Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is for people who live in the gray days of discouragement. He is for people who live in a dark world. He is where forgiveness is found. He is where completion and purpose can be found. He was promised by God for this. He is the hope of Christmas.
When Adam and Eve rejected God’s rule through sin and rebellion, God made a promise (Genesis 3:15). In this promise, Satan (who had previously rebelled) was judged, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” This promise declares that one day a descendant of the woman (that is, a human being) will crush the head of the serpent, Satan. But which descendent would be the promised one?
God narrows the promise of a descendant to the family of Abraham (Gen. 12:1-3). Here God told Abraham that he will make his descendants a great nation and that through Abraham’s offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Is Abraham the one? It becomes clear to the reader that he is not the promised one. The search for the promise one continued.
But which person of all Abraham’s descendants would be the promised one? As the storyline of the Bible continues, the promise is narrowed down again to Judah and a ruler (Gen. 49:10), “the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.”
The ruler, (symbolized by the scepter), will receive tribute and obedience from the peoples of the earth. Hundreds of years later this promise narrows to a descendant of Judah named David. God chose David to be king. Is David the one? Soon it becomes clear that David will not fulfill the original messianic promise. Like Abraham, Jacob, and Judah before him, David’s life is marked by sin.
During David’s kingly reign God sends the prophet Nathan to give David the following promise: “And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam. 7:16). A descendent of David will rule on his throne and over his kingdom forever. Hundreds of years then go by and still no promised one. The Old Testament ends looking for the coming of the Messiah.
The wait continued until we read the opening words of Matthew’s Gospel with informed eyes: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matt. 1:1). Matthew begins by declaring Jesus to be the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, the long-awaited Messiah! He came to save his people from their sins (1:21). We find hope this Christmas, bound up in the person of Jesus the Messiah. He is the promised one.