Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and this has great significance as to the nature of Jesus and the virgin birth which we discuss in this series of quotes.

1. THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE CONCEPTION OF JESUS
Written and edited by Glenn Pease
MATTHEW 1:18
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about:
His mother Mary was pledged to be married to
Joseph, but before they came together, she was
found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.
The birth of Jesus happened just like this:
Mary was pledged to become no longer a Miss,
But before she and Joseph came together to do it,
Mary was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.
Here is a fact that we seldom to never consider, and that is that the father of Jesus is
the Holy Spirit. God the Father is the father of the eternal Son of God, but the
father of the Son in the flesh is the Holy Spirit. Mary was made pregnant by the
Holy Spirit and that makes Him the father of the human child born of Mary.
The Holy Spirit did not have sex in the way men and women have sex. The Holy
Spirit impregnated her, but Mary was still a virgin. This had to take place to fulfill
many prophesies. Therefore, she wasn't raped. The Holy Spirit is just that, Spirit,
and could not have had literal sex with her anyway. If you read Luke 1:26-38, the
Holy Spirit is said to have overshadowed Mary. Mary was also asked if she would be
willing and she said "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said." (vs
38) That indicates Mary's complicity with the blessed offer she was presented with.
The child was divinely conceived without sex. We read in Luke 1:30-35 30 "But the
angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31You
will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32He will be
great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The LORD God will give him the

2. throne of his father David, 33and he will reign over Jacob's descendants forever; his
kingdom will never end." 34"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a
virgin?" 35The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come on 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." In other words, it was a miracle that only God could perform and by
which Mary became a virgin mother, and Jesus became the only child ever born of a
virgin, and thus, a child of God.
John Piper wrote, "God." The word "therefore" in Luke 1:35 is tremendously
important. It shows that the conception of Jesus in a virgin is owing to the
mysterious work of the Holy Spirit. And it shows that the divine sonship of Jesus
depends on his virgin birth.
Many people will try to say that the conception of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit in
the virgin Mary is not essential in the doctrine of the incarnation, since Jesus would
have been the Son of God even if the virgin birth weren't true. The words of Gabriel
do not agree. In answer to the question, How can a virgin conceive? he says, "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." Jesus can be
called Son of God (v. 35), Son of the Most High (v. 32), precisely because he was
"conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary."
It is an unfathomable mystery that all the fullness of deity should dwell bodily in
Jesus (Colossians 2:9).
Colossians 2:9 9For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,
It is fitting (indeed necessary, I think) that the entrance gate to this mystery of
incarnation should be the virgin birth. And it should cause us to smile with pleasure
that the shy member of the Trinity should be assigned the delicate and wonderful
and mysterious work of causing the virgin to conceive—to conceive the One whose
greatness he will magnify for ever. It's all so beautifully appropriate."
Witness Lee wrote, "This was the most extraordinary and special conception in all
of history—a conception of God with man. In the human conception, there is only
one kind of essence—the human essence. But the conception of Jesus was of the
divine essence and the human essence. Jesus was born of two elements—the divine
element and the human element. Thus, He possessed two natures—the divine nature
and the human nature. He was the complete God and the perfect man, a God-man.
In Him God and man joined together and became one.

3. Creation and the Virgin Birth
BY HENRY M. MORRIS, PH.D. * |
The incarnation of Jesus Christ is such an important doctrine of the New Testament
that without it there can be no true Christianity. "Every spirit that confesseth that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God" (I John 4:2,3).
But how can the one who "was God" (John 1:2) from the beginning be the same one
who "was made flesh, and dwelt among us?" (John 1:1,14). How can He truly be
"Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us?" (Matthew 1:23). How can
the infinite, eternal God become finite and temporal? Such a concept seems
impossibly paradoxical, yet millions quite properly believe it to be a real and vital
truth.
Perhaps the most amazing aspect of the incarnation is that a God who is absolute
holiness could reside in a body of human flesh. Is it not true that "they that are in
the flesh cannot please God?" (Romans 8:8). Our human bodies have been formed
through many generations of genetic inheritance from Adam himself, and "in Adam
all die" (I Corinthians 15:22).
The paradox is partially resolved, of course, when it is realized that Jesus Christ
came in a body which was not of sinful flesh. His body was truly "in the flesh," but
only "in the likeness of sinful flesh" (Romans 8:3).
But even this doesn't resolve the dilemma completely, for how could His body be of
flesh (carbon, hydrogen, amino acids, proteins, etc.), received by the normal process
of reproduction of the flesh of his parents, without also receiving their genetic
inheritance, which is exactly what makes it sinful flesh? "Behold, I was shapen in
iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Psalm 51:5). "Man that is born of
a woman is of few days, and full of trouble … Who can bring a clean thing out of an
unclean? not one" (Job 14:4).
The Problem of Inherited Physical Defects
Not only is there the problem of inherent sin, but also of inherent physical defects.
Over many generations, the human population has experienced great numbers of
genetic mutations, and these defective physical factors have been incorporated into
the common genetic pool, affecting in some degree every infant ever born. Yet the
Lamb of God, to be an acceptable sacrifice for the sins of the world, must be
"without blemish and without spot" (I Peter 1:19). The very purpose of the
incarnation was that God could become the Saviour of men as well as their Creator,
but this required that in His humanity He must be "holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners" (Hebrews 7:26), and this would have been absolutely
impossible by the normal reproductive process.
The solution could only be through a mighty miracle! He could not be conceived in
the same manner as other men, for this would inevitably give him both a sin-nature
and a physically defective body, and each would disqualify Him as a fit Redeemer.
And yet He must truly become human. "Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to
be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest

