A Better Son of God
Redeeming the Rotten Fruit in the Family Tree
Luke is a master storyteller. As I watch him weave his story together in the gospel of Luke, I am captivated by the way he carefully arranges the pieces, including or omitting this detail, placing people or events next to each other to compare and contrast, all subtly making his point in a way that isn’t preachy, or even obvious, unless you are paying attention.
He’s so good at this, he can even use a boring genealogy to make a point. A genealogy is a list of names, a family tree if you will, and it was an essential piece of storytelling in ancient times*. Think “so-and-so was the son of so-and-so, the son of so-and-so…”
Luke’s genealogy of Jesus comes in chapter 3, smack dab in the middle of the narrative. Not at the beginning, like in Matthew’s gospel account, but in the middle of the action. We know Luke does nothing by accident, so it’s time to sit up and pay attention. What is this genealogy doing here?
The Context
Let’s look at the flow of the story. In Luke 3:21-22, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist:
When all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized. As he was praying, heaven opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in a physical appearance like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.”
Immediately after being anointed for his earthly ministry, and announced publicly as the Beloved Son of God, Jesus was immediately led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil:
Then Jesus left the Jordan, full of the Holy Spirit, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days to be tempted by the devil.
In between these verses, Luke inserts a big fat genealogy tracing Jesus’ lineage back some 76 generations:
As he began his ministry, Jesus was about thirty years old and was thought to be the son of Joseph, son of Heli, son of Matthat, son of Levi, son of Melchi, son of Jannai, son of Joseph, son of...
What on earth is Luke trying to show us by inserting this genealogy in the middle of the story?
One way the genealogy functions in this place is to mark the passing of the torch from John’s ministry, preparing the way, to Jesus’ ministry, which is about to commence. But I think Luke is doing more than that here.
Luke wants to make clear exactly who Jesus is as he begins his earthly ministry. The genealogy serves as a credential, of sorts. We see in the genealogy that he is directly descended from King David, so we know that he is in the line of succession for the throne of David, as the Messiah King must be (Isaiah 9:7). We also see that he is descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, since he is the promised “seed” of Abraham (Genesis 22:18).
Way, Way Back To the Beginning
But Luke takes this genealogy back even farther than Abraham. Luke traces Jesus’ lineage all the way back to the beginning, all the way back to Adam. He completes his very long list of names like this:
“…son of Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God.”
Wait. Adam, son of God? A voice just announced from heaven that Jesus was the beloved Son of God, and now Luke is telling us that Adam is the son of God?
Luke is doing that literary thing where he places two characters next to each other to make a comparison. He wants us thinking of Adam as we head into the story of the devil tempting Jesus. He wants our minds in Genesis 3.
Remember what happened there? Adam was in a perfect garden, with a belly full of everything good that God had generously provided for him. But instead of submitting to God’s authority and trusting that his provision was good, He stood by while his wife listened to the lies of the devil and transgressed the one and only restriction God had placed on them.
Adam, son of God, and his wife, Eve, ate the fruit that looked pleasing to the eye, the fruit that they believed would make them like God, the fruit that brought death to the entire world.
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.
All this Luke brings to mind by reminding us Jesus is the “…son of Adam, son of God.”
Redeeming the Rotten Fruit
And with the very next verse we find Jesus, not in a cultivated garden, but in a desolate wilderness. Not with a full belly, but fasting for forty days. And the devil comes to tempt him like that snake sneaking into the garden.
Will Jesus, Son of God, succeed where Adam, son of God, failed?
The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."
When the devil addresses Jesus by saying, “If you are the Son of God…” the phrase “Adam, son of God” is still ringing in our ears.
“If you really are the new and better Son of God, the one who thinks he can undo the mess made by Adam, the one who is the better Adam, the better Son of God…” This taunt harkens back to his victory in Eden.
But the devil will not gain the victory over this Son. Jesus did what Adam was unable to do. He was “tempted in every way, just as we are–yet he did not sin” (Hebrews 4:15 NIV).
And through his perfect obedience to God, obedience that led all the way to an atoning death on a Roman cross, Jesus did, in fact, undo the mess made by Adam.
...just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man [Adam] the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man [Jesus Christ] the many will be made righteous.
Thanks be to God for giving us a better Son of God! Like Adam, we stood condemned before a holy God, but we can stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Jesus if we have trusted that he lived the perfect life we could not live, and died the death that we deserved to die, in order to give us forgiveness for our sins and eternal life.
From Sons of Adam to Sons of God
Adam was not just a son, he was a father – the father of all who sin and fall short of the glory of God. And Jesus is not just a Son, he is a Savior, and “his name shall be called… Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).
Jesus sets us free from the legacy of sin and death passed down to us from Adam, and he gives us birth into a new family, that we too might be called sons of God.
..for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.
Instead of the legacy of Adam, who gave us sin, death, and condemnation, we can inherit the legacy of Jesus, a legacy of redemption and faith, a family inheritance that is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven” for all who have been born again through faith in Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:3-4).
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
Receive the lavish love of the Father today. For Luke is reminding us with this simple genealogy that the curse of sin has been undone for all who turn from the legacy of Adam, and receive by faith the better Son of God.
Jesus sets us free from the legacy of sin and death passed down to us from Adam, and he gives us birth into a new family, that we too might be called sons of God.
*(Genealogies are still an important part of storytelling in many non-Western cultures today.)
Thank you for the wonderful insights from Luke and connecting them to the story of Adam. You have given me a lot to think about.