The Last Adam, The Son of God Text: Luke 3:23-38
Introduction: A Map of the World
Modern man thinks genealogies are a colossal waste of time. He sees a long list of begats and his eyes glaze over. He thinks it is ancient record-keeping, a dusty appendix, something to be skipped over to get to the "good parts." But this is because modern man has no idea who he is or where he came from. He believes he is an accident, a cosmic orphan, a bit of sophisticated mud that got lucky. He has no father, so he has no story. And having no story, he cannot understand why a list of names, a family tree, is one of the most explosive, world-defining things you could possibly read.
A biblical genealogy is not a phone book. It is a map. It is a declaration of God's unwavering faithfulness through generations of sin and sorrow. It is a promise made in the Garden, whispered to Abraham, shouted from Sinai, sung by David, and then, after a long silence, fulfilled in a carpenter's son in Nazareth. The world thinks history is a chaotic, meaningless ramble. The Bible says history is a story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end, and it is His story. Every name in this list is a brick in the road God was paving from Eden to the cross.
Luke, the careful historian, places this genealogy at a crucial juncture. Matthew puts his at the very beginning, to show the Jews that Jesus is the son of David and Abraham, the fulfillment of Israel's royal hope. But Luke places his genealogy right after Jesus' baptism and right before His temptation in the wilderness. Why? Because Luke is writing for a broader, Gentile audience. He wants to show that Jesus is not just the king of the Jews, but the savior of the world. And so he doesn't stop at Abraham. He drives the lineage all the way back, past the flood, past the fall, all the way to the beginning. He traces the Lord's ancestry back to Adam, to show us that this is the second Adam, the new head of the human race. And then, in a stunning climax, he takes it one step further. He doesn't end with Adam. He ends with God.
This is not just a family tree; it is a theological statement of enormous magnitude. It is the story of two Adams, and two humanities that flow from them. It is the story of how God Himself entered our broken family line in order to create a new one.
The Text
When He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Eli, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Hesli, the son of Naggai, the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Nahshon, the son of Amminadab, the son of Admin, the son of Ram, the son of Hezron, the son of Perez, the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the son of Terah, the son of Nahor, the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Heber, the son of Shelah, the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
(Luke 3:23-38 LSB)
The Supposed Son (v. 23)
We begin with the crucial, qualifying phrase that frames the entire list.
"When He began His ministry, Jesus Himself was about thirty years of age, being, as was supposed, the son of Joseph, the son of Eli," (Luke 3:23)
Luke is a meticulous historian. He is not dealing in rumors. He tells us that Jesus was about thirty, the age when Levites began their service and a man would be considered to have reached his maturity. But then he adds this parenthetical grenade: "as was supposed." The Greek is 'hos enomizeto'. It means as was legally reckoned, as was commonly thought. Everyone in Nazareth knew Jesus as the carpenter's boy, Joseph's son. But Luke, having already given us the full account of the virgin birth in chapter one, is winking at us. He is telling us that the public record and the divine reality are two different things. Legally, Jesus was Joseph's heir. But biologically, He was not Joseph's son.
This little phrase is a direct assault on the naturalism of our age. It tells us that God can, and did, intervene directly in the bloodstream of humanity. Jesus did not have a human father, which means He was not entailed in the sin of Adam that passes from father to son. He had a human mother, which means He was fully one of us, a true man. This is not some optional, mythological flourish. The virgin birth is the theological hinge upon which our salvation turns. He had to be one of us to die for us, and He had to be separate from us to be a perfect sacrifice.
Now, this immediately raises the question of the two genealogies in Matthew and Luke, which differ significantly. The short answer, and the one that has been held by the church for centuries, is that Matthew gives us Joseph's line, the royal line through Solomon, establishing Jesus' legal right to the throne of David. Luke, on the other hand, gives us Mary's line, his actual bloodline, through another of David's sons, Nathan. The "son of Eli" here would mean Joseph was the son-in-law of Eli, Mary's father. This was a common way of speaking. Joseph was Eli's heir by marriage. So, through Joseph, Jesus is the legal heir of David. Through Mary, He is the blood descendant of David. God, in His meticulous providence, covered all the bases.
The Royal Line and the Human Line (v. 24-31)
The list proceeds backward, and as we read, we should not just see names, but stories of God's faithfulness.
"...the son of Nathan, the son of David..." (Luke 3:31)
Here is the first major anchor point. Both genealogies agree: Jesus is the son of David. The promises made to David of an eternal king and an everlasting throne find their yes and amen in this man from Nazareth (2 Samuel 7). But as I mentioned, Luke traces the line through Nathan, not Solomon. This is significant. The royal line through Solomon was the official, kingly line, but it became corrupted and was ultimately cursed in Jeconiah (Jeremiah 22:30). But God, in His wisdom, had another, parallel line of Davidic descent running quietly through the centuries, through an obscure son named Nathan. This is a picture of the gospel itself. The world looks to the thrones of power, to the Solomons in all their glory. God works through the humble, the overlooked, the Nathans of the world to bring about His salvation.
