from the devotional book, PICTURES OF GOD

Read Matthew 1:18-25; 28:16-20

Jesus is God with Us. He is the loving God who eagerly comes to His people, even when they don’t deserve Him or His grace. That is the clear message of Matthew 1, the first chapter of the New Testament. Matthew opens with the genealogy of Jesus, showing that Messiah descended from a family with its share of moral outcasts. He then applies to Jesus the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14, “Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel” (NASB). This son of a disgraced Jewish maiden, conceived before marriage, was indeed God with us.

Matthew 2 continues with the same theme, showing that gentiles from far outside God’s people were among the very first called to worship this King of all Kings.

Jesus’ earthly ministry ends the same way in Matthew’s last chapter, with Jesus commanding His disciples to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19, NASB). This God with us was to be the Father’s gift to all people, including those who had never known Him and never sought Him.

Jesus’ life was thus framed with His purpose to be God with us. All the days in-between were filled with the same. He only did the Father’s works:

“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does…By myself I can do nothing.” (John 5:19, 30, NIV)

He only spoke the Father’s words:

“These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.” (John 14:24, NIV)

Jesus came saying what the Father would say and doing what the Father would do among us: healing, teaching, cleansing, feeding, and calling us to join Him in His work. The Father sent His only Son out of His burning desire to be truly with His people.