Worship Service: Mother's Day 2020

Romans 15 and the Call to Worship

Everyone stand together. I want to invite our reader to come forward. We're going to be reading from Romans chapter 15. And since we do read an entire chapter, we do invite you to sit if you would like to listen to the reading of the word of God.

This is our call to worship from the 15th chapter of the book of Romans.

If you remember last week, brother Mike read chapter 14 and he stated that the apostle was dealing with Christian liberty and our conscience and being fully persuaded. And as we read chapter 15, Paul sums up thoughts concerning Christian liberty, the use of our conscience, the strong brother, the weak brother.

So let us hear the word of God. We who are strong, we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the fallings and the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good and build him up.

For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me. For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction that through endurance and through encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another in accord in Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God, for I will tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs and in order that the Gentiles might glory, might glorify God for his mercy as it is written.

Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name. And again it is said, rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. And again, praise the Lord, O you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol him.

And again Isaiah says, the root of Jesse will come. Even he who rises to rule the Gentiles, in him will the Gentiles hope. And may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all the knowledge and able to instruct one another. But at some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder.

Because of the grace given me by God to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed.

By the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and all the way to Illyrium, I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ. And thus, and thus I make in my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation.

But as it is written, those who have never been told of him will see. And those who have never heard will understand. And this is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, hoping to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to help you on my journey there for a while.

At present, however, I'm going to Jerusalem, bringing aid to the saints from Macedonia and Achaia, have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. For they were pleased to do it, indeed they owed it to them.

For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way to you.

And I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. And I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints so that by God's will, I will come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.

May the God of peace be with you all. Amen. May God bless you.

Amen. Such a wonderful thing that we are able to read the Word of God for ourselves, that we're able to be free to read the Word of God in our churches, and I am grateful that we can continue to read through the New Testament together as a church.

Mother's Day and the Redemptive Quality of Motherhood

Today is a particularly special day for many of you. Today is Mother's Day, and I wanted to tell you that if you're a mom here today, I'm very grateful for you and for what you do for your family and what you are as a representative of our church.

Later in the message, we're going to talk about the redemptive quality of motherhood. But now, as we sing, I want us to consider in this song, this is a song of challenge. It's a song to call men and women and the church to rise up and shout the name of the Lord's.

Let us stand together and sing. Men of faith, rise up and sing of the great and glorious King. You are strong when you feel weak. Your brokenness complete. To the north and the south is Savior. Rise up, women, of the truth and sing of love.

This is Savior to all heaven and by the power of truth on us, this is Savior to all. Rise up, church, with songs again, our God who reigns on us again, we'll fly, shout the Lord. We come now to our time for the offering and during the offering, rather than passing the plates, what we have done is we have set offering plates in the front on the communion table.

We've set one near the back door and another near that door. So during this song, as we receive the offering, please exit your seats, drop your offerings in the offering plates as they are available, and then return.

And we'll do this as we sing. Now, just a reminder of what the scripture says. It says each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Let's pray for our offering. Father, that you might lay upon our hearts a desire to give back to you a portion of what you have given to us. Lord, make us good stewards over what you have entrusted us with, knowing that everything that we have, every penny in our bank accounts, every dollar in our wallets, everything that we own, Lord, is not truly our own, but Lord, it is yours.

You who own the cattle on a thousand hills, you who own the entire universe, we are but stewards, Lord, make us faithful in our stewardship. We pray in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. You may be seated.

And Brother Mike, is it your day to pray? Then come and pray for us.

Let's take a time of silence and then we'll go to the Lord in prayer together. Holy Father, Sovereign God, King, Savior, and just as we sang a strong tower, Father God, thank you that you have invited your people to gather corporately to worship you in spirit and in truth.

Father God, I thank you for this opportunity to come to you boldly before the throne of grace, not with arrogance and pride, but Father, knowing that you hear our prayers and that you will answer our petitions according to your will and that, Father, we can pray in the name of your son, who is the true intercessor between God and man, and that is Jesus Christ, the righteous.

