Part Of The Family

Apr 4, 2016 1252

I know of people who spent huge amounts of money and time trying to find out their ancestry. I guess that it is comforting to know something about the family you belong to – your place in the world.

Although you’ve probably never thought of it like that, the truth is that your genealogy is found in Matthew 1. This is actually the genealogy of Christ.

Jesus leaves nothing out in his genealogy. It is interesting that there are only four women mentioned in Christ’s genealogy in the Gospel of Matthew. Of those four women, three of them didn’t even belong to the people of God to start with. Three of them were prostitutes. Here is a little extract:

Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,

Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,

Obed the father of Jesse… – Matthew 1:5

Notice that Rahab was the great grandmother of Jesus. She’s famous in the Bible story for being a prostitute with faith. She’s even mentioned in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, the great gallery of the heroes of faith.

All of this tells you and me that there’s room for us in the family of God, whether you have belonged to the wrong crowd, or whether you have been into some shady business.

Jesus isn’t embarrassed by some of the oddballs who were part of his family, and he will never, ever be embarrassed by you.

When you accept Christ’s forgiveness and grace, he rejoices over you, like the most precious of his crown jewels. Because you have become part of his family (Eph. 1:5), part of his genealogy. And he will show you off to the world, so that all may see what his love can do.

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