Luke 1:34 -38
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her.

Of all the New Testament miracles the virgin birth of Jesus creates the most controversy. It is seen to be incredible by skeptics! At the beginning of the 20th century some scholars tried to find a way around it. They said the word virgin, could mean simply a young woman. They argued the Bible never intended to teach a virgin birth in the first place. It is true the word doesn’t always have to mean virgin, although that is its principal meaning. But even if the word virgin were not found in the text, how could we miss the concept, when Mary asks, “How can I have a baby? I have never been with a man.”

The angel understood what Mary was asking. He answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will over-shadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”

This child was not to be born by the normal biological process. He would go through the process of birth, being carried for a full term of pregnancy. Yet He was to differ from all humanity in that He did not have a human father. His conception occurred by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This was a miracle in the strictest sense of all: it was an act only God could bring to pass. God alone can bring something out of nothing; life out of death; fertility from a barren woman; a virgin birth.

Mary responds in words of submission, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” There is no argument from Mary.

The second part of verse 38 has been given a special name in some theological circles. It is called ‘Mary’s fiat’. A fiat is a command. God created the world by divine fiat. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead by the sheer power of His fiat. So the word fiat is used to show Mary is giving a commandment to the angel. Those who exalt Mary to a degree of importance beyond what Protestant churches grant, believe Mary’s fiat was necessary for Jesus to have been born.

Nothing could be further from the tone of Mary’s words. Mary was not giving orders to the angel. She was saying, “If this is what God wants, then I will do it.”

You may think there could be nothing greater in the entire world than to have an angel make an announcement like this to you. But can you imagine the awesome responsibility that was placed on Mary? Do you realize the price this woman had to pay to become the mother of Christ?

Later, we shall see the promise that goes with the birth of the Messiah is that a sword would pierce her own soul. Yet Mary says to God, “If that is your will, then I’ll do it.”

The beginning of Jesus’ life is marked by a mother who submits to the will of God.

The end of Jesus’ life is marked by the words: “Not my will, but yours be done.”

Whose will is being done in your life?

Adapted from – Sproul, R. C. (1999). A Walk with God: An Exposition of Luke (pp. 20-21). Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications