The Bloodline of Christ

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.'” Matthew 1:18-20

If we’re not careful, we can make the Christmas story too neat. Too clean. Just a silent night and a glowing baby. But at its start, it was shrouded in scandal, heartbreak, and a devastating dilemma.

Put yourself in Joseph’s sandals. His world has shattered. The woman he loves, the woman he has covenanted to marry, is pregnant. And he knows the child is not his. In that culture, this wasn’t just personal betrayal; it was a social, legal, and theological crisis. According to the Law, the outcome could be severe. According to gossip, his name would be mud. According to his heart, it was broken.

But Matthew, under the inspiration of the Spirit, highlights one specific detail in the angel’s message: “Joseph, son of David…” Why use his royal family name here? Because the angel is pointing to what is truly at stake. This isn’t just about reputation or relationships. This is about lineage. Inheritance. Bloodline.

In the Jewish world, your bloodline was everything. It determined your identity, your land, your standing before God, and your role in His story. The promises of the Messiah were clear: He must be the “son of Abraham” and the “son of David.” The entire hope of Israel traveled through fragile, human family lines.

And Joseph, a son of David, held that thread in his hands. His decision—to adopt this child as his own legal son—would determine whether Jesus of Nazareth would be recognized in the royal records as Jesus son of David, the rightful heir to the throne. Joseph’s “yes” was the first act of redemption in the Christmas story, grafting the Son of God into the human family tree to redeem it from the inside out.

We can discover how Jesus’s intentional entry into an earthly bloodline was God’s masterstroke to create a new, eternal, spiritual bloodline for all who believe. We’ll journey from the purpose of our earthly families, to the birth that changed every family, to the stunning reality of your new birth certificate in Christ.

Part 1: The Purpose & Problem of Earthly Bloodlines

So, what is a bloodline in the scripture? It’s the conduit of two powerful forces: Blessing and Burden.

First, bloodlines are carriers of covenant BLESSING. God chose to work through families. His greatest promises flowed through genealogical lines.

· To Abraham, God said: “I will make of you a great nation… and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” Genesis 12:2-3. The blessing was to Abraham and his offspring.
· To David, God promised: “I will raise up your offspring after you… and I will establish his kingdom… and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” 2 Samuel 7:12-13. The kingship was tied to David’s bloodline.

These weren’t just spiritual metaphors. They were attached to physical descendants. Your family name meant something.

But second, bloodlines are also carriers of consequential BURDEN. They transmit more than just eye colourand last names.

God warns in Exodus 20:5-6 that He is “a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

We see this lived out: the deceit of Jacob echoes in his sons. The pride of David leads to chaos in his household. Patterns of anger, addiction, fear, and brokenness seem to have a generational gravity. This creates the great tension of the Old Testament: How can a holy, perfect God fulfill His perfect promises through sinful, broken family lines?

The genealogies of Matthew 1 and Luke 3 answer that. They are not just boring lists of names. They are a portrait of a patient God and a desperate humanity. They are a record of adulterers, idolaters, foreigners, prostitutes, and failures. Every name whispers, “We need a better Son. We need a perfect Heir. We need someone who can break the curse and secure the blessing.” The entire Old Testament bloodline leans forward, longing for a Child who will not fail.

Part 2: The Birth That Changed Every Bloodline

And then, heaven answered. The hinge of history turns in a Bethlehem stable.

The Apostle Paul unlocks the mystery in Galatians 3:16: “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, ‘And to offsprings,’ referring to many, but referring to one, ‘And to your offspring,’ who is Christ.”

Did you catch that? All those promises to Abraham’s many descendants? They were always intended for One Ultimate Descendant. Jesus is the True Seed. He is the perfect “Son of Abraham” who finally brings blessing to all nations. He is the perfect “Son of David” who reigns forever in righteousness.

This is why the Virgin Birth is not a peripheral miracle; it is the theological core. When the angel tells Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God” Luke 1:35, a new lineage begins. In the womb of a virgin, God does a new thing. He creates a new humanity, holy and untainted, planting a divine seed in human soil.

And Joseph, by faith, obeys. He gives Jesus his name, his lineage, his legal right to David’s throne. This shows us a profound truth: True lineage is about covenant, not just biology. It’s about a legal declaration of belonging.

