Matthew
LeRoy Eims
There
is no doubt as to the purpose of the Gospel of Matthew. A clue to the whole
book is given in the first verse: "The book of the genealogy of Jesus
Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." (Matthew 1:1). The
genealogy of the Lord Jesus is taken back to Abraham, and this is the gospel
for the Jew.
It
presents Jesus not only as the greatest prophet and lawgiver, but also as the
one who fulfilled the Law and the prophets. He is the messiah of the Old
Testament predictions, the covenant that God made to Abraham, and the king of
Israel in the line of David.
The
four gospels do not describe our Lord Jesus and they express very few personal
opinions regarding Him. They present Him in such a way that He speaks and acts
for Himself.
The
four gospels are, by all odds, more important than all the rest of the books in
the world put together. We could better afford to be without the knowledge of
everything else, than to be without the knowledge of Christ. All the books of
the Bible that precede the gospels anticipate His coning, and those that follow
explain much about it. But it is actually in the gospels that we see Christ in
all His fullness. This is the only part of the Bible where there are four books
about the same person.
The
design of this gospel is to present Jesus in a manner that will speak to the
Jew. The one fact that had been impressed upon the Jewish mind from the
beginning of their history was that they were divinely chosen and set apart as
a peculiar people through whom the redemption of the world would be achieved.
They made a special point of this when they said "we be Abraham's seed and
heirs to the promise of God."
To
present Jesus to the Jew required an understanding of their religious system.
It was symbolic. It was the shadow and not the substance. Jesus must be clearly
shown as the fulfillment of it all. It must show prophecy as being fulfilled in
the Lord Jesus. It must be presented in such a way as to satisfy people who
were familiar with the prophecies of the Messiah.
In
the very beginning, Matthew does this. He takes the Jew back to the founding of
His nation and the covenant that God made to Abraham. Matthew keeps before us
the Old Testament scriptures and refers to them over 100 times.
It
abounds with statements that show how Jesus fulfilled the prophetic scriptures.
The Jews would require this and only in this way could the Messianic claims of
Christ be established.
Thus
in His person, His words, and His works, proof is given that Jesus of Nazareth
is the Messiah. Small things appear to show Jesus as King. In the record of
Matthew, He is led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the
devil.
In
the book of Mark where Jesus is presented as a servant, He is driven. Obviously
a slave can be driven, but not a king. A king is led.
This
gospel ends with the risen Christ giving the greatest commission to a band of
men that was ever uttered: "All power is given unto me in heaven and in
earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and, lo, I am with you always, even
unto the end of the world." (Matthew 28:18‑20).
© Copyright
2002, LeRoy Eims