7.1 Key themes⤒🔗

• Jesus Christ was born of the virgin Mary.
• We cannot explain how a virgin can give birth to a child, but we know that nothing is impossible with God.
• Jesus did not have Joseph’s blood, but he was still the son of Joseph.
• Joseph was from the family of David. In this way Jesus became the promised Son of David.
• Jesus is fully God and fully human.
• Jesus Christ became a man, so that he could be the mediator between God and people.
• A mediator is someone who makes peace between two enemies.

7.2 Luke 1:26-38←⤒🔗

^26. In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,

^27. to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, a descendant of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary.

^28. The angel came to her and said, 'Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you!'

^29. But she was greatly troubled by his words and began to wonder about the meaning of this greeting.

^30. So the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God!

^31. Listen: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.

^32. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.

^33. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will never end.'

^34. Mary said to the angel, 'How will this be, since I have not been intimate with a man?'

^35. The angel replied, '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 holy; he will be called the Son of God.

^36. And look, your relative Elizabeth has also become pregnant with a son in her old age—although she was called barren, she is now in her sixth month!

^37. For nothing will be impossible with God.'

^38. So Mary said, 'Yes, I am a servant of the Lord; let this happen to me according to your word.' Then the angel departed from her.

© NET Bible

7.3 Born of a virgin←⤒🔗

How can a virgin“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 holy; he will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).

God is the Creator of every person. Normally, he creates a person through the sexual act between a man and a woman. But he can create in other ways too. He created Adam from dust, and he created Eve from the rib of Adam. He can also give children to old women, such as Elizabeth (Luke 1:36). We must remember that nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37).

None of us chose to come into the world. It was our parents who gave life to us. They did not ask us if we wanted to be born! But with Jesus it is different. He chose to come into the world. He is the one who “emptied himself… by sharing in human nature” (Philippians 2:7; Lesson 6). He was not born because of the will of a man. He came directly from God (Luke 1:35).

What happened when Mary became pregnant? It is something that is too wonderful for words. We cannot understand it or explain it. The Son of God became a man!

7.4 Son of David←⤒🔗

When the Son of God came into the world, he had an earthly father. That father was Joseph. Although Jesus did not carry Joseph’s blood, he was still the son of Joseph. Joseph adopted him, gave him his name, and raised him (Matthew 1:21; Luke 2:22-52).

Joseph belonged to the family of King David (Matthew 1:20). Long ago, God had promised David that a son would be born to him, and that this son would be king forever (Psalm 89). Now, God finally fulfilled this promise.

Jesus is the Son of God, but he is also the Son of David (Matthew 1:1). He is fully God and fully human. This is another mystery. We cannot understand how someone can be God and man at the same time. But we believe it, because it is what God tells us in the Bible.

7.5 A real man!←⤒🔗

From Mary, Jesus got a human body and a human soul. At first he was a weak baby who needed milk. Then he grew into a young child, who ran around and learned new things. Then he grew into a young man. Finally, he became thirty years old and he started his ministry.

In every way Jesus was just like us. He became tired, just like us (John 4:6). He had close friends (Luke 7:34; John 11:1-3). He became hungry (Matthew 4:2). He cried when he was sad (John 11:35). He suffered pain and he died (Mark 15:37).

But in one way, Jesus was different from us. We are sinful from birth (Psalm 51:5). Everything we do is full of sin. But Jesus was without sin. He was born without sin, because the Holy Spirit ruled his life from the beginning (Luke 1:35).

Jesus was not like Adam and Eve, who listened to Satan (Matthew 4:1-11). All his life he obeyed God his Father. Even when he feared the cross, he still prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Yet not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42).

After three days God raised Jesus from the dead. He gave Jesus a new, glorified body. But it was still a human body. After his resurrection he appeared to his disciples. They were afraid of him. Then he said, “Look at my hands and my feet; it’s me! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones like you see I have” (Luke 24:39). He even ate food with them (Luke 24:42-43).

Today, Jesus is still fully God and fully human. His disciples saw him going up to heaven with his human body. Then angels came and said to them, “This same Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come back in the same way you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

7.6 Our Mediator←⤒🔗

Why did the Son of God become a man? In 1 Timothy 2:5, we find this answer: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.”

Jesus had to be human, so that he could be the mediator between God and us. A mediator is someone who stands in the middle, between two enemies. He makes peace between the two enemies.

We were the enemies of God, because of our sin (Romans 5:10). But Jesus became one of us, so that he could make peace. He made peace by doing two things:

1. He lived in the way that God wanted us to live (a perfect life without sin).
2. He took the punishment for our sin on himself.

In this way the prophecy of Isaiah was fulfilled: “He was wounded because of our rebellious deeds, crushed because of our sins; he endured punishment that made us well; because of his wounds we have been healed” (Isaiah 53:5).