“Grace Is Cause for Joy!” – FBC Morning Light (12/26/2024)

Well, a good Thursday morning to you, and a day after Christmas, but still celebrating this Christmas week with reflections on the incarnation of our Savior. If you're reading in our Bible reading plan, today you would be reading 2 and 3 John, as well as the first three chapters of the last book of the Bible, Revelation, so we're nearing up the end of that year-long reading of the Scriptures chronologically.

The Incarnation and the Reading Plan

But today I want to focus on the incarnation, the birth of Christ, and this is from John Calvin, again several hundred years ago, he wrote this, he says, He is tasked to overcome the powers of the air, that is, the demons, who could do that, but a power greater than world or air.

In whom then do life, righteousness, and the power of heaven reside, but in God alone? Therefore, the Lord, in His great kindness, became our Redeemer when He chose to ransom.

Us.

And what wondrous grace is this, that our Savior would come into this world to redeem.

Us.

Grace in the Annunciation to Mary

Well, yesterday I was reflecting on God's grace demonstrated brilliantly in the Annunciation to Mary, and today I want to pick up on that again, and look at another expression of God's grace, and realize that that grace is a great cause for joy.

You see this in verses 28 to 30, when the angel comes to Mary, and he says right away, you have three good reasons to be filled with joy. Three good reasons to be filled with joy. One of them is that you are the highly favored one.

This could also be translated, you are much graced. One reason for joy is Mary is a recipient of much grace. She is filled with grace. Now, Romanism says that because she's filled with grace, she therefore can be a dispenser of grace, and then becomes a co-mediatrix with Christ, but that's not what this is saying.

It is saying that she is a recipient of much grace, a receiver of grace, a beneficiary of grace. Just as every undeserving sinner receives grace, so did Mary. She got that in the Magnificat. She starts off by saying, my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God, my Savior.

She realized I needed a Savior, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.

Why?

Because he has much graced me. He has regarded the lowly state of his maidservant, and behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. That brings up another reason why Mary has great cause for joy at the grace of God, because she's the beneficiary of the divine presence.

The angel Gabriel says to her, the Lord is with you, he is with you. Now, this expression, the Lord is with you, occurs in the Old Testament quite a bit, when the Lord is with someone in a particular way, in a distinctive and powerful way.

You remember in the book of Judges, when Gideon is threshing his grain in a winepress out of fear of the Midianites. So, the angel comes to Gideon and says to him, the Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor.

The Lord is with him, Gideon, in the sense that he's got a task for him to do, and he's going to be with him to carry out that task. The Lord is with his people in a gracious way. I think of some of the expressions, or benedictions, if you will, in Paul's letters, like in Romans 16, verses 20 and 24, he says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

In 2 Corinthians 13, 14, he says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Philippians 4, 9, and the God of peace will be with you. And then 2 Thessalonians 3, 16, the Lord be with you all.

So, those who are in Christ have a sense of the Lord's presence with them that is cause for great rejoicing, and this is an expression of God's grace, that he is with his people. But then there's this third reason why Gabriel says to Mary she is to rejoice at the grace of God, and that is she has the distinct blessing of enjoying a unique blessing, of experiencing a unique blessing.

What is that? It says at the end of verse 28, blessed are you among women. Why is that? Well, because hers is a truly unique blessing of being able to give birth to the God-man. And, you know, we might say, well, you know, there's nobody else who could ever experience such great blessing.

Well, not that particularly unique blessing, but blessing that is equally as great. How can I say that? Well, because of what Jesus said. Jesus said, remember this account in Mark chapter 3, Jesus is teaching and he's in a crowded area, a crowded home, and nobody's able to get in, the crowd's so great, and Mary and Jesus' half-brothers have come to this house where Jesus is, and they want to take him out of there and get him alone, because he hasn't had time even to eat, you know.

And the message comes to Jesus and says, your mother and brothers are outside. And then Jesus says this, whoever will do the will of God, the same is my brother, sister, and mother. Get the sense of that?

That though Mary had the unique blessing of giving birth to Jesus as his earthly mother, Jesus says, look, the person who does the will of God, they are my brother, sister, and mother. They have a unique relationship with me that even is parallel to that of my mother.

Oh, but there's more. In Luke's Gospel chapter 11, maybe you remember this particular account, in verses 27 and 28, it says, it happened as Jesus spoke these things that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to him, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts which nursed you.

Well, that is true. There was great blessing. Gabriel said it to Mary, you are blessed among women for having this wonderful, unique privilege. But listen to what Jesus says. Jesus said, more than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

That's profound. What that tells me is, if God in his grace has so reached down into your soul as to save you from sin and give you a heart to hear the word of God and keep it, you have great cause for joy because you get to experience this wonderful blessing that even is superior to giving physical birth to the Christ child.

That is incredible for us to think about. Well, I trust that we will indeed meditate on that today, that you have, if you are in Christ Jesus, if God in his grace has saved you, you have great cause for joy, and I trust you will rejoice in it today.

Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this reason to joy today, even as it's expressed in this annunciation to Mary. Thank you for it, in Jesus' name, amen. Alright, listen, have a great rest of your day, continuing to celebrate the birth of our Savior.

God bless.