Calvary Road Baptist Church
“GRACE IN CHRIST’S GENEALOGY”
Matthew 1.1-17
This morning I want to preach a sermon about God’s grace. First, let me tell you what God’s grace is. It is His favor, communicated in varying degrees to each person, all the while being profoundly and completely undeserved. God is unfathomably and unsurpassingly glorious, terrible in majesty, and incomprehensibly wonderful. He is perfect in every way, and whatever favor He deigns to bestow upon pitifully wicked and sinful creatures, such as we are, is certainly undeserved. That is what grace is.
The grace of God is a vast subject in God’s Word. God is the God of all grace, according to First Peter 5.10. He is the Giver of grace, according to Psalm 84.11 and James 1.17. His throne is the throne of grace, according to Hebrews 4.16. Zechariah 12.10 and Hebrews 10.29 tell us the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of grace. Grace was upon the Lord Jesus Christ, according to Luke 2.40 and John 3.24. As well, the Lord Jesus spoke with grace, Psalm 45.2 and Luke 4.22, was full of grace, John 1.14, and grace came by Him, John 1.17 and Romans 5.15.
Beloved, I could go on and on about God’s grace. Grace was foretold by the prophets, First Peter 1.10, and was given by Christ, First Corinthians 1.4. Grace is described in the Bible as great, sovereign, rich, exceeding, manifold, all sufficient, all abundant, and glorious. The source of God’s grace is variously attributed to election, Romans 11.5, the call of God, Galatians 1.15, justification, Romans 3.24 and Titus 3.7, faith, Acts 18.27, the forgiveness of sins, Ephesians 1.7, salvation, Ephesians 2.5 and 8, and hope, Second Thessalonians 2.16.
Does it need to be pointed out that grace is necessary for service to God, Hebrews 12.28? Further, believers are heirs of grace, First Peter 3.7, are under grace, Romans 6.14, receive grace from Christ, John 1.16, are what we are by God’s grace, First Corinthians 15.10 and Second Corinthians 1.12, should be established in grace, Hebrews 13.9, should be strong in grace, Second Timothy 2.1, should grow in grace, Second Peter 3.18, and should speak with grace, Ephesians 4.29 and Colossians 4.6.
Grace is especially given to gospel ministers, First Corinthians 3.10, to those who are humble, James 4.6, to those who walk uprightly, Psalm 84.11, while grace is withheld from those who are proud.
Grace is not to be abused, Romans 6.1, is not to be received in vain, Second Corinthians 6.1, is to be prayed for for yourself, Hebrews 4.16, and is to be prayed for for others, Ephesians 6.24.
You begin to see, then, the importance of God’s grace, since God’s dealings with you and me are always governed by this principle of grace, unmerited (which is to say completely undeserved) favor.
Have no fear that I will get overly complicated about this subject of grace this morning. This brief introduction has been for the purpose of overwhelming you with the importance of God’s grace, not overwhelming you with the intricacies of God’s grace.
My sermon will be all simplicity. Turn to Matthew chapter one, where we find Matthew’s record of the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ. As you read, keep your eyes pealed for evidence of God’s glorious grace in the Savior’s family tree:
1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
2 Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;
3 And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat
4 And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon;
5 And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;
6 And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;
7 And Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa;
8 And Asa begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias;
9 And Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias;
10 And Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias;
11 And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to
12 And after they were brought to
13 And Zorobabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat Eliakim; and Eliakim begat Azor;
14 And Azor begat Sadoc; and Sadoc begat Achim; and Achim begat Eliud;
15 And Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob;
16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.
17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into
This is the family tree of the One Who left heaven’s glory, the Second Person of the triune godhead, the promised Messiah of Israel, the Giver and the Fulfillment of the Law, Who was born of the Virgin Mary.
God is Creator, Governor, Sustainer, holy, righteous, long-suffering, love, and a great many other things. But it is very important that you also understand that God is gracious.
Lewis Sperry Chafer, who founded the Dallas Theology Seminary and who also wrote an eight-volume systematic theology, once theorized that the willingness of God to create man, to then permit man’s fall into sin, and to then save men from their sins by His Son Jesus Christ, was the only way God could display that aspect of His nature known as grace. Power, wisdom, holiness, righteousness, majesty, love, and all the other attributes of God could be, and were, displayed apart from saving sinners. But it is only by saving the completely undeserving, by making sinners the objects of His grace in this way, that God can display the attribute known as grace.
Was Chafer correct? I do not know if he is correct in his assessment or not. I do know that grace, bestowing His favor on creatures who do not deserve it, even to the extent of saving some from their sins, is what separates the Christian faith from all other religions embraced by men.
God’s grace is profoundly important, since it is by grace that sinners are saved from their sins. Therefore, I want to illustrate God’s grace to you this morning.
Three points in my sermon today:
First, THE EVIDENCE OF GOD’S GRACE
Keeping our focus on what we have just read, and keeping in mind that God’s grace has to do with the blessings He bestows upon those who do not deserve anything from Him, or rather from those who deserve only wrath for their sins from Him, consider the evidences of grace in this text. To be sure, God’s grace is evident in the life of each person listed in this family tree, since no one actually deserves to be a human ancestor of the eternal Son of the living God after He had clothed Himself in flesh. But I would like to narrow the field to a consideration of the first four women mentioned in this genealogy.
