Romans 1:4 (the introduction) Part 1

"who was declared the Son of God with power by (or as a result of) the resurrection from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,"

Have you noticed that a lot of people have good things to say about Jesus?  The Muslims believe that He was the greatest prophet of allah (yes I chose to not capitalize on purpose because he is not God) next to Muhammad (who they consider the greatest of their prophets).  Of course they do not believe that He is coequal with God the Father (or is even God the Son); they also do not even believe that He died on the cross.  It is written in Quran 4:157, "...They said, 'We killed the Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of God.'  They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but the likeness of him was put on another man (and they killed that man)..."  Apparently, the Hindus believe in Jesus too.  They believe that a Southeast Asia, learning yogic traditions and returning home to be a guru to the Jews. To Hindus, Jesus' proclamation "The Father and I are one" confirmed the Hindu idea that everyone, through rigorous spiritual practice, can realize his own universal "god-consciousness."  Buddhists believe that Jesus was a "great man" and some consider Him to be a "great master and follower of God" (how that fits into Buddhism as there is no "god" in their religion).  Many other people consider Jesus to be a "great moral teacher (leader, prophet, revolutionary, etc., etc.,).  The best way I know to respond to that line of thought is to quote C.S. Lewis.

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” –Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis

Now let us unpack the verse.  Jesus was, is, and always will be the second Person of the Holy Trinity so it is not like He just showed up for the first time when He was born in Bethlehem some two-thousand years ago.  The pre-incarnate Christ made appearances all through the Old Testament; one interesting thing to consider all the time the Angel of the Lord is written, some theologians (and I personally) believe those are and example of Jesus poking in.  One thing we must keep in mind is that God exists outside the space-time continuum.  I know that sounds like a sci-fi thing to say, but it makes sense.  God is infinite and omnipresent.  That means that even thought God existed an infinite amount of time before He created the Universe, the beginning of creation and the final fulfillment of it is the exact same moment for Him; also He is simultaneously present with us and at the farthest reaches of the Universe at the same time.  However that is enough Ontology (the philosophy [love of wisdom] of being or existence) because this is a blog about the Bible.  The important thing to take away is that God does not get surprised by our actions.

The first part of the verse, "who was declared the Son of God..." lets try and take it apart bit by bit.  The Greek word for declared is horizo (pronounced hor-id-zo) means to ordain, determine, appoint, or proved.  It is also important to stress the fact that Jesus is the unique Son of God.  In other parts of the Old Testament the word son was used to refer to angels (Genesis 6:1-2; Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Psalms 29:1; 89:6) of to the Nation of Israel (by relationship of Covenant) (Exodus 4:22; Deuteronomy 14:1; Hosea 1:10; 11:1) and God's anointed king (Psalm 2:7; 89:27; 2 Samuel 7:14)  In the New Testament, the second Person of the Godhead took on flesh as I alluded to in Psalm 2:7, "You are My Son today I have begotten You." (granted there is more in the verse but I will leave that for you to look up).  It is written in the Gospel according to John, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God...And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:1-2, 14 emphasis mine).  The Greek word for only begotten is monogenes means single of its kind, only.