WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS
God`s Holy Spirit came upon Mary, and Jesus was born. Mary was his mother, God is his Father.
Our last study finished with a challenge - ` how was it, that after thousands of years of sin and failure, just one man got everything right, and what does his success do for us?`
That man of course is Jesus. We have seen how quickly the Jewish leaders started to hate him and how for the rest of his short life they tried to find faults with the way he lived.
They wanted to discredit him, destroy his influence with the people, and kill him.
It was the same with the way that Jesus spoke. Frequently, the people who heard him were amazed at his teaching.
It was plain and direct, very different to the complicated teaching they were used to from their usual teachers: “when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching,
for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.” (Mat 7:28-9).
When they asked him trick questions the result was the same - “And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.” (Mat 22:33)
The Old Testament had pointed out very plainly – and it still does - that human nature is so weak that we men and women cannot save ourselves.
God allowed thousands of years of failure to pass so we have had plenty of time to realize this.
Psalm 80 puts this feeling of need into a prayer “Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand, the son of man whom you made strong for yourself!
Then shall we not turn back from you; give us life, and we will call upon your name” (v17-18). The prophet Isaiah commented - “Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
The LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede;
then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him” (Isa 59:15-16). God was saying that He would do what man had failed to do, that is to provide someone who would obey His law and serve him properly.
Earlier, to King David, God had promised a son who would also be the son of God (2Samuel 7:12-16). Isaiah revealed that this would be by the manner of his birth, miraculously, of a virgin (see Isa 7:14).
700 years later Isaiah`s words were quoted by an angel who came to a Galilean carpenter to tell him that his fiancée would have a baby whose father would be God Himself.
The girl herself was named Mary. She was a Jewish girl, very godly, but with ordinary human nature.
"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us).
When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus” (Mat 1:23-25).
Some churches treat her like a goddess, and even pray to her, although this is totally against Bible teaching. Mary died just like everyone else.
She was however very privileged to be the mother of God`s son. “The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth . . .
and the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. . . You will . . . bear a son, and call his name Jesus. He will be . . . the Son of the Most High
. . . . And Mary said to the angel, "How will this be, since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her,
"The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy - the Son of God”` (Luke 1:26-35).
This fact that Jesus was born by the power of the Holy Spirit without a human father being involved is accepted by Muslims, but sadly they cannot bring themselves to say that he is God`s son.
We then have to ask `whose son is he ?` The Apostle John has the answer in his Second Letter, verse 3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love.
(2John v3). The Bible is so clear: Jesus is God`s son. For Muslims the idea that God is a father is spoiled by the bad way it was used in the paganism of Mohammad`s time, but is that a reason to reject its true use about Jesus ?
Most Christians also spoil the truth about this, but in the opposite way. They have the belief that there are three persons within the one God and that Jesus is the second person of a trinity.
The Bible says differently. Jesus is not God Himself. He is the son provided by God to save us from sin and its result, which is death for ever.
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What The Bible Says
