For the last few years I’ve been enjoying exploring my family tree on Ancestry.com. Since I was a “surprise” baby – my mother was 44 and my father 47 when I was born – I missed out on many of the family stories. This new hobby gives me a chance to fill in the blanks.
For example, I thought my mother was born in Radville, Saskatchewan, Canada, but she was actually born in Owen Sound, Ontario. I also didn’t know that at one time her father owned a laundry there and that she had a brother who lived for only one year.
On my dad’s side, I’ve been able to trace his ancestors in Oppdal, Norway back to the seventeenth century.
The problem with ancestors, however, is that one didn’t get to choose them. I am an involuntary mosaic of my ancestors expressed through their genes, culture and history. My personality, my intellect, my appearance, my language, my thought patterns – all of them for the most part hinge on who my ancestors were.
And that brings me to that one primordial ancestor we all have, Adam. I didn’t get to choose him, either. But because of that one choice he made, I now have a sinful nature.
Thanks a lot, Adam.
But I have really great news. When it comes to eternity, the Bible tells us that we have the ability to pick who our original ancestor is going to be. We can either stick with Adam – good luck with that – or we can pick someone else to be our “Adam,” someone else whose nature we can inherit. The Bible tells us that person is Jesus.
Yep, Jesus is starting an entirely new human race, a new “family” made up of people who share his nature, his character, his holiness and his glory. Think of this for a moment. Just as Adam made it natural for us to sin, so Jesus is making it natural for us to do righteousness. Eventually, because of our relationship to Jesus, we will know no sin at all. None. Nada. Zip. Zero. This means we are, in every sense of the word, Jesus’ brothers (and sisters!).
We can see this concept of believers as Jesus’ family who inherit his likeness as a very clear thought progression in the New Testament. Take a moment to read and meditate on the following passages:
While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.” He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”1
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.2
Suddenly Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” They came to Him, grasped His feet, and worshiped Him. “Do not be afraid,” Jesus said. “Go, tell My brothers to go to Galilee. There they will see Me.”3
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have born the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.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! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now are we children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.5
So there you have it. We didn’t get to pick our parents, or the color of our eyes, or where we would be born. But we do get to pick how we will spend eternity…and whom we will be like as we live it.
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.6
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
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2 thoughts on ““Go Tell My Brothers” – Jesus’ Second Human Race”
I loved this post Herb!
I loved this post Herb!