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The King Has Come Pt. 12 | Matthew 1:1-17
October 26th, 2025
On October 31, 1517, an Augustinian Monk in Wittenburg, Germany posted his ninety-five theses on the door of the Catholic Church. This request to debate certain doctrines of the Catholic Church set off a firestorm across Europe that resulted in a Reformation of the church and recovery of the true gospel. Martin Luther was still an unbeliever when he posted these theses, however he was wrestling – wrestling specifically with the justice of God. In 1519 he wrote that he had a burning desire to understand what Paul meant in his letter to the Romans when he said the justice of God is revealed in it. Luther said he hated that word – justice – for he had been taught that this formal, or active, justice is the justice of God that punishes sinners and the unjust.
But he, being a blameless monk, felt that before God he was a sinner with an extremely troubled conscience. He admitted that he hated a just God that punishes sinners. He said it isn’t enough that we miserable sinners, lost for all eternity because of original sin, are oppressed by every kind of calamity through the Ten Commandments. He wanted to know why God would heap sorrow upon sorrow through the gospel and threaten us with His justice and wrath. He said he constantly badgered Saint Paul about his statement while anxiously wanting to know what he meant.
Luther said he meditated on this day and night until, by the mercy of God, he paid attention to the context. The justice of God is revealed in it; as it is written, the just person shall live by his faith. Luther began to understand that the justice of God is that the just person lives by a gift of God that is by faith. He realized that the justice of God is revealed through the gospel, but it is a passive justice, by which a merciful God justifies us by faith. At that point he felt that he had been born again and had entered into paradise with open gates, and he saw the whole of Scripture in a different light. He ran through the Scriptures from memory and found that other terms had an analogous meaning. The justice of God which he had so hated previously, had become the very gates of paradise. Then he read Augustine’s On the Spirit and Letter and found that he had interpreted the justice of God in a similar way, as that He clothes us when He justifies us.
Luther was brought to faith in Christ as he wrestled with the justice of God. In light of the order of salvation (Latin: ordo salutis), and Luther’s experience, seeing salvation in the lives of the people in the genealogy of Jesus Christ listed in Matthew 1. This is an example of what faith and repentance look like when confronted with justification. We must turn from all hope in ourselves and rest in the righteousness of God freely imputed to us in Christ. When Luther was awakened; he turned and repented and consented to the call to trust in Jesus Christ. It was the reality of justification that broke him, and that which also breaks us. Justification is God’s first act of applied grace, the moment when mercy becomes saving and peace becomes real. Justification occurs at the moment when God places the robe of Christ’s righteousness on us.
All aspects of God’s justification are seen in the life of Boaz, the next in the line of the genealogy of Jesus Christ. It is extremely important that we have a clear understanding of the doctrine of justification. The name, Boaz, is composed of two Hebrew elements: Bo, meaning in Him and oz, meaning strength. Putting the two together, his name means, In Him is Strength. Oz is used throughout Scripture, and it refers to divine strength or might. For example, “Yahweh is my strength.” (Psalm 28:7), “The God of Israel Himself gives strength and might to the people.” (Psalm 68:35) The best way to understand Boaz’s name is “Yahweh is his strength.”
In describing the construction of Solomon’s Temple, I Kings 7:21 tells us that Solomon set up two very tall pillars or columns in front of, but not a part of the temple construction. These pillars were approximately 35’ in height. The pillar on the right was named Jachin (He shall establish} and the pillar on the left was named Boaz (Yahweh is his strength). Taken together the pillars remind those entering the temple that God in His strength will establish. (Remember reading of Hebrew is from right to left.) These two pillars also remind the people that God requires holiness to worship Him, and what He requires He provides. This is the idea behind the doctrine of justification.
Robert Culver, in his Systematic Theology, writes “Justification is the declarative act of God’s free grace. It is a judicial sentence whereby God pronounces the sinner righteous because of Christ.” Justification, then, is the judicial means in which God saves a sinner from His wrath. The gospel is wrapped up in Romans 3:23-24, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” Our great problem is that we are sinners and separated from God. We need to be made righteous so that we can be in communion with Him. The temple was the archetype of the Garden, where Adam and Eve communed with and walked with God. The solution to our problem is that God grants us righteousness as a gift. The basis of our righteousness and justification is redemption in Jesus Christ.
Since God is righteous, He cannot overlook sin because that would make Him unjust. God’s justice requires that He deal with sin. Justification is not overlooking sin, it is dealing with sin, specifically through substitution, declaring the sinner righteous. Romans 4:5 says, “And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,” Faith is not a work; it is the instrument God uses for us to receive the work of another person, Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Through the process of regeneration (i.e., being born again) a person understands his sinfulness and God’s holiness, then in faith, turns to Christ for salvation. We see Jachin and Boaz; God establishes, and in Him is strength.