As you scan these names, you see men like Zerubbabel, who led the return from exile. You see names that are famous and names that are utterly obscure. This is the reality of our human story. Most of us will not be famous. Most of us are just another link in the chain. But God sees every link. He knows every name. And He uses ordinary, flawed, forgotten people to accomplish His extraordinary, perfect plan. Your life, your faithfulness in your small corner, is a part of this great story.
The Patriarchs and the Promise (v. 32-34)
The genealogy continues its backward march, arriving at the foundations of the nation of Israel.
"...the son of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham." (Luke 3:33-34)
Here is the second great anchor: Abraham. If David is the root of Israel's royalty, Abraham is the root of Israel's existence. He is the father of the faithful, the one to whom God gave the foundational covenant promises: land, seed, and blessing to the nations (Genesis 12). By tracing Jesus to Abraham, Luke is showing that Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of that promise. He is the true seed of Abraham. And through Him, not through ethnic descent, all the families of the earth will be blessed. This is Luke's great theme. The gospel is for everyone. It is not a tribal religion. It is a global salvation.
We see Judah, to whom the scepter was promised (Genesis 49:10). We see Jacob, the schemer whom God transformed into a prince. We see Isaac, the son of the promise, miraculously born. Each name is a sermon. Each story is a testament to God's sovereign grace working through messy, sinful human lives to keep His covenant.
From Abraham to Adam (v. 34-38)
But Luke doesn't stop at the father of the Jews. He pushes past him to the father of us all.
"...the son of Shem, the son of Noah... the son of Seth, the son of Adam..." (Luke 3:36, 38)
By going back past Abraham, Luke is making a radical point. Jesus is not just the redeemer of Israel; He is the redeemer of humanity. He is the kinsman-redeemer for every tribe, tongue, and nation. He goes back to Noah, the man through whom God preserved the human race from the flood. He goes back to Seth, the son appointed to replace the murdered Abel, carrying the godly line forward. And he arrives at the source, Adam.
This is the whole point of the exercise. The first Adam was the head of the old creation. He was given a glorious commission, and he failed spectacularly. He sinned, and in him, we all sinned. He brought death, condemnation, and ruin upon his entire race. We are all sons of Adam by nature, and that is a damnable inheritance. But right here, at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, just before He goes into the wilderness to face the tempter that Adam failed to defeat, Luke tells us that a new man has arrived. This is the Last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45). He is a new federal head for a new humanity. Where the first Adam disobeyed in a garden, the second Adam will obey in a wilderness and on a cross. Where the first Adam brought death, the second Adam brings life.
The Son of God (v. 38)
And then comes the final, breathtaking link in the chain.
"...the son of Adam, the son of God." (Luke 3:38)
Adam was the son of God by creation. He was made in God's image, without a human father, formed directly by the hand of God. But he was a son who fell, a son who was disinherited. For thousands of years, humanity has been a race of prodigal sons, born into the family of a disgraced father.
But now, another "son of God" has appeared. At His baptism, just a few verses earlier, the Father's voice boomed from heaven, "You are my beloved Son." Jesus is the Son of God not by creation, but by eternal generation. He is the unique, only-begotten Son. And by linking Jesus through Adam to God, Luke is tying it all together. The first son of God failed. Now the eternal Son of God has come, as a true son of Adam, to succeed where the first Adam failed, in order to make us adopted sons of God. He enters our broken, fallen, Adamic family line to rescue us from it and bring us into His divine family.
Conclusion: Your Place in the Story
So what does this long list of names have to do with you? Everything. This is not just Jesus' family tree; it is the story of how you get a new family. By nature, you are simply "a son of Adam," and the wages of that sonship is death. Your name is on a list that ends in condemnation.
But the gospel is the good news that you can be grafted into a new family tree. Through faith in Jesus Christ, the Last Adam, you are adopted into His family. Your old identity is crucified with Him, and you are given a new one. You are no longer just a son of Adam; you become a son of God. "But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" (John 1:12).
This genealogy is an open invitation. It is the history of God's grace, marching relentlessly through time to find you. It is the story of how the eternal Son of God became the son of Adam, so that we, the rebellious sons of Adam, might become the adopted sons of God. This is the great exchange. He took our humanity so we could share in His divinity. He took our place in the line of death so we could take His place in the line of life. Your history does not have to end in Adam. By faith, it can begin anew in Christ.