always will. I was able in my infinite wisdom
and power to step out of eternity into time. I was able to step
out of life and enter into death. Our Lord never fell into death.
He entered into death. He laid down his life. I am he
that liveth. And yet in the same breath, he
says, and was dead. But that's not all. Behold, I never stepped out of life into
death to stay there. I stepped out of life into death
to conquer death and come forth in life forevermore. I am he that liveth, and was
dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, and have the keys
of hell and of death." I'd done something while I was
there. I took the keys of hell and death. Now let me show you
something here in verse 3. Concerning his son Jesus Christ
our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh. That word made refers to his
fleshly body, not his being. I hope I don't have to tell anyone
here that the Lord Jesus Christ never came into existence in
Bethlehem when he was born. Oh, no. He is God, the eternal
Son. And so the maid here refers to
his body. And notice it does not say he
was begotten of the seed of David. Oh, no. He was begotten of God. God is his father. But a virgin
called Mary of David's descent was overshadowed and conceived
of the Holy Ghost, having not known a man. And in that sense
only bodily was Jesus Christ made the seed of David. But now
in verse four, it's by the resurrection from the dead that he's declared
to be the son of God with power. No seed of David or any other
man had ever gotten himself out of the grave. But this one, Jesus
of Nazareth, of the tribe of Judah, of the house of David
said, I'll do it. That's what he said in John chapter
two. And the people didn't understand.
He said, destroy this temple. And in three days, I'll raise
it up again. Well, they were, as the Jews
always were, in great admiration of their temple that was built
there and how Herod had beautified it and made it all glorious,
not to the extent of Solomon's temple in the Old Testament,
but it was really something to see in the time of Christ. And when he said, destroy this
temple, and in three days I'll raise it up again, they were
thinking about that. And they said, why? This temple was 46
years being built. It took 46 years to build this. And he says he can do it in three
days? Well, later, much later, after
he's crucified, risen, and ascended, yea, even later, the disciples
remembered what he had said. And they understood that he was
referring to the temple of his flesh. Crucify this body, and
in three days I'll raise it up again. And that he did. That he did. He spake of the temple of his
body, predicting his crucifixion, and in three days he would rise
again. He's declared to be the Son of
God with power. Power to rise from the dead.
He said in John chapter 10, I laid down my life that I might 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. The Jews thought they were crucified. They were killing Jesus. And
of course, in their mind and heart, they were and were guilty
of it. And the Romans thought that they were doing it and literally
they did. But if you want to really know
who crucified the son of God, you can read Isaiah 53. It was God himself that put his
son on the cross. And so this subject to the resurrection
is so vast, and I'll not dwell on the obvious, we believe in
the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ this morning. At least
most all of us do. I hope you do. But I want to
just grasp a couple of things today. First, in the resurrected
Christ, when he got up out of the grave, we see a transformation
of an incarnate being. He's a divine being. He's an eternal being. He's God
the Son, but becoming incarnate, being made
flesh. He became man without ceasing
to be God. He never laid aside his deity.
He was always God. And yet in the resurrection,
he's different. And what I mean is after the
resurrection there are things true of Christ in the flesh that
had never been true of any other person in a body of flesh before. He is declared to be the Son
of God with power, power over death. Now at Christ's birth, he had
become flesh, not in the likeness of God, He was always God, but
he was made flesh in the likeness of men. Philippians chapter 2
says he was found in fashion as a man, that is, appearing
to the world as an ordinary man, subject to pain, hunger, thirst,
subject in his body to weariness, needing rest like other men,
He was not subject to death because death is the wages of sin and
he had no sin. He could not die without taking
our sin upon him. But physically, he was subject
to the things that other all men are subject to. He was like
that as the seed of David after the flesh. But in the resurrection,
he is declared to be something more than the seed of David,
more than the seed of Adam. He's declared to be the seed
or the son of God. When he walked this earth, like
all other men, the life of the flesh was in the blood. That's what Leviticus 1711 says,
for the life of the flesh is in the blood. Of course, on the
cross, he laid down his life in the shedding of his blood,
draining the blood out of his body. But he never arose from
the dead by infusing blood back into his body. Leviticus said the life of the
flesh is in the blood. But after the resurrection, the
life of his flesh wasn't in blood. He arose by another life source. The blood is the life of the
natural body. The natural body was, he was
sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body. After the resurrection,
Luke 24, where we had the reading this morning, he told his disciples,
behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Same body, handle me and see. And he said, for a spirit hath
not flesh and bones. Someone thought he was a ghost. A spirit, but he said it, and
that's what a ghost is, is a spirit. He said a spirit hath not flesh
and bones as you see me have. That's Luke 24, 39. It's a spiritual body whose life
is not in its blood. No, but in its spirit. In this body, Christ could appear. then disappear and appear somewhere
else. He did that in the 40 days that
he walked the earth after the crucifixion, after the resurrection.
He could appear in a room without the doors being opened. There has been a transformation
in his flesh. And in this, he is titled the
last Adam. It is a new order of humanity
of whom Christ our Lord is the head. And just as all of us by
nature were in the first Adam, and by the way included in his
transgression and fall, even so by God's appointment, by divine
election, by divine purpose from eternity, we're in This last
Adam, Christ our Lord, part of this new order, a new humanity. He was first made flesh in which
his life is in the blood, but in the resurrection, he's gone
beyond that. He doesn't need blood to live
and he can no more die. He is the first begotten of the
dead, the scripture says. And with that word begotten,
we automatically think about His birth, that He is the only
begotten Son of God. But no, also in the resurrection
He is begotten. Acts 13.33, God raised Him up
and said, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee. He who was made according to
the seed of David after the flesh is in and by the resurrection
appointed, constituted, and Paul's word, declared to be the Son
of God. I know God had spoken at his
baptism and said, this is my beloved son, and I know he had
spoken at the Mount of Transfiguration and said, this is my beloved
son. But that was before the cross.
