The Hope Of Every Generation

The Hope of Every Generation

In Genesis 5, we find the genealogy of descendants flowing out of Adam, the first man. “When Adam was 130 years old, he became the father of a son who was just like him—in his very image. He named his son Seth” (Genesis 5:3).

A record of Adam’s descendants goes on from there—Adam lived 930 years, and then he died. Seth became the father of Enosh. Seth lived 912 years, and then he died. Enosh became the father of Kenan . . . and so on.

God had created Adam in his image, but that image became corrupted when Adam sinned. Now Adam and each of his descendants after him could do no more than father a son who was like himself—fallen and sinful. With every generation, hopes were raised that this would be the son, the offspring, who would put an end to the Curse that had brought death. But then that son would also die. The genealogy pressed forward, looking ahead for that one. The promise would not be fulfilled until he came.

And then he came. And rather than a record of descendants flowing out of him, his biographers provided a record of his ancestry flowing into him. Luke began by recording that “Jesus was known as the son of Joseph” and worked his way back through the generations of David and Boaz and Judah and Abraham and Shem and Seth—all the way to Adam, ending with “Adam was the son of God” (Luke 3:23-38).

All history had groaned and shuddered in childbirth, waiting for him. Jesus is the descendant that Adam and every son since Adam had yearned for. And when he came, the wait was over. The search ended. It was culminated in Christ. The true goal of all the carefully recorded lineages had arrived. With this Son, the “and then he died” pattern of Adam’s descendants would be brought to an end. Jesus turned back the tide of the Curse as he broke the power of death and was raised to everlasting life.

“Everyone died—from the time of Adam to the time of Moses,” Paul wrote in Romans 5. “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 5:14, 17).

Blessed Son of Man, how grateful I am to know that my future is not determined by my human ancestry but by your gracious choice to write my name in the Book of Life before the creation of the world.