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Continuing with the conception and birth of Jesus Christ, we come to Luke 1:36-38. God's messenger, Gabriel came to Mary and relayed the message that she would conceive and give birth to God's son. She asked how this would happen considering she had not been with a man yet. After providing more details, he said, "And behold thy cousin Elizabeth has also conceived a son..." (verse 36). The word "conceive" is the same word used in verse 31. This is significant because both John and Jesus Christ began to be formed in their mothers' wombs after conception. The only difference was that because God was not a man, His life giving seed came by way of a miracle. It should be noted that in both cases the father was distinctly independent of the son. Jesus Christ was and still is God's son. There are no two ways about it. We move on to verse 37 where Gabriel made the following declaration, "For with God nothing shall be impossible." As important as these words stand, they have lead to great confusion. Imagine the stumbling block a young believer faces after reading Hebrews 6:18, "...in which it is impossible for God to lie." Why the apparent contradiction? In Luke 1:37, the word "nothing" is a bad translation of an earlier known Greek word that meant "no word." The word "impossible" came from another word that meant "void of power." Gabriel exhorted her to have confidence and trust in God's word because His word is never void of power. What a tremendous truth!
Finally, we come to Mary's humble and meek response, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word." When God gave His word, she had the humility to receive it. It would have been at that time that Jesus Christ was conceived in her womb. Notice how she already had the humble heart to receive. This says a great deal about her parents. Jesus Christ also learned obedience from his Mom and Stepfather. We can see this in Matthew 26:39 where he meekly said, "...not as I will, but as you will." God chose only the best to rear his son. |
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