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Romans 1:4

and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

This is what I would call a ‘Wait, What?’ verse; a verse that potentially tells me something theological I have never heard before, and could take a while to get my head around. It’s good to know with this verse, however, that I’m not alone in not being able to come to a 100% definitive understanding of this verse. If you read the commentaries and the research, there are many different questions that commentators and scholars look to answer here in v.4. For instance is it the ‘Spirit of holiness’ (as in the Holy Spirit) or ‘spirit of holiness’ (Jesus’ spirit of faithfulness to God)? And is this verse saying that Jesus wasn’t Son of God until after the Resurrection? If this is the case, then who was he before?

This verse is an important theological statement that Paul wrote to the Romans as part of his greetings. As a continuation of v.3, in v.4 Paul is further clarifying that Jesus Christ is the messiah, he is the Son of God, and his Resurrection was very important for both the Roman Jews and Gentiles. In regards to answering what the ‘Spirit of holiness’ is referring to, the short answer is no one knows for sure how the Romans would have understood this passage, but there is a strong consensus that is refers to Jesus’ ‘obedience and faithfulness to God’ because ‘Spirit of holiness’ is only used in this verse in the New Testament and when the Holy Spirit is talked about elsewhere, it is referred to as the Holy Spirit.

Answering the other fundamental question ‘When did Jesus become the Son of God?’, we must look at the adverb ‘appointed’. To say that Jesus was only appointed Son of God at the time of the Resurrection is to say before that point, Jesus was just another dude (This is called adoptionism Christology). Jesus was and is eternally the Son of God and messiah, sent to earth to save the world because us humans aren’t able to help ourselves. What he was appointed at the Resurrection is Son of God in power, able to save us sinners.

ASK YOURSELF: What do you believe? Do you believe in adoptionist Christology or functional Christology? How important to the sharing of the gospel are these distinctions?

I pray today that God will give me wisdom and understanding for the difficult questions, and peace that I won’t be able to understand everything as a fallible human, but this won’t stop me from sharing your love with those around me.