And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God <\/span>(Luke 1:35).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>There are no more powerful words than these for Christmas.\u00a0 This is as close as we come to a description of how \u201cthe Word was made flesh and dwelt among us\u201d (John 1:14).\u00a0 We can all identify with Mary\u2019s question, \u201cHow shall this be, seeing I know not a man?\u201d (Luke 1:34).\u00a0 We may even beg the question here, or actually two questions: how did God become fully human and remain fully God; and how, if that happened, did He remain sinless?\u00a0 I say beg the question because we know He did both of those!\u00a0 He did become fully man and He did remain the sinless Son of God.\u00a0 Without both of those things being true, the substitution of Jesus Christ for our sins could not have taken place.\u00a0 If He did not fully become a man He could not identify with the fallen race of Adam and become its Redeemer.\u00a0 If He did not remain sinless He would have to die for His own sins, not ours.\u00a0 \u201cHow shall this be?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n We know before we approach this verse that Jesus Christ was sinless.\u00a0 Charles Ryrie writes,<\/span><\/p>\n Our Lord was announced as a holy child (Luke 1:35).\u00a0 He challenged His enemies to show that He was a sinner which they could not do (John 8:46).\u00a0 They failed in their attempts to trap Him by using something He said (Matt. 22:15).\u00a0 During the trials and Crucifixion He was acknowledged as innocent eleven times (by Judas, Matt. 27:4; by Pilate six times, 27:24; Luke 23:14; John 18:38; 19:4, 6; by Herod Antipas, Luke 23:15; by Pilate\u2019s wife, Matt. 27:19; by the repentant thief, Luke 23:41; and by the Roman centurion, Matt 27:54).\u00a0 Furthermore, there is no record of our Lord ever offering a single sacrifice, though He frequented the temple.\u00a0 This silence speaks of the fact that He did not need to since He was without sin.1<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n We know also that Jesus Christ was fully human.\u00a0 Rolland McCune writes,<\/span><\/p>\n For instance, Jesus refers to himself as a man (John 8:40).\u00a0 Peter announces that Jesus of Nazareth was \u2018a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs\u2019 (Acts 2:22).\u00a0 Paul similarly asserts, \u2018The free gift is not like the transgression.\u00a0 For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many\u2019 (Rom. 5:15).\u00a0 In another place, Paul says, \u2018By a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead\u2019 (1 Cor. 15:21; cf. Heb 2:14).\u00a0 Later he says that \u2018there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus\u2019 (1 Tim. 2:5-6).\u00a0 Additionally, references to Jesus\u2019 Davidic descent further point to Jesus\u2019 humanity (cf. Matt. 1:1; Acts 2:30; Rom. 1:3), as does reference to His Jewish lineage (Rom. 9:5).2<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n And so, again, letting Scripture speak for itself, before we approach Gabriel\u2019s explanation in order to answer Mary\u2019s (and our) question, we know that the divine method of virgin birth will produce a God-man, the theanthropic person, a hypostatic union between God and man.\u00a0 One person, Jesus Christ, with two natures divine and human.\u00a0 We also know the virgin birth will produce the sinless Son of God, \u201cthat holy thing\u201d called \u201cthe Son of God.\u201d\u00a0 But, \u201cHow shall this thing be?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Two extremes must be discarded before any sense can be made of it.\u00a0 One, we must not exalt Mary beyond what she was, a sinner saved by grace.\u00a0 And, two, we must not make the miracle less than it was, a divine intervention into the natural birth process.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThen said Mary unto the angel, How shall this thing be, seeing I know not a man\u201d (Luke 1:34).\u00a0 G. Campbell Morgan beautifully responds, <\/span><\/p>\n I have seen that question translated differently in the interest of softness, and what is falsely called delicacy: \u2018How can this be, seeing that I am an unmarried woman?\u2019\u00a0 I hate this kind of false delicacy.\u00a0 Leave the question as it is.\u00a0 It is the cold, scientific, biological difficulty, bluntly stated.\u00a0 It is the question being debated hotly today.