Sunday, December
16, 2018 – Luke 1:28-31
The
Announcement of the Birth of the
Son of Man to Mary, Pt. 3,
Son of Man to Mary, Pt. 3,
God's Grace Brought
Our Savior into the World.
Grace Fellowship Church
Pastor/Teacher, Jim Rickard
The
Gospel of Luke,
II. The Identification of the Son of Man
with Men, Luke 1:5-4:13.
B. The
Announcement of the Birth of the Son of Man, Luke 1:26-56.
In vs.
26-27, we were introduced to the lowly, humble nature by which our Lord and
Savior would be brought into this world.
In vs.
28-31, we are introduced to the grace, mercy, and kind-favor of God by
which our Lord and Savior would be brought into this world.
Vs.
28
Luke 1:28, “And coming in, he said to
her, "Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.”
Some
translations include at the end, “blessed are you among women,” but that is not
found in the oldest and more reliable texts. Although it is found in
Elizabeth’s rejoicing over the news in vs.
42, it is not found here. Therefore, it was a later addition to potentially
elevate Mary’s position supposedly being classified as such by the “angel who
stands before God,” and not just a rejoicing proclamation from her ordinary
cousin.
“Hail, favored one!,” is the Present, Active, Imperative of
the Verb CHAIRO, χαίρω that means, “rejoice, be glad, welcome, greetings,
hail,” with the Perfect, Passive, Participle in the Vocative, Singular,
Feminine of CHARITOO, that means, “to give grace, bestow favor,” and means, “to
confer grace upon or show kindness to.” Both are cognates of CHARIS that means,
“grace.” It means that Mary is the recipient of God’s antecedent grace or
favor. She is about to be the recipient of a wonderful Divine blessing.
Some think
“hail” should be translated “rejoice” given Luke’s pattern of general use and
when comparing, Zech 9:9; Zeph 3:14.
Zech 9:9, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter
of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming
to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey,
Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
The angel
Gabriel was greeting Mary and at the same time was saying she should rejoice
because she was about to be the recipient of God’s indescribable grace. God was
smiling upon this young, unknown girl, and Gabriel’s greeting reveals she is
chosen solely as a matter of God’s grace. We might be tempted to think
Zechariah was chosen because he was righteous and a priest. But God’s grace can
smile upon any one, especially a lowly young woman such as Mary.
We must also
recognize that by this Gabriel did not mean, as Roman Catholic doctrine
teaches, that there was something, (some perfection), in Mary by which she
deserved to receive this grace, and that as a result of this perfection, she
was able to show grace to others because in herself she was full of grace. No,
Gabriel meant that she had received God’s grace. She is the recipient, not the
dispenser, of grace. God bestowed His free unmerited, gracious favor upon her
to an exceptional degree in choosing her to be the mother of His Son.
Then when
Gabriel says, “The Lord is with you,”
he was using an OT greeting that conferred that the Lord would guide and
protect her. Gabriel is preparing Mary for Divine service with the assurance,
“The Lord will help her,” which too is part of His grace. Therefore, God’s
grace not only gives us “something,” but it also helps us or provides for us in
the reception and application of the grace thing we have been given.
The
grace of God means that none of us can earn or deserve even one blessing from
God. God does all the work; we do not earn or deserve anything from God. We are
not blessed because we do something. We are blessed because God has done and
continues to do something for us. We never earn or deserve anything from God except
condemnation. Yet, because of who and what God is, His grace is greater than
our failures, our sins, our flaws, our self-righteous legalism, our human good,
and our dead works.
Grace is all that God is free to do for mankind without compromising His Divine
essence. It is the free, unmerited favor and love from God alone, and is not
from our works or because we are attractive to God. Many times, it shows itself
in favor, kindness, and mercy; therefore, man thinks he earns or deserves it.
But, grace is unearned and undeserved, a total gift of and from God.
Grace means
that all things from God, including salvation by grace through faith, are
received from God as a free gift totally apart from any form of human merit or
any system of human works. They are never merited or earned by mankind, cf. Eph 2:8-9.
Eph 2:7-9, “So that in the ages to
come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in
Christ Jesus. 8For by
grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God; 9not as a
result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Grace is also
the manifestation of God’s holiness, power, virtue, efficacy, mercy,
compassion, indulgence, forbearance, pardon; unmerited favor based on the
exclusive work of God. It includes three categories of Divine blessing from
God; His unmerited favor and divine provision for mankind before, during, and
after salvation, including our past, present, and future salvation.
Vs.
29
Luke
1:29, “But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what
kind of salutation this was.”
“Perplexed” is the Aorist, Passive, Indicative of
the Verb DIATARASSO, διαταράσσω that means, “agitates, greatly troubled, or
confused.” The term includes an acute level of distress and mental anguish,
(Louw and Nida, Greek-English Lexicon, 1:315), and possibly even fear. This is
the only time it is used in the NT. It is an hapaxlegomena. This word comes
from DIA, which means “through or through out,” and TARASSO, “to stir up,
disturb, throw into confusion.”
Back in vs.
12, we saw that Zachariah was “troubled” TARASSO at the appearance of the
Angel of the Lord. But here, Mary was “greatly or thoroughly troubled.” She was
more startled than Zachariah at the appearance of the Angel of the Lord. That
does not mean anything regarding “sinfulness,” it just means as a young lady
she was a bit more startled than an older gentlemen who has seen much in his
life.