Father God, I want to lift up those in this room, Father, that are struggling with illness and God, I pray that you would strengthen their bodies. I pray that you would send forth healing. I pray that, God, that you would comfort them in these difficult times and that, Father, you would administer grace upon grace and show them mercy, Father.

And I want to pray for those also in this room, Father, are struggling emotionally, Father, in these difficult times and emotional times and times of financial struggle and spiritual depression. God, I pray that you would comfort them with the power of your word and that you would comfort them with the power of your spirit and that you would send them grace upon grace and mercy upon mercy, that they would lean not on their own understanding, God, but in all of their ways that they would acknowledge you and, Father, that you would direct their paths.

Father God, I ask that you would be with Brother Keith as he preaches today, God, that he would preach with power and he would preach with boldness. He would preach with clarity and that you would anoint his words with the power of your spirit and that as they leave his lips, that, God, they will go across the ears of those that are in this room and that the believers would be conformed more to the image of your son and that they would be made honorable to you.

And, God, for those that are in this room that do not know you, God, I pray that you would quicken their dead spirit and that you would awaken them from their spiritual deadness and that you would grant them repentance that leads to life and that, God, you would grant them eternal life through faith alone in Christ alone and that, God, you would be honored in so.

God, I want to lift up our deacons. Father, as they minister to the needs of this body, God, I pray that you would continue to strengthen them, give them wisdom, give them discernment, give them clarity of mind and understanding as they go about the affairs that you have given them to do through your word.

And, God, I pray for the elders of this church that, Father, as we make decisions for the direction of your people, as we as undershepherds lead your people, that, God, we would do it in such a way that it brings honor to you, that it would be glorifying to you, and that, God, it would be beneficial to your people.

God, be honored in all that's said and done today in this time of worship. In Christ's name, amen.

1 Timothy 2 and the Difficulty of “Saved Through Childbearing”

I want to invite you to take out your Bibles with me and turn to the book of 1 Timothy and go to chapter 2 and hold your place at verse 15. The title of today's message is The Redemptive Quality of Motherhood.

For the past several months, we have all gone through constant reminders of the importance of washing our hands well. Much to the joy of mothers and grandmothers everywhere, by the way. Videos on how to wash your hands properly have flooded the internet.

Hand sanitizer has become a very hot commodity. Some facilities that produce alcohol to drink having converted their facilities to now produce alcohol for the cleansing of hands. But what's most interesting about that is that the cleaning of one's hands for the purpose of not spreading disease is a relatively recent discovery.

It was not until the late 1800s that hand washing among physicians was recognized as needful and even then it was not universally accepted as necessary. It was Dr. Ignaz Simmelweis who first recognized that there was a connection between the increase of disease and the increase of death in patients where doctors were not washing their hands.

And it's interesting that it was learned, it was recognized in a maternity ward. You see where Dr. Simmelweis worked was in Vienna and in the hospital that he was in, they had two maternity wards. One of them was attended by physicians.

The other was attended only by midwives. And the one that was attended by physicians had a much higher rate of death and disease than the one that was attended by midwives. And what Dr. Simmelweis recognized was what was happening was that the doctors were going to perform autopsies and then they were going to deliver babies and they were not washing their hands in between the participation in one and the participation in the other.

And there was a high rate of fever, a high rate of disease, a high rate of sickness because of that unhygienic practice. Upon, again, if you think about it, just it's amazing to consider that countless deaths and countless mothers and countless children were the purpose or what happened as a result of not recognizing what seems to be to us today a very basic reality.

You should wash your hands. But since the fall of mankind, childbirth has always been a dangerous endeavor. We live in a time where, a time and a place where childbirth is relatively safe. But for much of human history and for many around the world, that's not always the case.

Think for a moment about the centuries which preceded our own lifetime. Think about what it was like to give birth just 200 years ago. No painkillers, no cesarean sections, no antibiotics, no sutures, no hygiene, and often no recovery.