4. in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people"
(Hebrews 2:17).
It is not surprising, therefore, that the Christian doctrine of the Virgin Birth of
Christ has always been such a watershed between true Christians and either non-
Christians or pseudoChristians.1
Without such a miraculous birth, there could have
been no true incarnation and therefore no salvation. The man Jesus would have
been a sinner by birth and thus in need of a Saviour Himself.
On second thought, however, one realizes that it was not the virgin birth which was
significant, except as a testimony of the necessity of the real miracle, the
supernatural conception. The birth of Christ was natural and normal in every way,
including the full period of human gestation in the womb of Mary. In all points, He
was made like His brethren, experiencing every aspect of human life from
conception through birth and growth to death. He was true man in every detail,
except for sin and its physical effects.
The miracle was not His birth, but His conception. And here we still face a mystery.
Conception normally is the result of the union of two germ cells, the egg from the
mother and the seed from the father, each carrying half the inheritance and thus
each, of course, sharing equally in the transmission of the sin-nature as well as all
other aspects of the human nature.
"Each individual gets exactly half of his chromosomes and half of his genes from his
mother and half from his father. Because of the nature of gene interaction, the
offspring may resemble one parent more than the other, but the two parents make
equal contributions to its inheritance."2
Each parent thus also makes an equal contribution of defective physical and mental
characteristics due to inherited mutations. Both mental and physical traits are
inherited in this way.
Some writers have tried to make the virgin birth appear more amenable to human
reason by comparing it to the process of parthenogenesis, which has been known to
occur in some insects and even in some mammals, by which process the female egg
begins to divide and grow into a mature animal without every being fertilized.
Others have compared it to the process of artificial insemination, by which the
sperm is artificially introduced into the egg without actual copulation.
In addition to the rather crude concept of the work of the Holy Spirit which such
suggestions involve, neither solves the problem of how the contribution of inherent
defects contained in the mother's germ cell are kept from the developing embryo. If
genetic inheritance in any degree is received from either parent, there seems to be no
natural way by which the transmission of the sin-nature, as well as physical defects,
could have been prevented.
The Necessity of Special Creation
Therefore, even though He was nurtured in Mary's womb for nine months and born
without her ever knowing a man, it was also necessary for all this to have been
preceded by supernatural intervention, to prevent His receiving any actual genetic
inheritance through her. The body growing in Mary's womb must have been

5. specially created in full perfection, and placed there by the Holy Spirit, in order for
it to be free of inherent sin damage. Christ would still be "made of the seed of David
according to the flesh" (Romans 1:3), because His body was nurtured and born of
Mary, who was herself of the seed of David. He would still be the Son of Man,
sharing all universal human experience from conception to death, except sin. He is
truly "the seed of the woman" (Genesis 3:15), His body formed neither of the seed of
the man nor the egg of the woman, but grown from a unique Seed planted in the
woman's body by God Himself.
That is, God directly formed a body for the second Adam just as He had for the first
Adam (Genesis 2:7). This was nothing less than a miracle of creation, capable of
accomplishment only by the Creator Himself. "That holy thing which shall be born
of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).
Surely God would devote no more attention to the design and construction of the
body of "the first man, of the earth, earthy" than He would to that of "the second
man, the Lord from heaven" (I Corinthians 15:47)!
The Marvel Of Inheritance and Pre-Natal Growth
For that matter, the formation of every human body is a marvelous testimony to the
power and wisdom of the Creator of the first human body, and so is His provision
for its reproductive multiplication into the billions of bodies of distinctive
individuals who have lived through the ages. "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully
and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14).
The 139th Psalm contains a remarkably beautiful and scientifically accurate
description of the divine forethought in the processes of heredity and embryonic
growth. Verses 15 and 16 of this psalm (with explanatory comments interspersed)
are as follows:
"My substance (literally, my frame) was not hid from thee, when I was made in
secret, and curiously wrought (literally embroidered -- probably a foregleam of the
intricate double- helical structure of the DNA molecule as it carries out its function
of template reproduction of the pattern provided by the parents) in the lowest (or
least seen) parts of the earth (God originally made the dust of the earth -- the basic
elements -- then man's body from those elements, and then the marvelous ability to
multiply that body)." (Verse 15)
"Thine eyes did see ‘my substance yet being unperfect" (all one word, meaning
embryo, in the original; note the embryo is not imperfect, but unperfect, still in the
process of being completed); and in thy book all my members were written, which in
continuance (literally which days -- that is, all the days of development and growth
were planned from the beginning) were fashioned (same word as formed, used in
Genesis 2:7 for the formation of Adam's body) when as yet there was none of them
(the whole amazing process was written into the genetic code even before actual
conception)." (Verse 16)
The Body of Christ
With such careful divine care and attention given to the development of every one of
the billions of human bodies conceived since the days of Adam and Eve, how much

