His Perfect Will

 

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

HIS PERFECT WILL

Matt 1:18-21

18 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins."

NIV

There is no question that Jesus is the Son of God because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit within a young virgin who had never had any physical relationship with a man. This is impossible on all accounts except as it is recorded as it happened. We know that God has said it is impossible with man, but with God all things are possible. It would make perfect sense for those who reject the virgin birth to also reject the creation events as they are recorded. Man continues to insist the earth is millions of years old and that life began in some premortal slush and at some point, millions of years later crawled its way onto dry land and evolved into hundreds of thousands of different types of species, including us. That is so far-fetched and so unbelievable, yet many would believe that rather than God simply causing a woman to become pregnant without having relations with a man. Of course, in the culture in which this happened it was not as easy to explain as it might be in our culture today, in fact, many women today are having babies without being with a man, although they are using the sperm of men. Nevertheless, in the days of Joseph and Mary, it was not considered a righteous situation. No one would have thought Mary could be with child any other way than having been with a man and therefore no longer a virgin and unacceptable for marriage. However, God made sure that Joseph would do the right thing. He not only intervened in the life of Mary but also in the life of Joseph to ensure that His will would be accomplished. It is interesting that both Mary and Joseph are descendants of King David so that his throne would rule forever, as the prophet Samuel told David. The beauty of all this narrative is the simple fact the Jesus will save his people from their sins. Because we are his people, however, we want to see that, He has saved us from our sin. We are no longer in captivity of our sin and are subject to the penalty God declared for sin, death. Because we are in Christ, we are freed from the penalty, now declared by God to be holy and blameless in His sight and once again, as he intended Adam to be, we will live forever, be eternal beings in the presence of God, in His paradise that Jesus has prepared for us. It is all about Jesus, our lives are all about Jesus and we should be so thankful that Jesus was born as it was prophesied and as it happened when and where it did, according to the perfect will of God.