Mary's Miraculous Conception of Jesus

THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR

Message theme: Mary’s Miraculous Conception of Jesus
Broadcast date: December 6, 2015 (#3805)
Radio speaker: Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma

Introduction

        We have a few more verses to consider in the letter of Jude.  But we are going to take this month to concentrate on a number of passages of Scripture that center in the incarnation and birth of our Savior.  It is always good to remind ourselves of the amazing work of God in our salvation made possible through the conception and birth of Christ.  The passage we study today will reveal that to us as well.  We are going to consider Matthew 1:18:  “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise:  When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.”  This is the initial verse in the account of an angel’s appearance to Joseph, the man to whom Mary was espoused at the time.  We will briefly consider this account but wish to focus our attention on this one particular verse.  In this verse is contained a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith:  the virgin birth.  It is the truth voiced in all ecumenical confessions, including our Apostles Creed:  “I believe in Jesus Christ who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary.”  As believers we confess this blessed truth:  Jesus was born of the virgin Mary.  It is one of the great truths of Scripture!

        On the foreground of this verse we consider, front and center, stands the miracle of the incarnation:  God becoming man.  This miracle is mind-boggling.  It is beyond all human imagination that Christ is, in the divine Person of the Son of God, both man and God.

        That is the great truth we learn in today’s broadcast.  As we do, however, we do not want to glean out the doctrine of Christ’s divinity and consider it in the abstract.  Our text has historical content that also must be considered.  All this took place in the lives of Mary and Joseph—a young couple who were engaged to be married.  We cannot help but think of the shame Joseph must have felt when he found out that Mary was expecting a child, and that the baby was not his!

        We can understand his actions.  He was a good man and a just.  We must also see what great faith he, as well as Mary, revealed when told all of these things.  I mean, the faith of these two saints is truly exemplary to us!  This wonderful truth of Christ’s divine conception touched the personal lives of these two people in a way that is hard to imagine.  That too we must understand when considering this passage of God’s Word.

MARY’S MIRACULOUS CONCEPTION

I.   A Surprised Couple

        Joseph and Mary were espoused, that is, they were engaged.  They were a poor but a happy young couple, both of whom looked forward to a simple life together as husband and wife.  The Bible is not interested in this fact, but neither ought we to think the relationship with them was any different than any other young man and woman who are engaged to be married.  They, no doubt, were excited and were busy making plans to marry soon.  Joseph was a man of Nazareth, a small, insignificant village tucked away in the hills of Galilee.  He was a carpenter by trade but was far from independently wealthy.  He was an honest and upright man.  He was also a man of faith. 

        The Scriptures tell us very little of Joseph really.  When Jesus began His earthly ministry, Joseph is hardly mentioned.  But Joseph had to be a godly man of simple and heroic faith.  After all, when the angel appeared to him and told him of Christ’s miraculous conception in the womb of his betrothed, he bowed before God’s will.  He knew it would cause him shame and derision among family and friends.  No one would believe the miraculous birth of Jesus.  But he was willing to undergo all this, and for that reason did not hesitate to take Mary to be his wife.

        It also took great faith for him when, soon after the birth of Jesus, he took Mary and Jesus to Egypt for approximately two years to escape Herod’s wrath.  So, we must not short Joseph of his faith, though little is said of him.  He was a good husband and, to all intents and purposes, a good father too!  This young Joseph had asked Mary to be his bride.  How exciting, isn’t that, young women.  Joseph had asked this young woman of about 17 or 18 to marry him!  Mary was of humble birth too.  Though both she and Joseph were born of the line of David, that line had fallen into oblivion.  Mary was born and raised in Nazareth as well—probably a neighbor of Joseph.  Much more is known of Mary than of Joseph, of course, not because she was herself holy or without sin, as the Romish church likes to make of her.  She did not assist Christ in our salvation, as this church continues to contend.  She is not some special saint.

        Mary was a normal young girl who grew up in a little village.  She had her sins and weaknesses just like every other saint.  She too, was a woman of faith, however.  She bowed before the announcement of the angel to her, that she would conceive and bring forth the Messiah, the Christ.  She too bore humbly the shame and degradation that people must have heaped upon her, finding her with child before being married.  And though at times her actions during Jesus’ earthly ministry were a bit rash, nevertheless she believed in Jesus as the Savior and Christ.  So, Mary and Joseph are indeed examples to us.  Though the nation of Israel as a whole was characterized by legalism and work righteousness, there were still those who lived in faith.