6. greater must have been the extent of the divine preparation of the body of God's
own Son! As a matter of fact, the design for His body was prepared before the very
foundation of the world itself (I Peter 1:20; Hebrews 10:5). It is probable that, in
some degree at least, God had this very body in mind when He undertook to make
Adam "in our image after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26). That is, God formed for
Adam a body patterned after that perfect body which had already been planned for
the divine incarnation, when the time would come.
Then, "when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a
woman that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Galatians 4:4,5).
"Wherefore when He cometh into the world, He saith, sacrifice and offering thou
wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me" (Hebrews 10:5). The verb
"prepared" in this verse is striking. It is the same word in the Greek (i.e., katartizo)
as used in the next succeeding chapter in Hebrews, in one of the greatest of all those
verses in the Bible describing the Creation. "Through faith we understand that the
worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not
made of things which do appear" (Hebrews 11:3).
The "preparation" of Christ's body by God was the same process as the "framing"
of the worlds by God! As the latter were created ex nihilo ("not out of things which
do appear"), so must have been the former. The word is also translated "make
perfect" (Hebrews 13:21, etc.).
Thus, the body of Christ was prepared by the great Creator, with no dependence on
prior materials, and was made in total perfection, ready to receive Him as its
occupant. In that perfect body, which would one day be "made sin" and would
"bear our sins" on the tree (II Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:24), He would dwell
forever after its resurrection and glorification (Revelation 1:14-18).
When God created the world, it was only a little thing (Isaiah 40:15-17), but the
formation of any human body required the special planning of divine omniscience,
eliciting the inspired testimony, "How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O
God! how great is the sum of them!" (Psalm 139:17).
The greatest of all creations, however, was that of the body in which His Son would
take up His eternal abode. Miraculously created and conceived, then virgin-born,
God's eternal Son became the perfect Son of Man.
There is yet another "body of Christ," of which all believers become members, now
in process of formation, with Christ the head (Ephesians 4:15, 16). This body also is
being supernaturally formed by the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 12:13), with no
genetic inheritance from sinful flesh. Its members are "born, not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:13), so that when
complete it also will be a body "not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but
that it should be holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:27).
Here is another mighty act of special creation, repeated again and again whenever a
new member is added to Christ's body, when a new son of God is born. "But as
many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to
them that believe on His name" (John 1:12). "Therefore if any man be in Christ, be
is a new creation" (II Corinthians 5:17). These have "put on the new man, which

7. after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Ephesians 4:24). "Ye have
put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed
in knowledge after the image of Him that created him" (Colossians 3:10). "For we
are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works" (Ephesians 2:10).
The virgin birth of Jesus Christ thus testifies of the marvelous creation of His
human body, which then speaks symbolically of the marvelous member-by-member
creation of His spiritual body.
WITNESS LEE As the Divine Essence for the Conceiving and Birth of Jesus
The third instance of the coming of the Spirit in the New Testament is the coming of
the Spirit to Jesus Christ as both the divine essence and the divine power. First, the
Spirit came as the divine essence for the conceiving and birth of Jesus (Luke 1:35;
Matt. 1:18, 20). This was the coming of the Spirit essentially for Christ’s existence
and being as the God-man. The Lord Jesus was conceived of the divine essence, and
this essence constituted His being.
As the God-man, Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit with the divine essence.
The Holy Spirit is God Himself reaching man. In the conceiving of the God-man, the
Holy Spirit came into humanity. The God-man was conceived of the Holy Spirit not
only with the divine nature but also with the divine essence. Because Jesus Christ
was conceived of the Holy Spirit, He has the divine essence, the essence of God.
Concerning the conceiving of the God-man, Luke 1:35 speaks of the Holy Spirit
coming upon Mary and the power of the Most High overshadowing her. It seems
that, according to this verse, the Holy Spirit only came upon Mary as the power for
her to conceive the Lord Jesus. However, Matthew 1:18 and 20 tell us that Mary
“was found having in womb out of the Holy Spirit” (lit.), and “the thing begotten
[generated] in her is out of the Holy Spirit” (lit.). This indicates that the divine
essence out of the Holy Spirit had been generated in Mary’s womb before she
delivered the Lord Jesus.
Because the God-man was conceived of the Holy Spirit with the divine essence and
was born of a human virgin with a human essence, He has two essences, the divine
and the human. Such a conception of the Holy Spirit in a human virgin,
accomplished with both the divine and the human essences, constitutes a mingling of
the divine nature with the human nature, producing the God-man, the One who is
both the complete God and a perfect man, possessing the divine nature and the
human nature distinctively, without a third nature being produced.
The conception of John the Baptist and that of Jesus the Savior are strikingly
different in essence. The conception of John the Baptist was God’s miracle,
accomplished with the overage human essence, merely by the divine power, without
the divine essence being involved, thus bringing forth a mere man who was only
filled with the Spirit of God economically for power but lacked the nature of God.
The conception of the Savior was God’s incarnation (John 1:14), constituted not
only by the divine power, but also of the divine essence added to the human essence,
hence producing the God-man of two natures—divinity and humanity. Through