Is it not amazing to find women in the genealogy of the King of the Jews? In what other ancient genealogy of any importance would you find one woman, much less five? I think it is a testament to God’s grace to find anyone in Christ’s genealogy. I think it is a further testimony to God’s grace to find these four women in Christ’s genealogy.
In Matthew 1.3, we find the name “Thamar,” which corresponds to the Canaanite woman named Tamar, the daughter in law of Jacob’s son, Judah, in Genesis chapter 38.
In Matthew 1.5, we find the names of two women, “Rachab” which corresponds to the Canaanite woman named Rahab who lived in the city of
Finally, in Matthew 1.6, reference is made to the woman who had been the wife of “Urias,” that being Uriah the Hittite, one of David’s mighty men. She, of course, was the Hittite woman named Bathsheba.
Think of these four women in the Lord Jesus Christ’s family tree. Four Gentile women who are listed as His ancestors. The first woman, Tamar, was a Canaanite who played the harlot. The second woman, Rahab, was a Canaanite who actually was a harlot. The third woman, Ruth, was a Moabite. And the fourth woman was a Hittite, who was complicit in King David’s adultery and a conspiracy to murder her husband, Uriah.
Each woman was born into a circumstance quite outside the sphere of God’s blessings. They were each born into idolatry, sexual promiscuity, and wickedness, and were strangers from the covenants of promise made to God’s chosen people, the Israelites.
That each of them ended up in the family tree of the Lord Jesus Christ trumpets the grace of God in their lives. Though none of the four deserved any blessing from God, each of them did enjoy a wonderful measure of God’s undeserved favor.
Second, THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF GOD’S GRACE
Consider each woman individually:
First, there is Tamar. Tamar is mentioned in Genesis 38.6 as a woman arranged to be the wife of
Next, there is Rahab. Like Tamar, Rahab was a Canaanite, though she was born more than four centuries after Tamar. It is likely that by the time Rahab was born the Israelites had already been led out of Egypt by Moses, had already refused to enter into the Promised Land as they were told, and were consigned to wandering in the wilderness for forty years so the whole generation of disobedient Israelites could die off before Joshua would lead them into the Promised Land. It is when Joshua sends spies to investigate the ancient city of
Does a prostitute deserve God’s grace? Of course, not. Does a Canaanite deserve God’s grace? Not at all. But this woman, Rahab, was not only blessed by God to be found in our Savior’s family tree, but by God’s abundant grace she had faith that resulted in her being listed in Hebrews chapter 11, the faith hall of fame. Though Tamar was a recipient of God’s grace, I find no evidence that she was a believer, no evidence that she received grace that led to her salvation. Rahab, on the other hand, is a woman that I am confident I will see when I get to heaven, a wonderful trophy of God’s grace.
Third, there is Ruth. Ruth, you will remember, is the subject of the small book of Ruth that was probably written by the prophet Samuel. The book begins in
This is a wonderful story of God’s grace. However, it is an even richer story if you take note of Matthew 1.5, where we are told that “Salmon begat Booz of Rachab.” In other words, what may have caused Boaz to be sensitive to the plight of the foreigner named Ruth was his own understanding of her experiences as an outsider, being the son Rahab. Boaz, the son of Rahab, married Ruth, who bore a son named Obed. Obed, in turn, was the father of a man named Jesse, whose youngest son was a fellow named David. Thus, Boaz and Ruth were the great grandparents of King David, with Rahab being the great great grandmother of King David.
Was Ruth a beneficiary of God’s grace? Yes, she was. She married a wealthy Jewish man after being a widowed and impoverished Moabite. She bore him a son, which led to her being the great grandmother of
However, what about God’s grace and the salvation of her soul? Was the woman saved from her sins? She certainly had been sinful as an idolatrous Moabite. Listen, again, to what she said to Naomi, her mother in law: “whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” Notice, also, that she addressed Naomi’s God, the God she embraced as her own, as “the LORD.” That is God’s covenant name. What does all this mean for sure? What it means for sure I do not pretend to know for sure. However, God once again showed Himself to be a God of grace to yet another foreign woman, who had no reason to expect blessings from God, much less deserve blessings from God. In addition, she embraced Naomi’s God with no expectation of any return for her actions, though God did wonderfully bless her.
Finally, there is “her that had been the wife of Urias.” The sin of David was a particularly wicked one when you remember that the man whose wife he took, and the man he then murdered to cover up his first sin, was one of those men who would have died for David rather do him any harm at all. What a traitor David was to the man who was so loyal to him. But what of the woman? Was she a willing participant in David’s sin? We do not know for sure. What we do know is that she did not resist him, and she did not later expose his sin. God did that, as He always does. Since David was the king, had she resisted he might have ordered her death. Even afterwards, any move to expose him might have resulted in her death. Though Jewish women were well versed in their duty and obligation to cry out for help and resist when attacked by a man in a city, Bathsheba was not a Jewish woman. We do not know what she knew to do. In addition, we do not know what role she played in David’s adultery and the murder of her husband. What we do know is this: Matthew does not mention her name. She is only referred to as the wife of Uriah. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that even after the passing of a thousand years; she was still associated with that terrible black mark on David’s life.
