Matthew 1 - Christ will make a beautiful message of you no matter how ruined you think you are.

Believer, consider the backgrounds of four out of the five women mentioned in the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ as recorded by Matthew. The wives of the patriachs - Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, Rachel - are not mentioned. Of all the women of faith in Christ's genealogy, only Mary and four others with not so pristine backgrounds received mentions. Here are the four:

The first woman was Tamar, Judah's daughter-in-law. She was the widow of two sons of Judah. When Judah withheld a third son (Shelah) from her, she posed as a prostitute and slept with Judah, her father-in-law. She deceived Judah. The act produced twins, one of whom was Perez, also in the genealogy of Jesus. See the account of Tamar’s action in Genesis 38.

The second was Rahab, the prostitute of the red rope on the wall of Jericho who deceived her own people to help the Israelite spies escape. She also wasn't Jewish.

The third was Ruth, not her doing that she was a Moabitess, from a people cursed and excluded from the assembly of the Lord forever according to Deuteronomy 23:3-

3 “An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the Lord; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord forever"

The fourth- though unnamed in some Bible versions but referenced in Matthew 1:6- "David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife," - was Bathsheba- an adulteress. David killed her husband Uriah after he (David) got Bathsheba pregnant and his attempt to foist the pregnancy on Uriah failed. He then married Bathsheba. She and the product of her union with David (Solomon) are mentioned in the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The fifth is Mary. Highly favoured, blessed among women. Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. The blessing always comes first, before right living.

Not to leave out the men that are reading this:) The author of the gospel according to Matthew was a tax collector. In the eyes of the religious Jews back then, he and his kind were scum; so scummy that they had a sin category of their own: remember "the tax collectors and sinners." But our Lord Jesus Christ saved and transformed him so that one of the accounts of His life as a Man on earth was written by Matthew the despised tax collector.

Matthew 1 shows us that no matter how "ruined" we think we are, no matter what we’ve done, our Saviour Jesus makes us beautiful (as He is) when we look utterly to Him for salvation. And in Him, like those four women, we never remain the same. God knows how screwed up we can be of ourselves. Many of us still have no idea. We often think that we are good and have the will-power to do the right thing. But see what God's word says of man's non-existent good and his will-power that false teachers lead the flock to repose confidence in- a truth that Paul experienced in Romans 7:18-

"For I know that nothing good lives within the flesh of my fallen humanity. The longings to do what is right are within me, but will-power is not enough to accomplish it."

God's word says human strength at obedience aka the arm of flesh will fail, is powerless and cannot. Peter experienced this after his well-intentioned proclamation concerning not denying Christ and following Him to prison and to death. But because many have been kept from Satan’s sifting, Pride in the arm of flesh (human effort at obedience) that will fail causes self-righteous churchgoers to reason as Peter did before he fell flat on his face three times and say:

"No, I can. God must be wrong. I still have some good in me. I can walk uprightly, keep the law from being broken by me and resist temptation to commit sin by my will-power and sheer determination. Others are just lazy, enjoy sinning and want to wallow in sins.”

Those who think in this manner imply that Peter enjoyed bearing false witness against Christ (breaking the ninth Commandment) and could not wait for another opportunity to deny Christ; or that Judas who committed a similar sin of betraying Jesus must have had a blast with the 30 pieces of silver that he got from his sin. What do we think is the major cause of depression and suicide even among non-believers? It is guilt for sins, fear, anxiety, hopelessness and sorrow in the heart for sins aka not measuring up to particular standards - no different from what happened to Judas who was full of remorse and blamed himself for his sin. The word "sin" is translated from the Greek word Hamartia- literally "miss the mark."

All of mankind have sinned. Many are like Peter- beginning with good intentions, self-confident in their sin-loathing, never thinking that they could do what they did, falling flat on their faces and afterwards, feeling great remorse. Others are like Judas whom "Satan entered." See Luke 22-

“3 Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. 4 So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them. 5 And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. 6 So he promised and sought opportunity to betray Him to them in the absence of the multitude.”

The arm of flesh (human strength/effort at being godly aka be like God) will fail. If it were not for God's mercy, all of mankind would crumple into the sins-ridden mass of flesh that man is of himself when Satan comes a-sifting. When the scales of Satan's grip falls from the eyes of many, they realise their sin, are remorseful and are aghast that they repeat their sins and addictions that they try so hard to overcome.

No matter how it got to go astray, whether like Peter who had good intentions or like Judas who was possessed by Satan, what the lost sheep who are living in sin/under the accusation and the guilt of sins need is not more condemnation, rules and regulations or lectures on being godly by human strength aka keeping the letter (law) that kills. What the helpless sinner needs is God’s super(hyper)-abounding Grace: Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd who saves from sins.

God never condemns or wonders: "how could you do such a thing?" Psalm 103:14 says of Him: “For He knows what we are made of; He knows our frame is frail, and He remembers we came from dust.”

He did not send Christ to condemn us or as a constant reminder of our sins. The most famous Bible passage says of Him: “16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

Beloved of God, those sins that you struggle with, even those ones in Revelation 21:8 - “But the fearful and the unbelieving…” - and God’s wrath with which some “pastors” threaten the flock, God Himself so loves us that He gave up His own Son to save us from them all, no matter how vile they are. Titus 2:14 says of Christ:

"He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

Nothing to do with what we do/did. All because of what Christ has done for us. Our transformation to right living is in His hands and in Him, we get to live in triumph over sin and death as sure as His word says:

“And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ." Romans 5:16-17.

This is Grace - undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour.

When you receive God's abundance of grace and of His gift of righteousness to us in Christ, you will "live in triumph over sin and death through the One, Jesus Christ." (Romans 5:17). His Spirit transforms us to the image of His glory, from glory to glory. (2 Corinthians 3:18.) And with the Spirit of the Lord, it is neither by might nor by power. Verse 21 of the same Matthew 1 says of Him:

“And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

In Christ, we never continue to live in sin because He saves from sins.

To we who have Christ as our Righteousness and Strength, Matthew 1 shows us that no matter how messy and sins-ridden our life is, He transforms and makes a message of we who utterly look to Him for salvation, and just like the four women, we never remain the same. Just like the transformed ex-prostitutes (Tamar and Rahab,) the ex-cursed (Ruth) and the ex-adulteress (Bathsheba) in His genealogy who did not continue in their former ways, our place in Christ’s kingdom is eternally secure by His Grace- undeserved, unearned, unmerited Favour.

Believe Right and you will Live Right.