8. this, God joined Himself to humanity that He might be manifested in the flesh (1
Tim. 3:16) and be our Savior (Luke 2:11)
Craig Bluemel wrote, "The author of the Book of Hebrews describes Jesus the man
as being, “…made LIKE his brethren in ALL things.” Why did God the Father
procreate Jesus by using the human reproductive cycle instead of making him from
the dust of the earth as He also made Adam, the first man? The answer to this
question is clearly stated in the context of Hebrews 2:14-17; concerning Jesus again
he says, “… that he (Jesus) might BECOME a merciful and faithful high priest in
things pertaining to God… since He Himself was tempted in that which He has
suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.”
Read this full passage from Hebrews again. Hebrews 2:14-17 "Therefore, since the
children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that
through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is,
the devil, 15 and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery
all their lives. 16 For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to
the descendant (spérmatos) of Abraham. 17 Therefore, He had to be made like His
brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in
things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For
since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to
the aid of those who are tempted."
"Jesus shared in the same flesh and blood as his brethren so he could be tempted,
tried and tested, overcome, and in this way become a truly sympathetic High
Priest." Jesus had to be fully human to fulfill the purpose for which He was sent into
the world-but because he had no human father he did not inherit the fallen nature of
all other humans and so he could be sinless, and, no doubt, was the only sinless
person ever to live. Adam and Eve had a taste of the sinless life for awhile, but then
lost it for themselves and all other humans except for Jesus, who, as the second
Adam, was by the power of the Holy Spirit able to maintain it His entire life. He was
not one in a million, but one of a kind.
There is much written about how Mary and Joseph dealt with their situation, but in
this study of the Holy Spirit in Matthew we are only focusing on His roll in the birth
of Jesus, and that is clearly that He is the father of the human Jesus. This makes the
Holy Spirit the one and only power to have created a person of both a divine and
human nature. The Holy Spirit is God, and so it is true to say God is the father of

9. the Lord Jesus, but we seldom give credit for this unique roll played by the third
Person of the Godhead.
Coffman shows how awesome are the results of this work of the Spirit. He
wrote,"Wonderful benefits accrue to mankind as a result of the virgin birth. His
birth accomplished the following: (1) It honored and elevated womanhood to a place
of dignity, honor, and respect, hitherto unknown on earth. (2) It virtually destroyed
infanticide by revealing the sanctity of embryonic life. (3) It has emphasized
absolute chastity as one of the highest virtues in both men and women. (4) It has
glorified motherhood as a state of purity and honor every whit as righteous and
desirable as virginity."
Although there are some similarities to the incarnation in non-Christian religions,
the incarnation of Jesus Christ is altogether unique. In the first place, unlike ancient
mythologies, the Bible presents the incarnation as a real historical event (John 1:1–
18; Phil. 2:5–11). Furthermore, the New Testament understands the incarnation as a
permanent reality. The Son of God did not take on a human nature in His
incarnation and then discard it at His ascension; rather, He remains both God and
man forever. The union of the human nature and the divine nature in the one divine
person of the Son of God will last forever. Even now, the one mediator between God
and men is “the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).
The Son of God’s incarnation took place via the Holy Spirit’s work in the womb of
the Virgin Mary (Luke 1:26–38). This historical event was foretold in history before
it happened, most notably in Isaiah 7:14, a text that has been the subject of much
debate over the past two hundred years or so. Although the virgin birth of Christ
has always been a defining belief of the Christian faith, this doctrine has been under
concentrated attack since the nineteenth century. The antisupernaturalism of the
Enlightenment is the chief reason for this. Many in the church bought into the idea
that in an era of scientific discovery, people could no longer rationally believe in
miracles. Thus, they rejected the virgin birth as an essential teaching of Christianity.
This dispute reached its zenith in the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy of the
early twentieth century. In that debate, J. Gresham Machen stood as one committed
to the supernatural faith of the Bible and a defender of the necessity of affirming the
doctrine of the virgin birth when so many others were capitulating to theological
liberalism. Machen staunchly argued for what should be clear to any honest reader
of the New Testament, namely, that Jesus was conceived by the Spirit, not by
ordinary human generation (Matt. 1:18–25; Luke 1:34). The Greek word used to
describe Mary is parthenos, the chief meaning of which is “virgin.” Clearly, this is
how the New Testament uses the term, for the angel makes it plain to Joseph that
the child in Mary’s womb was not the product of infidelity. Mary’s unexpected
pregnancy was not due to her being with another man; rather, it was the work of
God Himself (Matt. 1:20). Denying the virgin birth of Jesus, therefore, means
denying an essential truth about His person. It means denying His incarnation.

