July 26, 2020 (Sunday)
Yesterday this blog was about the miracle of birth–new life from
God. Tomorrow it will have a little more to say about that. It seems
altogether fitting and proper, then, that today’s blog, sandwiched
between those two blogs, should be about the miraculous birth of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
It’s not Christmas, but the Incarnation is always relevant to Christians.
The New Testament gives us the account of how the birth of Jesus
was announced as well as how it happened (Luke 1:26-35 NIV):
God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.
The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said,
“Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of
greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid,
Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him 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 Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on 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.
If you were God, and humankind needed a Savior, how would you go about sending Him to the people of the world? God chose a method whereby Jesus could always identify with the people He came to save. He literally became one of us. Yesterday’s blog and tomorrow’s blog make the point that human birth is a miracle. With that being so, how much greater it when God chooses to be born of a virgin? It is beyond description. As John put it, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14 NIV).
R.G. Lee, the great preacher of other days, said, “If the Amazon
River, so wide at its mouth that seafairers thought it to be ocean,
were made to rest in a thimble, it would not be as great a miracle as that of the Second Person of the Godhead entering a human womb and becoming a man.” (Accuracy of wording in quote not assured).
One Day
Words: J. Wilbur Chapman
Music: Charles H. Marsh
1908
Chorus:
Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried my sins far away;
Rising, He justified freely forever:
One day He’s coming—O glorious day!
Verses:
One day when heaven was filled with His praises,
One day when sin was as black as could be,
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin—
Dwelt among men, my example is He!
Chorus
One day they led Him up Calvary’s mountain,
One day they nailed Him to die on the tree;
Suffering anguish, despised and rejected;
Bearing our sins, my Redeemer is He.
Chorus
One day they left Him alone in the garden,
One day He rested, from suffering free;
Angels came down o’er His tomb to keep vigil;
Hope of the hopeless, my Savior is He.
Chorus
One day the grave could conceal Him no longer,
One day the stone rolled away from the door;
Then He arose, over death He had conquered;
Now is ascended, my Lord evermore.
Chorus
One day the trumpet will sound for His coming,
One day the skies with His glory will shine;
Wonderful day, my beloved ones bringing;
Glorious Savior, this Jesus is mine!