In Romans 1:3 and again in Romans 1:4, Paul tells us that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God.
Jesus Himself had claimed to be the Son of God, calling God His
Father.
The Jews upon hearing this claim recognized that for Jesus to
claim to be the Son of God meant that He was claiming to be co-equal with God
the Father and therefore was claiming to be God:
For this reason the Jews tried all the
harder to kill Him [Christ] . . . He was even calling God his own Father, making
himself equal with God. (John
Therefore, when Paul tells us in Romans 1:3-4 that Jesus is the
Son of God, he is telling us the same thing that he tells us later in the
book of Romans using other words - that Jesus is God come in the flesh!
. . . from them
[the Jewish people] is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever
praised! Amen. (Romans 9:5)