10. Coram Deo
J. Gresham Machen argued that the denial of the virgin birth of Jesus is usually a
precursor to denying the other supernatural elements of the faith. Though some try
to deny the virgin birth and still affirm such supernatural events as the resurrection
of Christ, in the vast majority of cases, those who deny the virgin birth deny much
more. This is not surprising. Christian truth is a unified whole. We cannot deny one
aspect of it and affirm another." UNKNOWN
Wendy Beard, "The Holy Spirit is spirit, not physical. Of course there was no
physical sexual act. That idea is repulsive. The Holy Spirit planted an embryo into
Mary’s body and attached it to her uterus. That embryo was Jesus. He had half of
his DNA created supernaturally from God. The other half of his DNA was
presumably from Mary his mother. This made Jesus 100% human even though he
had no earthly father.
Jesus was also 100% divine and existed long before Mary conceived. He was with
God the Father in the beginning of creation. Through him (Jesus), all was made that
has been made. Read Colossians 1 and John 1.
Adam and Eve were also created with full DNA with no biological parents and no
sexual act. So were the ancestors of each kind of animal and plant. God can create
without parents and sexual activity if God wants. However, once he make all the
ancestors of each reproductive kind on creation week, he has let nature take its
course since then, with the exception of Jesus’ conception inside Mary."
Rosemary Bardsley
"The virgin conception of Jesus Christ is the powerful work of the Holy Spirit. This
is not a divine/human conjugal mating with the resultant offspring neither God nor
man, neither real spirit nor real flesh. Rather this is a special work of God in which
the Spirit of God in a special and unique action caused a new human life to be
conceived in Mary’s womb without the presence of the male sperm. This action of
the Spirit ought not to surprise us. He is, as we have seen, involved in the original
creation of the world and in its on-going sustenance. It is not at all amazing that he
can create this human embryo within Mary starting with only her ovum. It would,
conversely, be surprising if he could not do this.
This work of the Spirit of God in the womb of Mary achieves two important things:
• It ensures the fulfilment of the Genesis 3:15 prophecy concerning the
offspring or ‘seed’ specifically of the woman who would one day defeat Satan.
• It ensures that the child to be born will not be contaminated by or implicated
in the ‘original’ sin, and its guilt and condemnation, which, according to
scripture passes on through the man [Romans 5:12-19].
Thus the Holy Spirit of God, in a powerful and unique action, caused the conception
in Mary’s womb of a human being who is in all respects fully human, and who at the
same time is not corrupted by or implicated in the sin and guilt that corrupts and
implicates every other human being since Genesis 3.
Only such a person is qualified to be the Saviour of the world - one who, because he

11. is fully and completely human can actually stand in our place as a human being
before the judgment of God, and one who, because he is sinless, can actually bear
the guilt and punishment of others because he has no sin of his own for which to
bear the guilt and punishment."
CONCEPTION OF JESUS A. KUYPER
Excluding the man, the Scripture thrice puts the Holy Spirit in the foreground as
the Author of the conception. St. Matthew says (chap. i.18): “When Mary had been
betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child by the
Holy Ghost." And again, in ver. 20: “For that which is conceived in her is of the
Holy Ghost.” Lastly, Luke says (chap. i. 35): “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.” These clear statements
do not receive full recognition unless it be plainly confessed that the conception of
the germ of a human nature in the womb of the virgin was an act of the Holy Spirit.
It is not expedient nor lawful to enter more deeply into this matter. How human life
originates after conception, whether the embryo immediately contains a human
person or, whether he is created therein afterward, and other similar questions,
must remain unanswered, perhaps forever. We may advance theories, but
Omnipotent God allows no man to discover His workings in hidden laboratories of
His creative power. Wherefore all that may be said according to Scripture is
contained in the following four particulars:
First, in the conception of Christ not a new being was called into life as in all other
cases, but One who had existed from eternity, and who then entered into vital
relation with the human nature. The Scripture clearly reveals this. Christ existed
from before the foundation of the world. His goings forth were of old, from the days
of eternity. He took upon Himself the form of a servant. Even tho the biologist
should discover the mystery of the human birth, it could not reveal anything
regarding the conception of the Mediator.
Second, it is not the conception of a human person, but of a human nature. Where a
new being is conceived, a human person comes into existence. But when the Person
of the Son, who was with the Father from eternity, partakes of our flesh and blood,
He adopts our human nature in the unity of His Person, thus becoming a true man;
but it is not the creation of a new person. The Scripture clearly shows this. In Christ
appears but one ego, being in the same Person at once the Son of God and the Son of
man.
Third, from this it follows not that a new flesh was created in Mary as the
Mennonites used to teach, but that the fruit in Mary’s womb, from which Jesus was
born, was taken from and nourished with her own blood—the very blood which
through her parents she had received from fallen Adam.
Last, the Mediator born of Mary not only partook of our flesh and blood, such as it
existed in Adam and as we have inherited it from Adam, but He was born a true
man, thinking, willing, and feeling like other men, susceptible to all the human
emotions and sensations that cause the countless thrills and throbs of human life.

