BIBLICAL BRIEFS 148
Everyone born of Jesus from God is necessarily part of Jesus’ genealogical line. From Jesus’ immortal seed (1Pet. 1:23), each of them had an individual inception (Ps 87: 5)! In Matt. 1 the genealogical line of ‘Jesus as the Son of Man’ in the flesh is explained (Matt. 17: 9). It is nothing short of a mystery (Eph. 5:32), because the birth from above (which is actually the correct translation of the concept of ‘rebirth’) made it possible to become “bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh” (Eph. 5:30). A new spiritual race (John 3:6; 2Cor. 5:17) was thus established on the earth from Jesus who rose from death and through that made it possible that those subsequently born of Him shared His divinity while we are in the flesh! “Is it not written in your law, ‘You are gods’” (John 10:34)! We have obtained His divine nature, 2Pet. 1:4 declares! Now it is absolutely clear what Gal. 3:28 says, “There is no more Jew or Greek … because you are all one [race/nation/seed/gender] in Christ Jesus.” In Isa. 53:8-10, in the prophecy regarding the death of Jesus, the prophet proclaimed: “Who shall declare His generation? … When thou shalt make his soul an offering sin, he shall see his seed.” Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, He became the firstborn of many brothers, so that we may become like Him (Rom. 8:29). David already knew and prophesied: “A seed shall serve him; It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness to a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.” (Ps 22:30-31). Each of his sons (male and female) born of Him is therefore a miracle and a sign (Zac. 3:8). The world no longer needs an adulterous generation to seek for wonders and signs (Matt. 12:39) – they can only look at the born-again sons who died as he did, and were buried by baptism and rose again (Rom. 6: 4-11)! (This is the sign of Jonah which Jesus referred to in Matt. 12:39-41.) Heb. 12:22 spells out: “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” Verse 23 even calls our universal denomination “the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven”. We are the corporate Mount Zion, the New Jerusalem, the city of our God, the Lamb’s wife, the Bride’s wife. We are the “express image of the Father in the earth” (Eph. 1:22). In this light, the genealogical line of Jesus in Matt. 1 is also our line of descent. your and my gender line! Verse 1 lists the three pivotal points of the genealogy: “The genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Then in verse 2, the genealogy is drawn from Abraham, through David, to Jesus. Verse 17 explains that this genealogy is organized in a very specific way – there is a mathematical pattern in the presentation: “All the generations then from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and from David to the Babylonian captivity fourteen generations, and from the Babylonian captivity to Christ is fourteen generations. “14 + 14 + 14 = 42. The mathematician in me immediately tested it: from Abraham to David, there are indeed fourteen generations (verses 2 to 6a); From Solomon to the Babylonian captivity are indeed fourteen generations (verses 6b to 11); and from Sealtiel to Jesus (verse 12 to 16a) is … ?oh my goodness?! ONLY THIRTEEN generations! I have counted again and again, and realized that God is irrefutably a reputed Mathematician and he will not allow such a simple mathematical error. The answer to this is enormous. Read verse 16, especially the last part: “and Jacob (11th in the third count of fourteen), the father of Joseph (12th in the third count of fourteen), the man of Mary from whom was born Jesus Christ (13th in the third count of fourteen ).” Thirteen? But read the end of verse 17 again: “and from the Babylonian captivity to Christ (fourteen) generations”. Therein the secret is hidden: CHRIST. Jesus the historical figure, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world, was in this third group of 14, thus the 13th; Christ the Anointed is the 14th generation! From the 41st generation Jesus was born; From the 42nd generation Christ was born! Thus there is a difference between Jesus and Christ! From Daniel’s (9:25) timeline, we learn that everything has built up to the Anointed, which becomes the righteous Head on the Anointed Body (Eph. 4: 7-16), which is US (1Joh 2:20 & 27)! Jesus and Christ cannot be separated, but it is critical that they are distinguished as Anointed Saviour + Anointed Body. 14 + 14 + 14 generations then bring us to the 42nd generation. This generation carries the bloodline of Jesus Christ! As the heading of Matt. 1 states: we are the descent of Jesus Christ in the flesh. The secular book of Douglas Adams: The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, is based on the question: “What is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything?” The answer to this was what you and I could guess: the number 42! O! depth of wealth and wisdom and knowledge of God!
Dr Tom Gouws