However, what about the grace of God in her life? Does God’s grace reach to the deepest and darkest parts of a sinner’s life? It is safe to say that much of David’s life and testimony was ruined by his sin with Bathsheba. Nathan pronounced a curse upon his household as a result of his behavior. However, her role is difficult to understand, since we cannot be sure of her exposure to God’s Word, because she was a Hittite woman. However, with the passing of time we see two developments in her life: First, we see that she acted very responsibly as the wife of the king in making sure David’s wishes were carried out when he was old and very feeble.[2] Second, we see that she spoke words of great wisdom to her son, Solomon, as he grew from childhood to adulthood to prepare him for his reign as king.[3]
Was she a woman who experienced God’s saving grace? I do not know, and would not venture a guess. Each person is given a different measure of God’s grace, with some receiving more and some receiving less. That she was a recipient of God’s grace, however, is without dispute. Imagine a Hittite woman eventually becoming the wife of
Finally, THE GOAL OF GOD’S GRACE
Each of those individuals found in the Lord Jesus Christ’s family tree is evidence of God’s glorious grace, but none more than the four women found listed there. None was an Israelite. None was without obvious sins that might seem to disqualify them from consideration for God’s blessings. Some exhibited wisdom with others exhibiting wickedness, they were each from the kind of background that would make a place in the family tree of the King of the Jews impossible, but for God’s grace.
The question that needs to be asked, of course, is, “Why?” Why were these women included in the Messiah’s genealogy? Why were they listed when other women, Jewish women, seemingly qualified women, were unnamed? These women are displays not only of God’s sovereignty, but also God’s grace. To be sure, the Virgin Mary was also an object of God’s grace, but being a virgin and being Jewish, she occupies another category altogether than these four women.
They were each blessed, though to varying degrees, with blessings they most certainly did not deserve. It seems that Rahab, being mentioned as she is in Hebrews and James, was a recipient of God’s grace in the salvation of her soul. Concerning the other women, we cannot be so certain, though each of them were obvious recipients of God’s grace.
However, to what end did God display His grace in these women’s lives? Understand that everything God does is for the purpose of a solitary goal, to be glorified. Let me read a portion of First Chronicles 16 before some concluding remarks:
23 Sing unto the LORD, all the earth; shew forth from day to day his salvation.
24 Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvellous works among all nations.
25 For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised: he also is to be feared above all gods.
26 For all the gods of the people are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.
27 Glory and honour are in his presence; strength and gladness are in his place.
28 Give unto the LORD, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength.
29 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
There are many other passages, which convey the same essential truth that it is right, proper, and good to give God glory, the glory that is due His name. When this happens, the result will be that offerings are brought to Him, men will come before Him, and He will be worshiped in the beauty of His holiness.
These women are not a complete story in themselves. Each of them is best seen against the backdrop of the big picture, the grand plan, the giant tapestry of God’s overarching purpose. It was by God’s wonderful grace that they found themselves, though unknown to them at the time, in the family tree of the Messiah of Israel. They were in the nation, in the tribe, and finally in the family from which would spring forth the virgin born Son of God.
He, of course, would grow up living a sinless life in obedience to the dictates of God’s Law. Being born into the human family, with Mary as His mother and God the Father being His only father, He is the perfect and only remedy for man’s sins, being both man and God. He would, at the proper time, bear the sins of many, suffer, bleed, and die an atonement for sins, and be buried and rise up from the dead after three days. He ascended to His Father’s right hand on high, where He is presently enthroned until His enemies are made His footstool. From that lofty position on high “he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them,” Hebrews 7.25.
Therefore, when seen in its proper perspective, the real story is the story of that One Who would come after them, Who would bear the sins of many, through whom the grace of God they enjoyed was actually provided. However, they each had a part to play. They each enjoyed a role in God’s great plan. Each of them was a recipient of God’s grace, that unmerited favor that He so freely bestows upon undeserving sinners.
The end of God’s grace is of course, His glory. But what is the greatest and most effective means by which God’s grace gives Him glory? It is in the salvation of a lost sinner. In John 15.8, Jesus told His disciples how they could most effectively glorify God. He said, “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” So you see, fruit bearing glorifies the Father, which is when sinners come to Christ and are saved from their sins.
Are you someone who has experienced the grace of God? To some degree, you certainly have. You have a measure of health and material prosperity, and you have a Bible and the gospel at your disposal. However, have you experienced the saving grace of God, by which God is most greatly glorified? That only comes through faith in Christ. For all that God is, righteous, just, holy, powerful, and loving, keep in mind that He is also gracious. He bestows blessings upon the undeserving, and He will graciously bless you if you will come to His Son, Jesus Christ.
Question? Comment?
Would you like to contact Dr. Waldrip about this sermon? Fill out the form below to send him an email. Thank you.