Luke 1:37

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For with God nothing will be impossible.

Luke 1:37 (NKJV)

For no word from God will ever fail.

Luke 1:37 (NIV)

For with God nothing shall be impossible.

Luke 1:37 (KJV)

For the word of God will never fail.

Luke 1:37 (NLT)

For nothing will be impossible with God.

Luke 1:37 (ESV)

For nothing will be impossible with God.

Luke 1:37 (NASB)

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

For with God nothing [is or ever] shall be impossible.

Luke 1:37 (AMP)

Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMP), Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

For with God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment.

Luke 1:37 (AMPC)

Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible (AMPC), Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.lockman.org

Nothing, you see, is impossible with God — and the word, once spoken, never goes back.

Luke 1:37 (MSG)

Scripture quotations from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.

New Covenant Meaning

The Occasion: The Impossible Pregnancy

Gabriel speaks Luke 1:37 to Mary after explaining that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and she will conceive the Son of the Most High, though she is a virgin. The verse is not a general philosophical statement about divine omnipotence. It is a specific word spoken into a specific impossibility. Mary has just asked "How can this be, since I have not known a man?" (v. 34). Gabriel's answer includes both the mechanism (the Holy Spirit) and the theological ground for trusting the mechanism: with God, no word is impossible of fulfillment. The impossibility of the situation is exactly the context in which the statement's power is revealed.

Rhema: The Word That Does Not Return Empty

The Greek text of Luke 1:37 is more nuanced than most translations suggest. The word rendered "nothing" or "no word" is pan rhema, which can be translated "every word" or "no word." The verse can read: "For no word spoken by God will be without power." The AMPC captures this: "no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment." This reading connects Luke 1:37 to Isaiah 55:11: God's word will not return to Him void. The declaration over Mary was a rhema, a spoken word of God, and that word carried within itself the power to bring about what it declared. No spoken word of God is powerless to accomplish what it announces.

Mary's response in verse 38 is the model of New Covenant faith: "Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word." She does not ask for evidence, does not demand further explanation of the mechanism, and does not qualify her acceptance. She simply receives the word as capable of doing what it says and places herself in the posture of a recipient: let it be to me according to your word. Faith, in the New Covenant and in the incarnation story, is the agreement of the human will with the declared word of God, even when natural circumstances make the fulfillment seem impossible.

Application for Your Life

Your Impossibility Is Not God's Impossibility

Mary's impossibility was biological: she was a virgin. The category of impossible was clear and documented. But Gabriel's word placed a different category alongside it: with God. The two belong to different orders of reality. What is impossible in the natural order is not impossible in the divine order. When you are facing something that by every natural measure cannot happen, Luke 1:37 is not a platitude. It is a claim about the category of what God can do. Your natural impossibility and God's capacity do not operate in the same category. He is not bound by what natural processes can produce.

The Word of God Carries Its Own Power

The rhema dimension of Luke 1:37 has a personal application: when God speaks a word to you through Scripture, through prayer, through a genuine prophetic prompting, that word carries power. You do not need to manufacture the power to fulfill it. The word itself, if it is from God, is power-laden. Your role is Mary's role: receive it, trust it, and say "let it be to me according to your word." The impossible thing the word declares, God will accomplish. The word will not return to Him empty.

Prayer Based on This Verse

Father, nothing is impossible with You. I declare this over every situation in my life that looks impossible by natural measure. I am not comparing my circumstances to my own strength or to what human effort can accomplish. I am comparing them to You, and with You, nothing is impossible. I receive the word You have spoken over my life. I say with Mary: let it be to me according to Your word. I will not demand a fuller explanation of the mechanism before I trust the word. I trust You. The word You have spoken carries power within itself to accomplish what it declares. I receive it. In Jesus name. Amen.