Biblical commentary on the New Testament - The Christian ...

Luke I. 35-39. 221
Ephcs. iii. 15, Jolin xi. 52, and Mai. ii. 10, come under this head.
Otherwise, even in passages of the Old Testament, as Isa. Ixiii. 16,
Deut. xiv. 1, the reference to salvation predominates. In the latter
sense it appears also in very many passages of the New Testament
(1 John iii. 1, 2 ; v. 2 ; Rom. viii. 14, 16, 17 ; ix. 8 ; Gal. iii. 26,
etc.), and denotes the regeneration which, as a new act of creation,
restores to the condition of children those who were estranged from
God by sin. This reference corresponds to the deeper signification
of the name " Son of God," as applied to the Saviour. In regenera-
tion there is the likeness of his eternal generation from the essence
of the Father ; and in reference to the spiritual children of the one
Father, our Lord calls himself also the first-bom among many
brethren, (Rom. viii. 29 ; Heb. ii. 11.) He who from eternity was
Son of God, lived as Son of Man on earth in time, in order to raise
the children of men from earth to heaven, that, as children of God,
they might be like him, and become partakers of the divine nature.
(2 Peter i. 4 ; 1 John iii. 2.)
Ver. 36-38.—Mary, too, receives a sign (arjiielov, nis