Text: Isaiah 29:9-24; Rev 21:8-21; Luke 1:26-38
What we have tried to do over the last few weeks is look at the birth of Jesus and understand one point from many different angles: the incarnation changes everything. Because of Jesus’ coming into the world, we have hope for both the present and the future. This is what we’ve concerned ourselves with in this advent season. As we draw closer to the day when we remember Christ’s birth, we want to continue to examine this same point. We’ve already seen that J.I. Packer considers the true miracle of the gospel to be founded in the birth of Christ, not the resurrection. For if we truly believe that God became man, it is nothing to believe that he would rise from the dead. Now we will see why C.S. Lewis, influenced by Martin Luther, referred to the incarnation as “the grand miracle.”
The miracle is expressed by a single question, as suggested by Mary, “Why should the Lord look on favor with me?” Twice the angel Gabriel refers to her as one who has favor with God (1:28, 30). Her favor with God results in being chosen to be the bearer of the Messiah. Mary, a poor Israelite woman, has been chosen to bear the King of Israel who will deliver Israel from all its oppression (v. 31-33). Sure, Mary questions how she will conceive, seeing that is a virgin, but she does not question in such a way to mock God. Rather, she inquires how her Lord will accomplish his will. When he answers, she submits and obeys. The real miracle for Mary is that she is chosen for this task as opposed to another Israelite maiden.
Martin Luther makes this point well:
The virgin birth is a mere trifle for God; that God should become man is a greater miracle; but most amazing of all is that this maiden should credit the announcement that she, rather than some other virgin, had been chosen to be the mother of God… Had she not believed, she could not have conceived. She held fast to the word of the angel because she had become a new creature. Even so must we be transformed and renewed in heart from day to day. Otherwise Christ is born in vain.
In the birth of the Christ child, God comes to be with us. God comes to dwell with us. Again, Martin Luther comments, “This is for us the hardest point, not so much to believe that he is the son of the virgin and God himself, as to believe that this Son of God is ours.” This is the grand miracle. God has not come down simply to be God among us. God has come down to be God with us, God among us, and God for us. This God is our God. We are His and He is ours. Our effort then must be to be conformed into the image of Christ, so that we resemble the One who has come to save us. As Luther said, “Then will the heart be suffused with all joy and will be strong and confident against every assault.”
