Matthew 1:1-6 Jesus Christ is Our Perfection

Trying to answer the question, "How is Jesus Christ our All-in-all?

The Text

Matthew 1:1–6 (CSB)
¹ An account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham:

² Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers,

³ Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Aram,

⁴ Aram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon,

⁵ Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, Obed fathered Jesse,

⁶ and Jesse fathered King David. David fathered Solomon by Uriah’s wife,

The Word

Ephesians 1:4-8 (CSB) For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding.

The Devotion

Here was the game plan of God to rescue his people: send his Son.

But he would not do it out of thin air or out of the clouds, although he is God and he could certainly do that.

He was going to send his Son to be "with us" and in a way, through us. This was from the very beginning:

So from this first gospel preaching, we knew that our Messiah would be born into this world. But try to imagine how we would send the Savior?

He would have to be born wealthy, with resources, within a perfect bloodline with people fit to be royalty.

He would be born of royalty (that is a future teaching) but a bloodline not worthy of such prestige.

Look at the list of his family:

• Abraham gives his wife out not once but twice for fear of his own life
• Commits adultery because he did not trust the promises of God
• his son, Isaac, does the same thing
• his son, Jacob, whose name means "trickster", steals his brother's inheritance and runs for the hills
• his son, Judah, sleeps his daughter-in-law, whom she was dressed up as a temple prostitute, and impregnating her with twins
• A prostitute
• A widow who used to be a child-sacrificing demon worshiper whose descendants were born out of incest
• a finally, a king who would rape a woman and then when she gets pregnant, turns and murders her husband and several of his own men to cover up his sin

The lineage of Christ is anything but sparkling clean. It is scandalous. It is filled with sinners. The deplorable. The depraved. The wicked.

But this elaborate plan by the Father and the Son--why would they include such vile people in the family tree of the Messiah?

But whom did Christ come for? The righteous? The wealthy? The healthy? The perfect ones?

Mark 2:16-17 (CSB) When the scribes who were Pharisees saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? ” When Jesus heard this, he told them, “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

No. He came for the sinners, The deplorable. The depraved. The wicked.

Romans 5:8-9 (CSB) But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath.

We are no longer under the weight of being perfect because we are not and we would be crushed by those expectations. We must obey the law but we have always fallen way way short. Christ came as our Perfection so that, in fulfilling the obedience of the law, we are then saved by God and we get to obey God because why? We have been made perfectly righteous by the Perfect Law Keeper.

Until you know and trust Christ, you have no hope of obeying him. You must be born again into his family--so that only then you get to obey and enjoy God forever.