paul a servant of christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning his son, who was descended from david according to the flesh . . .”[romans 1:3]
nathan prophesied that the messiah would be a descendant of david,
when your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, i will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and i will establish his kingdom. he is the one who will build a house for my name, and i will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
– 2 Samuel 7:12-13
isaiah expanded on the messiah’s character,
for to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of david and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
– isaiah 9:6-7
when paul mentions “descendant of david” there’s no doubt who he’s saying Jesus is. he is saying Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise.
matthew chapter 1 and luke chapter 3 go in depth of the genealogies of Jesus, if you’d like to go down that route. however, I tend to get caught up with the “. . .according to the flesh.” part of the passage.
when I think of Jesus, i look to his time on earth. i tend to leave out how Jesus has been there from the beginning. it gets a little more abstract than my analytical mind likes to comprehend and gets more difficult to understand. revelation 22:16 says Jesus is the root AND the offspring of david. john 1:1-5 tells us that Jesus is the word, and the word was God. he was in the beginning with God. that all things were made through him. that in him was life! while my head struggles to comprehend how Jesus both created and came from the line of david, my heart is brought to its knees.
he must be so much more than flesh alone! he is the son of david, son of man, wonderful counselor, creator, redeemer, word of God, light of men and so much more. no one else was able to live the life we should have lived, and die the death we should have died to rise from death and conquer the grave! only he is worthy of our submission and worship!
who have you been believing he is? our words have weight, but our actions show our heart. If we believe that he is who he says he is, we will be drawn to follow his commandments, love his people, share the gospel. we will know him and his heart. paul shows this in his words, his serving, and with great zeal.
read through matthew 25:31-46, go to Jesus in prayer. see his heart.
~ joe lorsung