Look at Jesus’s family tree in Matthew 1. It’s a genealogy of grace! Tamar, who was wronged. Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute. Ruth, a Moabite outsider. Bathsheba, “the wife of Uriah,” a reminder of David’s great sin. Why are they here? To shout that God’s grace specializes in flawed bloodlines. Jesus isn’t ashamed to be grafted into our mess. He enters into the full story of human sin and sorrow to redeem it from the roots up.

Part 3: Your New Bloodline in Christ

But Christmas is not the end. It is the glorious means. Jesus entered our bloodline so that we could enter His. This is the great transfer.

“Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh… were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:11-13

Before Christ, the world was divided by the ultimate bloodline: Jew and Gentile. The covenant family and the outsiders. The wall was high, the division deep. Your birth determined your spiritual status.

“For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility… that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.” Ephesians 2:14-18

How? By His blood. Not by improving the old lines but by creating a brand new humanity. In Christ, God isn’t just making two separate families get along. He is performing a cosmic act of creation, forging a single new family where the old categories no longer define us.

So, what is your new identity? Let’s fill out your spiritual birth certificate, purchased by the blood of Christ.

· FATHER: God. “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13). Your spiritual DNA is now divine.
· HERITAGE: Abraham’s Seed. “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” (Galatians 3:29). You inherit every promise made to him.
· INHERITANCE: The World. “For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.” (Romans 4:13). You are a co-heir with Christ of all things.
· IDENTITY: In Christ. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Your core, unshakeable identity is now “in Him.”

What does this mean for you?

1. Your past does not define you. Those generational patterns of anxiety, addiction, anger, or abandonment? They lost their legal claim on you. You are not fighting to break a curse from your old line; you are learning to walk in the blessing of your new line.
2. Your worth is not earned; it’s inherited. You don’t have to perform for love or prove your value. You are the beloved child of the King. Your worth comes from your perfect Older Brother, Jesus, who shares His inheritance with you.
3. Your family just got exponentially bigger. In Christ, the person next to you is not just a fellow church-goer. They are your brother. Your sister. We are not an organization; we are an organism, a family, bound by a blood thicker than our own.

Living in Your New Bloodline

So how do we live this out?

For those haunted by your past: When you feel the pull of an old pattern—a quick temper, a spirit of fear, a cycle of lack—don’t just confess it. Replace it. Declare: “That is not who I am anymore. I am in Christ. I am a child of God. I walk in the blessing of Abraham.” You are not managing an old identity; you are putting on a new one.

For those searching for identity: Stop looking at your earthly family tree for your worth, your gifts, or your destiny. Your earthly lineage may give you context, but only your spiritual lineage in Christ gives you your calling. Your primary identity is Child of God. Let every other role flow from that.

For us as a church: We must be the living proof of this new bloodline. Our unity across race, class, and background is not a social justice project; it is our greatest testimony. It proves the gospel is true. We must love, forgive, and provide for one another as true family. The world knows how to split into tribes. Only the Church can show what a supernaturally united family looks like.

Conclusion: For Communion

The Table of Our Common Bloodline

In the Lord’s Supper, we come to the Lord’s Table. This is not a ritual. It is a family meal. It proclaims our common bloodline.

When Jesus lifted the cup, He said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” Luke 22:20. Every time we take it, we do two things: We remember the blood that was shed to buy us, and we reaffirm the blood that binds us—not to each other by birth, but to Christ by faith, and thus to each other as family.

I think of a story of adoption. A child, born into desperate circumstances, is brought into a new home. The old birth certificate, with its history of abandonment, is filed away. A new one is issued. New name. New parents. New inheritance. A completely new legal reality.

This is what God has done for you in Christ. Through Christmas, He entered your story. Through the Cross, He filed away your old, bankrupt inheritance and issued you a new birth certificate. You have been adopted. You are home.

This season, as you gather with family, with all its joy and all its pain, remember your truest family tree. You are part of a royal lineage that goes back to Bethlehem, runs through the Cross, and reaches forward to an eternal throne. Your story didn’t begin with your birth, and it doesn’t end with your death. You are part of something eternal.

Kay Alli