The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. Galatians 3:16 (NIV).
I love how Scripture has such deep, dual meanings in so many ways, and how those meanings always ultimately point to Christ. This verse is an example of it.
My mom was interested in genealogy. She spent years researching the history of her paternal family, taking the known path of paternal ancestors all the way back to the earliest records in Germany in the late 1300s/early 1400s.
Know who else’s family history is known? Jesus. Go down the genealogies outlined in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 and you see how, like the rest of us, Jesus’ ancestry is passed through lines that point only and directly, one son at a time, to Abraham. Unlike most other people, Jesus’ history is actually traced through both Mary and Joseph all the way back to Abraham. That matters because Abraham was the focal man to whom God promised a son. That son, Isaac, had two sons, Esau and Jacob, but only one through whom the promise would be kept. That son, Jacob, had twelve sons, yet only one, Judah, through whom the promise made to Abraham would be kept. This carried on all the way through Judah’s descendants to Jesus.
Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of that promise God made to Abraham. Jesus is a direct physical descendant of Abraham, but so were millions of others at the time (even more so today). After Jesus’ time, the genealogical lineage of Abraham became, at best, difficult to trace. In our time, nobody on Earth could prove that they were a direct descendant of Abraham. Yet, as today’s version implies, we are all children of Abraham – the seed of Abraham – through faith in his descendant, Jesus. It’s a reliable fact.
Now, consider this: today’s verse also has a kind of additional meaning, specifically how each successive son from Abraham to Jesus was only one in a long line of inheritors of the promise. God kept His promise each time a son was born, and each time a son was born to that one. Abraham’s descendants would have had no way of knowing when or how it was kept, but, in a way, the promise was continually kept. Yet the promise itself ends at Jesus, and is fulfilled only in Jesus, is made complete, made whole only in Jesus, the Son of God and direct descendant of Abraham. As believers in Jesus, so are we. Nothing my mom (or any genealogist) found can compare to that.
For further reading: Genesis 17:19, Psalm 132:11, Micah 7:20, Matthew 1:3, Luke 3:21-37, Romans 4:13, Galatians 3:17
Lord Jesus, only You could keep this miraculous promise in such a miraculous way. Thank You for making me part of Your family!
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