Countless women and children died and that danger is still real and present in places where modern medical advances are not available today. Around the world, approximately 800 women die every day as a result of pregnancy-related issues, still today.

In the areas like Nigeria, a woman is 200 times more likely to die from pregnancy than a woman in Sweden where there's excellent medical care. Childbirth is an amazing and frightening event. It signifies the moment when a life springs forth from the womb.

It's been growing for nine months and now it's introduced into the world. Yet that introduction comes not through a calm and serene passing from womb to room, but rather the baby comes into this world accompanied by travail, accompanied by screams of agony, accompanied by immense pain.

The mother engages in an embattled ordeal, often lasting several hours, sometimes even more than a day. With few moments of rest between incredible bouts of horrific suffering. Yet at the same time, few mothers having held their babies after they were born were ever dissatisfied.

They were happy. They were thankful. They say it's worth the pain once they get the baby into their arms. The touch of the baby's hand, the smell of its newborn skin, the look in its eyes ease the comfort of the recent pain.

The reality of now being a new mother is a balm for what it took to become one. When our passage today, the Apostle Paul speaks about the subject of childbirth and motherhood. And I want to say before we read it, this passage is difficult.

And I imagine some of you by the end of this sermon are going to be wondering, why did he pick this one for Mother's Day? Why did he pick this one, which is so difficult? And it is. Well, I can't always tell you exactly why the Lord leads me in the directions that he does, but I do believe this is the passage he wants me to preach this morning.

And I have spent many hours thinking through what I'm going to say, and I pray that it will be accurate to his truth. But again, I want to say it's a difficult passage and there are some confusing elements to it.

And I hope that by the end of the day, we'll be able to better understand it. So let's stand together and let's read the word of God. And we're going to read just verse 15, because this is the passage that we are studying today.

But the focus, actually, the context begins all the way back at verse 8. We'll read that in a few moments. Verse 15 says this, yet she will be saved through childbearing. If they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control.

Father in heaven, I thank you for your word. And father, as now I begin to preach the word, I thank you that my brother has already prayed that I would preach with boldness and with power. And I pray the same.

And I pray also, Lord, that you would please keep me from error. For Lord, I am a fallible man and I am capable of preaching error. And I don't want to do that for the sake of your people, for the sake of your name and for the sake of my conscience.

I pray that you would lead me, Lord, by the power of your Holy Spirit. And I pray that the Holy Spirit would be the teacher today. And Lord, where I speak truth, I pray the truth would be applied to the heart.

And Lord, if I err, I pray that it would be erased from the mind. Lord, that your truth may be proclaimed and that your truth may go out from this place and lead us into a better and wiser walk with you.

We thank you, Lord, for this time in Jesus name. Amen. As I already mentioned, this passage is difficult. It's difficult first because of what it says. It proposes a truth that's difficult to understand.

But it's also difficult because of the current situation in which we now live. Our culture today is at the height of the equality movement. The push to level the ground between the sexes and remove not only any inequalities and opportunity, but to remove any distinctions between the sexes.

Therefore, this passage and this entire section of Paul's writing to Timothy is often maligned as an example of Paul's misogyny. Over the years, I've heard it said many times, well, Paul just didn't like women.

Paul didn't like women in the church. He didn't like women in the ministry. And so we don't need to listen to Paul when it comes to the subject of women. That's there's nothing further from the truth.

The Apostle Paul is speaking. He is writing. The words that are there on this page are from the mouth of God himself. The Bible says all scripture is theopneustos. It means it is God breathed. And therefore, when the Apostle Paul writes and we have what he has written, we need not take that and say, well, this is just one man's opinion and a man to say the least.

No, this is what God has said. And therefore, we need to take it as such. But at the same time, when we come to a passage like this, we have to recognize that sometimes there are passages in scripture that are difficult to understand.

There was a principle during the Reformation called the principle of perspicuity. And that simply means the principle of clarity. It means that the Bible is relatively clear in what it says about salvation.

It's relatively clear in what it says about how to be saved. And so the reformers said, we need to look at the clarity of scripture and know that it's clear in what it says. But even the reformers would say it's not always equally clear.

