Magnify the Lord: Luke 1:46-55 by Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Author:Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Religion, Christian Theology, General
ISBN: 9781845507541
Publisher: Christian Focus Publications
Published: 2011-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

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1 The Second World War

The Faithfulness

of God

‘He hath helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever’ (Luke 1:54-55).

First of all, we must correct the Authorised (King James) Version at this point. The first phrase in verse 55 – ‘As he spake to our fathers’ – should really be in brackets. So we read like this: ‘He hath holpen his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy to Abraham and to his seed for ever (as he spake to our fathers).’ The correction is important for this reason only, that the Authorised translation gives the impression that the reference to Abraham and to his seed is a continuation of the speaking to the fathers. That is, in a sense, perfectly true, as we shall see, but the main idea is better expressed by the other rendering.

So we come back to a further consideration of the Magnificat, this extraordinary statement spoken or sung by the virgin Mary after she had been greeted by Elisabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. It is, as we have indicated, a most astonishing utterance, particularly when you look at it from the standpoint of seeing in it a summary of the salient and basic features of the Christian message, the Christian gospel, the Christian faith.

We have considered how Mary seems to see that the thing that overshadows everything else is the manifestation of the character of God in the coming of his Son into this world. And we saw, too, how she goes on to indicate how some of the attributes of God’s person and character have been made manifest and bare before us in the great event and fact of the Incarnation; so with the whole of her being, her soul and spirit, she praises God and magnifies his great and holy name.

Then we saw in a striking manner how Mary here immediately realises that the gospel is a reversal of everything that man would ever have thought of. We saw how in the Gospels things happen which are not only inconceivable to man but are also the exact opposite of what man would ever imagine God would do. This is what he has done. ‘[H]e that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name’ (v. 49). ‘He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered’ – who? – ‘the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree’ (vv. 51, 52).

That is the great characteristic of the gospel. Thank God for it! ‘Not the righteous; sinners Jesus came to save.’ ‘They that are whole’, he says, ‘have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous [the wealthy in this respect], but sinners to repentance’ (Mark 2:17). O, thank God that the gospel, in a sense, starts with these words: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit .

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