12. Guiltless and Without Sin. KUYPER
“For such an High Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from
sinners, and made higher than the heavens.”—Heb. vii. 26.
Throughout the ages the Church has confessed that Christ took upon Himself real
human nature from the virgin Mary, not as it was before the fall, but such as it had
become, by and after the fall.
This is clearly stated in Heb. ii. 14, “Forasmuch as the children are partakers of
flesh and blood, He also Himself took part of the same . . . . Wherefore in all things it
behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, to make reconciliation for the sins
of the people.” It was even such a partaking of our nature as would make Him feel
Satan’s goad, for there follows: “In that He Himself hath suffered, being tempted, He
is able to succor them that are tempted.” Upon the authority of the divine Word we
can not doubt then that the Son of God became man in our fallen nature. It is our
misery, by virtue of the inherited guilt of Adam, that we can not live and act but as
partakers of the flesh and blood corrupted by the fall. And since we as children are
partakers of flesh and blood, so is He also become partaker of the same. Hence it
can not be too strongly emphasized that the Son of God, walking among men, bore
the same nature in which we spend our lives; that His flesh had the same origin as
our flesh; that the blood which ran through His veins is the same as our blood, and
came to Him as well as to us from the same fountain in Adam. We must feel, and
dare confess, that in Gethsemane our Savior agonized in our flesh and blood; that it
was our flesh and blood that were nailed to the cross. The “blood of reconciliation”
is taken from the very blood which thirsts after reconciliation.
With equal assurance, however, bowing to the authority of the Scripture, we confess
that this intimate union of the Son of God with the fallen human nature does not
imply the least participation 85 of our sin and guilt. In the same epistle in which the
apostle sets forth distinctly the fellowship of Jesus with the human flesh and blood,
he bears equally clear testimony to the fact of His sinlessness, so that every
misunderstanding may be obviated. As by virtue of our conception and birth we are
unholy, guilty, and defiled, one with sinners, and therefore burdened with the
condemnation of hell, so is the Mediator conceived and born holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens. And with equal
emphasis the apostle declares that sin did not enter into His temptations, for, altho
tempted in all things, like as we are, yet He was ever without sin.
Therefore the mystery of the Incarnation lies in the apparent contradiction of
Christ’s union with our fallen nature, which on the one hand is so intimate as to
make Him susceptible to its temptations, while on the other hand He is completely
cut off from all fellowship with its sin. The confession which weakens or eliminates
either of these factors must, when logically developed, degenerate into serious
heresy. By saying, “The Mediator is conceived and born in our nature, as it was
before the fall,” we sever the fellowship between Him and us; and by allowing that
He had the least personal part of our guilt and sin, we sever His fellowship with the
divine nature.

13. Does the Scripture not teach then that the Mediator was made sin and bore the
curse for us, and “as a worm and no man” suffered deepest distress?
We answer: Yea, verily, without this we could have no redemption. But in all this He
acted as our Substitute. His own personality was not in the least affected by it. His
burdening Himself with our sins was a High-Priestly act, performed vicariously. He
was made sin, but never a sinner. Sinner means one who is personally affected by
sin; Christ’s person never was. He never had any fellowship with sin other than that
of love and compassion, to bear it as our High Priest and Substitute. Yet, tho He was
exceedingly sorrowful even unto death, tho He was sorely tempted so that He cried
out, “Let this cup pass from Me,” in the center of His personal being He remained
absolutely free from the least contact with sin.
A close examination of the way by which we become partakers of sin will shed more
light on this subject.
Every individual sin is not of our own begetting only, but a participation in the
common sin, the one mighty sin of the whole 86 race against which the anger of God
is kindled. Not only do we partake of this sin by an act of the will as we grow up; it
was ours already in the cradle, in our mother’s womb—yea, even in our conception.
“Conceived and born in sin” is the awful confession which the Church of God’s
redeemed can never deny.
For this reason the Church has always laid such stress upon the doctrine of
inherited guilt, as declared by St. Paul in Rom. v. Our inherited guilt does not spring
from inherited sin; on the contrary, we are conceived and born in sin because we
stand in inherited guilt. Adam’s guilt is imputed to all that were in his loins. Adam
lived and fell as our natural and federal head. Our moral life stands in root-relation
to his moral life. We were in him. He carried us in himself. His state determined our
state. Hence by the righteous judgment of God his guilt was imputed to all his
posterity, for as much as, by the will of man, they should successively be born of his
loins. By virtue of this inherited guilt we are conceived in sin and born in the
participation of sin.
God is our Creator, and from His hands we came forth pure and undefiled. To teach
otherwise is to make Him the Author of individual sin, and to destroy the sense of
guilt in the soul. Hence sin, especially original sin, does not originate in our creation
by the hand of God, but by our vital relation with the sinful race. Our person does
not proceed from our parents. This is in direct conflict with the indivisibility of
spirit, with the Word of God, and its confession that God is our Creator, “who has
also made me.”
However, all creation is not the same. There is mediate and immediate creation. God
created light by immediate creation, but grass and herbs mediately, for they spring
from the ground. The same difference exists between the creation of Adam and that
of his posterity. The creation of Adam was immediate: not of his body, which was
taken from the dust, but of his person, the human being called Adam. His posterity,
however, is a mediate creation, for every conception is made to depend upon the will
of man. Hence while we come from the hand of God pure and undefiled, we become
at the same time partakers of the inherited and imputed guilt of Adam; and by

