The Grace of God

“and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar……and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah” Matthew 1:3, 5-6 ESV

            The four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are narratives of Jesus Christ. Each author through the Holy Spirit presents a specific perspective of our Lord Jesus. Matthew in writing to a mainly Jewish audience presents Jesus as the Messiah, Mark presents Him as the suffering servant to the gentiles, Luke’s gospel focuses on the humanity of Christ, the Son of Man, and John’s narrative is acknowledging the deity of Christ. Jesus is indeed God the Son.

            A common theme throughout all of the Gospels, in fact all through the Old and New Testaments, is the grace of God. We are reminded of this in Matthew’s listing of the genealogy of Christ in Matthew chapter 1. Most of us admittedly brush over genealogies and numerical records in the Bible. They seem to be hard to follow, certainly hard to pronounce some of the names, and just not that important. But if we take that approach to Matthew’s genealogy of Christ we will miss seeing God’s redemptive plan of salvation and His marvelous grace.

            Embedded within the genealogy found in Matthew’s gospel are the names of four women. Women normally would not be listed in Jewish genealogies, but these four were. Two were even Gentile women. Three of the four had moral lapses in their backgrounds. While it is important to note that the descendant in each case was through the man; Why then the significance to include these women? It is to present God’s plan of salvation to save sinners, which includes all of us. God’s plan of salvation includes all ethnic backgrounds. No one is beyond the grace of God.