Luke 1:26-38
The Christmas season is here again, and to kickstart our celebration of the birth of our Lord, we want to consider the work of the Spirit in the virgin birth of Christ. In his book on the Holy Spirit, published about forty years ago, Frederick Dale Brunner calls the Holy Spirit the shy member of the Trinity. By this, he means that His ministry is to point away from Himself to the wonder of God the Son and God the Father. When we look toward Him, He steps back and pushes forward Jesus Christ. Therefore, in seeking to be filled and empowered by the Spirit, we must pursue Him indirectly—we must look to the wonder of Christ.
The Spirit does not reveal Himself. The Spirit reveals Christ. Being filled with the Spirit means being filled with love for Christ. The fullness of the Spirit is the fullness that He gives as we gaze on Christ. The power of the Spirit is the power we feel in the presence of Christ. The joy of the Spirit is the joy we feel from the promises of Christ. Therefore, when the time came for the eternal Son of God to be sent by His Father into the world, the work of the Holy Spirit was a quiet, unobtrusive work in the service of the Father and the Son. Through Him, the Father caused the Son to be conceived in Mary the Virgin. So, from the very beginning of Christ’s incarnation, the Holy Spirit was quietly doing what needed to be done to put forward Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Saviour of man.
In order to appreciate the work of the Spirit in the virgin birth of Christ, let’s follow the Scripture context as the Spirit inspired it in Luke 1:26–37. The first thing we notice in this passage is that the work of the Spirit in the virgin birth of Christ was announced by the angel Gabriel (Verse 26: “In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee”). Gabriel appears in Scripture only two other times: in Daniel as an interpreter of visions (Dan. 9:20-23); and here in Luke 1:19 as the announcer of John the Baptist’s birth. The “sixth month” refers to the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John the Baptist. We will see the importance of this in verse 37.
What’s significant in this verse is God’s choice to announce to Mary ahead of time what He is about to do. Again and again, in Scripture, this is the pattern: a word and then a deed. Why? Because God wants His deeds to be understood and to be sure that He gets credit for them. Events by themselves without words of explanation are ambiguous. The word of God interprets the work of God and takes away the ambiguity. There are two lessons for us here in passing. First, we should beware of reading extraordinary meaning into unusual circumstances when there is no clear word of Scripture to guide our interpretation. When God intends His work to teach, He adds His word. The other lesson is that we should never settle for a merely silent witness to Christ. How we live is crucial, but if God thought His own work needed a verbal explanation, how much more ours?
Second, this announcement was made to those connected with the birth of the Saviour (Verse 27: “Gabriel was sent to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary”). The two crucial facts here are that Mary was a virgin, and Joseph was of the house of David. The virginity of Mary is important because it means that she is sexually pure. She has not slept with her fiancé or any other man. That would have been fornication, and God abhors fornication.
Of course, not every woman in the lineage of Jesus is so clean. For instance, there was Bathsheba, the adulteress, and Tamar, who seduced her father-in-law. These sins can be forgiven, but when God chose a mother for His Son, He chose a virgin. Virginity before marriage is important because the recipient of God’s best gifts ought to be pure. Mary’s virginity is also important because it means she isn’t pregnant. God wanted to make known that the conception of Jesus in the womb of a woman was not due to any man; so, He chose a virgin. And the virgin conceived a child whose Father was God and not man. But it was still important that Joseph was of the house of David because the legal relationship he had with Jesus put Jesus in the Davidic line and enabled Him to fulfil the promises made to the Son of David.
The reason for God’s choice of Mary was made very clear—the grace of God (Verse 28: “The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you’”). The very first thing Gabriel says to Mary is that she is about to receive a free bestowal of God’s grace. She did not deserve this honour; it came to her by the sheer grace of God. Grace eliminates all boasting. There were other virgins in Nazareth that God could have used. Since parents are prone to boast about their children, Gabriel quenches the spirit of pride before he does anything else by saying, “The Lord is with you, Mary, in a way you can’t fathom. But never forget, it is a favour, a free gift of grace.”
But the highest and most precious gifts of God do not always come in attractive colours. Indeed, grace can perplex and it can frighten us. In verse 29, we read: “Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.” Grace does not always come with a welcome face; for instance, the grace of healing may have the face of a hypodermic needle or a surgeon’s knife. This is why Mary, being aware of the frightening forms of grace, wondered in her mind about what the angel said.