There are some passages that are not as perspicuous as others. There are some passages that require us to dig a little deeper to find what they are really trying to say. So what I'd like to share with you today, and this is sort of going to maybe seem a little odd to you.

I want to share with you how we can try to arrive at the right understanding when we come to a difficult passage. As a Bible teacher at heart, my favorite thing to do is to teach people the Bible and to teach people how to study the Bible.

And so what I want to share with you today are three, a process of three steps that you can take when you come to a difficult passage to help you rightly understand what that passage means. I'm going to put them up on the screen.

These are the three things that we're going to do today. First, we're going to examine the context of the passage. What are the other verses around it say? Then we're going to eliminate the unreasonable, meaning we're going to look at what it says and we're going to say, okay, what can it not mean?

Based upon the rest of scripture and based upon simple reasoning, what does it not mean? And we're going to eliminate the nots, the unreasonables. And then we're going to examine the possibilities. What could it mean?

And then hopefully we're going to come to a proper and better understanding of the text. I will say this, this is one of the passages that, honestly, every time I've ever been in a Q &A where Bible verses was the subject and people got to ask about difficult Bible verses, this was one of them.

Somebody inevitably would say, hey, what does that mean when it says women are saved through childbearing? So that's what we're going to talk about today. First, let's look at the context. The context of this book actually begins back in the first chapter.

Of course, the Apostle Paul is urging Timothy to wage the good warfare of faith with a good conscience. That's the call. He's urging Timothy to continue the fight. Paul knows that he is getting close to the end of his life and he's got this young man, Timothy, and he's charging him to move forward and to be a pastor of the church and to be a good pastor.

And throughout the book of 1 Timothy, there are all of these stipulations for how the church ought to operate. How should elders be chosen? How should deacons be chosen? What are the qualifications for such men?

How should husbands treat their wives and wives treat their husbands? And all of these things are found within the books of 1 and 2 Timothy. We call these the pastoral letters along with Titus because they're written to show us how the church ought to function.

Well, then we get to chapter 2 and Paul begins to call the church to prayer. He calls the church to pray for leaders, for kings, for those in authority. He calls us to pray for those over us and to pray for their salvation.

Then in chapter 2 verse 8, Paul begins to make a distinction between men and women in the church. Let's begin reading at verse 8. I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

Likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what is proper for women who profess godliness with good works.

Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, rather she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.

Yet she will be saved through childbearing. If they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control. The context here is the distinction between men and women. He says that men ought to use their hands, not for quarreling, but for praying.

Why do you think he would say that? Could it be that men have a problem with how they use their hands? Could it be that men are known for throwing hands with one another and lifting their hands in ways that they shouldn't?

So Paul says, let us not use our hands for quarreling, but let us use our hands for raising them in prayer. And then he turns to the women and he says, women, you ought to adorn yourself with godliness rather than gaudiness.

Why do you think he would say that? Could it be that there was a problem and maybe still is a problem where we concern ourselves too much with the exterior beauty and not enough with the interior beauty?

And so Paul addresses that issue. Then he makes an observation about the authority in the church and the teaching within the assembly. And he says that the teaching is to be, and as I said already, very controversially, to be men only.

Boy, that's a hard thing to say in 2020. It's a hard thing for people to accept. And many people have just absolutely repudiated these passages. I mean, we look around our land and we see women in the pulpit.

And as I said a few weeks ago, if there's one thing we learn from 1 and 2 Timothy, it is this. There are people in the pulpits all around that should not be. It's not always just women, but women should not be.

And again, if that offends you, please know that I am not making this up out of whole cloth. This is the apostle Paul speaking on behalf of almighty God. All I'm doing is repeating what he has said. And to undergird this, because oftentimes people will say this.

People will say, well, see, Paul was a product of his culture. And the culture of the day was that women were a second class citizenship and that women were not allowed to teach. And therefore, Paul is just expressing the culture of his day.

