Jesus Christ Flesh & Spirit- -Romans1 Tamil Bible Study

Romans 1:3-5

Jesus Flesh and Spirit.

Romans 1:3-5, 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. ⁵ Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, Paul the preacher of the good news.

• a. Bond slave of Jesus Christ.
• b. Apostle sent by Jesus Christ.
• c. Set apart for the Gospel of God.

God has chosen human vessels to be the instruments of the transporting of the good news. Paul, a man like us, a slave of Jesus Christ, a called apostle, separated to the gospel of God, pointing to the fact that God has chosen to use human agency.

God has designed to use men and women to proclaim the good news.

In 1 Corinthians God has chosen by the foolishness of preaching to proclaim His message, and even use weak and foolish preachers to do it.

1 Corinthians 2:3-5, I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. ⁴ And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵ that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. So, no one's faith stands in the wisdom of men, but it stands only in the power of God through the weakness of men. God's people are still the instruments. Jesus commanded us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

The preacher is a human instrument. Then promise of the good news. The good news, or the gospel, had already been promised in the Old Testament.

Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfil.

The New Testament is the Word of God that completes the Old Testament.

The good news is going to come through a human preacher and the good news is going to be based upon the promises of God in the Old Testament. This Gospel is recorded in the Holy Scriptures.

Who is the heart of the good news? His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. The person of the good news is Christ. He came in the flesh as the seed of David. Concerning the son. He was declared as son by the resurrection. We see His humanness when he came in the flesh.

By raising Him from the dead we see His deity. ✓ His humanity. ✓ His deity.

• He had to be man to take man's place.
• He had to be God to conquer sin and death and hell and Satan.

This was accomplished, that is His power and resurrection, according to the Spirit of holiness. That is another way to say the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit working in Christ.

Christ did what He did by the power of the Holy Spirit. He expressed His power, and He was raised from the dead through the agency of the Holy Spirit. Now this relationship is very important. The Holy Spirit's the third member of the Trinity. Within the Trinity, they were equal yet, when Jesus was incarnate, He submitted Himself to the will of the Father and to the power of the Spirit in a voluntary submission.

Matthew 3:16-17, When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. ¹⁷ And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Now the Father was bestowing on Christ the Spirit. This was the initiation into His ministry, from this time onwards His ministry was controlled by the power of the Holy Spirit. The New Testament carries the very clear teaching that the Lord Jesus Christ lived in total submission to God the Father. That is a very explicit fact repeated again and again in the New Testament.

Our Lord Himself, on many occasions, said, “I am come to do My Father’s will. I am come to do the will of Him who sent Me.” (John 6:38) From the time that we first meet Jesus Christ as a boy at the age of 12, He makes it very clear the reason He came.

Luke 2:49, And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” In other words, Jesus Christ came into this world to do exactly what God the Father told Him to do. That was the key element in His humiliation. That was the key element in His servitude. So, after Baptism He came with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Luke 4:14, Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.

Remember His first sermon?

Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;

Let us look at the humanness and the Spirit power working in the life of Jesus Christ while He was on the Earth.

Matthew 12

Verse 22, There was man with demon possessed brought to Him, who was blind and dumb and likely deaf. He healed him so that he could see and hear and talk. He not only brought physical healing, but He brought about a casting out of a demon.

V 23, “And all the multitudes were amazed and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”’ Hard to argue with His power, and so they began to wonder if maybe this was the Messiah. The Jewish leaders couldn’t tolerate the people concluding this was the Messiah because Jesus was such a threat to their security that they immediately uttered an accusation.

V 24, Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” They said His power is satanic.

Now when they said that they were blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Because it was the Holy Spirit that was ministering through Him. For in His voluntary humiliation, taking the form of a servant, He had given Himself over to the power of the Spirit. That then becomes the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit.

The evilest that you could possibly speak against Him would be to say that He is the Devil, that He is Satan. That is what they said about the power of the Spirit. V 25, But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.

He gives them a basic human truism.

• You cannot survive an internal revolution.
• You cannot survive the dividing of what you are trying to hold together. It cannot be both ways.
• You cannot sustain a kingdom that you are dividing.
• You cannot sustain a city that you are dividing.
• You cannot sustain a home that you are dividing.

V 26, If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? There are only two alternatives when you see supernatural power.

• It is either God or
• It is Satan.

V 27, And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. The Pharisees had certain disciples, who were going around in little groups believing that they were exorcists who could cast out demons. The Pharisees believed this to be a work of God.

V 28-29, But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. ²⁹ Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.

Jesus tells them that they were prejudiced because they are rebellious. V 30, He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad. After saying this Jesus goes on to pronounce curse on them.

V 31-32, “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the

Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. Sin and blasphemy are, in a sense, distinct. Although blasphemy is sin. Blasphemy is the unique sin of speaking evil against God, of saying things about God that are not true about Him, of speaking of God in a derogatory manner. That is blasphemy.