14. virtue of this inherited guilt, through our conception and birth, God brings us into
fellowship with the sin of the race. How this is brought about is an unfathomable
mystery but this is a fact, that we become partakers of the sin of the race by
generation, which begins with conception and ends with birth.
And now, with reference to the Person of Christ, everything depends upon the
question whether the original guilt of Adam was imputed also to the man Jesus
Christ.
If so, then, like all other men, Christ was conceived and born in sin by virtue of this
original guilt. Where imputed original guilt is, there must be sinful defilement. But,
on the other hand, where it is not, sinful defilement can not be; hence He that is
called holy and harmless must be undefiled. Adam’s guilt was not imputed to the
man Jesus Christ. If it were, then He was also conceived and born in sin; then He
did not suffer vicariously, but for Himself personally; then there can be no blood of
reconciliation. If the original guilt of Adam was imputed to the man Jesus Christ,
then by virtue of His sinful conception and birth He was also subject to death and
condemnation, and He could not have received life but by regeneration. Then it also
follows that either this Man is Himself in need of a Mediator, or that we, like Him,
can enter into life without a Go-between.
But this whole representation is without foundation, and is to be rejected without
qualification. The whole Scripture opposes it. Adam’s guilt is imputed to his
posterity. But Christ is not a descendant of Adam. He existed before Adam. He was
not born passively as we, but Himself took upon Him the human flesh. He does not
stand under Adam as His head, but is Himself a new Head, having others under
Him, of whom He saith: “Behold Me and the children whom Thou hast given Me”
(Heb. ii. 13). True, Luke iii. 23, 28 contains the genealogy of Joseph, which closes
with the words, “The son of Adam, the son of God”; but the Evangelist adds
emphatically, “as was supposed”; hence Jesus was not the son of Joseph. And in
Matthew His genealogy stops at Abraham. Altho on Pentecost St. Peter says that
David knew that God would raise up Christ out of the fruit of his loins, yet he adds
this limitation, “according to the flesh.” Moreover, realizing that the Son did not
assume a human person, but the human nature, so that His Ego is that of the Person
of the Son of God, it necessarily follows that Jesus can not be a descendant of Adam;
hence the imputation of Adam’s guilt to Christ would annihilate the divine Person.
Such imputation is utterly out of the question. To Him nothing is imputed. The sins
He bore He took upon Himself voluntarily, vicariously, as our High Priest and
Mediator."
THE WONDER OF WONDERS
WORD & MUSIC BY CHARLES B. WYCUFF
VERSE 1

15. THE WONDER OF WONDERS AS SHE LOOKED ON HIS FACE
THAT THIS LITTLE BOY SPOKE THE WORLDS IN THEIR PLACE
THE STARS AND THE MOON, SHINNING BRIGHTLY ON THEM
THE EARTH AND THE SUN WERE CREATED BY HIM
VERSE2
THE WONDER OF WONDERS AS SHE HEARD HIS SMALL CRY
THAT THIS VOICE HAD THUNDERED ON MOUNT SINAI
THE HAND THAT SHE HELD SO TENDERLY
HAD MADE A DRY PATH THRU THE MIGHTY RED SEA
VERSE 3
THE WONDER OF WONDERS AS SHE LOOKED DOWN AND SMILED
THAT HE WAS HER MAKER AS WELLAS HER CHILD
HE CREATED THE WOMB THAT HAD GIVEN HIM BIRTH
HE WAS GOD INCARNATE COME DOWN TO THE EARTH.
VERSE 4 (NOT RECORDED BY THE INSPIRATIONS)
THE WONDER OF WONDERS AS A FATHER LOOKED ON
IN ETERNITY PAST THIS WAS HIS SON
HAD SENT HIM TO DIE ON CALVARY'S TREE
AND THAT IS THE WONDER OF WONDERS TO ME
CHORUS
THE WONDER OF WONDERS OH HOW COULD IT BE
THAT GOD BECAME FLESH AND WAS GIVEN FOR ME
THE ALMIGHTY CAME DOWN AND WALKED AMONG MEN

16. THE WONDER OF WONDERS HE DIED FOR MY SIN
Jesus Who Was Conceived By the Holy Spirit
by Rev. Paul C. Jong
< Matthew 1:18-25 >
“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was
betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy
Spirit.Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a
public example, was minded to put her away secretly.But while he thought about
these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying,
‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which
is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall
call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.’ So all this was
done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet,
saying:‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His
name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ‘God with us.’ Then Joseph, being aroused
from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his
wife,and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he
called His name JESUS.”
"Matthew chapter 1 describes the birth of Jesus in detail. By human logic, a virgin
who has never been with a man having a child cannot be possible. A pregnancy
could be possible only when there has been a sexual relationship between a man and
a woman. Therefore, throughout the history of all ages, this kind of extraordinary
birth is only seen in the myth. However, this was possible with God.
We can understand this if we carefully examine the reason Jesus was born. The
reason Jesus Christ, who is God in His essence, was born in a human form through
the Virgin Mary was to save His people from all of their sins. In other words, to save
sinners from their sins, He Himself had to come as the Savior. To save the sinners, a
sinless One was needed as the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:2), and that was
Jesus Christ, who was God Himself.
For a virgin who is pledged to be married to have a child before the marriage is an
action that deserves criticism of the society as an unlawful behavior. This could even
be a sin that deserves death penalty among the Jews at that time. The Law of Israel
commanded that anyone who committed adultery be stoned. According to today’s
scripture lesson above, Mary and Joseph were pledged to be married. Joseph and
Mary both feared God. So, through the marvelous occurrence they had experienced,
they learned to follow God’s plan with faith that feared God.

