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Sons of God Text:
Isaiah 7:10-17 Isaiah 7:14 is probably one of the most important and, at the same time, controversial Messianic prophesies in the Old Testament. The controversy raged as the proponents of the so-called Historical-Critical Method of Bible interpretation insisted that the Hebrew word “alma” means only “young woman” and not “virgin,” and that, therefore, the passage should be translated, “Behold, the young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
As with almost every other “insight” of the method its' ultimate premise, aim and goal is to undermine and destroy the truth of God's Word, the Bible. In fact, the method begins from the skeptical point-of-view that the Bible is only a human document and not the inspired, inerrant and very Word of God. To make Isaiah predict not a virgin birth but only that of a “young woman” opens the door to explain away the conception and birth of Jesus as merely the result of a normal human father. The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, in one of its finer moments in the early 70s, took on and debunked the entire Historical-Critical Method of unbelief. Agreeing that the Hebrew word “alma” means “young woman,” and that there was another word, “b e tulah,” that Isaiah even used elsewhere specifically meaning “virgin” (Is. 23:4, 12; 37:22; 47:1; 62:5), still, “alma” implies young women that were virgins and not yet mothers. Our “historical-grammatical” method of Biblical interpretation takes the grammar of the inspired scriptures seriously and literally, but always interpreted not from a position of disbelief and un-faith, but by the analogy of faith.
This is not, by any means to “explain” the miraculous. It is, however and most importantly, to believe it. That God would choose to take on our human flesh, to become an intimate part of his own creation, supports our Advent Midweek theme of how God's salvation means not only to restore what was lost in Eden, but also to restore us to an even higher degree than the original creation. The Apostle Peter wrote in his second epistle, God's “divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire” [2 Peter 1:3-4 (ESV)]. The miracle of God becoming flesh by the incarnation of the Son of God as the human Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary is exceeded only in the result that, by faith in Him, we “become partakers of the divine nature.” In Christ we have gained more than we lost in Adam.
“The virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” It could be in no other way, you see, for, to be Immanuel, to be literally “God with us,” this Child of Mary had to be fathered by God the Father Himself. But what is more unbelievable—that, in the beginning, God should create everything, the whole universe out of nothing, or that He should take on human flesh and blood in the womb of the Virgin? The Son of God comes from heaven to earth through a woman of flesh and blood. And now the death that Eve brought to the world by her disobedience is undone by the One who comes through a daughter of Eve. The fruit of Eve brought death and misery, but the fruit of Mary's womb brings life and healing. This is what God originally promised Eve when he said that a woman's Seed would crush the head of the hellish serpent.
As the First Adam had no earthly father but was, literally, a son of God, so the Last Adam had only God as his Father. So Jesus came not just to restore you as a creature, but to make God your Father also. As St. Paul refers to the incarnation in his famous passage in Galatians 4, note also the result. He writes, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!' So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God” [Galatians 4:4-7 (ESV)].
As Jesus stepped in obedience to the Law of God, so, in Him, all men become the Law-keeping children of God. As Jesus stepped forward in faith, so in Him all become the faithful sons and daughters of the Father. As Jesus stepped up to the cross, now, by baptism, all join in being crucified with Him. As Jesus stepped out of the grave, now, in Him, all have the promise of resurrection to stand alive alongside Him. As Jesus stepped to the throne of glory to take the seat of all power and authority, so, in Him, all will be seated with Him, not as mere subjects but as fellow heirs and kings. Now, with his flesh your food and his blood your drink, your cup overflows; your body is filled with him who fills all things. He fills you with everything that is good: forgiveness, everlasting life, innocence, perfection, goodness and peace. For in Immanuel, in this Child of the Virgin, God is now man and man is now God. Through him the Father sees you, and through him you see the Father. The Virgin has been with Child, and that Child has been everything and has done everything God sent him to be and to do. In him creation is restored. In him, everything becomes new. ___________________
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