In Mary's great song of praise, Luke 1:46-55, she praises the great attributes of God:
God Is Mighty
The first attribute Mary speaks of is the might and power of God. He is the mighty God, ho dunatos, and in Luke 1:49 she sings, "For the Mighty One has done great things for me." Mary’s God was God Almighty, the Creator of the ends of the earth. There is no one mightier than her God. He alone is able, and with him alone nothing is impossible.
In the first part of verse 51 Mary says of this mighty God, "He has performed mighty deeds with his arm." From Genesis 1 on the Bible speaks of the great and marvelous acts performed by the mighty arm of God. All nations together are considered as nothing by this El-Shaddai, this God, the strong and mighty one. He alone is almighty, and Mary knew it.
Let me ask you: Are you weak? The answer, of course, is yes. But that is not the end. He is strong, and it is in him that we trust. What about the devil and his demons—are they strong? Yes. Martin Luther recognized that in his great hymn, "A Mighty Fortress," and all of us must recognize it. But our God is stronger than all the forces of this world. Remember what Luther said? "One little Word shall fell him." That Word is the name of Jesus.
Knowing who God is, Mary realized that she had nothing to fear. We too have nothing to fear as well. The gates of hell shall not prevail against us, because our God is mighty. Thus, we can say with Paul, "We are more than conquerors through him who loved us" (Romans 8:37).
God Is Holy
The second attribute Mary speaks about is God’s holiness. In verse 49 Mary declared, "Holy is his name." Throughout the Scriptures God tells us, "Be ye holy, for I am holy." God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all. He is the One separate from us—the One without sin.
God Is a Judge
The third attribute of God that Mary speaks about in her hymn is that God is a judge. In the latter part of Luke 1:51 she says, "He [God] has scattered those who are proud in their innermost thoughts." Additionally, in verse 52 we find, "He has brought down the mighty rulers from their thrones," and in verse 53, "He has sent the rich empty away."
God Is Merciful
The fourth attribute Mary speaks of is that God is merciful. The word "mercy" appears five times in Luke 1—in verses 50, 54, 58, 72 and 78. Mary reveled in the knowledge of this great attribute of God.
What is grace? It is God’s love shown to guilty sinners. But what is mercy? Mercy is God’s love shown to the guilty sinners who are miserable in their sinful condition. In Exodus 3;7 we read what the Lord—the eternal God, the great I AM THAT I AM—spoke from the burning bush to Moses: "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering." God was merciful to the Israelites in Egypt and he delivered them. Our God is a merciful God.
God Is a Covenant God
The fifth attribute of God that Mary speaks of is that God is a covenant God. We must realize that God does not have to enter into a covenant with sinful man. There is nothing in his being necessitating that he stoop down and promise salvation to anybody. But the truth is, God did just that. He entered into a covenant with Abraham, promising to show mercy to him and his descendants by granting them salvation.
God Is Faithful to His Covenant
If God promises through a covenant, he will fulfill it, because he is the God of the covenant. The sixth attribute of God Mary speaks of in this passage is the faithfulness of God to his covenant.
Then, all of a sudden, in the fullness of time, God saw the sin and misery of his people and remembered to be merciful them. Our God cannot lie; what he promises he will do. In 2 Corinthians 1:20 Paul writes, "For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ." All of God’s promises to us are fulfilled in the indescribable gift of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
God Is the Savior
The final attribute of God that Mary describes here is that God was her Savior. "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices. . . ." In what is Mary rejoicing? ". . . in God my Savior."
Two thousand years after God made his promise to Abraham, the Savior had come. Mary knew that it was he alone who could take away sins and destroy the works of the devil. But how would he do these things? By his death on the cross.
This was God’s plan of salvation for us. Because God is holy, he must punish sinners. But God is also love, so he does not desire to punish us. But how can God not punish sinners and still be holy? He punished his own Son who freely gave himself to be punished for our sins on the cross.
God reached out with his strong arm in Jesus Christ and saved the people of God from their sins. He did not do that for angels who sinned, but only for the descendants of Abraham. In him we are forgiven of all our sins and justified forever. In him we find mercy. In him we are made children of God. In him the hungry are filled with his perfect righteousness. In him we are adopted into God’s own family. In him we enjoy fellowship with God.
That is why Mary was singing this song, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior." Mary praises the Lord, and so should we!
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