He will save His people from their sins.
Tomorrow is Christmas!
And that means we’ve come towards the end of our series on Christmas from Mary’s POV.
Today, I want to take a moment to zoom out a bit and look at the larger picture of Jesus’ genealogy, found in Matthew 1.
There are five women named in Jesus’ lineage: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and…Mary.
Mary stands out. No scandalous sin is recorded of Mary like those of Tamar and Bathsheba. She’s not a Gentile like Ruth or Rahab. There is no controversy, no complicated past.
And even though the account of Jesus’ family tree in Matthew 1 focuses on His father’s side of the family, ending with Joseph, Mary is specifically mentioned as His mother.
Mary was Hebrew. Mary was a virgin. Mary kept the law. She was trusting, faithful, and submissive, and yet Mary’s name shows us something inescapable: We all come to salvation the same way.
The scandalous sinner (Tamar), the flagrant prostitute (Rahab), the vulnerable outsider (Ruth), the broken adulteress (Bathsheba) and the one with a long list of good works (Mary)–they all needed a saviour.
Even Mary, the mother of the Son of God, a blameless virgin, needed the salvation her own son would bring.
And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. – Matthew 1:21
The good news of Christmas is that Jesus did for us what our best works on our best day can never do, and our worst sin can never undo.
Whether you are a lifelong, devoted believer, like Mary, or can relate more to the stories of the other women in Jesus’ lineage, Jesus came to earth to save you.
He took your scandalous sin, redeemed your past, brought you into His family, paid for your sins and set you free from having to earn your way to heaven.
