I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
And born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, died, and was buried;
He descended into hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven,
And is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
The holy catholic church,
The communion of saints,
The forgiveness of sins,
The resurrection of the body,
And the life everlasting. Amen.
Yesterday we started to explore what the Creed has to teach concerning the person of Jesus Christ. The next clause of the creed explains how he came into the world. Although we frequently speak about the Virgin birth of Christ it would be more accurate to speak about his Virgin conception. There is nothing miraculous about his birth (he was born in the same way that you and I are). There is however everything miraculous about his conception. When I was still a student at Wits University I recall reading a letter in a Scientific Journal. The author ranted on about the scientific impossibility of the virgin conception. He argued “we are all aware that the laws of genetics require that two sets of chromosomes are needed for the conception of any child. One set from the father’s sperm and one from the mother’s egg. Now in the case of the virgin conception it is clear that there are only one set of chromosomes, Mary’s. Clearly, the bible is wrong and there is no virgin conception.” Out of curiosity I read the letters in reply to this scientist’s comments in the next edition of the journal. One correspondent argued that the factualness of the virgin conception cannot be proven or disproven by means of science. When we are dealing with the supernatural we are dealing with a God who is omnipotent and who is not bound by the laws of science. Whereas the virgin conception may be a scientific possibility, as the angel Gabriel says in Luke 1:37 nothing is impossible with God.
WHO WAS CONCEIVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY – READ LUKE 1:26-38
The name Mary is the Greek form of the Hebrew Miriam which means “exalted one.” Mary certainly lived up to her name. She truly was an exalted person. No woman has ever been as highly honoured as the mother of our Lord. In Luke 1:42 Elizabeth filled with the Spirit declares to Mary; “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!” Mary was privileged indeed.
We must however be careful not to make too much of Mary. Over the centuries many unbiblical doctrines have arisen that exalt Mary beyond the clear teaching of scripture.
i) In the 16th century the Roman Catholic Church declared the perpetual virginity of Mary to be official Catholic dogma. This is the teaching that Mary remained a virgin. Quite clearly this is at odds with the clear teaching of the scriptures (Mark 3:31; 6:3) where Jesus is quite explicitly said to have had brothers.
ii) In 1854 the Immaculate Conception of Mary was declared to be official Catholic dogma. This is the teaching that Mary, like Jesus was born sinless. This is clearly at odds with Mary’s own words in Luke 1:46 a section known as the Magnificat. There she declares; “my soul glorifies the Lord and my Spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.” In acknowledging the Lord to be her Saviour, Mary is acknowledging that she was a sinner like any other person.
iii) In 1950 the Assumption of Mary was made official dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. This is the teaching that, after Mary died she was resurrected, glorified, and taken bodily to heaven. There is no Scripture to support this idea.
The last reference to Mary is in Acts 1:14. Jesus had just ascended into heaven. The disciples returned to their house in Jerusalem. What did they do there? “They all joined constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers.” The last picture we have of Mary is her fulfilling her responsibilities as a normal church member at a church prayer meeting.
If we must not make the mistake of making too much of Mary we must not go to the other extreme of making too little of her. Elizabeth was right to say in Luke 1:42 blessed are you among women. In Luke 1:35, 36 Gabriel teaches Mary that; the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Why is the doctrine of the virgin conception of Jesus so essential?
i) The virgin conception points us powerfully to the person of Jesus Christ. He was fully man and fully God. It would have been possible for God to create Jesus as a complete human being in heaven and send him to descend from heaven to earth without the benefit of any human parent. But then it would have been very hard for us to see how Jesus could be fully human as we are. To save the human race he had to belong to it. For him to act as our kinsman redeemer it was necessary that he be flesh of our flesh. On the other hand, it probably would have been possible for God to have Jesus come into the world with two human parents, both a father and a mother, and with his full divine nature miraculously united to his human nature at some point early in his life. But then it would have been hard for us to understand how Jesus was fully God, since his origin was like ours in every way. When we think of these two other possibilities, it helps us to understand how God, in his wisdom, ordained a combination of human and divine influence in the birth of Christ. With a human mother his full humanity would be obvious to us and since he was conceived in Mary’s womb by the powerful operation of the Holy Spirit his full deity would be made abundantly clear.
ii) Without the virgin conception of Jesus, there can be no guarantee of his
sinlessness. The descendants of Adam are sinners, because Adam sinned (Romans 5:12-19). In Psalm 51:5 David says that when there was just one cell that adhered to his mother’s uterus, sin was already mysteriously there. The work of the Holy Spirit in Mary must have prevented not only the transmission of sin from Joseph (for Jesus had no human father) but also, in a miraculous way, the transmission of sin from Mary. As Gabriel told Mary in Luke 1:35; The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Those people who deny the virgin birth are on dangerous ground because Jesus’ supernatural conception and sinlessness are inextricably linked.
This is why we must declare; I believe in Jesus Christ who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary.