Thank you. Many people think the Christmas story begins with the miraculous birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.

But did you know that Abraham knew the gospel?

Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg traces the line from Abraham's

Old Testament story, straight to the nativity, and explains why this connection is significant

for us today. We're continuing our study of Mary's song in Luke chapter one.

What we have in this song is a song of overflowing thankfulness that emerges from the overflowing generosity of God himself. There's a tremendous amount in this short song,

and our time is constrained, and so we're going to look at the song with three words in mind.

I'll tell you what they are, so you know where we're going. First of all, then, God is mindful.

Now, the significance in this is as follows that God is mindful of Mary as an individual

because he is mindful of his people as a company. Her significance in the scheme of God's

plan of redemption is entirely related to the purpose of God

to choose out for himself a people that are his very own. And that people is the focus of his love and of his concern, they are, if you like, the very apple of his

eye. And the wonder of what it means to be in the remembrance of God is directly tied to being part of the people of God.

Secondly, God is mighty. God is mighty. The picture in verse 51 of his arm being bared is obviously an anthropomorphism, which is a good word if you are having a real run at Scrabble.

Actually, if you can ever come up with the word anthropomorphism, then you've had a really, really bad run at Scrabble, and you've got almost

all of the tablets at your place. But anyway, you know that that is just the ascribing to God

of a human form, ascribing a human form to God who is spirit, so that it is an accommodation

to us as human beings so that we can get some kind of an indication of what this means.

God who is spirit obviously has no arm to bear. Therefore, when it says that he has

bared his holy harm, as in Exodus 6, in bringing his people

out of Israel, it is a picture to help us understand that this mighty God has stepped forward.

And you find that again and again, for I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand

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