Matthew

The book of Matthew.

1. Genealogy of Jesus Christ

Review the key themes and ideas we’ve discussed:

Dominion

The Image of God

Covenant

Blessings and Curses

Abraham’s Lineage

The Law

Empires of Men

What are these things? How did they work in the Old Covenant and how do they work in the New Covenant?

Over the course of the Old Testament, we can see several key themes relating to the nature of mankind and authority.

God created mankind in his image, to be fruitful and multiply, and to exercise dominion over the earth.

What does it mean to be in the image of God?

What does it mean to have dominion?

If God made us to be powerful and godlike, then why is there so much weakness and suffering in the world? The curse of sin. Curses stick around, and they get worse and worse unless there’s some way of cleansing it. Our relationships with one another and the works we do to build something for ourselves in this life are doomed to futility. This is because of Adam’s sin, but also because we are continually giving into temptation and perpetuating and increasing his trespass.

Why is there violence in the world? Because of sin, brothers envy and kill one another. If we loved one another and honored God appropriately, this wouldn’t happen, but we keep playing out Cain and Abel. God’s plan for mankind is for us to exercise dominion without shedding each other’s blood and bringing even greater curse of sin upon ourselves, and that means we need to have self-control over our own sinful desires before we can expect to have any righteous authority on earth.

What’s a covenant? A sacred deal made between a higher authority and a lower subject. After the initial chapters of Genesis, the rest of the story of the Old Testament specifically concerns the covenants God made with the man Abraham and his descendants. God chose Abraham and promised that he would use him, specifically, and his lineage to fulfill the mission of mankind: multiplying throughout the earth and ruling over it. This family, and a specific heir of this family, would be the one to bless all people and reverse the curse. Over centuries they grew into a great people, Israel.

What were these different curses and blessings, and what did it have to do with the law?

How do the empires of men factor into God’s plan?

The nation of Israel spent time in captivity to a great kingdom, Egypt, but God brought them out of it, promising his people freedom and giving them his law. He made a covenant with them to bless them if they did well and curse them if they did evil. Unsurprisingly, they chose evil. They envied other nations and worshiped other gods. God continued to bless them, giving them a sacred king named David of the tribe of Judah to unite them against all their enemies. God made another covenant that one of David’s line would have an eternal throne. But David sinned as well, and his sons sinned even worse, and the kingdom of Israel fractured into pieces. God sent prophets to warn the people, but they just sinned even worse and continued be. Eventually, God sent them back into captivity and subjugation under different pagan empires - Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. By this time the land of Israel and Judah was known as Judea, and its inhabitants, Jews.

And it is during the Roman rule over Judea that Jesus Christ was born.

So, why does the very beginning of the New Testament start saying:

Matthew 1;1: “ The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”

Saying he is the son of David means that he is the heir of David’s eternal throne. Saying that he is the son of Abraham means that Jesus fulfilled the promise made long ago to Abraham: that God would multiply his descendants and give them land to rule, fulfilling the mission given to all mankind in spite of our sin.

And this is the same inheritance promised to all Christians who believe, regardless of what lineage they come from.

Galatians 3:23 Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

Jesus perfectly fulfills the law of God. As such we do not need to hope in our own ability to fulfill the demands of God’s law, but to have faith in Christ and to grab hold of our inheritance through him. When we believe in Christ, we become heirs with him according to the promise. By faith, we are sons of God, and so we inherit that which belongs to God: eternal life and an eternal kingdom. That’s what man is meant for.