Sabbath School Lesson Podcast

Last week’s lesson spoke about the mystery of Christ’s deity. But as we contemplate His humanity, we stand also in the presence of a profound mystery. As Paul expressed it: “Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He [Jesus] appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory” (1 Tim. 3:16, NIV). One scholar makes the point that the claim that the founder of Christianity was Divine was not a big shock in the Roman world; after all, their emperors routinely claimed divinity. But the claim that “the Christian God was concerned about humanity; concerned enough to suffer in its behalf. This was unheard of.”—Huston Smith, The Illustrated World’s Religions (New York: HarperCollins, 1986), p. 219. But however strange to the Greco-Roman world, that, precisely, was the testimony of the New Testament. What do the following passages teach about this amazing condescension? Matt. 1:18-24 Luke 1: 26-35 Joh