Do you know the penalty for blasphemy in the Old Testament?

Leviticus 24:14-16, “Take outside the camp him who has cursed; then let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. ¹⁵ “Then you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin. ¹⁶ And whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, the stranger as well as him who is born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death. Stone to death.

Now if you speak against the Son of Man, that is forgivable.

Who is the Son of Man? Jesus Christ. Son of Man is a title that designates not His deity but His humanity.

When you begin to speak against the Spirit, then you are saying, “I recognize the supernatural, I see the supernatural, only I think it’s hell, not heaven.” For that, you will not be forgiven.

What was Jesus saying? You might say something against My humanness, and that would be forgivable. But when you blaspheme the Spirit of God who is doing the work through Me, that is unforgivable. When they denied the works of Christ, He says you are not blaspheming the Son of Man but the Holy Spirit.

Why? Because He had surrendered to the power of the Holy Spirit, and when they blasphemed His works, they were blaspheming the Spirit, because it was the Spirit working through Him. Understanding of the humanity of Christ and the deity of Christ but His relationship to the Holy Spirit, one of the most marvelous of all theological categories.

Luke 4:1, "And Jesus, being full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan." After His baptism He went from that place full of the Holy Spirit.

John 3:34, For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure.

When God gave the Son the Spirit, He gave Him the Spirit without measure in absolute and utter fullness. This is a mystery, Jesus is God. He is one with the Father and one with the Spirit. The Trinity is one and yet distinctly three.

But in a marvel of the incarnation, there was some kind of separation. The Son took on a voluntary submission, did only the will of the Father and only through the power of the Spirit. So, it was through the Holy Spirit that empowered Him in His voluntary humiliation. It was the agency of the Holy Spirit that was doing the work through Him.

The utter submissiveness of Christ.

Philippians 2:5-8, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, ⁶ who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, ⁷ but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Jesus did only what the Father showed Him to do and only in the power of the Spirit. A submission for one who is fully God and has been and will be for all eternity.

Why is that important? It is important because it indicates to us that the Trinity, that God Himself is involved in the living and the dying and the rising of Christ. The greatest affirmation that Jesus was who He claimed to be was that God Himself raised Him from the dead through the instrumentation of the Holy Spirit.

So, Christ is the God-Man, fully man and fully God. That is fully indicated in that God Himself raised Him from the dead through the agency of the Holy Spirit. That is good news. He came to identify with us. He came to be a man as we are men, to suffer, to understand the role of human life.

But at the same time, He was God, and He overcame by the power of the Spirit and rose from the dead. The marvel of His humanity and deity and that mysterious union we can never fully understand. We can never fully understand how He was related to the Father and how He was related to the Spirit because it is so mysterious. We cannot really grasp it all. But that is precisely what the Bible teaches, fully Man and fully God.

Another illustration

Matthew 17:24, When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, “Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?” Capernaum, beautiful little city on the north most point of the Sea of Galilee. The city where Jesus lived, preached, taught, and healed thousands. The city where Peter lived.

This is not a Roman tax. This is a Jewish tax relating to the temple. They were collecting the temple tax for the services of the temple.

Exodus 30:11-15, Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ¹² “When you take the census of the children of Israel for their number, then every man shall give a ransom for himself to the Lord, when you number them, that there may be no plague among them when you number them. ¹³ This is what everyone among those who are numbered shall give: half a shekel according to the shekel of the sanctuary (a shekel is twenty gerahs). The half-shekel shall be an offering to the Lord. ¹⁴ Everyone included among those who are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering to the Lord. 15 The rich shall not give more and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when you give an offering to the Lord, to make atonement for yourselves.

Nehemiah reduced it to a-third shekel when they came back from captivity because they were so poor. But the half shekel had been reinstituted. Temple in Jerusalem, there was a half shekel temple tax that had to be paid by every Jewish male annually.

the term used here is didrachma. And basically, a half a shekel, that is a Jewish concept was equal to two Greek drachmae. V 25, He said, “Yes.” And when he had come into the house, Jesus anticipated him, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take customs or taxes, from their sons or from strangers?”

Peter must be asking Jesus, “Why? Why would Jesus pay taxes? You are God. It doesn’t make sense.” Jesus said yes. Jesus paid taxes. That shows His humanness. That shows that He was a man like other men. Taxation in those days was not like it is today. The countries were run by one individual.

An emperor, or a king.

There was not democracy. The one who was at the top made all the decisions. Basically, taxed the whole society under his control for two reasons.

• To support his kingdom, and
• To support his family.

V26, Peter said to Him, “From strangers.” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. We are free.

Why? Because God is the king of the earth. God rules everything, and we are the sons of God. So, we get all the benefits, and we do not have to pay our taxes. It was a temple tax being collected.

Who was the king of the temple? God.

Who was His Son? Jesus Christ. So, if there was any tax that Jesus Christ should not have paid, it was the temple tax. He was the Son of God who was the King of His dwelling place, the temple.