Well, there's a couple of problems with that. One, it's not exactly true that the culture of his day would suppress women. There was a lot of situations in Paul's day where women were exalted. There were goddesses that were exalted, that were worshiped.

There were women who taught in various situations and even women business owners, as we see with Lydia in Acts chapter 16 in various places. So the idea that women were absolutely not given any type of position in society is actually not the case.

But even more so, notice that Paul does not use culture as his reasoning. Paul doesn't say that women ought not to teach men or have authority in the assembly. And he goes back not to culture, but to creation.

And he says, see, look at the way God created the world. He created Adam first and then Eve. And by creating Adam first, he gave Adam a position of authority in the kingdom. He gave Adam a position of authority in the garden.

When I get back to preaching Genesis in a few weeks and I look forward to it, I'm actually going to begin preaching about the creation of Adam because we're going to be in Genesis 2. And in Genesis chapter 2, Adam is expressed as being created and made vice regent with God.

He's given an authority over the garden. And part of the reason for the heinous nature of the sin of Adam was that Adam allowed sin into the garden. Adam was supposed to be managing that garden. He was supposed to have authority over that garden.

And he allowed it in. There was a serpent in the garden. And Adam was unaware or at least unwilling to deal with it. So the serpent was allowed to tempt and to deceive his wife. And Adam's wife was deceived.

Verse 14, it says, Adam was not deceived. And you might think that that's Paul's saying Adam was better. No, that's worse. Mike and I had a conversation about that this week. It's actually worse because Adam was rebellious.

He knew not to do it. Eve was deceived. She was tricked. Adam was not tricked. Adam did what he did in rebellion. But the point of it is, in this situation, Paul is using the example of Adam being created first, then Eve, and Eve being deceived as his argument as to why women are not to be teaching and having authority within the body of Christ.

And by the way, just a side note, this is one of those times where the Bible is clearly assuming that Adam and Eve are real people. Because a lot of people believe Adam and Eve are fictional, mythological characters.

But Paul's not using them as fictional or mythological. Paul is saying, look at Adam and Eve as the example. They were created. I mean, he's not using them as a myth. He's using them as a historical example.

So that's the context. Paul is discussing the distinction between men and women. He's using Adam and Eve as the example. And what happened as a result of the fall? What happened as a result of sin? Man and woman were both cursed.

What was the curse of man? That his work, which up until that time had been a joy. Don't think that Adam didn't work before the fall. He did work before the fall. But his work was a joy. He didn't work and toil.

He didn't work with thorns and thistles. He didn't work by the sweat of his brow. He worked to the constant enjoyment of the kingdom. And then when he sinned, his work became displeasurable. And he hated it.

And now it's tiresome. It's burdensome. And he hurts. And he hunches. And he doesn't feel good. That's the curse. Work is not the curse. The curse is the displeasure of work. The same way with the woman.

The woman receives a curse. But it's not childbearing. It's the pain in childbearing. You understand? The curse is not that she would bear children. That's the blessing. Just like work is a blessing. But what is accompanying work?

Pain and suffering and toil and back pains and ripped fingernails. And all those things that we hate. What's the difficulty of childbirth? Nine months of morning sickness and stomach pains. Nine months of growing to a point of discomfort where your hips hurt and your back hurts.

And then when it does come time, it's absolutely horrific. I've been there three times. And she did not look happy. Of course, there's other things that happen. The possibility of death. The possibility of miscarriages.

Just all of those things are products of the fall. So that's the context. Paul is addressing Adam and Eve. He's addressing men and women. He uses Adam and Eve as the example. And he says there's a distinction between men and women.

And then he says, and women will be saved through childbearing. So that's the context. So based upon the context, we can now begin to try to arrive at a meaning. When he says in the next verse, yet she will be saved through childbearing.

Well, there's two unreasonable understandings that I'd like. Now we're at part two. There's two unreasonable understandings that I'd like to at least get out of the way. The first unreasonable interpretation would be this.

All women who have had babies are saved from their sins by having babies. Anybody believe that? No, you shouldn't. Because that is not the gospel. It's not as if you can be saved by grace through faith or childbearing.

