19. JESUS’ GENEALOGY, HUMANITY AND RELIGIOUS HISTORY
Christians are proud in their thinking that they possess the true religion because they believe in Jesus. Implicit in this attitude is the idea that Jews past and present do not have true religion because they do not believe in Jesus. This is wrong thinking. It is wrong because it focuses on the natural Jesus and not on the spiritual Jesus as a type of messiah.

STUDY TIP: See Belief, Trust and Faith for understanding of what it means to believe in and trust Jesus. Also see this link for understanding of how Judaism and Christianity are alike.

Natural people receive their DNA from their parents and all of their ancestors. In these modern times, it is possible to trace this natural DNA through National Geographic’s Genographic Project that uses advanced DNA analysis to answer fundamental questions about how humans came to populate the earth. Similarly, God has traced Jesus’ spiritual DNA through reports of his natural genealogy in Mathew and Luke.

Characters identified with an * are represented as types of christs (i.e. messiahs) in Bible stories. Characters identified with DE did evil in God’s eyes. Characters identified with DT did right in God’s eyes. Others may or may not have been messiahs at some time in their lives, but it is certain that everyone in Jesus’ genealogy observed Jewish religious laws at some time in their lives.

The significance of these observations is that Jesus was born into a long line of people who practiced the sin of religion (i.e. they observed Jewish religious laws) and several kings (i.e. Jewish religious leaders) who did evil in God’s eyes. These were Jesus’ religious grandparents. The point of this is that Jesus had religion in his blood. He was not born sinless.

STUDY TIP:  See this link for a table of the Kings of Israel.

Furthermore, we have the fact that Jesus’ mother and father were observant Jews. Joseph was a righteous man, meaning he was righteous with respect to Jewish religious laws. Since we know that he and Mary were engaged to be married, we know that Mary also was religious because a Jewish man would not marry anyone that was not also Jewish.

This all means that Jesus was born and raised religious. He was circumcised, and as a child he dutifully followed his natural mother and father as they indoctrinated him into the religion of their fathers as they observed rituals of the Jewish religion. And that means, of course, that Jesus was not born sinless as many like to believe. If he was already sinless, there would be no need for him to be baptized by the spirit of God. For further scriptural evidence of the fact that Jesus was not born sinless, we can look at these scriptures:

Galatians 4:4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law,

COMMENTARY: The law Jesus was born and raised under Jewish religious law. He was not born as a New Covenant disciple who had God’s spiritual laws written on his heart.

Luke 2:27  And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law,

COMMENTARY: See commentary above.

Romans 1:1-3  Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh,

COMMENTARY: To be born “according to  the flesh” means that he was born into a  religious family  because flesh is a symbolic term for religion.

Romans 8:3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

COMMENTARY: Saying that Jesus was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh means that he as religious before he was anointed as a messiah by God.

Philippians 2:6-7  who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.

COMMENTARY: Being made in the likeness of men does not refer to physical likeness. Of course he was physically human; it was not necessary to affirm that likeness. What was necessary for God to say, however, is that Jesus was like men in the sense that he was religious before God changed his heart to be like God’s heart.

Before God anointed him, Jesus like other people in terms of his humanity and religion. After he was anointed, he was still human, but he was no longer religious. Not being religious was what set hi apart from others.

Before he was anointed, Jesus was not Godly in any way. After he was anointed, the only thing about Jesus that was Godly was his words. He was still human. He knew that he spoke for God, but he did not think that doing so made him equal to God. He knew that it was the power of God’s spirit working through him that made him an effective speaker. That is why he always referred to himself as a “son of man” and never as a “son of God.” He never had a need or desire to testify about himself as a son of God. He did not stop others from labeling him as a son of God, but he did not say that of himself.

STUDY TIP: See this link for understanding of giving personal testimony of your spiritual condition.

For most of his life, Jesus was a “son of man” who practiced religion. Even though the Bible does not mention Jesus’ religious life between his adolescent years and the age of thirty, or so, everything changed for Jesus when he choose to become baptized by John. He was born under the laws of the Jewish religion, but, after he was born again, he was no longer subject to the religious laws to which he was in bondage for the first thirty years of his life.  Before his spiritual baptism, Jesus was a Son of Man. After his baptism he was a Son of God and a son of man. And, after his baptism, he was under God’s spiritual laws.

The terms “son of man” and “son of God” appear to be used interchangeably, but they are very different. Before his baptism, Jesus practiced the sin of religion. But when he was baptized, God acknowledged him as his son. That was the moment he was born again by the spirit of God. After that moment, he began doing the kinds of things that born again people do.  And, as he did these things, he no longer sinned because he was dead to Judaism.

Jesus was an Old/First Covenant, religious Jew before he was baptized. He was then a son of man. But, after being born again, he was also a son of God. The difference is that sons of men are born by the flesh (i.e. religion made by man) while sons of God are born by the spirit. Because Jesus was born and raised religious, he was a son of man until the time of his baptism. After baptism, he was born again as a son of God.

STUDY TIP: Christians believe that Jesus was born sinless and was always sinless. Scriptures that say he was born under the law and was subject to religious rituals prove that he was religious (i.e. sinful) until the time that he was baptized.

STUDY TIP: See BAPTISM AND WASHING IN WATER for understanding of baptism.

We don’t know what the lasting effect of baptism was on others who were also baptized by John, but we do know that for Jesus this was a spiritual event in which God recognized Jesus as his son. He was born again when he was baptized with water and spirit which is the condition for becoming New Covenant disciples and messiahs.

The significance of this review is to make the point that all messiahs must go through a period of being religious before they are born again spiritually at which time they become messiahs. This was no less true for Jesus than it is for any other messiah. All are born and raised in religious households that follow religious rules of worship made by men before they are baptized  (i.e. anointed) by the spirit of God, after which time they worship God in spirit and truth — not at an altar in a high place in a religious building. This process describes how religious laws leads people to faith.

This was the process that Jesus went through, and it is the process that his followers must go through before they are qualified to hear God’s spoken voice and speak what they hear God saying. It is the process that they must go through in order to be qualified messiahs. Anyone who does not go through this process is not a true follower of Jesus.

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