Have you ever thought about what it means for Jesus to be referred to as God’s Son? Many of us are familiar with the Christmas story, where the angel tells Mary, “‘And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the SON OF THE MOST HIGH. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ And Mary said to the angel, ‘How will this be, since I am a virgin?’ And the angel answered her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—THE SON OF GOD’” (Luke 1:31-35, emphasis mine). So Jesus was known as the Son of God even from before birth, but what does this mean?

A few chapters later in Luke, we see Jesus go to be baptized by his cousin John. Luke 3:21-22 says, “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’”

This is a major event in Jesus’ life. Many would say it was the start of his public ministry. And we see him beginning that ministry in prayer. And as he prays, heaven opened, the Holy Spirit descended, and the voice of God the Father spoke from heaven declaring Jesus to be “my beloved Son.” Here what was told by the angel to Mary is confirmed by the Father himself as Jesus is anointed with the Holy Spirit. So now Jesus, the Son of God, is energized and empowered by the Spirit to go do the work of the Father who has just declared His love for him.

And Luke comes off the heels of this incredible moment and goes straight into…a genealogy. Have you ever asked yourself why? Why does Luke include Jesus’ genealogy here? Doesn’t this seem like a weird place? Matthew puts it first, which doesn’t make for a super thrilling start to his gospel, but it makes sense to start the birth narrative with where the person being born came from. But we’re way past that in Luke. He tells us Jesus “was about thirty years of age” (Luke 3:23). So why now?

God the Father has just spoken who Jesus is, and then this genealogy is placed here to show us the same thing. By tracing his genealogy all the way back to the first son of God, Luke is showing us that Jesus was born from a long line of people, the first of whom was born of God.

And that first person was Adam. Adam was a type of Christ. You may have heard Jesus referred to as the second Adam or last Adam. Luke wants us to make that connection to see the Jesus was not the first person to be called son of God, but as you continue to read the narrative, you see he is the only one WORTHY of the title Son of God because sonship requires obedience.

Was Adam obedient? Absolutely not. But the rest of the Bible is a story about how Jesus, the “second Adam,” comes to redeem us from the consequences of that fall. And we really see that start in his temptation, when Jesus, the “last Adam,” goes and subdues the serpent as the first Adam should have done.