1:30 favour. The Greek word for “favor” is the word normally translated “grace,” and this is actually the first mention of grace in the New Testament. The first mention of grace in the Old Testament is Genesis 6:8, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” In both cases, a human believer was selected by God’s grace to bring, as it were, a new beginning into the world: Noah brought the post-Flood economy that would follow the judgment of the Flood on the worldwide sin of the world, and Mary brought forth the Savior, who through the judgment of the cross would carry away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Note also how these two first mentions of grace define the very word itself. Grace is not a reward that is earned from God, but a gift from God that is found. And it is found, not by working or searching but “through faith” (Ephesians 2:8). Both Mary and Noah believed—and therefore obeyed—the word of God.

1:31 conceive in thy womb. The miraculous conception was unusual in that it took place directly in the womb rather than first in the tubes, but it was uniquely miraculous in that no man was involved. “That holy thing” was placed directly in Mary’s womb by God “the Holy Ghost” (Luke 1:35) and thus was uniquely “the seed” of the woman (Genesis 3:15). Just as the body of the first Adam was directly formed by God (Genesis 2:7), with no genetic connection to either father or mother, so the body of “the last Adam” (I Corinthians 15:45) was directly formed by God (Hebrews 10:5), with no genetic connection to either parent. Since the very “ground” was brought under God’s curse because of sin (Genesis 3:17), all the elements of the ground (i.e., “the dust of the earth”), out of which the bodies of Adam and Eve and all their descendants had been formed, were contaminated with the “bondage of corruption” (or decay—Romans 8:21-22). This was just as true of Mary’s body as of Joseph’s, so there could have been no natural genetic connection of Jesus’ body to that of Mary, any more than to Joseph’s. The “holy thing” placed in Mary’s womb by the Holy Spirit could have been nothing less than a special creation—just as was the body of Adam! Otherwise, like all men born of women, Jesus would have inherited both physical defects and the sin-nature of Adam and Eve. This could only have been prevented by a miraculous cleansing of the conceptus, and this, of course, would be a special creation. Jesus was the only begotten Son of God, as well as the son of Mary, but He was not the Son of God and Mary.