Romans 5:9 says, “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” Being justified is how we are saved from God’s wrath. How a sinner can be justified and saved from God’s wrath plagues many today, as it plagued Luther. Luther tortured himself and prayed and confessed his sins for hours at a time. He found no peace until he finally understood the ramifications of Romans 1:17, where Paul quoted Habakkuk 2:4, “the righteous shall live by his faith.” Looking at the flow of salvation, we see mercy, decreed from eternity past. The love of God and the mercy of God is the motive for justification and grace is the means whereby He applies justification. So, justification is the act in which salvation from God’s wrath becomes legally secured in us.
John Owen said in his Theology, “Mercy is that which God moves Him to save, and justification is that act of God whereby He declares sinners to be saved.” Mercy originates the plan, grace administers the gift, and justification accomplishes the legal rescue. Justification is the hinge point in the order of salvation. We have election (God’s eternal choice), then calling (God’s gracious summoning to us), regeneration (giving spiritual life), conversion (faith and repentance allowing us to trust in Jesus), then the hinge – justification (legal standing), adoption (familial belonging to God’s family), sanctification (moral transformation), and finally – glorification (when we are complete). From Boaz, a pillar in the temple, we understand justification. We stand on God’s strength, not our own.
In the book of Ruth, we see justification embodied in the righteousness of God as He moves in the life of Boaz. In this book, we see justification illustrated through three main movements in the life of Boaz: Boaz acts legally, Boaz pays personally, and Boaz stands publicly. Summarizing this beautiful love story that takes place during the period of Israel’s judges, Elimelech, his wife, Naomi, and their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion fled to Moab to escape the famine in Bethlehem. While in Moab, Mahlon and Chilion took Moabite wives, Orpha and Ruth. However, during the 10 years that Naomi was in Moab, her husband and both sons died. When Naomi learned that the famine in Bethlehem was over, she decided to return to Bethlehem. Orpha remained in Moab, but Ruth clung to Naomi. She said, “Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”
Naomi had left Bethlehem wealthy but returned destitute, so Ruth gleaned in the barley field to provide food for them. In the providence of God, she happened to glean in the field of Boaz. Naomi understood that in order to perpetuate the name of her deceased husband, Elimelech, Ruth should be redeemed through marriage. Boaz and Ruth had fallen in love, so Naomi instructed Ruth on the legal way to propose marriage to him; she was to go to the threshing floor after Boaz had gone to sleep, uncover his feet and lie down there. Naomi said, “he will tell you what to do.”
Boaz acts Legally (Ruth 4:1-2)
Boaz qualified as a redeemer for he was a close relative of Elimelech; however, there was a man who was an even closer relative. Boaz went up to the city gates, where judicial and legal transactions took place, and waited for the closer redeemer to pass by. Thus, Boaz was enacting the legal process described in Deuteronomy 25:7 when he gathered ten elders of the city as witnesses and explained the situation to them. Amos specifically calls the city gates a place of justice. These first two verses of Chapter 4 point to law, to justice and finality – the procedure was legal, it was just, and it was irrevocable.
Boaz was standing before the judgment seat representing Naomi and Ruth, helpless poor widows and, also, the law. Boaz didn’t have to redeem Ruth because there was a closer redeemer. There were financial burdens and social complexity associated with this redemption. The redeemer would have to pay the price of the field that had belonged to Elimelech and the financial responsibility of taking care of the widow and possibly children. Then any inheritance would go to the son(s) of the redeemed widow. The closer redeemer refused to accept such responsibilities, but Boaz willingly obeys the law, fully, and rightly when he accepted the obligations that came with redeeming Ruth.
The actions of Boaz anticipate our redemptive order. Boaz redeemed Ruth out of mercy and affection, but he also redeemed legally. God doesn’t justify us by sentiment only but also by fulfilling the law. Ruth 4:1-2 is a visual picture of the forensic dimension of the legal aspects of justification. Then in the next few verses, we see that there is a price to be paid.
Boaz Pays Personally (Ruth 4:3-6)
The closer redeemer was willing to purchase the land but not the financial obligations of accepting Ruth as his wife. Redemption is a tangible sacrifice. This Moabite widow was excluded from Israel’s assembly, she was a widow with no dowry or inheritance, she was poor, and she was barren up to this point. From a legal and social standpoint, Ruth had nothing to offer. Boaz was motivated to help Ruth because of her faith. Boaz had heard of all that Ruth had done to help Naomi and how she had left her mother and father and native land to come with Naomi to Bethlehem. He asked the Lord to reward Ruth for her work; the Lord under whose wings she had taken refuge. Boaz went on to say that all the people in the town knew Ruth to be an excellent woman. Excellent is the description of the Provers 31 woman, meaning strength expressed in action.
