Verse 32 He shall be great - Behold the greatness of the man Christ Jesus: 1st. Because that human nature that should be born of the virgin was to be united with the Divine nature. 2dly. In consequence of this, that human nature should be called in a peculiar sense the Son of the most high God; because God would produce it in her womb without the intervention of man. 3rdly. He shall be the everlasting Head and Sovereign of his Church. 4thly. His government and kingdom shall be eternal. Revolutions may destroy the kingdoms of the earth, but the powers and gates of hell and death shall never be able to destroy or injure the kingdom of Christ. His is the only dominion that shall never have an end. The angel seems here to refer to Isa 9:7; Isa 16:5; Jer 23:5; Dan 2:44; Dan 7:14. All which prophecies speak of the glory, extent, and perpetuity of the evangelical kingdom. The kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory form the endless government of Christ.

He shall be called the Son of the Highest - In this respect also: and that in a more eminent sense than any, either man or angel, can be called so. The Lord shall give him the throne of his father David - That is, the spiritual kingdom, of which David's was a type.

Luk 1:32

The Son of the Highest. It is singular that this title, given by the angel to the yet unborn child, was the one given to the Redeemer by the evil spirit in the case of the poor possessed. Is this the title, or one of the titles, by which our Master is known in that greater world beyond our knowledge? The throne of his father David; clearly indicating that Mary herself was of royal lineage, although this is nowhere definitely stated (see Psa 132:1-18: 11). These words of the angel are as yet unfulfilled. They clearly speak of a restoration of Israel, still, as far as we can see, very distant. Nearly nineteen centuries have passed since Gabriel spoke of a restored throne of David, of a kingdom in Jacob to which should come no end. The people, through all the changing fortune of empires, have been indeed strangely kept distinct and separate, ready for the mighty change; but the eventful hour still tarries. It has been well observed how St. Luke’s report of the angel’s words here could never have been a forgery—as one school of critics asserts—of the second century. Would any writer in the second century, after the failure of Jesus among the Jews was well known, when the fall of Jerusalem had already taken place, have made an angel prophesy what is expressed here?

Verse 32. He shall be (f) great. There is undoubted reference in this passage to Isa 9:6,7. By his being great is meant he shall be distinguished or illustrious; great in power, in wisdom, in dominion, on earth and in heaven. Shall be (g) called. This is the same as to say he shall be the Son, &c. The Hebrews often used this form of speech. Mt 21:13. The (h) Highest. God, who is infinitely exalted; called the Highest, because he is exalted over all his creatures on earth and in heaven. Mk 5:7. The throne. The kingdom; or shall appoint him as the lineal successor of David in the kingdom. His father David. David is called his father because Jesus was lineally descended from him. Mt 1:1. The promise to David was, that there should not fail a man to sit on his throne, or that his throne should be perpetual, and the promise was fulfilled by exalting Jesus to be a Prince and a Saviour, and the perpetual King of his people. (f) Mt 1:21 (g) He 1:2-8 (h) 2Sam 7:11,12, Isa 9:6,7