Highly Favored

“Greetings favored one, the Lord is with you.” Luke 1:28.

“Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God.” Luke 1:30.

These words of Gabriel to Mary are the words of God to all who belong to Jesus Christ. Can we hear the words of the Apostle Paul, over and over again, to the recipients of his letters, “Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ”?

The favor bestowed on Mary was the favor of mercy and grace, just as that conferred on us is the favor of mercy and grace; God’s sovereign and unmerited mercy and grace given freely to us according to the pleasure of His will.

Christ is born of Mary without the participation of a man; Christ is born in us without natural means: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12 – 13).

As Jesus says, “That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6).

As with the individual, so with the Church; the Son of God cannot be formed within His People by natural means – only the Life of the Son can reproduce the Life of the Son – the flesh cannot produce the spirit nor understand the things of the Spirit (1 Corinthians Chapter 2).

Those in Christ are highly favored with their Father’s mercy and grace – O that we might hear God speaking His Word to us in Christ Jesus, and O that we would respond in obedience to His Word.