In Verse 30, the angel reasserts the keyword, grace (“But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God’”). It’s like saying, “I bring grace, Mary. Let the assurance that this is grace take away your fear. And here is the grace I bring.”
We now come to the heart of the passage in Verses 31–33, where the Holy Spirit did His best work by magnifying Jesus (“You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; His kingdom will never end”). Gabriel said five things about Mary’s child.
One, His name will be Jesus. The name “Jesus” or Joshua, in Hebrew, means Savior or Deliverer. Before he tells Mary of Christ’s greatness and dignity and power, Gabriel tells her how He (Jesus) is going to use this greatness and dignity and power. He is going to use it as a Saviour.
Two, He will be great (v. 32). Jesus is great, having been “appointed the heir of all things.” It was through Him that God created the world. He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of His nature, upholding the universe with the word of His power.” There are no words to fully declare the greatness of Jesus. So, Gabriel leaves it simple and yet so profound: “He will be great!”
Three, He will be called the Son of the Most High. By this, Gabriel means that Jesus is uniquely God’s Son, the divine Word and image of God, begotten from all eternity.
Four, He will sit on David’s throne. Gabriel says, “The Lord God will give him the throne of his Father, David.” He will fulfill all the prophecies that a son of David will rule over Israel. But not only over Israel. Isaiah 11:10 says, “In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the peoples; him shall the nations seek, and his dwelling shall be glorious” (cf. Luke 2:32). Mary’s son will someday rule the world (Luke 2:32).
Five, His Kingdom will never end. Gabriel says, “He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” This promise means that Jesus is alive and ruling over His people even at this very moment. Do you believe that? Jesus, Saviour, Son of God, King of the world, is governing just as realistically today as any ruler of the nations of the world. We, therefore, must bow before the kingship of Jesus and obey the rule of His kingdom.
Now Mary humbly asks (in v. 34), “34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” or How will this be since I have no husband?” She was ready to believe that she might give birth to the Messiah, but that she might give birth as a virgin was beyond comprehension. Because her attitude was humble and open, Gabriel answered her as far as he was allowed in Verse 35: “35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”
Gabriel’s answer to Mary’s question, “How?” was very simple and delicate: the Holy Spirit. To the question, “How can a virgin have a child?” Or “How can the human child be the divine Son of God?” The angel answered: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you . . . therefore the child to be born will be called the Son of God.”
The word “so” in Luke 1:35 is tremendously important. It shows that the conception of Jesus in a virgin is due to the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit. And it shows that the divine sonship of Jesus depends on His virgin birth. Many people try to say that the conception of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit in the virgin Mary is not essential in the doctrine of the incarnation, since Jesus would have been the Son of God even if the virgin birth were not true.
The words of Gabriel do not agree. In answer to the question, “How can a virgin conceive?” he says, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, so the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.” Jesus can be called Son of God (v. 35), Son of the Most High (v. 32), precisely because he was “conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.”
It is an unfathomable mystery that all the fullness of deity should dwell bodily in Jesus (Colossians 2:9). It is fitting, indeed necessary, that the entrance gate to this mystery of incarnation should be the virgin birth. And it should cause us to smile with pleasure that the Holy Spirit should be assigned the delicate and wonderful and mysterious work of causing the virgin to conceive—to conceive the One whose greatness He will magnify forever.
In verses 36 and 37 Gabriel gives the pregnancy of barren Elizabeth as evidence for Mary that “with God nothing is impossible.” The Holy Spirit may be shy, but he is also omnipotent. What a tribute to Jesus Christ that an omnipotent member of the Trinity exists to magnify his greatness.
So let us conclude the way Mary did, 38 “I am the Lord’s servant, Mary answered. May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her (v. 38). Can you say like Mary, “Let the Holy Spirit do with me as he pleases”? Do you trust the Spirit enough to say, “I am your slave; take me; use your omnipotent power to put me where you want me, when you want me there, doing what you want me to do”?
Do you know why we can entrust ourselves to the Holy Spirit? Because He exists to exalt the glory of Jesus Christ. Therefore, if the greatest desire of your heart is the glory of Jesus Christ, the Spirit will empower and help you with all His might. Therefore, let us live and speak so that men and women everywhere might know that Jesus Christ is a great Saviour, the Son of the Most High, and the never-ending King of kings. That’s the passion of the Holy Spirit. To be full of that is to be full of Him.
Rev. Kayode Ilupeju,
Good News Baptist Church,
47/49, Olufemi Road,
Off Ogunlana Drive,
Surulere, Lagos.
Tel.: 0803-302-1008
