“’Don’t be afraid Mary,’
the angel told her, ‘for you have found favour
with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him
Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High… the
baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God… For nothing
is impossible with God.’”
(Luke 1:30-32,
35, 37, NLT).
Jesus was born as a baby (how amazing and unthinkable is that!). The divine
Creator humbled himself and entered the human race as a flesh-and-blood human
being. The apostle John knew Jesus man-to-man, having lived, eaten, conversed,
and travelled with him. John had heard Jesus teach and heal, and had seen him
suffer and die. According to John, “the Word became
human and made his home among us” (John 1:14).
But no one was closer to
Jesus than his mother, Mary. In the passage above, an angel approached this
startled teenager and explained that she would have a baby, but not just any
baby, “the Son of God.”
God would come to earth supernaturally but through natural means: conception,
pregnancy, and birth. Jesus was (and is) both divine and human, the God-man. No
one knows exactly how that works, but we see the evidence throughout the
Scriptures, from the believers’ personal encounter with him and as revealed by
the Holy Spirit. Jesus was fully God and
fully man – at the same time.
Imagine what Mary must
have been thinking and feeling at this moment. Angel visits didn’t happen every
day! And angel Gabriel’s message was even more startling – a virgin conceiving,
by the Holy Spirit, and birthing God’s Son. Yet Mary responded with faith and submission,
“I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come
true.” No wonder she had “found favour with
God.”
Think about this: Jesus
was a living, breathing, and feeling human person. He wasn’t a divine being
dressed up like a human; he wasn’t acting a part. Jesus fully took on flesh and
experienced firsthand all that we experience. Thus, the Bible tells us, he can
understand us and fully sympathize with us (Hebrews 4:15). Jesus, the Creator,
became a baby, a child, an adolescent, an adult – with all of the human
physical, psychological, and emotional qualities, but perfect, without sin. He knows
us in every way. He knows you. And get this – he loves you and wants only the best for you. That’s a truth almost
as amazing as Gabriel’s announcement.
Do you want to know Jesus more? Pray and read God’s
Word.
Get personal and investigate His Person. Your life
might never be the same.
“Nothing is
impossible with God”
THINK BIG.
START SMALL. GO DEEP.
Reference: Life Application Study Bible Devotional:
Daily Wisdom from the Life of Jesus (Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2011)
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