Jesus: The fulfilment of promises

MATTHEW 1:1-2 | AL MACKINTOSH

‘This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:

Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of 

Judah and his brothers’.

I have always found it such an encouragement to look at the genealogy of Jesus as laid out here at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel. By starting in this way Matthew is connecting the Old Testament with the New.

Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience and it is no coincidence as genealogies are important to that community as it proved a person’s standing as one of God’s chosen people. 

Reading this should not be just reading a list of names, but it should help us to remember that Jesus is not introduced by God into the world to solve an issue that has just arisen, rather he has been woven into the fabric of God’s plan since promising Abraham that he would make his descendants into a great nation (Genesis 12:1-3). 

This means that we can trust God’s promises as he faithfully delivers his people through the generations, despite their many failings and tendencies to sin and turn their back on God, he remains faithful and Jesus is the culmination of his plan to restore mankind back to himself as he sends his son, the only perfect sinless being to exist, to live amongst us and die on the cross taking our sins to the grave.   Through his resurrection he proves that death has no hold over him and therefore our sin and death has no hold over us and Jesus’s life, death and resurrection to heaven assures us of our eternal future with God. 

Give thanks for God’s faithfulness and his overarching authority and let us also give thanks to God for the saving grace he sent in the person of Jesus Christ.