\u00a0 It is at least interesting, then, to observe that according to the historic record, the first person to raise the difficulty was Mary herself.3<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n That Mary was sinful is left without question in the text.\u00a0 \u201cMy soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior\u201d (Luke 1:46-47).\u00a0 Some have tried to get around this difficulty by posing that Mary\u2019s sinful nature was enough to make Jesus sinful even with a virgin birth and therefore Jesus was a separate creation within but apart from Mary\u2019s humanity.\u00a0 But this would detach Jesus from any real humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n The Catholic Church tries to solve this problem by claiming that Jesus was sinless because Mary was sinless.\u00a0 This doctrine is called the immaculate conception, not of Jesus but of Mary!\u00a0 Of course this only puts the problem back a generation:\u00a0 How, then, did Mary remain sinless?\u00a0 They are not claiming a virgin birth for Mary, only a sinless human conception (Give me the problem of a virgin birth over that).\u00a0 The Catholic Catechism quotes Pope Pius IX from 1854, \u201cThe most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.\u201d<\/span>4<\/sup><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n They claim that Gabriel said, \u201cHail, Mary, full of grace\u201d (Luke 1:28) by which they claim Mary was, \u201credeemed from the moment of her conception.\u201d<\/span>5<\/sup><\/span> Actually, of course, he said nothing of the kind.\u00a0 \u201cHighly favored\u201d is a beautiful translation of the greeting.\u00a0 Many margins have simply, \u201cmuch graced,\u201d or \u201chaving been graced.\u201d\u00a0 The Catholic doctrine goes on to make Mary the mother of all and who, through the Church, brings \u201cvirginal\u201d grace to all through baptism.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n We know both that Mary was sinful and that Jesus was sinless.\u00a0 Gabriel said, \u201cTherefore also that <\/span>holy thing <\/span>which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.\u201d\u00a0 John wrote, \u201cAnd the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us\u201d (John 1:14).\u00a0 The Word (Logos) is the eternal second person of the God-Head, eternal, fully God, perfect, and sinless.\u00a0 He never was tainted with sin and never could be whether in eternity past, in His incarnation, or in eternity future.\u00a0 This Word \u201cbecame\u201d flesh, that is, His fleshly humanity started at this miraculous conception and will continue for all eternity as the God-man, Jesus the Christ. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Charles Wesley said it most famously when he wrote,<\/span><\/p>\n Christ, by highest heaven adored; <\/span><\/p>\n Christ, the Everlasting Lord!<\/span><\/p>\n Late in time behold Him come,<\/span><\/p>\n Offspring of the Virgin\u2019s womb:<\/span><\/p>\n Veiled in flesh the God-head see;<\/span><\/p>\n Hail the Incarnate Deity,<\/span><\/p>\n Pleased as man with men to dwell,<\/span><\/p>\n Jesus our Emmanuel.<\/span><\/p>\n Hark! The herald angels sing,<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cGlory to the new-born King.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The problem of a miraculous, supernatural birth is solved by the fact that \u201cThe Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.\u201d\u00a0 Those who doubt the validity of Biblical miracles simply doubt God.\u00a0 \u201cAnyone who affirms that a virgin birth is impossible, is just confessing his or her own unbelief in the God of the Bible.\u201d<\/span>6<\/sup><\/span> \u201cOvershadow\u201d (<\/span>episkiazo<\/span>) means to envelop in darkness.\u00a0 It is the same word used of the cloud that overshadowed the disciples on the mount of Transfiguration when they were made privy to Christ\u2019s essential deity.\u00a0 This is not unlike the Shekinah Glory that overshadowed the tabernacle in the wilderness when God\u2019s glory appeared in the holy of holies.\u00a0 The Word \u201cdwelt\u201d (tabernacle) among us. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Who can really explain how this miracle took place?\u00a0 Or any miracle?\u00a0 If we knew it would not be a miracle.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We can only know what resulted.\u00a0 \u201cTherefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.