Day 10, Read Luke 3:23-38

It is not normal that a person’s lineage is counted through the mother.  But such was the case of Jesus, and it was both essential and to be expected.  It was to be expected in that the very first promise of a Savior in Gen. 3:15 identified that Savior as coming from the “seed of the woman”.  Being born of the virgin satisfied that promise.  Joseph was assumed to be Jesus’ father (3:23) and was even so called by Mary (Lk. 2:48).  But it is clear that the Bible maintains Jesus’ connection with humanity as being through Mary and not Joseph.  Thus this genealogy is generally believed to be through Mary, who like Joseph was a descendant of David, but through his son Nathan and not Solomon.  The lineage goes clear back to Adam, unlike Matthew’s which only went back to Abraham in linking Jesus to Israel and the Davidic line.

Jesus’ connection with humanity is also essential.  As Mediator (1 Tim. 2:5), High Priest and Intercessor (Heb. 2:16-18; 4:14-16), and as the sacrifice for sin (Heb. 2:10-15; 10:5-10) it was necessary for God to become Man in the truest sense of the word.  He must be one of us, sharing in “flesh and blood” (Hb. 2:14).  The Bible pictures Jesus as being the “Last Adam”, standing in place for humanity in the same way that Adam did in the beginning (Rom. 5:18; 1 Cor. 15:22,45).  In one man we were made sinners; in one Man we are made righteous.  “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”  

With respect to Jesus’ royal position as Son of David the genealogy through Mary clears the way for the Son of David to rule on the throne while avoiding the curse upon the line through Jeconiah (Coniah).  God had pronounced this curse, telling King Jehoiakim that he would have no descendant on the throne (Jer. 36:28-30) and telling his son Coniah that he would be childless (Jer. 22:29-30).  These descendants of the godly king Josiah were part of the lineage through Solomon referred to by Matthew.  But in this record of Jesus’ humanity it is found that He was not a blood descendant of these wicked kings because He was not actually the son of Joseph.  In other words the other sons born to Mary and Joseph were descendants of Coniah and thus ineligible to rule on the throne.  Only one person in all of history had both the legal right and the human lineage to rule from David’s throne, and that One is Jesus of Nazareth.

Do we not see the sovereignty of God, the mercy of God, and the wisdom of God in this plan of salvation?  Peter was certainly right when he preached that there was no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12).  As Colossians 2:8-10 states, our fullness is bound up in the Man who was God: Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.