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birth, bloodlines, Christmas, eternal, Gentiles, gift, heritage, Herod, Jews, King, lineage, perfect, precious, pure, redemption, Savior
Bloodlines.
It’s not something we really think about in American culture today, unless you’re talking about a thoroughbred animal. But in Jesus’ day and for centuries before Him during the time of Abraham and all of his descendants, bloodlines were everything. They were the dividing line between God’s chosen people (the Jews) and those who weren’t (the Gentiles). And the Jews took their bloodlines and lineages very seriously.
Throughout the history of man, God had been hinting at and setting up the plot line to point to a King with all the right blood lines who would reign and finally set all things right. Even from all the way back in Genesis 12:3, God was making His plan known little by little!
For hundreds of years, from generation to generation, Jews had been waiting for the tables to turn and the rightful King to take his throne. Fast forwarding to the time of Christ’s birth, Herod was on the throne. He wasn’t fully Jewish and, worse, he wasn’t even a descendant of King David. Both of which were requirements for “The Prophesied King”.
Herod didn’t have the bloodlines.
Herod wasn’t the guy.
And he knew it.
This known fact combined with Herod’s own obsession with prideful arrogance and complete distrust of anyone, led Herod to the horrific act of murdering all little boy toddlers aged 2 and under in his effort to eliminate “The King”. Of course, Herod’s plan failed miserably and Jesus was protected, grew up, taught the masses, healed the sick, and then died a horrible death. The “Good News” about Jesus’ life that sets Him apart from all other “gods” and “good teachers” is, quite simply His blood line. You see, not only was it Jewish, not only was He a descendent of King David (and therefore fulfilled every prophesy), but His blood line was absolutely perfect. His blood, sacrificed for the sins of the world, made a way, the only way, for humanity to be restored to the place it once was all the way back in the Garden of Eden. Perfect blood, or, as Peter so beautifully put it in his epistle, “precious blood”. (I Peter 1:18-19)
Precious Blood. Powerful Resurrection. Eternal Redemption.
There is so much promise in that perfect blood, so much hope, so much love beyond measure that it humbles my heart when I consider how great the Father’s love for us is. That tiny helpless newborn who took his first breath of oxygen on that first Christmas night was the “newborn King” and He came to finish a plan set in motion back in the Garden – The Restoration of His Creation.
His kingship isn’t earthly, but it is eternal. And His precious, perfect blood offers each of us the way back to a perfect relationship with Him. When we see how perfect He is and we know how fallen and sinful we are and we realize that we can never have a restored relationship with Him, that’s when Christ’s death and resurrection truly becomes Good News. It’s Good News because He stood in the gap and paid our death penalty (caused by our sin) once and for all that we might, get this, …..become His rightful sons and daughters! When we ask Christ to be our forgiver, Savior, and King, He adopts us and we benefit from His perfect bloodlines just as if we were His direct heirs.
There is no better Christmas gift than Christ Himself! Have you accepted the eternal gift that His precious blood can give you?