Ruth’s treatment of Naomi reveals that her heart had been awakened by grace. Ruth did not have to do for Naomi what she did. This action of grace by Ruth mirrors the pattern of God’s grace toward us. Boaz delighted in Ruth’s faith and excellence, just as God delighted in Abraham. Genesis 15:6 says that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. By his faith Abraham became a friend of God, and because of Ruth’s faith, Boaz (a kinsman redeemer) willingly took on this great loss. Christ died for our justification, thereby redeeming us. 1 Peter 2:24 says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.” MacArthur said that grace is never cheap. He said, “Justification is free to the sinner but infinitely costly to the Savior who bore the full price of redemption.”
Paul said in Philippians 2 that Jesus, though equal with God, condescended to come to the earth and take on flesh, so that we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Boaz stepped forward to take on the debt that another owed but refused to pay, showing that redemption is sacrificial by nature. This is the hinge between law and love, between a forensic declaration and a personal sacrifice. Justification embraces this great personal sacrifice; this is what Christ did for us. Boaz didn’t redeem Ruth begrudgingly; He did it joyfully; he reacted swiftly, fully, and without weighing the cost. Boaz foreshadows Christ’s joy in redemption, for Hebrews 12:2 says, “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross”. His love for sinners compelled Christ to endure the cross joyfully.
So, in the mercy of God we have the redeemer’s obedience coming, not as a mechanical thing but as a righteous thing that is sourced in His love. God offers a double imputation, imputing our sin to Christ and imputing Christ’s righteousness to us. Second Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” John Owen calls this doctrine the bone-marrow of the gospel. We are not saved if we don’t believe this by faith.
The law of the kinsman redeemer was honored by the hearing at the gate of Bethlehem, satisfied in payment, which is sacrifice, then Boaz stands with Ruth publicly.
Boaz Stands Publicly (Ruth 4:7-12)
The author of the Book of Ruth explains the custom of legitimizing and sealing legal transactions in Israel. The removal of a sandal symbolized that property, for example, under one man’s control (i.e., beneath his sandal) was being transferred to another man. The typical marriage ceremony today employs similar imagery when the bride’s father gives her hand to the husband, representing a transfer of his authority to the husband. Boaz said, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. 10 Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.” Then all the people said, “We are witnesses.”
Following the ceremony, the witnesses pronounced a blessing upon Ruth and they said, “May the Lord make the woman, who is coming into your house, like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you act worthily in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem, 12 and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman." By this communal blessing, the people publicly acknowledged that Ruth is included in the covenant line, a gentile grafted into the priesthood of believers.
After being redeemed by Boaz, Ruth was given a new identity. Previously known as the Moabite, Ruth the great-grandmother of David, now stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the matriarch of Israel. This is a radical identity change. The Book of Ruth begins with the narrative about a poor widow and ends with genealogy. This is the only book in the Scriptures that ends with genealogy. It shows where God brought her from and what He joined her to. That is us. Because of the work of Jesus Christ, we too have a genealogy, now aligned with the matriarchs and patriarchs as we are grafted into the covenant people.
Romans 8:30 says, “those whom he justified he also glorified.” Paul goes on to say that no one can bring a charge against God’s elect. No one could bring a charge against Ruth after being redeemed by Boaz, her new identity had been certified by the court in Bethlehem. Those redeemed by Christ gain standing through the standing gained by Christ, i.e., His resurrection. The resurrection was God’s affirmation, publicly, of what He had done judicially through Jesus Christ. Romans 4:25 tells us that Christ was crucified for our trespasses and raised for our justification. The resurrection stands at the gate of heaven as Boaz stood before the court and affirmed the redemption of Ruth. Hebrews 9:24 says that Christ entered, “not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” Christ declares us righteous publicly through His resurrection and rule, and now He sits by the Father and intercedes for us. He has given us His sandal, i.e., the Holy Spirit, as a seal of our redemption.
The gift of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete – the One who counsels us, marks us as belonging to God. We have a new identity: once alienated, now reconciled; once strangers, now citizens and heirs; once in rags, now robed in righteousness; once nameless, now named; once fruitless, now fruitful; once outside the covenant, now joined with the Bridegroom. God’s declarations in heaven are unseen, so we have the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper to make them known. We manifest our justification through baptism, confession, sharing our testimony, and the fruit of sanctification as we become more like Christ. Our good works do not justify us, rather they display our justification.
The end-result of our justification is worship. Revelation 7:9-10 describes the worship that is taking place in heaven now, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’" When we come together on Sunday, we are joining the heavenly multitude in the worship of God. We are mirroring what is taking place in heaven, our joy for all eternity. This should be our motivation every Sunday, as we join our earthly and heavenly family for worship.
Selah:
Luther initially hated the justice of God. What attribute of God most disturbs you?
Which characteristic of Boaz are you most impressed by and why?
How has your identity changed since coming to Christ? Has anyone noticed?
What motivates you to come to church on Sunday?
