“concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 1:3-4 ESV).
While Jesus’ ancestral relationship to Israel’s king David undoubtedly held great interest for the Jewish members of the church at Rome, those who hailed from other cultural backgrounds were another matter. Since non-Jewish readers might be less impressed with Jesus’ hereditary relationship to a long-deceased king of Israel, Paul the Apostle highlighted a historic event of broader significance: “…he was shown with great power to be the Son of God by being raised from death” (GNT).
One commentary illustrates the significance of these references to Jesus’ humanity and His resurrection…
“The expression according to the flesh implies that our Lord is more than a man. The words mean as to His humanity. If Christ were only a man, it would be unnecessary to single out this feature of His being, since there would be no other. But He is more than a man, as the next verse shows.” (1)
This brings us to several important truths regarding the person and work of Christ. Jesus is, and always has been, God’s divine Son. But God the Father “publicly identified” (CEB) His divinity through His resurrection from the dead. In other words, Jesus’ resurrection did not cause him to become the Son of God; instead, it served to confirm His deity.
These details are important, for Jesus “…was made of the seed of David” (KJV) in His human nature, but “…declared to be the Son of God” (ESV). Scholars refer to this concept as the hypostatic union, and it offers an easy way to express the Biblical teaching we find here in Romans 1:3-4: Jesus is one Person with two natures, one fully divine and one fully human. Those two natures are unified in one Person: Jesus, the God-man.
Another source offers a helpful synopsis of this important doctrine…
“A cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith is that in the one Person of Jesus Christ, through the incarnation two natures were united. One, the nature of perfect humanity, and the other the nature of deity (Hebrews 2:14-17;Galatians 4:4; Rom 1:3; Acts 2:29-30; John 7:42). This is known as the hypostatic union. When the eternal Word took a human nature at the incarnation (John 1:14) the Son took a real human nature including human flesh. The Son has existed from all eternity with the Father and the Holy Spirit (John 1:1; 8:58).” (2)
Therefore, the resurrection did not make Jesus the Son of God; it simply revealed who He really was. (3)
(1) William Macdonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary Edited by Arthur Farstad. Thomas Nelson Publishers (1 Corinthians 15:10) p.1666
(3) Watchman Fellowship Profile Notebook (2023) “The Church of God in Christ, Mennonite” https://www.watchman.org/
(3) See J. Vernon McGee, Thru The Bible with J. Vernon McGee, “Romans 1:1-7” Copyright 1981 by J. Vernon McGee