Luke 1:30-33: “30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
This quotation from Luke 1 comes just after the angel of the Lord appeared to Mary and she was startled by his greeting to her. Then we pick up with these verses in which the angel informs Mary that she will conceive and give birth to a son and a bit about the nature of and identity of this child. Our Lord is called the Son of the Most High, and He will reign over His people, the house of Jacob, and of His kingdom there will be no end. This theme of Jesus ushering in God’s eternal kingdom is a prominent theme in the New Testament, both in the Gospel accounts and in the epistles.
I want to touch on just a few aspects of how Christ reigns over His people. He reigns over His people when He conquers sin and death through His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Jesus begins His kingdom with His entrance into our world as He is conceived in the womb of Mary who was a virgin. God the Son takes on humanity and this was the beginning of how he conquered sin and death. As He became human, He became like one of us, except for sin. Jesus became fully human but remained fully God, that He might redeem humanity and raise it up into the heavenly kingdom. He does this by first uniting us to God and cleansing us from our sins.
In Matthew 1:21 we hear these words of the angel to Joseph concerning his fiancée Mary, “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Within the naming of Jesus, we also have spelled out for us the mission that Jesus came to do, to save us from our sins. We are adopted as God’s sons through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and this is also how we enter the kingdom of God. When we believe, we become His children.
Mark 1:14, 15,“14 Now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”” In these words, we are taught that as one trusts in the Gospel of Christ, one enters God’s kingdom.
Another aspect of being in Christ’s kingdom, and being under His reign, is that we must grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ. The apostle Paul tells us this in Colossians 1:5,6, “5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth, the gospel6 which has come to you, just as in all the world also it is constantly bearing fruit and increasing, even as it has been doing in you also since the day you heard of it and understood the grace of God in truth;”
As we believe in Christ as Lord and Savior, we are to grow in our faith in Him. Believing in Christ as God and King has a beginning but it also is an ongoing commitment to Him, to living under His reign and seeking to increase in knowing Him and submitting to Him and His teaching. I have been saved by Christ, I am being saved by Christ, and I will be saved by Christ.
I wish each of you a blessed Advent and Christmas as we celebrate together the gift of Jesus Christ our King, our Lord, and our Savior.
We beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that, as we have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of the angel, so by his cross and passion we may be brought unto the glory of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