It would have been a perfect time for Jesus to say, “I am not paying my tax. After all, God is the head of the temple, and I am His Son, and He does not tax Me. We are all the children of God, and the world is God’s, and He is our King, and we don’t need to respond to the world.”

V 27, Nevertheless, lest we offend them, go to the sea, cast in a hook, and take the fish that comes up first. And when you have opened its mouth, you will find a piece of money; take that and give it to them for Me and you.”

The Lord did it this way for two reasons. 1. He did not have any possessions.

2. He wanted to show Peter who He really was again and

the other disciples. It is one thing to pay your taxes, but that is another way to get the money that none of us can handle. A perfect illustration of the marvel of His humanity and His deity. He paid His taxes, but He had ways of providing that were absolutely supernatural.

Another illustration

Mark chapter 4

The Sea of Galilee A freshwater lake, and known as Lake Kinneret, in Israel. 682 feet below sea level. Surrounded by mountains. On the west and the northwest, the mountains rise to 1,500 feet. On the northeast and the east, they rise to 3,000 feet, to the Golan Heights, which runs 42 miles in length, and the lake is only 13 miles.

The lake is 13 miles by 8 miles. V 35, On the same day, when evening had come, He said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side.” Jesus taught the massive crowd the Parables. V 36, Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him.

The boats are largely smaller in size which can take 15 to 20 people. V 37-38, And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. 38 But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”

Jesus lay down in the boat, and immediately fell asleep. This is a beautiful picture of the truly human Jesus, who is exhausted, who is weary. ➢ He is the very one who created the water. ➢ He is the very one who created the sky.

➢ He created the wood the boat was made of. ➢ He even created sleep. Now, He employs these things for His own benefit, and He goes to sleep in the boat. Trailing along behind that boat are all those who were followers of His.

A fierce gale of wind is a term for hurricane. A huge wind about a 70-mile-an-hour wind. Very descriptive and strong language. Luke says it “descended on the lake” it came down on the lake. It just came racing down the slopes.

They all were familiar with storms on the lake. They lived around the lake, and they were in one now that was over the top. Here was a God-ordained storm. In spite of the storm, Jesus remains asleep. He sleeps through the storm shows His true humanness.

V 39, Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. The Lord heard their desperate cries. He got up, and He rebuked the wind. He said to the sea, “be still.”

No theatrics or drama. No effort. He spoke to the wind, and the wind stopped instantaneously. He spoke to the water, and the water stopped instantaneously. The water and the wind recognized the voice of their Creator. Just as He would tell death to release Lazarus, He tells the wind and the waves to obey His will.

We see His humanity in the one hand that He is asleep because He is so tired. On the other hand, He stops the storm instantly. We cannot explain the mystery, we can only see it.

Luke 23:39-43, Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” ⁴⁰ But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.”

Here we see the humanness. He is a victim, mercilessly hammered to a cross with a cloak of blood, spit on, mocked, stared at in His nakedness, and humiliated.

Luke 23:42-43, Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” ⁴³ And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” That is His deity. We see this co-mingling all through His life. Jesus Christ, God in human flesh doing the will of the Father, whose Son He has become in the power of the Spirit.

Conclusion

Christ’s sinless life is set against the background of the scriptural testimony to the sinfulness of man.

Job 15:16, How much less man, who is abominable and filthy, Who drinks iniquity like water! Solomon acknowledged it!

1 Kings 8:46, “When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to the land of the enemy, far or near;

The apostle John warned.

1 John 1:8-10, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

The apostle Paul summed it all up.

Romans 3:10, As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; Yet, when the Son of God took to Himself a human nature, a sinless man entered into time and space. In a life that spanned three decades, our Lord never entertained a thought, never uttered a word, and never carried out an action that was defiled by impure motives. ✓ He always honoured His Father in heaven, ✓ always honoured His earthly father and mother, ✓ never lusted, never uttered a word in sinful anger, ✓ never gossiped about or slandered His neighbor. ✓ He never stole, never lied, and never coveted. In short, He submitted to every commandment of the law of

God without wavering.

He loved the Lord with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength, and He loved His neighbor as Himself. The Scriptures bear manifold witness to this truth, and it is one of the most profitable truths upon which we ought to meditate.

The Bible expressly declares that Jesus was sinless.

Hebrews 7:26, For such a High Priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens;

The apostle Paul boldly asserts.

2 Corinthians 5:21, For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. If external testimony was not enough, Christ bore witness to His sinlessness.

John 7:18, He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him. Our redemption rests upon Christ’s sinless life and substitutionary death.

When we see the corruption of our minds, hearts, and wills, we must look at the One who knew no sin and yet was made sin for us.

When we long to know Christ in a deeper and more intimate way, it is good for us to meditate on Scripture’s teaching concerning His representative perfection. Are you labouring under the weight of your sin before the presence of God? We must remember the One who was obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.