“Kept
pondering” is the Imperfect, Middle Deponent, Indicative of the Verb
DIALOGIZOMAI, διαλογίζομαι that means, “Consider, ponder thoroughly, reason
carefully and deliberately.” This deponent verb (a verb with a middle form but
an active sense) is a compound from DIA, “through,” and LOGIZOMAI, “reckon,
count, compute,” and essentially means, “consider, reason, discuss, etc.” in
classical Greek. In many circumstances, it has the technical meaning of
“balance accounts.” So, we could say she was “weighing” all the information she
was receiving; the angel, the greeting, the time of day, the place, what she
saw, etc., etc. To be so honored by the heavenly messenger was staggering to
the mind of this lowly young woman. This is similar to what we see of Mary at
the messages given by the shepherds upon the birth of Jesus, Luke 2:19.
Luke
2:19, “But Mary treasured all these things, pondering (SUMBALLO) them in her
heart.”
Vs. 30
Luke
1:30, “And the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found
favor with God’.”
Gabriel’s announcement begins as it did with
Zachariah in vs. 13, “do not be afraid,”
ME PHOBEO in the Present, Middle Deponent, Imperative. As with Zachariah,
Gabriel could either sense or see the startled reaction of Mary and wanted to
calm her fears. He applied grace to her by helping to ease her fears.
Then Gabriel addresses her directly, “Mary,” Maria or Mariam meaning,
“rebellious,” is the recipient of his message. Then he states, “You have found favor with God.” In
Zachariah’s case, God was answering his prayer. In Mary’s case, it was that she
had “found favor,” with God.
“Found”
is the Aorist, Active, Indicative of the Verb HEURISKO, εὑρίσκω that means,
“find, discover, obtain, ascertain, contrive, etc.”
“Favor”
is the Noun CHARIS, χάρις that means, “grace, graciousness, kindness, favor,
etc.” As we noted above, “grace” is the free unmerited favor of God. So, we see
that Mary is the recipient of God’s grace once again, but in the Active voice
she is to apply this grace, first in her thoughts, so that she would no longer
be confused, frightened, or perplexed, and then later in her actions as she
applies this message she is receiving. In other words, God was about to grace
her out of her mind and she is to receive it and apply it. She was to apply the
Bible Doctrine she was receiving.
A similar statement is found in Gen 6:8, regarding Noah who also is
said to have “found grace in the eyes of
the Lord.” For both, this grace was the catalyst of a Divine
salvation-related event. In both cases, God chose them to fulfill an important
task that resulted in the salvation of many. Therefore, by the grace of God, He
ordained Mary to carry His Son and raise Him.
Vs.
31
Luke
1:31, “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall
name Him Jesus.”
Here we see the main message of grace Gabriel
brought to Mary. The opening phrase of Gabriel’s message is similar to the
angelic announcements made to Hagar, Gen
16:11, and the wife of Manoah (Sampson’s mother), Judges 13:3-5. The phraseology seems to be an adaptation of the
Greek LXX text of Isa 7:14.
Isa
7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will
be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.”
Interestingly, the Future, Middle Deponent,
Indicative of the Verb SULLAMBANO means, “to take hold of, conceive, or
help.” “Conceive,” in terms of becoming
pregnant, is the particular application here, yet, the other two meanings also
give nuance to the application of this word in regard to what this pregnancy
meant.
The name of this child was of great importance.
While Luke does not place emphasis on the meaning of names, the parallel
passage in Mat 1:21, includes the
purpose clause, “for He will save His people
from their sins.” This purpose is born out in the meaning of the name
Jesus, which is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew name Joshua that means, “the
Lord saves,” as “Jesus,” IESOUS, Ἰησοῦς
means, “Savior.”
Even though this was the name He was given, it
was also a title as He is the Savior or Jesus of the world. It comes from the
Hebrew Jehoshua, meaning “Jehovah or YHWH is salvation,” and is contracted to
Joshua. “Jesus” also emphasizes our Lord’s humanity, as is appropriate here, since
we are talking about His human birth. Therefore, by name and title, Mary’s baby
boy would be the Savior of the world.
The first words to Mary about the birth were
simply that she would “conceive in her womb, and bring forth a son.” As she
listened to the angel’s words disclosing His name, His greatness, His deity,
His royalty, and His eternal kingdom, her heart must have been filled with even
further bewilderment and wonder.
The fact that she, a virgin, would become a
mother was staggering, but to learn of the greatness of the One she would bear
must have been even more staggering. The entire program of the Messiah was
flashed before her in a few words, and she was to be the mother of the long
desired Deliverer of her people. He is the answer to God’s grace plan of
salvation for the entire world.
As we see, she was given a most difficult
announcement to comprehend and then service to perform for God, perhaps as
difficult as has ever been asked of any servant of the Lord. Virgins do not
give birth. Who would believe her? Even Joseph, a righteous man, thought that
he should hide her, so that she would not be an object of shame, Mat 1:19-21. Yet, as we see in vs. 38, 46-55, in humility, Mary
accepted her task for here and the word. Nevertheless, the grace of God would
see her through it all, as she was the “graced
out one,” vs. 28, who “obtained
grace” from God, vs. 30.
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