The Women of Christmas: Mary, Part 2

“In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin pledged in marriage to a man named Joseph, who was of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. The angel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. So the angel told her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God”(Luke 1:26-30 BSB).

In today’s devotional about Mary, we are going to focus on the grace of God. We see the grace of God in Mary's conversation with the angel. The grace of God would bring about a huge change for the Jewish people and ultimately the Gentile world as well. There was a transition taking place from the Old to the New.

Under the Old Covenant, the Jews lived under a system of rules known as the Law. It was given to them by God through Moses and they had lived under this system since shortly after their Exodus from Egypt. But, why did they live under the law?

Romans 5:20 tells us,

“The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more,” (BSB)

And Galatians 3:19 reads,

“Why then was the law given? It was added because of transgressions, until the arrival of the seed to whom the promise referred. It was administered through angels by a mediator.”(BSB)

In John 1:17, it says,

“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (BSB)

What was coming under the New Covenant through Jesus was new to them. They were looking for a military leader in the Messiah. They weren’t expecting this.

In the lives of the women of Christmas, we begin to see this transition that was taking place. Grace was coming. In fact, it was already here.

In verse 28 of chapter 1, the angel says to Mary,

“Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you” (BSB).

That phrase “you who are highly favored” is actually the verb form of the word "charis" (grace) in the Greek. It is the Greek word

“charitoó” and is found only in one other place in the Bible, and it is a verse about Believers in Jesus.

“to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One”(Ephesians 1:6).

Later on in the passage in Luke 1:30, the angel tells Mary,

“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” (BSB)

That word favor in that passage is a noun and is the Greek word "charis." According to Biblehub, there are 157 occurrences of the word “charis” in the New Testament. It means “grace, favor, kindness, and blessing.” Grace was coming through Jesus. There would be a transition from law to grace.


They would no longer live under the law, because Jesus would fulfill it. A new way of life was coming. What was happening to and through Mary, was also coming to and for us. Tomorrow we will discuss that new way of grace, one that would involve the Holy Spirit.


Blessings to you as you continue to grow in grace and the knowledge of Him!

Beth



To learn more about the word "charis," please check out my post here on Grace in the Greek.


If you missed yesterday's post on Mary, Part 1, you can also find it at my blog, The Women of Christmas: Mary, Part 1.

A Foundation of Grace: Grace in the Greek

You therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.-2 Timothy 2:1 (World English Bible)

For the last few days in this series, I have been sharing stories about Jesus, and how there are pictures of the difference between law and grace in these stories. But, what is grace? I think we need to let the Bible define grace for us by looking at it in its original language.

There are words for grace in the Old Testament in the Hebrew Language. We might look at them later. But since the New Testament is what we have been primarily been studying in this series, I thought we would look there first. As Believers, we are part of the New Covenant. Jesus came to fulfill the Old and usher in the New.

The New Testament was originally written in Greek. So, we can also look at the definition in the Greek.

The Greek word for grace is "charis."

Looking up Greek words in the Bible is fun because we get a much broader picture of what the word is supposed to mean. And sometimes it redefines it for us, because we might have a smaller picture in our minds that what the word really means.

The Greek word for grace is "charis." There are 157 occurrences of this word in the New Testament Scriptures.

There are several different Bible study tools that can help define this word for us.

Strong's Concordance defines it as "grace, as a gift or blessing brought to man by Jesus Christ, favor, gratitude, thanks, a favor, kindness.

Helps Word Studies defines it as "favor, disposed to, inclined, favorable towards, leaning towards to share benefit.

New American Standard Bible Exhaustive Concordance defines it as "grace, kindness" and translates it as "blessing, concession, credit, favor, gift, grace, graciousness, gracious work, gratitude, thank, thankfulness, thanks."

Thayer's Greek Lexicon contains some more lengthy, descriptive definitions, but in brief, it defines grace as:

1. sweetness, charm, loveliness

2. good-will, loving-kindness, favor; kindness which bestows upon one what he has not deserved

So, we can see that grace is something that is a free gift given to us, one we did not earn, or deserve, but based upon God's favor and goodness in our lives. And when Jesus came it brought it forever, eternally with Him.

To read more in the series, please join me here, at A Foundation of Grace.