The First Indwelling

Luke 1: 26-38; Luke 1:39-45

Isaiah 6:1-8

Popular Christian jargon includes the use of the phrase "Christ comes and lives inside everyone who gets saved." This is taken from scripture; primarily Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." This "living inside" is often referred to as the indwelling of Christ (or the Holy Spirit). During Christmas season, particularly, we celebrate the birth of Christ from the virgin Mary. For this to happen, obviously, Christ had to "dwell" in Mary's womb. Therefore, in a way, Mary experienced the first "indwelling" of Christ.

Why did Jesus come to earth? 1.) Sin. The world is sinful, filthy. 2.) To be the sacrifice. Jesus' sacrifice covered the sin of the entire world. 3.) To do what the people could not. The people were rebellious, sinful, and incapable of following God's Word. Jesus would show them the way.

Why does Jesus come to man? 1.) Sin. Each of us are sinful and cannot fulfill our relationship with God. 2.) To be the sacrifice. Jesus' sacrifice covers our individual sins. 3.) To do what we cannot. We are rebellious, sinful, and incapable of following God's plan. We must rely on rely on Jesus to show us the way.

Jesus lived on earth as actually as He lives in our lives. Mary was the first person is whom Jesus lived. LITERALLY! Let's look at her experience and see what God is telling us today. The angel appeared to Mary. "The grace of God which brings salvation has appeared to all man." (Titus 2:11) How could the angel appear to her? Mary was a virgin. She was obviously a woman of God. She had fought a good fight and ran a good race. She was a virtuous woman. But what about those of us who may not be so virtuous? God gives us forgiveness. "God is faithful and just to forgive all our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9) Isaiah was unable to hear God's voice until he saw his uncleanness and was purged. Isaiah was broken before the Lord. God's sacrifice purged him. The forgiveness and cleansing of God's forgiveness causes Him to view us as virtuous. Mary's virtue is closely tied with her favor.

After the angel appeared to her, Mary was terrified. When we come face to face with God's purity and holiness, we will tremble. Our heart will fail us when we see our filthiness and yet God finds favor in us. How does God find favor in us? God loves us unconditionally. He desires to repair the relationship we have destroyed. Because of destroying our relationship with God, we do not deserve His favor. This can be reworded as "unmerited favor." Unmerited favor is a widely recognized definition of grace. Even though, Mary was a virgin, we have no basis to say she was without sin and thus deserving of the favor she found. In fact, according to Romans 3:23 no one has been deserving of God's favor or grace. However, because she lived a virtuous life, she was open to the prompting of God. When we ask for God's forgiveness out of a broken, contrite spirit then we are open to the prompting of God. That prompting of God introduces us to His favor and our Savior. The angel tells Mary she will be impregnated with the Son of God. The true, live Son of God will be alive in her. He will be great and set as ruler forever and ever.

But once again, how can this be? Mary asks the question, "How can this be since I have never been intimate with a man?" A very loose paraphrase of this could be, "How can this be, since I have never loved a man." Jesus says, "No one can love me unless he loves his brother." (1 John 4:21) Once again, we are faced with the issue of undeserved favor. How can such a God love me? This is a major stumbling block for most people. They refuse to accept the fact that God loves them just as they are. They think they need to take time to correct their behavior before coming to God. They soon fail at this and feel like even more incapable of coming to Christ. There are two problems with this. Go back to Isaiah. It was the sacrificial coal that did all the purging. Isaiah saw his unworthiness, confessed his sins, and immediately purged by the coal. Secondly, God doesn't want our works. He wants our heart. To say that you need to clean up you act is to claim legalism and not grace. Jesus said, "It is not the healthy but the sick who are in need of a physician." (Luke 5:31)

Now back to the question of the indwelling of Jesus. (John 3:4) Zaccheus wondered how a man could re-enter his mother's womb to be born again. He envisioned the wrong person entering. It is nothing we do (PRAISE THE LORD in more than one way J) but what Jesus does when He comes upon us. His power will overshadow us. Like the little girl who was perplexed about how a God so big could ever possibly fit into a person, she could not understand how God would not burst out. He could be everywhere at once, and yet when He comes into our hearts, many times He doesn't burst out. As we see in Mary's life, Jesus burst out in more than one way. You may be wondering still about how all this is possible. To be honest, I can not fully explain it. I can image the look of confusion on Mary's face as the angel tries to explain all this. The angel simply tells Mary to believe it "for nothing is impossible with God." The only thing left to be done was for Mary to accept this as truth. The angel had told Mary all the things that "will" happen. This does not mean that Mary did not have a choice. These were promises. Mary had been created for just this purpose. "For such a time as this." (Esther 4:14) She did not deserve it. It was because of God's favor. Unmerited favor. Grace. God giving us blessings we do not deserve. But the choice is still ours. We will lie ourselves down to fit into God's puzzle or will we have to be whittled out to fit somewhere else. Mary's response was direct. "I am the Lord's slave." "Let it be done to me according to Your Word." What does God's Word say?

Romans 3:23 = "For all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory."

Romans 6:23 = "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

John 3:3 = "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

John 14:6 = "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

Romans 10:9-10 = "If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead; you will be saved."

2 Corinthians 5:15 = "He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again."

Revelation 3:20 = "Here I am. I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me."

What happened then? "The angel left." You no longer need the angel. You have Jesus. You don't need a preacher with you all the time. People come; people go. But God has set up His throne forever (v. 33). Remember when we talked about the Holy Spirit being so big if He were jammed inside someone surely He would burst out. The next thing Mary did was tell Elizabeth. Mary's visit caused Elizabeth to proclaim Mary as blessed and her child blessed. Indeed, Jesus came out of Mary in a very real way. He walked and talked among the rest of the people, making disciples. Figuratively, the same can happen to us. Verse 45 states, "She who has believed is blessed because what was spoken to her by the Lord will be fulfilled." "He is faithful to complete the work He started in us." (Philippians 1:6) This is the Word of the Lord spoken to you today. You will be blessed if you believe. The only question left to answer is, "Will you believe?