        Now, what is important in the verse we consider is the fact that Joseph had asked for Mary’s hand in marriage.  They were espoused, we read.  That means that they were betrothed or engaged.  This engagement was not marked by the giving of a diamond, however.  In those days, engagement was much more permanent than it is today.  A bill of engagement was drawn up that both signed.  In that bill not only were the obligations of the betrothed outlined, but the amount of a dowry that must be paid by the young man to the father of the girl.  To be espoused, therefore, was a formal covenant that as much as signified marriage.  It could only be broken by means of a formal writing of divorce.  But because this betrothal was not marriage itself, those engaged were to abstain from any kind of physical relationship with one another.  For that reason, espousal was usually a very short period of time—maybe a year at most.  All of this comes into play, of course, when we read of the subsequent actions of Joseph when he found out Mary was expecting a child.  He was going to put her away privately by a writ of divorcement and not make a public spectacle out of her.  So, Joseph and Mary were betrothed.

        What a surprise it was to Joseph, then, to hear that his espoused was great with child!  Joseph knew it was not his child.  He had been faithful to the commandments of God and shown utter respect for his young fiancée.  He must have gone through the same range of emotions that anyone would if they knew their loved one was unfaithful:  anger, bitterness, resentment, shame. Joseph must also have given some very heavy consideration to what had happened.  He, no doubt, heard Mary’s explanation of what took place.  But let’s face it, if some young girl today made the claim that Mary did, would we believe it?  Conception is impossible without a human father!  Joseph did not believe Mary either—until later, of course, when the angel confirmed it.  But then Joseph’s surprise was probably no greater than was Mary’s surprise when the angel also appeared to her and told her she would conceive.  We read of this account in Luke 1:26-31:  “And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary....  And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God.  And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.”  Mary bowed before this announcement of the angel.  She believed.  But she was surprised and even troubled when she first heard of what was going to take place.  How was she going to explain this?  What shame she would have to bear too.  No one would believe her. Not even Joseph believed her.  He was going to put her away.  And the good man that he was he was not going to make a public matter out of it all by taking her to court.  He decided simply to sign the bill of divorcement that would break off the engagement.

        We ought not to underestimate what personal difficulties this miraculous conception of Mary caused her and Joseph.  They never lived down the shame, it seems.  There definitely was a stigma attached to Joseph and Mary, as well as to Jesus Himself, because of this miraculous birth.  Yet, in all of this we must see the simple faith of this man and woman.  They believed.  We too are called upon to believe!  What we hear today is a marvelous and humanly impossible thing.  Yet it is exactly in this, the incarnation of Christ, that we rejoice.  If what the Word of God says in this verse before us today is not true, then there is no reason at all for rejoicing!  None at all!

II.  A Divine Conception

        We have in our text the amazing truth of a virgin birth!  A woman who had never known a man intimately, who had never, to use the words of our text, “ come together” with a man, conceived a child.  She was a young woman, she was an unwed woman who had preserved herself pure and holy, she was a virgin—and she conceived a child!  I know the reaction of unbelief to this truth, dear listener.  The reaction of unbelief is:  nice story!  Children love to hear it!  But it is a story, a fairy- tale!  It is not truth.  It cannot be truth, because all of us know that in order for a woman to conceive there must be a man.  By no stretch of genetics, except perhaps by cloning, which we know they knew nothing about then, can a woman conceive a child in her womb.  The story cannot be true.  And because of this view of unbelief, many in the church too will deny the virgin birth.  It is not necessary to believe that Christ is born of a virgin, they say.  It is not necessary to believe the virgin birth in order to believe that Christ is our human/divine Savior.  Do away with this miracle!  We do not wish to embarrass ourselves in the face of modern science!  It is but a heartwarming tale!

        But the verse we consider today does not leave us with that impression.  And, I suppose, if we believe that the Bible is not God’s Word, then we need not believe it.  But if we believe that what is contained in the Bible is indeed the very Word of God—the infallible, authoritative Word of God—then we must believe the passage we have before us!  Read it!  “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise:  When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.”  Before this man and woman came together.  Before they knew each other in that intimate way of a husband and wife, Mary was with child.  Mary was a virgin!  Mary recognized this too when the angel announced the conception of Christ to her in Luke 1:34:  “Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?”  Mary had known no man, and the fact that she was a virgin is a sign to you and me of the greatest of all miracles, fellow believers!  We may not take away the virgin birth!