That was before he died. And it seemed to the world at
the cross that God was disowning his son. But the resurrection
is God's owning of him. And He is declared to be the
Son of God with power. Power to what? Power to work
miracles? Oh no, He could do that before
He died and did. Power to raise the dead physically?
No, He did that all along. Power to raise the dead spiritually. Power to do something for you
and I. Power to bring fallen sons of
Adam into fellowship with the God of heaven. In short, power to produce after
His kind. In Genesis chapter 1, first chapter
of the Bible, that little phrase, after His kind or after their
kind, It occurs ten times. It's simply saying, like produces
like. Of course, that's true in the
human race, too. Adam produced Adam. And that's
what we all are, is Adam. Because of sin, all Adam could
ever produce was another sinner like himself. But this last Adam,
declared to be the Son of God produces more sons of God. It is right now planting season. Some of you have already planted
some. Brother Darrell has, I know. No man alive can explain the
miracle of putting one grain of corn in the ground And that one grain of corn planted
comes up into a stalk with several ears of corn on that stalk, hopefully. And hundreds of grains on each
ear, that one grain having produced
thousands of grains just like the one grain that was planted. Isn't that a miracle? That is
a miracle. Christ our Lord said in John
12, referring to His death, He said, except a corn of wheat
or one grain fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. It's got to be planted. But if
it dies, it bringeth forth much fruit." Do you believe today
that Christ died and rose again? I do. I really do. First Corinthians 15 20, But
now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits
of them that slept. Now of course that term firstfruits
was taken from the Old Testament, feast of the first fruits. We'd
been talking about those feasts in Leviticus 23. There are seven
of them. And that feast of first fruits,
people would offer to God an offering, celebrating the first
gathering or first fruits of the crop. Those of you that have
a garden, you know how exciting it is to go out there and get
that first tomato or that first few ears of corn or scratch a
few new potatoes. That's that first fruit. Oh,
it's so good. Hadn't had anything like this
since last summer. Fresh, good, first fruits. Well, they would
offer that to God. It was a celebration. of thanksgiving
to God, and it was also in anticipation of a full crop. See? We're looking forward to a lot
more just like it. So the firstfruits was not a
separate harvest. It was only the first part of
one harvest. And the remainder of the field
would be harvested later. I mean, you don't go out there
and get that first little picking of corn and say, well, that was
good. I'll try it again next year.
Oh, no, you're counting on gathering a whole lot more throughout the
summer. That first fruit that was gathered
can be assured that the remainder of the field will be harvested
in the same manner, with the same diligence as the first fruits,
only at a later time. So really this morning, the resurrection
of Christ and the promise of our resurrection, our body is
getting up out of the grave. It's not two separate harvests,
but it's two phases of the same harvest. the first fruits. And then we which wait for what was fulfilled
in Him to be accomplished in us. What God did for Him, He
must do for us who are in Him and are with Him. We're His body. Ephesians Philippians 3.20, for
our conversation is in heaven, from which we also look for the
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body. Now, when you get as old as I
am, you won't mind looking in the mirror and calling it a vile
body. who shall change our vile body,
that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. Oh, blessed, blessed prospect. A final verse, Romans 8, 11,
but if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the grave
or from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from
the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that
dwelleth in you. Blessed, blessed promise and
prospect that the graveyard is not the end. Oh, no. When Christ
died, one old writer said, he kicked both ends out of the grave
to where all we do is just Pass through. Pass through. Go in there not to stay, but
to rise again at His coming to be with Him forever. Glorious
day. And today is a glorious day as
we remember and honor and thank God that our Redeemer lives. He lives. A little irony and I'm through.
Many old, old cemeteries around the world have walls around them. Some of them have an old steel
wrought iron fence around them. And there's a few, oh by the
way, those walls and fences Or to keep people out. They're to keep anybody from
getting in. And there's a few famous ones
where royalty are buried, famous people. They actually keep guards
posted to keep anybody from getting in. But we read in the New Testament.
concerning our Lord's burial in the tomb of Joseph, that some
went to the authorities and said, hey, he said that business about
coming out of the grave in three days. Lest his disciples should steal
his body away and say that he did arise, we better take precaution. And so guards were posted, Roman
guards. The tomb sealed, guards were
posted. They claimed they were posted
to keep the disciples from coming and stealing his body away. That
wasn't what it was. Those guards weren't posted to
keep anybody from getting in. They were posted to keep somebody
from getting out. And guess what? He came out anyway. He came out anyway. Makes no
difference what man does or does not do. God is God. Christ came into this world to
live, die, and rise again. Having redeemed his people. Having
taken us back with him. See, he didn't come and die and
rise again as a private individual. No, he did it as a representative
person. He came into this world in my place and he lived a sinless
life crediting me with a sinless life. Died, paid for my sin. rose again and carried me with
him. That's what Paul said in Ephesians,
that we are even now seated with him in the heavenlies. You just got to believe that.
I mean, I do. You don't have to, but I do.
I'm glad to do. Bless his holy name for the glorious
resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.