That would be a heck of a way to go around and share the gospel. You can either believe in Jesus or you can go have a baby. Certainly that's not the proper understanding of the text. That's not what Paul is saying.

But there is another that I would say is equally unreasonable. And that is this. Someone who says that what this is talking about is physical healing. And therefore, a woman who is a believer will never suffer death in childbirth.

That she'll be saved from death in childbirth. I don't think that's right either. In fact, I would say it's absolutely wrong. Because there have been faithful women of God who have died in childbirth.

There have been faithful women of God who have suffered horribly and had bad pregnancies and the children have died and the women have died. So we can't say that it's saving from sin, childbirth. And we can't say that it's saving from the physical dangers of pregnancy.

So neither one of those, I think, would be a proper understanding. I think both of those would fit into the category of the unreasonable. Unreasonable from Scripture and unreasonable from experience. So now we begin to examine the possibilities.

And the possibilities are numerous. And if you look up this passage in commentaries, you're liable to find more than what I'm going to give you today. But I want to give you three possibilities as to what this passage might mean.

And then I want to help you understand why I think I believe what it means is correct. But again, I want to say this from the outset. I am in no way being dogmatic today. I'm trying to help you learn how to study.

And sometimes as a pastor, when I study a passage, sometimes I have to arrive at a conclusion there where I say, I think this is the best way to understand it, but I could be wrong. And if we don't have the humility to say that, then there's something wrong with us.

If we don't have the humility to say, I could be wrong about this, then I think we've got a problem. Because there are some passages that are difficult. So I'm going to give you the three possibilities, and then explain to you why I think the one that I think is correct.

First, the first possibility is this, that the childbirth in reference here is the birth of Jesus. Okay? This is a very popular understanding that Jesus is the one being born. And so if we read it that way, it would say this.

Um, in verse 15, it said, yet she being Eve will be saved through the birth of the child. And if you, if you read it in the Greek, there is a, there is a definite article there. It doesn't say childbearing.

It says the childbirth or the childbearing. And therefore, some people would say this is the birth of Jesus, because it has a distinct article referring to the, to a birth, a specific birth. And so this would go back to Genesis 3 .15.

Do you remember in Genesis 3 .15, what the promise was given to Eve? It was during the curse of the serpent. God curses the serpent. And he says, there will be a seed of the woman. And the seed of the woman will crush your head.

You will bruise his heel, but he will crush your head. We call that the proto-evangelium, or the first reference to the gospel, because it's a reference to Satan's work being destroyed by the seed of the woman.

And therefore, some people would say, that's what Paul is saying here. Women, even though they're, they're dealing with childbirth and the pain of childbirth, they can know that a Savior is coming. And this, of course, would be looking forward to the Savior.

Now we can say a Savior has come. And so in that regard, the childbirth here would be Jesus. So that's the first of a possible interpretation. However, I want to simply say, I, that's not, it's not without difficulty.

If you take that position, there are two things that need to be considered. Number one, this would be a unique way of phrasing how we are saved, because we are not, it does, the Bible does not normally express salvation through the birth of Christ, but rather through the death of Christ.

And so the fact that it says saved through childbirth is, would be unique, to say the least. But also, somebody might say, well, but in Genesis 3 .15, it does talk about the coming of the seed. So that could be the answer to that.

But moreover, the thing that I think is important is that this is speaking specifically to women. Notice again, it says, yet she will be saved through childbearing. And therefore, if it's referring to the birth of Christ, which is not limited to women, but would be for all, then I think that this would have, again, a difficulty in saying, why is it making a distinction between men and women?

And why is it focusing on the woman? And then yet saying that the childbirth will save her, and save them, referring to women. So again, can it mean the birth of Jesus? Yes, that is one possibility. It's not the position that I take, but it is a possibility.

Number two is a little bit more difficult. Number two takes the position that we should not focus on the word childbirth, but that we should focus on the word through. Read the text again with me. She will be saved through childbearing.