Are You ‘Declared’ to Receive a Crown?

I was in a bible study just a couple weeks ago and the preacher teaching the class directed us to the book of Romans, and proceeded to teach the first seven verses. My attention was grabbed by the beautiful words in verse 4.

⁴ And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

I am drawn to the word declared. Sometimes the idea of God being both man and God can confuse a person. It is certainly a piece of our faith that non-believers point to and say, “How can that be?” As man, as flesh, I understand how that can be a distraction. This particular idea is more meat than milk, and if you are looking for ways to disprove or dilute the word of God by way of confusion, this is a useful idea that will bewilder a babe on the milk. But I ask, “Are you ‘declared’ to receive a crown?”

First let’s look at the word ‘DECLARE’. If you are to read this verse like you read a novel, or the newspaper, you will read right over the word and attach the meaning regarding speech. To most of us, ‘declare’ means I said something. However that is not what it means here.

The Greek word here is Horizo. It means to define, mark-out, appoint, and determine.

Adam Clark writes of this word, “The word ορισθεντος, which we render declared, comes from οριζω, to bound, define, determine, or limit, and hence our word horizon, the line that determines the farthest visible part of the earth, in reference to the heavens. In this place the word signifies such a manifest and complete exhibition of the subject as to render it indubitable. The resurrection of Christ from the dead was such a manifest proof of our Lord’s innocence, the truth of his doctrine, and the fulfillment of all that the prophets had spoken, as to leave no doubt on any considerate and candid mind.”

The son of God has always existed, just as the spirit has. The trinity was in existence at the time earth and man was created. This is the reason for the pluralism, ‘our’, when we hear that man was made in ‘our’ image. Jesus was not defined the ‘Son of God’ during his life on earth, but long ago. However, the resurrection, an activity that only ever happened once (Lazarus was resurrected by Christ, Christ resurrected himself) is undeniable proof that Christ is who he says he is, and was ‘declared’ to be. If you go back to verse 3 you see Paul describing Jesus as flesh when he refers to him as the ‘seed of David’. Paul points to his humanness at a period of time, life of David, when Jesus was not yet born from the virgin Mary. But yet Jesus ‘was made from the seed of David’. Christ has always been as he was prophesied to be since the old testament. This is important to observe because we as man need to fully understand and believe that Jesus was man and is our example as to living according to the Father’s will and not our own. Jesus had to be man, he had to be just like us so that we could not say, “yeah well he was God and I am not”. He was tempted like we are, hungry like we are, thirsty like we are, hurt and alone like we are, and if anyone reads about his walk to the cross with any amount of sincerity, you have to admit that his body was broken like ours are.

To this point, Charles Surgeon said, “He is as much the Son of God as he was the Son of man. The humanity is as true as the divinity, the divinity as true as the humanity.”

Why is this so important to understand? Because just like Christ was flesh, so are you. Christ is God, and you are not. You and I, we are sinners. We are the children of man, and a creation of God. We have no power and authority over our flesh, and to ward off satan. However, because Christ came and sacrificed himself on the cross, we have the opportunity to accept the spirit into our flesh. At that moment, this part of Paul’s teaching becomes paramount in our faith. It is a teaching to the difference of being a man open to the sin of the world without Christ and being a redeemed soul in Christ living in our flesh. The difference between being alive in flesh, and being dead in flesh. With the acceptance of the spirit, we become appointed, marked out for heaven. Man is broken and needy. We are poor and sinful. We have no hope, just the coming of death. In the spirit we are rich. We have hope in the promise of Christ. We have the coming of a transition to eternity. We are the called of Jesus, because we saw the flesh and warred with it, losing every time. Until that day we called on Jesus, the son of God, and requested to be filled with the spirit so that, as the war against the flesh continues, we may turn that war over to Him, for He already has be victorious.

The proof of this meaning is noted in verse 6 of Romans 1, “Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:”

Calling on the LORD with the sincere repenting mind, we too become a child of God. Reflecting back to verse one Paul said that he is, “separated unto the Gospel of God.” There is a pattern here. Christ was always marked-out as the son of God, Paul received the spirit and was therefore “separated”, or marked out, unto the Gospel. Our flesh is not to be held onto. Understand that this part of your body is not the priority. The soul is. It is not what we are that should drive us, but rather what we are defined and determined and marked-out to be that drives us. We are marked-out to have fellowship, a true relationship, with God the father. We cannot do that when we allow our flesh to get in the way. We cannot do that when we do not see ourselves as marked-out, as different from the rest of the unredeemed world. We are not better than anyone, we are separated because we know how weak we are, how defenseless we are, and how much we need Christ. We separate ourselves because that is the example of Christ, and the apostles.

I am grateful that Jesus came in the flesh to show me being in the flesh alone is not good. I must have a power inside me, His power. I am glad that Paul recorded this message, that I might see the importance of knowing that I am appointed for something greater than just living in sinful flesh, so that I can understand, and help others understand, that the flesh is broken and useless, that I can doing nothing to save myself but confess to the Father that I want to be marked-out for His Glory and His plan.

If you stand in the mirror what will the reflection tell you about yourself, and what are you going to do about it? May the peace of God be abundantly heaped upon you and your house, straight from the cross to the Christian!