Christology is a theological term used in reference to the study of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Christology. Anyone who is the least familiar with Christology and its importance will surely recognize how very key to Christology is Abraham,…Abraham the patriarch, Abraham the friend of God and the only person who is ever called that. Abraham, the great grandfather of the men who headed the twelve tribes of Israel. Abraham and Sarah produced Isaac. Isaac and Rebekah produced Jacob. Jacob and Leah, and Rachel, and Bilhah, and Zilpah produced the twelve sons, each a progenitor of the tribe of Israel. This is why, to be a true Israelite, one’s ancestry must include not only Abraham, but Isaac as well, and not only Abraham and Isaac, but Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Only with all three, and one’s direct ancestry, can he be said to be an Israelite.
When Abraham’s wife was still childless, and he had gone into Hagar to produce Ishmael, Abraham thought he, Ishmael, would be the “son of promise”, that is, the one to carry on the line that would eventually produce the Messiah. But God dispelled that notion saying, “Through Isaac your seed will be called, or your descendants will be named.” Ishmael and his mother Hagar went out on their own, and Ishmael, again, according to prophecy, became himself the father of another twelve tribes described in Genesis 25. These twelve tribes from Ishmael are today’s Arab population…Arabs and Israelis, both from one common father Abraham, but with different mothers, Sarah and Hagar. This meant Isaac and Ishmael were half-brothers. They were contentious then, and everyone knows how contentious their ancestors, today’s Israelis and Arabs, are, even as we speak. That such was prophesied of the Messiah…that He would be a direct descendent from the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob…is all spelled out in Genesis 12:21 and 22. The fulfillment of these wonderful prophesies is revealed with great clarity in the detailed genealogies of Matthew 1 and Luke 3.
In Romans, Paul reminds us that Christ has become a Servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers. This great epistle of Romans opens with: “Paul, a bond-servant of Jesus Christ, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son who was born of a descendant of David, according to the flesh.” It is all so very clear and so precise that thinking minds must stand in awe of it, even as they embrace it.
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