The Two Births

In Luke's gospel we find the account of two births.

Two godly women.
One angel.
Two promised births.
Two very different fulfillments.

Zechariah was a good man who did his best to keep the Law.
His wife, Elizabeth, however was barren and unable to conceive.
Gabriel appeared to Zechariah and promised them a son they were to name John.

This was the one we know as John the Baptist, the forerunner to Jesus.

But here's the deal.
Zechariah and Elizabeth still had some work to do, if you know what I mean.

The promise was only going to be fulfilled if they did their part in the promise.
The miracle here was that in her advanced years Elizabeth's womb would be opened.
The seed still needed to be planted.

Apparently ol' Zechariah did his part because 6 months into Elizabeth's pregnancy Gabriel makes a visit to another godly woman. Mary.

Elizabeth was old.
But Mary was young, very young.
Unmarried, but engaged to be married.
A virgin.

Mary even said so when Gabriel made the promise of child to her.

Listen.
She's not going to fudge this whole virgin bit, not to an angel.
And not to God.
He knew whom He was choosing.

This promise of a child, however, was going to be fulfilled very, very differently.
This fulfillment marked a new way God was going to bring life to mankind.

Previously, God breathed into man and he became a living soul.
But all generations following Adam depended on man's own ability to reproduce.
God's intervention was only opening a barren womb.

A new day was dawning beginning with Mary.
A new generation of children were going to be made possible.

This time by God, not man.

Life was going to happen by God's efforts.
Not man's efforts.

This time God was going to do all the work.
And this new way was was going to be the only way.

Mary HAD to be a virgin.
Only God could be the Father.
There could be no human effort in this conception.

Jesus referred to this new way in his talk with Nicodemus.

Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. John 3:6 NLT

This conception is radically different because God did it. 

Jesus said "It is finished!" and then He sat down at the Father's right hand signaling rest and completed work.

We have been made alive by God's work and not our own. 
Not our own.

A dead man can't bring himself back to life.
Neither can a spiritually dead man.

Both can only be brought back to life by a source outside themselves

It is the Spirit who has brought us from death to life.
The same Spirit in Genesis one.
The same Spirit that overshadowed Mary.
The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead.

It is by grace we have been saved through faith, it is not of ourselves it is a gift from God so that no one can boast about himself. Ephesians 2:8-9

God does the saving by His own power through the Spirit and the Son. 
All we can do is say "yes", just like Mary did.

Thank you Lord for saving my soul.
Thank you Lord for making me whole.
Thank you Lord for giving to me.
Thy great salvation so full and free.

Amen.

RP