\u201d\u00a0 William Kelly added,<\/span><\/p>\n and not merely Son of man.\u00a0 This is exceedingly important.\u00a0 \u2018Son of God\u2019 is a title that belongs to our Lord both in His Divine glory before He became a man and here; for, in this place when He became a man, he did not cease to be Son of God.\u00a0 As incarnate He was still the Son of God.\u00a0 So, again, when he rose from the dead, the same thing was true; He was the Son of God as risen again. . . He was the Son of God when He was purely and simply a Divine Person; Son of God when He became a man; Son of God when risen from the dead and gone out of this world to heaven.7<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n Though a man-woman conception did not take place (a thing necessary for all normal births, and necessary for sin to be brought forward from Adam and Eve), a conception did in fact take place; a conception somehow blending the divine and the human; a conception that kept in place the full humanity of the man, and the full deity of the divine; one person\u2014two natures; Son of God, who can also now be called Son of man.<\/span><\/p>\n When the first man Adam sinned, the whole human race fell into sin and was taken captive by Satan at his will.\u00a0 What was rightfully God\u2019s was stolen by the usurper.\u00a0 But on that eventful day of the virgin\u2019s conception, God landed on our shores and began taking back what is rightfully His.\u00a0 One day He will return Himself, bodily, and in great glory, to bring about \u201cthe restitution of all things\u201d (Acts 3:21).\u00a0 The usurper will be bound and kept in the bottomless pit while the whole earth enjoys its long-awaited millennial Jubilee.<\/span><\/p>\n Most people who have lived on this earth, however, have already died or will die before that event takes place.\u00a0 Their only hope is to participate in the one-on-one recovery that is now taking place: the gospel preaching offer of personal faith in Jesus the Christ.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Their salvation is dependent, at least in part, on this miraculous virgin birth.\u00a0 The only way for human beings to be redeemed by God is to accept the salvation provided for by the substitutionary death, burial, and resurrection of the sinless God-Man. <\/span><\/p>\n The \u201cbad news\u201d of the book of Romans is that \u201call have sinned and come short of the glory of God\u201d (3:23).\u00a0 But the \u201cgood news\u201d is that we can be \u201cjustified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus\u201d (3:24).\u00a0 This isn\u2019t done by God declaring sinners excused as if God could \u201clook the other way\u201d (which is what I think many people believe grace is).\u00a0 He could not do that and remain a just and holy God.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 There has to be a way for God to declare sinners justified and to remain just Himself. <\/span><\/p>\n This is why God became flesh and dwelt among us as the God-Man.\u00a0 \u201cWhom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus\u201d (3:25-26).<\/span><\/p>\n A sinless, just, divine, man, would be the only hope of the world.\u00a0 A God-Man, Who could remain just Himself and bring the unjust to justification. \u201cFor Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God\u201d (1 Pet. 3:18).\u00a0 That began at that special moment of conception in Galilee, continued in that still and lonely night in Bethlehem, and was \u201cdeclared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead,\u201d (Rom. 1:4) that morning outside Jerusalem.\u00a0 \u201cThanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n For Christ is born of Mary<\/span><\/p>\n And gathered all above,<\/span><\/p>\n While mortals sleep, <\/span><\/p>\n the angels keep,<\/span><\/p>\n Their watch of won-d\u2019ing love.<\/span><\/p>\n O morning stars, <\/span><\/p>\n together proclaim the holy birth! <\/span><\/p>\n And praises sing to God the King, <\/span><\/p>\n And peace to men on earth. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). \u00a0 \u00a0There are no more powerful words than these for Christmas.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[145,146],"class_list":["post-1231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-holidays","tag-incarnation"],"yoast_head":"\nMary\u2019s sinful humanity<\/span><\/h2>\n
Christ the sinless God-Man<\/span><\/h2>\n
The virgin birth<\/span><\/h2>\n
The take-back has begun<\/span><\/h2>\n