Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;
Ver. 3. Concerning his Son] Here is a lofty and lively description of Christ's sacred person. The whole Epistle being the confession of our Churches, as Melancthon calleth it, who therefore went over it ten different times in his ordinary lectures (Scultet. Annal.): the Epistle being such, as never can any man possibly think, speak, or write sufficiently of its worth and excellency. Mr Perkins adviseth, in reading the Scripture, first to begin with the Gospel of John, and this Epistle to the Romans, as being the keys of the New Testament. And for this Epistle to the Romans, Cardinal Pole adviseth to begin at the twelfth chapter, and read to the end; and practise the precepts of repentance and mortification, and then set upon the former part of the Epistle, where justification and predestination are handled.
According to the flesh] i.e. Either his body or his human nature, called a swift cloud (as some will have it), Isaiah 19:1; "Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt." And the habitable part of God's earth, Proverbs 8:31. For the Word dwelt among us, John 1:14. And here was habitatio Dei cum carne, God dwelling with flesh, which the magicians held impossible, Daniel 2:11. It was much for God to "pour out his Spirit upon all flesh," the best thing upon the basest, Joel 2:28. But it was more, for the fulness of the Godhead bodily to inhabit it, Colossians 2:9. See Trapp on " 1Co 1:2 " St Paul seems to have learned of the holy angels, thus to salute, Luke 2:14. See Trapp on " Luk 2:14 "