Scandalous grace

When we look at personalities like David, Abraham, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and many others we find God’s grace to be shocking. These people make up the genealogy of Jesus Christ. From these we learn that God’s grace is completely undeserved, excessive and unlimited. We learn that scandalous sin needs scandalous grace. The genealogy of Jesus tells more than who Jesus' ancestors were—it's a tribute to God's grace.

Bathsheba entered the Messianic line through adultery with David. David then conspired to cover his sin with the treacherous murder of her husband. David's polygamy and poor parenting produced tragic results in his family life. His son Amnon raped his half-sister Tamar (2 Sam. 13:1-22). David’s neglect triggered a series of events that darkened the final years of his reign. David’s other son Absalom murdered Amnon and attempted to seize his father’s throne. Absalom committed immorality with his father’s concubines and made a public spectacle of it. Despite David’s many failures, God included David in Jesus’ genealogy. Matthew calls Jesus the Son of David (Matt. 1:1). Scandalous grace!

Abraham’s cowardice led him to lie, saying that his wife Sarah was his sister. As a result pagan kings brought Sarah into their harems (Gen. 12:11-19; 20:1-18). Though called the father of all who believe (Rom. 4:11), Abraham did not trust God for the promised child. He took matters in his own hands, and had sexual relations with his bondservant Hagar. Regardless of the situation, God continued to bless Abraham and even Ishmael. Scandalous grace!

Tamar was a gentile. She disguised herself as a prostitute and deceived her father-in-law Judah into having sexual relations with her. Out of incest were born twin sons, Perez and Zerah. God included Tamar, Perez and Judah in Jesus’ family tree. Scandalous grace!

Rahab was a little like Tamar, but her prostitution was a profession. She ran a brothel in Jericho. God spared her life and the lives of her family when Jericho was besieged and destroyed (Jos. 2:1-21; 6:22-25). Scandalous grace!

Ruth was a Moabitess, having no right to marry an Israelite or enter the assembly of the Lord (Deut. 23:3). God’s grace brought Ruth into the family of Israel, and through Boaz into the royal lineage. Scandalous grace!

When we read about these characters, we want to take a deep breath. It is shocking to us that these fractured and hurting sinners are in the Bible, let alone in the lineage of Jesus. We see that Jesus not only came to a world fractured and hurting, but fractured and hurting was right there in his own family tree. We can but exhale in relief that Jesus came to deliver us from sin.

Even Jesus’ own mother was in need of grace. The angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and said “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women… You have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS.” (Luke 1:28-31) What made Mary blessed among women? Was it because of her great faith? No, in fact she showed signs of doubt when the angel announced that she would conceive (Luke 2:34). When the same angel announced to Zacharias that he would receive a son, Zacharias was serving as a priest. The Bible says that he was righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless (Luke 1:5-8).Yet he was struck dumb when he doubted. Mary instead found favor with God, and sang “my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant” (Luke 1:47-48).

None of the people in Jesus’ family tree received grace because of their own doing, and neither do we. We simply receive grace because of who God is. The very reason why Mary was called blessed by God was because God in His unconditional love and grace chose Mary to carry Jesus the Christ on the inside of her. She received favor from God to bring to the world a Savior who is Christ the Lord, which is and will be a great joy to all people (Luke 2:10-11). What an amazing grace this is, to have Christ Himself within. Mary became the first person to carry Christ on the inside.

Because of what God has done through the death and resurrection of Jesus our Savior, we also have Christ in us, the hope of glory. Christ’s birth, death and resurrection give us hope and faith that God’s grace and salvation includes us all. God through Christ has also called us highly favored and blessed!