Given you accept the result in calculus of several variables (as given in the wikipedia page linked by strangerep), here is the explanation, for a smooth manifold of dimension ##d## with metric ##g##. Take a point ##p## in your manifold and take a chart ##(\mathcal{U},x)##, such that ##x(p)=0##, i.e. we set the coordinates of point ##p## in this chart, to be the zero vector in ##\mathbb{R}^d##.
Then the components of the metric in that chart, denoted by ##g_{ij}## are just mappings from ##x(\mathcal{U})## to ##\mathbb{R}##, i.e. they are functions of several variables. Note that ##x(\mathcal{U})## is a subset of ##\mathbb{R}^d##, which contains zero, so you can apply the formula from wikipedia, by setting ##a=0##. Just use contravariant indices for the coordinates, Einstein summation convention and note that to evaluate at ##p## means essentially to evaluate at ##0## in this chart.