Anchor My Faith

Title: How Can This Be? (Luke 1:34-35)

Gabriel has described Jesus as being the Son of God who would rule an eternal kingdom. With the promise of this child, Mary like Zechariah, is thinking this over and wondering how this will be possible: “And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”” (Luke 1:34 ESV). Unlike Zechariah, Mary did not doubt Gabriel, but wanted to know how she was to become pregnant since she was not yet married to Joseph, only under a legal contract. She was simply seeking for information. She seemed to understand that she would become pregnant while yet a virgin, but she wondered how that would happen.

“And the angel answered her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore, the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God”” (Luke 1:35 ESV). Mary will become pregnant through the miraculous creative power of the Holy Spirit. The body of Jesus would be created by the direct power of God. That human nature that was created had to be pure and free from the corruption of the fall if Jesus was to be the perfect sacrifice for our sin. God therefore prepared Jesus a body by direct creation that would be pure and holy.

He would be called “the Son of God.” It is clear all through the New Testament that Jesus Christ is divine and eternal in nature, yet here we see that Mary was chosen as the vehicle by which that divine eternal nature would be clothed with a body of flesh; eternal God clothed in the flesh of a man to live a sinless human life. In a previous lesson we learned that the Word would take on flesh and dwell among us. We also learned that he possessed eternal life and that life would produce light for our darkened souls. Because of our sin, God had to come and take on the flesh of a man and live a sinless life and die in our place, to release that life in the form of a gift to us who believe. The Word created the universe and the Word in a body of flesh came to deliver the universe that was ruined by our sin.

Prayer

Father, I have read the Bible from cover to cover every year for nearly 50 years, but I have never felt the excitement and anticipation I feel developing these lessons on this timeline. Piece by piece, from eternity past, we are seeing a plan that was formed before creation take shape that would provide a bridge back in relationship with you. Father, very soon in our narrative a body for Jesus will be created within Mary, which as it grows will create quite a drama for us to follow.