Jesus Comes for Sinners and from Sinners

Family History

We all have a family history. You might look at family portraits over the years, and you look at your family and you start to perhaps even see a resemblance between someone on your father's side or your mother's side. And you look at that and you think, I look a little bit like this one. I favor that one. It's interesting.

If you think about the family photo of Jesus—all of the people that he has saved throughout history—and you see Jesus in this family photo with his people. It's really interesting because of the types of people that he saves. And one of the ways that tangibly we can see that is the way that Matthew begins his Gospel and the types of people that are listed in the genealogy of Jesus.

He Is Not Ashamed

Erik Raymond

In He Is Not Ashamed, Erik Raymond takes a close look at the “family portrait” of God—filled with imperfect people throughout Scripture—and shows that God is not repelled by their shameful past, but delights to redeem and receive those who believe in him.

Now, the genealogies are really important. If you have a genealogy in your Bible reading, you might think, Oh, it's a light day. Just hit the gas and zoom through the names. But I would encourage you to slow down and look at those names as speed bumps. Double-click on those names, because you can learn a lot about the heart of Christ.

His genealogy is blaring at us that this Savior not only comes for sinners, but he comes from sinners.

Take names like Judah, Tamar, Ruth, and Rahab. Look at these names and you double-click on them and you see that this was not the all-star team of the Old Testament. In naming these people, Matthew and Luke are making a point. The point is that Jesus not only comes for sinners—that is, to die for our sins—but he comes from sinners. He identifies with sinful people like us.

And this is really good news because we're sinners and we have a story—and Christ enters into that story. And his genealogy is blaring at us that this Savior not only comes for sinners, but he comes from sinners. That's great news.

Erik Raymond is the author of He Is Not Ashamed: The Staggering Love of Christ for His People.

Erik Raymond is the senior pastor at Redeemer Fellowship Church in Watertown, Massachusetts. He is the author of Chasing Contentment: Trusting God in a Discontented Age and a frequent contributor to many websites and periodicals. He blogs regularly at Ordinary Pastor, hosted by the Gospel Coalition.