Born of a Virgin – A Messianic Prophecy

“Therefore, the Lord Himself shall give you a sign, Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” –Isaiah 7:14 (ESV).

Belief in the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ is a central doctrine of the Christian faith.  Often called the “immaculate conception,” it refers to the miraculous conception of Jesus Christ without a human father.  The child of Almighty God, conceived of the Holy Spirit, the birth of Jesus by Mary was God’s way of bringing His Son into the world for His own special purpose, to save the people from sin.  Immanuel—meaning ‘God with us,’ means that God came in human flesh, apart from the normal procedure of human generation, because He existed before Mary, the virgin who bore Him.

When Matthew writes of the fulfillment of this prophecy, he places emphasis upon the name, Immanuel, as Isaiah had done when he wrote his prophetic words about the coming birth.  But Matthew tells of how Mary was betrothed to Joseph, and before their marriage was consummated, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.  What to do in the situation was revealed to Joseph by an angel of the Lord in a dream.  He was assured that it was the will of God for him to marry Mary and to name the son she would bear Immanuel—God with us.  (See Matthew 1:18-23).

Knowing the prophecy of the coming of Messiah, many Hebrew young ladies wondered if they would be the one to bear this special person from the Lord.  Why was it important that the Lord come as a baby, by virgin birth?  God took His abode among men in the person of Jesus Christ, born of a virgin.  In order to become the propitiation for sins, Jesus had to be the perfect sacrifice—born not in the usual manner but of a virgin, He lived a life in complete obedience to God’s will, and His atonement then was a perfect, unblemished sacrifice.  John 3:16 tells of the reason for His birth:  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (KJV).  Bert Dominy writes of Christ’s coming into the world:  “Christ, the last Adam, represents a new race of people.  These are the people who have been saved from sin.  Where Adam failed, Christ succeeded.  Those who belong to Christ through faith belong to the new humanity He created” (Holman Bible Dictionary. Nashville: Broadman, 1991, p. 130).

Prayer.  God, because nothing is impossible with You, Jesus Christ, Immanuel, God with us, came into the world.  He went about His work, setting an example with every deed, teaching and action of how You want us to live.  But He did what no one else could do.  He laid down his life for mankind as a sacrifice for sin.  Anyone who puts his/her own name at “whosoever” in John 3:16 and believes in Christ can know Your forgiveness and restoration. Praise be to God!  Amen.

Jesus: The Good Shepherd

“I am the good shepherd.  I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.  And I have other sheep that are not of this fold.  I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice.  So there will be one flock, and one shepherd.  For this reason My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again.  No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord.  I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again.  This charge I have received from My Father.”  -John 10:11-18 (ESV) [Read John 10:7-18]

“I am the good shepherd.”  In Greek, there are two words for “good”:  One is agathos which means morally good; the other is kalos meaning that the person described is morally good, but also winsome, genuine, filled with fidelity, love and power.  The word used to describe Jesus as the good shepherd is kalos—good through and through, in every way good, perfect, whole.  And He would (and did) lay down His life for His sheep.  It was not unusual at all for the shepherd to have to defend his flock with his very life.  David as a shepherd boy kept his father’s flocks and defended them from wolves and lions and attacks from robbers and thieves.  From his defense of the flock of his father, David built up a strong body and he was not afraid of going against the giant Goliath with a slingshot and five smooth stones.

Furthermore, Jesus knows His own for whom He lay down His life.  Just as the shepherd knew which sheep belonged to his flock and the sheep likewise knew their shepherd and followed him, so those who are in the flock of the Lord are known by the Good Shepherd.  Is it any wonder that John the Baptist exclaimed when he saw Jesus approaching the Jordan River, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world!”  The Good Shepherd was also the sacrificial Lamb, laying down His life for His sheep.

In this lesson on the Good Shepherd, we have also an important truth on non-exclusiveness.  “I have other sheep that are not of this fold.”  For centuries the Jews had felt that they were the Chosen People of God, and, indeed, they were.  But they had forgotten the word of God to Abraham that spoke of him and his seeds (the flock of God) being as the sands on the seashore in number and a blessing to all mankind.  Here Jesus is including the Gentiles who will come to believe in Him as “not of this fold,” but coming into the fold because of their faith in the Lord.  It is only in Jesus Christ and through His message being accepted that the world can become one.  And it is the purpose for which Jesus came into the world:  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).  The Good Shepherd gave His life for His sheep.  He lay down His life and He took it up again.  And through that gift and by that hope His flock can rest secure.  Praise be to God!

Love Each Other

“Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.  Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in Him is no cause for stumbling.   But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” –I John 2:9-11 (ESV).

