Romans 1:3 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

Bible Comments

Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord: this phrase either respects the Holy Scriptures, mentioned immediately before in Romans 1:2; the sum and substance of them is, concerning the Messiah, the Son of God: or else it respects the gospel, that was spoken of in the Romans 1:1,2 being only a parenthesis, as was before hinted; then the meaning is, that the apostle Paul was separated to the gospel of God, which only or mainly concerns his Son Jesus Christ. And this seems to show the excellency of the gospel, that it doth not treat of vulgar and ordinary matters. as of the gods of the Gentiles, or the actions of Alexander, Caesar, the Scipios, or such like heroes; but of the Son of God himself. Which was made; i.e. as he afterwards expresseth it, according to the flesh, or his human nature: in regard of his Divine subsistence, he was begotten and not made; in regard of his manhood, he was made and not begotten. When he says the Son of God was made, & c., it is undeniably implied, that he did exist before his incarnation, and was the Son of God before he was the Son of man. This place proves clearly these two truths:

1. That in the person of Jesus Christ there are two natures.

2. That there is between these a communication of properties; here the Son of God is said to be made of the seed of David; and elsewhere the Son of man is said to have come down from heaven: see 1 Thessalonians 3:13: cf. 1 Thessalonians 6:62 Acts 20:28 1 Corinthians 2:8. Of the seed of David; i.e. of the virgin Mary, who was of David's lineage and posterity; the promise was expressly, that the Messiah should be of the fruit of his loins, Acts 2:30, compared saith Isaiah 11:1 Jeremiah 23:5 Ezekiel 34:24. Yea, this promise was so fully known to the Jews, that when they spake of the Messiah, they called him the Son of David: see Matthew 2:9; Matthew 21:42 Mark 10:47,48 Joh 7:42. Hence it is that the evangelists, Matthew and Luke, are so careful and industrious to prove, that the virgin Mary, and Joseph to whom she was espoused, did come of David's line and race.

Romans 1:3

3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;