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The Lineage of Christ

by Jerry Ousley  
3/13/2010 / Christian Living


A lot of people have a great desire to know where they came from. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that; sometimes knowing your lineage can bring a lot of knowledge, wisdom and good things into our lives. I guess that's true as long as our lineage doesn't take us back to some of the infamous characters in history, like Jack the Ripper, Jesse James, or Hitler. That wouldn't be a good thing to know, at least I don't think.

I've never been big on lineage. I can't tell you who my ancestors were much farther back than my grandpa. But that's good enough for me. Again, there's not a thing wrong with wanting to know your roots but I suppose I look more to the future.

The four Gospels tell us a lot about the roots of Jesus and ultimately are a good life-lesson for each of us because after coming to Jesus Christ in salvation, His roots become our roots.

The order of the books, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are not quite the order in which they were originally written. In fact, Mark is the oldest of the Gospels.

When we look at the book of Mark we find no lineage of Christ whatsoever. But it speaks volumes to us. As far as lineage is concerned it appears that Mark, by his absence of a lineage, is telling us that before anything we must face Christ squarely. The history of mankind does us no good whatsoever until we first become born into the kingdom. So the message of Mark is that we must first be born again.

All too often people forget this. They try to cram all kinds of teaching down the throats of the unsaved. But the simple fact is that teaching comes later. First and foremost we've got to show folks how to come to Christ. Once we have been born into the kingdom then we can take a look at our roots. Until we have been born naturally we have no roots. It's the same in the Kingdom of God; we've got to be born into it before we've got roots.

Secondly comes Matthew. This great apostle traces the roots of Christ back to Abraham. It speaks of the Jewish history. I believe it's important to know this because it also represents the Old Testament. Some say that, after Christ the Old Testament was done away with. Actually, Jesus Christ Himself said that He hadn't come to do away with the Law but to fulfill it. And that He did. The New Testament is filled with quotations and references flowing back to the Old. Paul told us that the Old Testament was our schoolmaster.

The Laws of the Old Testament are still in force for those who haven't come to Christ. But in Jesus, just as He fulfilled the Old Testament, so in Him we have too. When we hang all the Laws and the Prophets on the new commandment of Love as given by Jesus we are fulfilling the Old Testament Law. It doesn't mean that there's no value in it but only that we can look at it under a whole new light in Jesus Christ. The morals are still good, and often we find ourselves fulfilling them not out of duty, but out of love.

Then comes Luke. He traced Christ's lineage back to Adam (stating that Adam was the son of God). This encompasses the entire world. Jesus came for the whole world. Under His provision, acceptance of Him grafts all believers into the tree of the Jews, God's chosen people. It doesn't mean that the Jews have been done away with; only that we are now accepted just as much as they are and we are God's chosen people. That's exciting!

Finally comes John. His lineage simply indentifies Christ as the Word. He was with God in the beginning and John states that He was God. This is the teaching that unites the Trinity. God is the Father. God is the Son He came in the flesh and is our Savior. And God is the Holy Spirit. The neat thing about the three-fold being of God is that He is three and He is one. He exists equally, separately, and in unison of all three. Jesus isn't the only one, nor do we worship three gods. He can work in any one of the three or at the same time in all three. When Jesus was baptized, God the Son came up from the water. God the Father spoke from Heaven. And God the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove. Three forms of God but only one God.

And that God we must come to. He unites us with His chosen people, extends His invitation to the whole world, and is the Word. Our ultimate relationship with Him is to draw close to Him. We can only do this by realizing all that we've said, then in our earnest worship, precious time in prayer and knowing His message to us as found in the Bible will fulfill that entire lineage in Christ Jesus.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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