Revelations from the Word

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He who shall be born will be holy

by Jean-Louis Coraboeuf

"And having come in, the angel said to her (Mary), Rejoice, highly favoured one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women! But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end. Then Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I do not know a man? And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born [gennao] will be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:28-35).

The verb gennao means 'to father', 'to be born', 'to produce', 'to give the light of day to'. The angel says literally to Mary, "He who will be born holy from you, will be called Son of God". Jesus was fathered holy by the Holy Spirit, that is why He is called Son of God. Jesus said to Nicodemus, "If a man is not born from on high, he cannot see the Kingdom of God". When Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born [gennao] when he is old?". Jesus answered him, "If a man is not born [gennao] of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3-5). The Kingdom of God is that of the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). That is why it is necessary to have been born of the Holy Spirit in order to see the Kingdom of God and to enter it. That is what we commonly call the new birth or to be born again.

We must become the temple of God and the Holy Spirit lives in us; and as the temple of God is holy, we are also holy (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). And if we let ourselves be led by the Holy Spirit, we become the sons of God (Romans 8:14). We are then called to be coheirs of Christ (Romans 8:14-17). That is why the apostle Paul addresses his Letters to the saints:

  • "To the beloved of God who are in Rome, called saints…" (Romans 1:7 Interlinear),

  • "Provide for the needs of the saints, practise hospitality" (Romans 12:13),

  • "To those who have been sanctified the Christ, Jesus, called saints…" (1 Corinthians 1:2 Interlinear),

  • "To all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia" (2 Corinthians 1:1),

  • etc,

When we are born of the Holy Spirit, we are cut from the wild olive tree (the world) and grafted into the true Olive Tree (Israel) whose root is holy (Romans 11:16). So as the Hebrew people were called out of Egypt to belong to God and become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:6), we too are called out of the world to become an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a redeemed people (1 Peter 2:9).

When we are born again we become a new creation in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) and we are sanctified by the offering that Jesus has made on the cross once and for all (Hebrew 10:10). Since we are born of God, we therefore no longer have the propensity towards sin, because the seed of God dwells in us (1 John 3:9). Christ in us is therefore the Truth which makes us holy (John 17:17-19) so that we can be found holy and without reproach at the time of the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).