Luke 1:35

The Holy Ghost. See on Matt. 1:18, 20. Celsus was one of the first to charge Mary with being a victim of seduction.

Come upon thee. An expression often used to describe the reception of the power of the Holy Spirit (Judges 6:34; 1 Sam. 10:6; 16:13).

Power. Gr. dunamis, “power,” “strength,” or “ability,” as contrasted with exousia, “power,” in the sense of “authority.” Dunamis is commonly used in the Gospels to refer to the miracles of Christ (Matt. 11:20-23; Mark 9:39; etc.). Here, the “power of the Highest” is parallel to “the Holy Ghost,” not meaning, however, that the Holy Ghost is merely the expression of divine power, but that He is the agency through which divine power is exercised. The words of the angel were spoken in Hebrew poetic style, in which there is a rhythm of thought rather than of rhyme and meter (see Luke 1:32, 33, 35 in RSV; Vol. Ill, p. 23).

Son of God. Here the angel Gabriel affirms the true deity of Jesus Christ, yet links that deity inseparably to His true humanity. The Son of Mary would be the Son of God because conception was to take place by means of the overshadowing “power of the Highest.”

From this and other Scriptures some have concluded that the title Son of God was first applied to Christ at the incarnation. Others have reached the conclusion that the title is descriptive of the preincarnate relationship of Christ to the Father. Still others consider the term Son of God as properly used of the preincarnate Christ in a proleptic sense, or in connection with His role in the plan of salvation. The writers and editors of this commentary, however, do not find that the Scriptures set forth any of these views in clear and unmistakable language. Consequently, to speak dogmatically on the matter would be to affirm more than Inspiration has revealed. Here silence is golden.

The numerous names and titles given Christ in Scripture are designed to aid our minds in understanding His relation to us in the varied aspects of His work for our salvation. There are some who unhesitatingly apply names and titles descriptive of Christ’s work as the Saviour of this world, to His absolute and eternal relationships to the sinless beings of the universe. To do so may lead us into the fallacy of accepting human language as a wholly adequate expression of a divine mystery.

The Scriptures point to the resurrection as an event confirming to Jesus the title “Son of God.” The psalmist wrote, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee” (Ps. 2:7). Paul quotes this “promise which was made unto the fathers” and adds immediately that “God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again” (Acts 13:32, 33; cf. Matt. 28:18; Rom. 1:4; Phil. 2:8-10; Heb. 1:5-8).

Jesus seldom referred to Himself by the title “Son of God” (John 9:35-37; 10:36), though He often implied the Father and Son relationship (Matt. 11:27; Luke 10:21; John 5:18-23; 10:30; 14:28; etc.). Before stepping “down from the throne of the universe” (see DA 23; PP 64) Christ was “equal with God” (Phil. 2:6), “one with the Father” (DA 19; see also John 10:30). At the incarnation He voluntarily humbled Himself and accepted a position subordinate to the Father (Phil. 2:7; Heb. 2:9). Various statements by Christ while here on earth testify to His voluntary and temporary surrender of the prerogatives, though not the nature, of Deity (Phil. 2:6-8), as when He said, “My Father is greater than I” (John 14:28), or, “The Son can do nothing of himself” (John 5:19). See on Luke 2:49.

The Father attested Christ’s Sonship at His birth (Luke 1:35; Heb. 1:5, 6), at His baptism (Luke 3:22), at His transfiguration (Luke 9:35), and again at His resurrection (Ps. 2:7; Acts 13:32, 33; Rom. 1:4). John the Baptist also bore witness to Him as the “Son of God” (John 1:34), and the Twelve came to recognize Him as such (Matt. 14:33; 16:16). Even the evil spirits admitted that He was the Son of God (Mark 3:11; 5:7). After healing the man born blind, Christ testified before the leaders that He was the “Son of God” (John 10:35-37). It was His admission to being indeed the “Son of God” that finally brought about His condemnation and death (Luke 22:70, 71).

Christ referred to God as “my Father” (Matt. 16:17). He desires that we learn to know God as “our Father” (Matt. 6:9), and understand how God thinks of us (see on Matt. 6:9). “Christ teaches us to address Him [God] by a new name. ... He gives us the privilege of calling the infinite God our Father,” as “a sign of our love and trust toward Him, and a pledge of His regard and relationship to us” (COL 141, 142; see also 388).

Of Christ God says, “I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son” (Heb. 1:5). And of one who by faith is adopted into the heavenly family as a son of “our Father,” God says again, “I will be his God, and he shall be my son” (Rev. 21:7). He who is truly “begotten of God” (1 John 5:18) “overcometh the world” (v. 4) as Christ did, and “sinneth not” (v. 18). The grand objective of the plan of salvation is to bring “many sons unto glory” (Heb. 2:10; cf. 1 John 3:1, 2). See Additional Note on John 1; see on Matt. 16:16-20; Mark 2:10; Luke 2:49.