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The Genealogy of Jesus Christ
< Matthew 1:1-6 >
“The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of
Abraham: Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot Judah and his
brothers. Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez begot Hezron, and Hezron
begot Ram. Ram begot Amminadab, Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon.
Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab, Boaz begot Obed by Ruth, Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse
begot David the king. David the king begot Solomon by her who had been the wife
of Uriah.”
To become a part of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,
we need to believe in His Salvation. In other words, believing in His salvation
is the only way we become part of His genealogy.
Our Father God did not send angels to save us,
he sent none other than His only son. It was Jesus Christ that our Father God
sent to save us from our sins. He made a covenant that anyone who believes in
Jesus, who is the Son of God and our Savior, would be forgiven of all of his
sins once and for all. In such a context, Matthew 1:1 says, “The book of
the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” Here,
“the genealogy of Jesus Christ” implies the spiritual world of how we can become
God’s Children through the faith of knowing and believing in Jesus Christ, being
delivered from the power of darkness.
This passage describes what is required of a sinner
to be saved from his sins and become a child of God. In other words, to become
a child of God, one needs to have faith that Abraham did. What kind of faith
is required to enter the Kingdom of God? We need to believe in God’s Word absolutely
as Abraham did. What about Abraham’s faith pleased God? He believed God’s Word
in its entirety and hoped for what was impossible by human logic. He believed
in God’s covenant just as He said, which was beyond human imagination. That
is the full extent of his faith. Even though Abraham’s wife was past childbearing
age and therefore it was impossible for her to conceive a child, Abraham believed
in God’s covenant to him that his offspring would be as many as the stars in
the sky. Therefore God accounted it to him for righteousness and was pleased
with him. This is how Abraham became the father of the righteous by faith.
You and I today look up to Abraham as the father
of all believers because he believed exactly whatever God said. In the same
way, we need to have the kind of faith that Abraham had to enter the Kingdom
of Jesus. This is the only way for a sinner to receive the remission of sin
and become a righteous person. We come to enter the Kingdom of God, and receive
His salvation, by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
How do we believe in Jesus as our Savior to become
a part of the genealogy of Jesus Christ? In other words, how do we believe in
His salvation for sinners? We need to believe in the Gospel of the water and
the Spirit as it is.
Our Father God sent his Son, Jesus, to this world
as the Savior of the world to take away all the sins of the world. Therefore,
we must admit that Jesus took all of the sins of sinners by the method of being
baptized at the Jordan River. And the true faith is believing that He was crucified
for our sins, bled and died on the Cross, rose again from the dead, and saved
the believers in Him wholly. “But Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Permit
it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’
Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from
the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit
of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him” (Matthew 3:15-16).
This passage is the truth of how Jesus took on
the sins of the world by His baptism. Our Father God sent our Lord Jesus to
the sinners and had Him take on all of our sins as He was baptized by John the
Baptist to cleanse our hearts as white as snow and to open the door to the Kingdom
of God. We can become the righteous by accepting His Word in our hearts and
become the members of His family. Anyone who believes in the work Jesus did
can change from a sinner to a sinless person. The way to become a family with
God is to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
For a sinner to become a child of God, he needs
to have the faith that believes that Jesus is the Savior of the sinners. In
the scripture, “the son of David” means that Jesus is the descendant of Judah.
In the Old Testament, God made a covenant that He will make kings from the tribe
of Judah, a son of Jacob (Genesis 49:10). David is a man from the tribe of Judah
of whom the Old Testament spoke. And Jesus was born from the tribe of Judah
as the King. As Abraham did, we become a part of royal family by believing God’s
Word. We become children of God spiritually. And anyone who has become a part
of the genealogy of Jesus Christ by faith has already become a child of God.
Abraham bore Isaac, Isaac bore Jacob, Jacob bore Judah and his brothers, and
they kept on bearing their descendants. People who believe in God’s Word continue
to bear God’s children.
All who became a part of the genealogy of Jesus
by faith were those who had received God’s mercy, and were not those who had
anything to brag about themselves. They were humble and week, but believed in
God’s Word. Therefore, they became one family with the real King.
As we become a part of His genealogy by faith,
we need to know this-that in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, there was
a prostitute named Rahab as well as a woman named Ruth from the Moabites, the
Gentiles. Then, how could a prostitute have become a part of the genealogy of
Jesus? It is by Rahab’s faith in God that she came into the Kingdom of God.
God tells us that the only way for a sinner to become a child of God is believing
in His Word. This means that true faith is not living a good life by doing good
work, but believing in God’s Word. How could a prostitute have lived according
to God’s Will? However, God even forgave all the sins of someone like a prostitute,
who committed many sins, by the Lord’s salvation. Even a prostitute could become
a child of God by having faith in the truth of God’s salvation. This means that
every sinner in this world can become a child of God.
