And Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth.

Matthew does something incredible in his genealogy. He lists four women by name. In that culture, women were rarely mentioned in family records. The family line was traced through the fathers. So why break the pattern? And more importantly, why these four women?

Tamar pretended to be a prostitute and seduced her father-in-law Judah so she could get pregnant. It was deception driven by desperation, but deception nonetheless.

Rahab was not pretending. She was an actual prostitute living in Jericho. A Gentile. An outsider. Someone strictly forbidden to marry into the Jewish family. Yet she protected the Israelite spies and declared that their God would be her God. She married Salmon and raised Boaz, one of the most honorable men in all of Scripture.

Ruth was a Moabite. The Moabites were enemies of Israel, a nation that came about through an incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughter. Ruth came from a pagan culture that worshipped false gods. But she turned from that heritage and clung to the God of Israel with the famous words, "Your God will be my God."

Bathsheba isn't even named. Matthew simply calls her "the wife of Uriah," forever linking her to adultery and scandal.

Here's what I need you to know: not one of these women had a clean reputation. Not one would have been considered worthy of inclusion in the Messiah's family tree. Yet there they are.

So what is Matthew saying?

He's saying that God's grace reaches people that religion would reject. He's saying that your past does not have to define your future. He's saying that the most unlikely people can become part of the most sacred story.

Just think about it. A deceiver, a prostitute, an enemy, and an adulteress. All of them in the family line of Jesus. All of them used by God to bring the Savior into the world.

Can I just say that your background does not disqualify you?

The world will tell you that your history makes you unfit. The world will remind you of your failures and insist you can never be more than what you've been. But the gospel says something different. The gospel says that the very things that should have kept you out are the things that make grace so amazing.

Rahab's faith was stronger than her past profession. Ruth's loyalty was greater than her heritage. Tamar's desperation led her somewhere she never intended to go, but God still used her story.

Tomorrow we'll look at Joseph and discover what it means to do your best in a broken situation.

What part of your past have you allowed to define your identity instead of letting God's grace redefine it?

Write down one label from your past that you've believed disqualifies you. Cross it out and write over it: "Qualified by grace."