In the gospel of John and in the three epistles of John, the beloved disciple, author of all three writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wanted his readers to see the importance of love and how it operates in a Chrsitian’s life.  It was John who gave us that beloved verse, the most-memorized verse of the Christian’s repertoire of verses:  “”For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16, KJV).  In his epistle, John emphasizes three major aspects of love:  (1) We are to love our brother (each other), a proof that we have fellowship with God (I John 2:7-11).  (2)  Love is a proof that we are sons (and daughters) of God (I John 3:10-14).  And (3) God is love (I John 4:7-16), the very bedrock of why we love because love is the very nature of God.  Today we will explore briefly John’s teaching of our love each for the other.

John uses the term “in the light” to describe the condition that exists in the Christian after he believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and accepts Him as Savior.  We come “from darkness into light.”  And because we walk in the light of our Lord Jesus Christ, who said “I am the Light of the world” (John 8:12), we will have love for one another.  If hatred is in our hearts, we are still walking in darkness—meaning in sin.  Someone has aptly stated the position we should take in love for our brethren:  “We love the sinner but hate the sin.”  Jesus taught love for each other in so many ways.  In familiar parables we see the love for each other manifest.  One parable in particular that demonstrates love is that of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:35-37). 

In I John 2:5 we read: “Whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.” And that love of each other manifests itself in our genuine love for our fellowman.  If we see someone erring, we lovingly try to guide that one back into right ways.  If we see persons hungry, we want to help to feed them.  Just yesterday I talked to a fellow Christian who gives portions of two days each week to working in a local soup kitchen that reaches out with a noon meal to people in our area who are hungry.  In this is love made manifest.  This series of devotionals on love began with the thought, “We are commanded to love” (John 13:34-35).  Loving others is a way of life for the Christian.  I want to say it extends beyond following a commandment (which we should do) but it is serving others with a heart-felt compassion and with a commitment both to God and to others.  It is love behaving admirably and exercising all the fruits of the Spirit.  Love is walking a mile in the shoes of another.  Love is going two miles when compelled to go one. Love is making a difference in the world where you and I live daily.  Love is shedding abroad the light of Christ in a dark world.  And we are light-bearers because of our love for Christ and for each other.

Love One Another for Love Is of God

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loves us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” –I John 4:7-11 (NKJV). Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…And now abide faith, hope love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.” –I Corinthians 13:4-8a, 13 (NKJV).

Today is Valentine’s Day. This day to express love will have telephone lines, e-mail out- and in-boxes busy, facebook messages composed and sent, cards received in the mail, floral deliveries made, gifts bestowed. All because someone loves someone else. And all of this is very good. I was hard-pressed to select Scriptures on love for this special day because there are so many references, in both Old and New Testaments, that teach of love. Checking Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Old and New Testaments for references to love (in its various forms), I found five full columns of very fine print leading to scriptures from many of the Bible books from Genesis to Revelation. Love is an important emotion, one that every person needs for spiritual and emotional nurture, and an ingrained capacity which is part of our nature because we are created in the image of God, and “love is God is of God” for “God is love.” I selected the passages cited above from I John 4 and I Corinthins 13 with prayer and thanksgiving, because I considered them to teach us much we need to know about love, its nature and purpose. I hope we reread the verses several times today and pray that our love for God and others may grow day by day. There’s much truth in the popular song, “It’s love, it’s love, it’s love that makes the world go ‘round.”

We’ve often heard of the various Greek terms used for love in the New Testament, and of these agape (noun) and agapao (verb) are used to express God’s love for His Son and for His children, and for their proper attitude toward each other in Christian love. We have a perfect expression of the love of God for us in the Lord Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son…” (John 3:16). How amazing, how deep, how complete that love: “whosoever believeth.” Christian love results from His first loving us and is manifested as a fruit of His Spirit working in us. We practice agape love when we manifest love one for another as it is described in the Corinthian passage cited above.

On St. Valentine’s Day I lost one of the great loves of my life, and I think about that sad anniversary each February 14. I was a young teenager of fourteen when my beloved mother died on Valentine’s Day. Although the grace of God helped me through that difficult period of loss, I’ve wondered since how it might have been if I could have known her devoted love for a longer period in my life. I did, however, grow up often asking, “What would my mother advise me to do in this situation?” And as I thought through challenges, her love still surrounded me. Then I had a great love from my life partner, Rev. Grover Jones. We had had two dates before Valentine’s Day rolled around when we first met. We were falling in love and it seemed for sure it was to be more than “puppy” love. He gave me a single red rose from the florist shop, with fern and baby’s breath on February 14, 1948. That was my first gift from him. As long as he was able he remembered Valentine’s Day by giving me red roses. The number grew to a dozen as we had less penurious days. After his illness, my dear children, remembering how their Dad had given me our “love remembrance” of roses on Valentine’s Day, continued to send me roses. This Valentine’s Day, love God and shed his love abroad to the significant others about you. It will do your heart good.