        The virgin birth is a sign that truly Christ is the Son of God made flesh!  This is supported by the end of our text:  “she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.”  She was not found with child of Joseph, she was not found with child of a man, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.  The Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, was sent forth by the triune God to do that work of God.  The power of this Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, and that small ovum inside of her was given life.  In very simple language, that seed in Mary was human because it was the seed of a woman, but when it was given life, that baby became divine.  God became the Father of that child.  Joseph was always viewed by others as Jesus’ father.  But Joseph was not Jesus’ father.  God was!  That is not hard to understand!  Although beyond human imagination, it is not hard to understand the incarnation.  The Bible recognizes this great truth everywhere.  The scriptural account is consistent throughout:  Jesus was born of a woman who was a sinner just as we are.  Jesus assumed the human nature through Mary.  He was a man with the same weaknesses as a man.  But He was also the divine Son of God—He had a divine nature that made Him sinless and all-powerful!

        And it is that that we must notice in the verse we consider today too.  Christ was all-powerful!  He was powerful to save us from our sin.  That is the reason we rejoice in Christ’s incarnation.  God made possible in Jesus Christ, through this miraculous conception, what was humanly impossible:  deliverance from sin and hell.  Jesus Christ was sent into this world as the highest act of God’s love and grace toward His people!  I know that the vast majority of the church world see Jesus as nothing more than this really really good man who did all kinds of nice things for people.  That is not why Jesus Christ was born into this world, people of God!  Christ was born into this world to save sinners!  Notice why it was that Joseph was told, in verse 21, to name his child Jesus:  “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS:  for he shall save his people from their sins.”  That is why the divine Son of God had to be born into our human flesh!  This was the only way that salvation was possible—the only way!  Jesus was sent to secure that salvation for us. 

        You see, our sin is of such a nature that it alienates us from God.  Sin forms a barrier that keeps us from God’s favor and fellowship.  Sin is this huge wall that shuts us out of heaven!  And that is true of everyone without exception!  All men in Adam are worthy of eternal punishment on account of sin.  And no amount of good deeds is going to pay that price for our sin.  No amount of good works is going to earn our way into heaven.  The simple fact is that we sinned, and that sin has to be paid for.  And we cannot pay for it.  On the contrary, we daily add to our sin.  Yet, we—that is, man—must pay for our sin if we are to escape hell and be received back into God’s favor and fellowship again.  We must bear the full burden of God’s anger against our sin, we must pay the price of hell, if we are going to be received into God’s favor.  Simple fact.  There is no way around it.  We must suffer God’s wrath in hell before going to heaven.  Now, do you think you could do that?  Do any of us here think we are able to bear God’s wrath for a moment in hell and then come out of hell to experience God’s favor again?  If we think we as men have the power to endure that wrath of God, we are sadly mistaken.

        God’s wrath is an eternal wrath!  If I were to pay the price for one of my sins alone, I would have to suffer God’s wrath to an eternity!  I would never be able to suffer it in a moment and then escape it the next.  God’s wrath is eternal, and therefore punishment is eternal!  The only man that is able to bear God’s eternal wrath and then live to come out from under it is one who is Himself very God!  Only one who is divine would be able to bear the eternal weight of God’s anger!  This is why the virgin birth is so, so significant!  By means of this miraculous conception of Christ He became man.  As man He was able to bear the sins of men.  He was a fit representative of man being a man Himself.  But Christ was also God, who was able to bear the burden of God’s wrath against our sins and be able to deliver us from them!  Christ had to be God.  If He were not God, then we are still lost in our sins.  The price would not be paid.  Being God, Christ was all powerful to pay the price of sins and to deliver God’s people from them!  We may not deny the virgin birth then!  To deny it is to deny our own salvation!  That then is why we rejoice in the miraculous conception of Christ. It is a wonder of all wonders!

III.      A Promised Messiah

        The Messiah was born just as God had promised.  God made possible in His birth what was humanly impossible:  our salvation!  All according to His promise.  Follow the generations of Christ in the Old Testament.  He was sent out of the line of Abraham and David.  He came.  Our text tell us:  the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise.  The birth of whom?  The birth of Jesus—the one who has come to save His people from their sins.  But, more importantly, the birth of Christ.  There is the Greek word for the Hebrew name, Messiah!  The Messiah had been promised for centuries!  Ever since the fall of man into sin.  God’s faithful people in the Old Testament looked for and longed for the coming of their Messiah, their Christ.  His line can be traced through the line of God’s covenant!  And now He has come—just as God had promised He would.  And our Savior, whose birth we commemorate, is strong to save!  God has made our salvation possible in Him.  How?  Because He is Immanuel:  God with us!