HOPE IS PROMISED: Certainty Is Given in God’s Promise

 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS.  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.  And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”  (Luke 1:30-33)

We human beings have problems with promises—we break them!  But Scripture says that “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”  (Numbers 23:19)  We see several promises Gabriel brought from God.

There is THE PROMISE OF CHRIST’S GRACE.  “Then the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS.’” (v.30-31)  That promise is bound up in the name, “Jesus.”  Jesus means, “Jehovah is salvation.”  For centuries the Old Testament promise of a Savior had been unfulfilled—but that was about to change!  Jesus came to span the gulf between holy God and sinful man in paying the price for our sins on the cross.  He reaches out one hand on the cross to the Righteous Judge and stretches out the other to the condemned criminal and they meet in the Propitiation He is in Himself.  The Savior is suspended between heaven and earth to form the bridge between the two realms.

Then, there is THE PROMISE OF CHRIST’S GREATNESS. “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest” (v.32a).  There have been many great men who have walked the stage of human history, but Jesus towers above them all, for He was more than the Son of Man; He was and is the Son of God!  As a Gospel song writer affirmed, “He is higher than the highest; greater than the great.”  When we align ourselves with Him, the lowliest of the low is lifted into His royal family and becomes an heir with Him!

THE PROMISE OF CHRIST’S GOVERNMENT.  “the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.  And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” (v.32b-33)  This promise has yet to be fulfilled—but as the promises connected to Christ’s first coming were realized, we may rest assured those of His second coming will be!  This world is governed today by those who promise much to gain power and then trample on the very promises they made to retain it.  Increasingly, we see tyranny on one hand and anarchy on the other.  Such is the world under the curse.  But the King of kings is coming to reverse the curse and establish peace and righteousness on the planet.  Hold to the hope of His promise; He is coming!