Jesus Was Conceived by the Holy Spirit, Born of the Virgin Mary — The Apostles' Creed, Article of Faith 3
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Editor’s note: This is the third installment of a series on the Apostles’ Creed. Rev. Campbell Markham is a Presbyterian minister in Perth, Australia.
My wife loves watching Who Do You Think You Are?—the SBS TV series that looks at the lives of famous Australians. The basic idea is this: If you want to know who you are, you need to know something about your ancestors. They have shaped your life more than you can imagine. Isn’t that why so many adopted children, who love and honor their adopted parents, still yearn to know who their birth parents were?
So much of our identity—our appearance, genetics, nation of origin, language, culture, religion, status, prospects, tastes, morals, and a thousand other facts about us—are determined by our parents.
Certainly, this is true about Jesus. The Apostles’ Creed has already told us that Jesus Christ is “God’s only begotten Son, our Lord.” Every Christian looks to Jesus and says, as did Thomas, “My Lord and my God.” The next sentence of the Creed establishes his identity:
Article Three: “Who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary.”
This is straight from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke:
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). (Matt. 1:18-23)
And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.” (Luke 1:30-35)
Jesus Christ, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, is truly God and truly man.
In the Old Testament, remarkable births heralded remarkable saving works of God. Thus Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Samson, and Samuel were born to barren women through God’s miraculous intervention.
God signaled the coming of the most remarkable person through his most remarkable birth miracle: the birth of Jesus, not from a barren woman but from a virgin. By doing this God made known that Jesus is:
His only begotten Son (John 3:16);
The Savior of the World (1 John 4:14); and
Immanuel, which means “God with Us” (Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:23).
Jesus Christ is perfect and “without sin” (Heb. 4:15).
Further, by bringing Jesus into the world in this way, God announced that Jesus is both:
Like us, being truly a human being, who lived through all the stages of human life: conception, birth, infancy, childhood, and adulthood; and
Unlike us, being without the natal corruption of sin.
King David rightly said, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps. 51:5). But Jesus Christ, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, is perfect and “without sin” (Heb. 4:15), a “lamb without blemish or spot” (1 Pet. 1:19).
A Christian believes that Jesus is one person with two natures: one truly human nature; one truly divine nature. He is the human who could die on the cross in our stead; he is the infinite God with us, who could bear the sin of us all.
Believing this truth brings true peace and freedom.