The Bible tells us about the faith that believes
in Him and His Word. In Matthew 1, the Bible talks about the faith of Tamar
again. Who is Tamar? She was the daughter-in-law of Judah, who slept with her
father-in-law. When we look at it morally, how could a woman who had sexual
relationship with her father-in-law become a part of the sacred genealogy of
Jesus? However, Tamar was approved because of her faith that believed in the
covenant from her father-in-law. She became of part of the genealogy of Jesus
by faith that believed the Word that her father-in-law conveyed.
It was customary in Israel that when the first
son is dead, the second son is given to the wife of the first son. If the eldest
son does not have offspring when he dies, the father-in-law has the responsibility
of marrying the wife of the first son to his second son. Tamar was married to
a first son of Judah. But the first son was wicked in the sight of the Lord,
and the Lord killed him. So, as the custom of Israel, Judah gave his second
son to Tamar. However, the second son knew that the heir would not be his so
emitted on the ground, and God put him to death. The father-in-law had to give
this third son to his daughter-in-law. However, he was too young, so the father-in-law
promised that he would give his third son when the son is grown up. Tamar waited
for the third son. However, the father-in-law did not give her his son, so Tamar
through of a trick.
There came a day of sheep shearing in a year.
So Tamar took off her widow’s garment and wrapped herself with veil and sat
in an open place. Prostitutes in Israel must have had her head and face wrapped
and covered with veil. When Judah saw her on his way up to sheep sheering, he
wanted to be with her. So he gave her his signet, cord and staff as the pledge
and slept with her. Judah did not know that this was his daughter-in-law. A
few months later, Tamar’s pregnancy started showing. It was considered adultery
since she was a widow then. In Israel, adulterer was to be punished by being
stoned or being burned. Judah planned to stone her to death. But Tamar said
at that time “I am pregnant by this man who this staff and signet belong to.”
They were the pledge that Judah gave to the prostitute. Therefore, Judah acknowledged
them and Tamar could bear sons that continue the family line.
This shows that God blesses people who believe
in His Word of Covenant and live by it. As such, anyone who becomes a part of
the genealogy of Jesus does so by the faith in God’s Word. As is written in
the passage, “Judah begot Perez and Zerah by Tamar,” Tamar gave birth
to twin sons and continued the genealogy of Jesus by her faith in God’s covenant
with Judah. Here, no Israelites criticized Tamar, saying “you have done wrong.”
Rather they praised Tamar for her faith, saying that it is a faith of blessing.
Likewise, God accepts the faith of those who believes in God’s Word. Tamar could
become part of the genealogy of Jesus because she believed in God’s covenant.
If we believe in God’s Word, we can become His children as well.
We do not become righteous by good deeds. Every
sinner can become a righteous person by believing in the gospel of God’s righteousness
and become one family with God. The Bible tells us that it is not our holy behavior
that makes us God’s children. Rather, we become children of God by our faith
in God’s Word of covenant. We become children of God and enter the World of
Jesus by our faith that believes the Words of God. We become the children of
God through our faith in God’s Word. We must know and believe that we become
righteous and sinless by believing in Jesus.
The Bible tells us that the faith that believes
the Scripture as it is is the faith that believes in the righteousness of God.
To become righteous as we accept Jesus, we have to believe in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. The word “Sanctification” is used often in all the
religions in the world. However, Jesus tells us that there is no one who entered
the Kingdom of God after he has already been sanctified on his own. Let’s examine
the Scripture. Abraham presented his wife as his sister out of fear for their
safety. Isaac did the same with his wife. Abraham sold out his wife and Isaac
is also a man who did the same thing. Tamar and Rahab in the passage were also
some of the examples of people who could not have been included in the genealogy
of Jesus if it had not been for their faith. In Christianity, sanctification
means becoming holy gradually. However, Tamar had sexual relationship with her
father-in-law, Rahab was a prostitute, and Ruth was a gentile. None of these
women had the status to become part of Jesus’ genealogy in human perspective.
However, the reason they were called righteous and became a part of the genealogy
of Jesus is due to their absolute faith in God’s covenant. This is the kind
of faith that leads us to become children of God. By God’s Word of righteousness,
we came to know the gospel of the water and the Spirit by the faith that believes
Jesus is our Savior. In other words, the fact that we became sinless people
is not even 0.0001% due to our own good work. We became sinless people by believing
in Jesus as our Savior, who is the Son of God, and the written Word of God,
that is, the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
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We became the children of God by accepting
Jesus as our Lord and Savior. God, Our King, tells us that those
who are with the Holy Spirit are His people. He calls people like
us who have faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit “My
children, the born-again.” In the Bible, the righteous children
of God are different from ordinary people who are not yet saved
from their sins. Those who have accepted and believe in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit are different from the rest of the people
who have not received the remission of their sins. We have been
forgiven for all our sins because we believe in Jesus, who is our
Savior, as our Savior in our hearts. We know that we have already
received the remission of all our sins because we believe that the
Lord came to this world and was baptized and shed His blood. Therefore,
we became children of God through the Son of God and by believing
that Truth.
Hallelujah! We thank our God who has given us
this gospel of the water and the Spirit, the righteousness of God.
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