Advent Devotional Week 1: Nothing Is Impossible for God

The action in Luke’s gospel begins with the angel Gabriel declaring a couple of miraculous births. He first tells Zechariah that his wife Elizabeth will give birth to a child that they should name John (Luke 1:13), and then he informs Mary that she will give birth to a son that she should name Jesus (Luke 1:31). In both instances, the recipient of this news is shocked. Even though these godly Israelites would presumably be disposed to believe whatever an angelic herald told them, some significant data points worked against Gabriel’s version of events – Elizabeth was old and barren, and Mary was a virgin.

Speaking in terms of categories, two kinds of women cannot get pregnant – barren women and virgins. Thus, the angel’s proclamation was met with understandable questions and requests for clarification: how can a woman “advanced in years” (Luke 1:18) and a virgin (Luke 1:34) have a child?

Gabriel answers some specific details of what is to come, and in his answer to Mary, he gives her an important theology lesson: nothing is impossible for God.

That is to say, God can do whatever he desires; he is not constrained by the things that limit us and prevent us from carrying out our plans.

We believe and even rejoice in the truth that nothing is impossible for God. But Luke’s narrative raises the question of why God would choose to bring about his salvation in such a way. Given a blank canvas on which to plan and execute the deliverance of his people, why would he choose to bring his Son into the world in a manner that seems to be impossible?

Gabriel doesn’t address that question, but as Luke’s narrative unfolds, we get a clue as to the answer: this child’s life, death, and resurrection will accomplish something that (from a human perspective) is impossible. How can the humble be exalted (Luke 1:52)? How can salvation come to the house of sinners (Luke 19:9)? How can the Lord show himself to be merciful, gracious, and forgiving, but also just and holy, a God who will “by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34:6-7)? How can he be righteous and “pass over… sins”? How can he be “both just and the justifier of the one who has faith” (Romans 3:26)?

In many ways, the Old Testament raises the question that Zechariah and Mary ask of the angel: how can these things be? How can Israel, laid low by their own disobedience, ever rise again? How can God’s promises to David ever be realized (Luke 1:32-33) with Israel under Roman oppression? How can God display his holiness while carrying out his plan to save sinful people? From the perspective of human beings, each and every one of these things is impossible – but not for God.

At the cross of Christ, God’s love and mercy are put on full display.

Jesus took on himself everything that stood against his people: our sin, our guilt, and our shame. He nailed the record of our debt to the cross (Colossians 2:14), and so there is no condemnation left for those who are in him (Romans 8:1). Because Jesus died and rose from the dead, sinners like us can experience the grace and forgiveness of our loving God.

But the cross is also a demonstration of the justice and holiness of God. He does not wave a magic wand and make our sin disappear; he does not turn a blind eye and leave sin and injustice unpunished. Instead, he justifies sinners by exacting the price of their forgiveness from his beloved Son. The Lord Jesus satisfied the claims of justice by offering his perfect life as a substitute for ours. His death shows us that our salvation is a matter of righteousness and holiness.        

When you see it, it is jaw-dropping – the cross reconciles the “impossible” tension between love and justice. It achieves the “impossible” justification of sinners. And so it’s appropriate that the Father would send his Son into the world through the “impossible” vehicle of a virgin. Little could Mary know how this child would grow up and accomplish something even more “impossible.” For those who have eyes to see, the seeds of the gospel are there in Gabriel’s statement that “nothing is impossible for God.”

©2023 Michael McKinley. Used with permission.