Admin
|
Chosen of Christ
Posted : 4 Dec, 2010 07:13 AM
Luke 1.26-35, 46-55
When the angel Gabriel was sent to a young virgin in Nazareth of Galilee, he greeted her with the salutation �Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women� (Luke 1.28). Then, in verse 30, the angel says �Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.� Then the angel tells of the greatest news that mankind has ever received; a son would be born unto her and he would be the Son of God. Oh, what glorious tidings these were that were heralded by the mighty angel Gabriel. This month the church of the Lord Jesus Christ celebrates the birth of which this angel announced. The question may arise in your mind why was Mary more highly favoured than other women or even other virgins, for surely there were other virgins in Galilee at that time? There are religious groups that would deify Mary because she was blessed and highly favoured of God. To really understand why God so highly favoured Mary, we must look at verse 47. In the Magnificat, the song of Mary, she said,
�My soul doth magnify the Lord,
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my saviour.�
There was only one Mary, there will never be another. But the reason she was so �highly favoured� of God was not because of her virgin status, or her ancestral family record, or national citizenship although these things did have something to do with it. But it was mainly because she knew �the God of her salvation�. You, as single adults, can be �highly favoured� of God also if you know the true �God of your salvation.� You will not have the testimony of Mary, but if you know the true �God of your salvation�, you do have a testimony that allows you to rejoice with Mary in worship of the true God.
This season is an appropriate time to reflect upon who the God of our salvation is � who are we actually trusting in for our salvation. Is it the Holy Child born of a virgin placed in a manger for His bed? Or is our complete devotion focused upon someone or something else. It is very easy to forget the �reason for the season� with all the commercialization of Christmas, but when we focus upon the true meaning by acknowledgment of the Holy Child as the �God of our salvation�, then, we have a purpose for the celebration of Christmas.
The reason that many singles can not celebrate the true meaning by knowing the �God of their salvation� is because their circumstances have allowed strongholds to be placed on their minds. Every time something bad happens, they think that it is God reminding them one more time of their failures in their past. That is not the true God. What He forgives, He forgets (Heb. 10:16-17). I don�t know how He does it, but I do know that He works everything after the counsel of His own will (Eph. 1:11). He does not dredge your past sins and mistakes up sometime in the future for the one who knows the God of their salvation. Under the Old Testament, a sin offering was required every year for the covering of the people�s sins for another year. Year after year this was done. And each year there was a reminder of that sin. At the beginning of this age Jesus Christ came and became the ultimate sacrifice for sin in that He died once. Not only does his blood cover our sins but it washes them completely and totally away. And we can stand before God justified, freely pardoned, from our sins. That word �justified� means �just as though I have never sinned.� God places our sins in the �sea of forgetfulness.� The Psalmist tells us He removes them as far as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:12). If one travels north or south, they eventually will arrive at a destination � either the North Pole or South Pole. If one travels east or west, they never reach a destination but travel infinitely. That is what the Psalmist is emphasizing as far as the east is from the west; in other words, God removes our sins infinitely from us - never to be remembered against us again. The only one that will remind us is our enemies. Be reminded this month that because of the work of the Holy Child who would eventually give his life on the Cross, you and I can find favor and be truly chosen with the God of our salvation and similar to Mary destined to be great in the Kingdom of God.
Post Reply
|
