The Virgin Birth
… who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary …..
Are you one of those who find this the first stumbling block with the Creed? How was Jesus conceived by the Holy Spirit? What does this mean? Does it matter?
Biblical Record
Only two passages in the New Testament tell us anything about this occurrence; Matthew 1:18-24 and Luke 1:26-38. While Luke refers to the angel Gabriel coming to Mary with a message that she will have a child whose birth will be the work of the Holy Spirit, Matthew gives us a most complicated narrative. In Matthew 1:18 Mary is betrothed to Joseph; in verse 10 Joseph is her husband; then in verse 20 she is Joseph’s wife who has a mind to divorce her. Enough confusion?
Blood Line
Now, both Matthew and Luke give genealogies of Jesus that trace his descent through Joseph. These genealogies were clearly compiled by someone who either did not know about the Virgin Birth or did not take it literality. Tracing Jesus’ ancestry back to David becomes pointless if Joseph was not his father of Jesus. Elsewhere in the New Testament there is no mention of the Virgin Birth. Maybe the early Church had difficulty in reconciling the doctrine with similar pagan myths of the time. Interestingly, in modern times the medical journal Lancet (5th November 1955) has reported, “There are biologists who would be less than dogmatic in dismissing such a possibility (virgin birth) today”.
Born of the Spirit
The Church has struggled with these concepts of Jesus being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. Ultimately, we are not told how this happened; only that it did. The Jews believed no child was ever born without the Spirit of God. So for me, Jesus was born under the impulse of the Spirit. Exactly how, I do not know and I really do not think it matters. What I do know is that the conception, the impulsion, the kindling of Jesus by the Spirit of God calls us to become less concentrated on sin and more on grace, less concerned with the restrictions of law and more on the limitless possibilities of love, less obsessed by the limitations of being human and more in awe of its potential. This I believe.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|