17. The Scripture records specifically this historical event in Isaiah 7:14: “Therefore the
Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son,
and shall call His name Immanuel.” And again, Isaiah 9:6 states, “For unto us a
Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.” And it was fulfilled.
Also Micah 5:2 records, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little
among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me. The One to be
Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting.” This passage
prophesizes the birth of Jesus definitely and concretely.
The Books of Micah and Isaiah are prophecies that were recorded by the prophets
Micah and Isaiah as the words of God were on them, inspired by the Holy Spirit.
They knew by God’s prophecy about the birth of Jesus Christ, who was to be born
over 700 years after their days, and recorded it.
Besides these passages, there are many places in the Bible that prophesizes the birth
of Jesus directly or indirectly. This is truly amazing. The birth of Jesus was an
impossible mystery unless it was designed and done by God Himself. This proves
that God the Father had planned the birth of Jesus from everlasting, that is, from
the beginning, before there was ever an earth (Proverbs 8:23).
The Bible is composed of 39 Books of Old Testament and 27 Books of new
testaments, totaling 66 Books. The Old Testament is composed of the Books of the
Law and the Books of the prophecy, while the New Testament provides the Gospels,
the Epistles, and the Revelation. The Old Testament is mostly written in Hebrew and
Aramaic and the New Testament in Greek. The strength of Hebrew is its precise
meaning and the strength of Greek is its extensive vocabulary.
The Bible was recorded over 1600 years throughout several centuries by forty some
people in many different places. As a result, the lack of credibility on its unification
is the general view. However, this was not written by any man’s intelligence, but
rather it was written inspired by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, all the prophecies of the
birth of Jesus coincide with the events and facts that happened historically.
2 Timothy 3:15-17 records, “And that from childhood you have known the Holy
Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in
Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may
be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” This passage proves clearly
that the Bible is authentic and that its author is God Himself. And we have to know
that, not only in Isaiah, but in the entire 66 Books of Old and New Testament in the
Bible are the prophecies and records about the birth and work of Jesus Christ.
Luke 24:27 records, “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to
them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself,” and verse 44 records,
“Then He said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still
with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and
the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.’” These passages make it clear that the
Jesus Christ is the master of whom the Bible spoke.

18. Then what is the reason that Jesus was born, who has been prophesized and testified
throughout the centuries, through the body of the Virgin Mary as a human? In the
name ‘Jesus’ the purpose and the meaning of His birth are clearly reflected. As we
put meaning in a name when we name things, Jesus has the meaning “the One who
will save His people from their sins.” The fact the He was given the name Jesus of all
the names is a sure sign that shows the purpose of His birth.
The Almighty Creator came to this world in a lowly human form. This shows the
amazing grace He has for us. The reason Jesus came as a human was because He
loves us so much.
John 3:16 records, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” What this
passage tells us is that anyone who believes in Jesus can enter Heaven.
There would be no one in this world that would sacrifice his only son for a criminal.
When this is so even with humans, the fact that the Creator was born in a human
body for humans that are just like insects tells us how much the Holy Triune God
loves this world. Therefore, if someone rejects His unconditional love, he deserves to
be condemned for such stubbornness.
John 8:24 states, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do
not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
Here, what does the passage “if you do not believe that I am He” mean? This means
that “if you do not believe that God sent His one and only Son and that one and
Only Son is Jesus Christ.” The reason Jesus came to this world is to save the sinners
from all of their sins as it was recorded in Matthew chapter 1.
The work of the Old and New Testament is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is real and alive. As it is real that Jesus came to this world to take on the sins
of the world, crucified on the Cross and was resurrected on the third day, the Holy
Spirit is another Person, and a real Spirit of Holy God just like Jesus. Spirit of God,
the Holy Spirit is also God Himself.
I mentioned earlier that the work of the Bible is the work of the Holy Spirit. Genesis
1:2 records, “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of
the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” The Spirit of
God in this passage is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit truly exists just as God the
Father and Jesus truly exist. The Holy Spirit is also mentioned in today’s scripture
lesson we have read: “After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they
came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.” This passage tells us that
Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary.
Therefore, in reality, God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are the
same God to us. For Jesus to come to this world as our Savior, there was
collaboration with God the Father and the Holy Spirit that made it possible for
Jesus to be the Savior. However, some people find this part hard to believe and
demand evidence that explains this, saying this is absurd. Then, I can give these
people the work of the Trinity in detail from the Scripture in the works of God the
Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit. Just as you truly exist, Jesus, the Holy
Spirit, and God the Father truly exist. As we are all human, but each individual is

19. different and unique from the others, the role of the each one in Trinity is different,
but they are one God. I tell you that the Holy Spirit is the divine Spirit.
Devine Spirit, the Holy Spirit is a Person, and has its own independent character. It
was by the work of the Triune God that the Savior of mankind, Jesus, came to this
world through Mary. Therefore, we know that in the work of salvation, the Father,
Son and the Holy Spirit worked together. This is why Jesus commanded His
disciples to “go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19) right
before He ascended to Heaven. The work of God that created the universe and all
the work that God has done are not done by God the Father alone, or done by His
Son, Jesus Christ alone, but they are done by God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the
Holy Spirit together as they counsel about all the works and do all the work.
We were saved from our sins by believing what the Savior had done for us. As Jesus
is a true being, the Holy Spirit is a true being as another character of divine God.
Just as Jesus is a true Being, the Holy Spirit is a true Being as another Person of
divine God just as Jesus is. Therefore, all the works within the universe is the work
of the Triune God. In fact, not only the Holy Spirit resides in the hearts of us who
believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but also He tells and teaches us the
truth and guides us in the way of life.
Let us look at John chapter 14. John 14:25-26 says, “These things I have spoken to
you while being present with you.But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will
send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all
things that I said to you.”
This is why the Bible calls the Holy Spirit the Helper. The Holy Spirit that the
Father would send “will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all
things that I said to you.” The Helper Holy Spirit teaches us the truth. He teaches us
the truth about all things such as what pleases God the Father and what His will is.
Also, the One who reminds us of what the Lord has taught us is the Holy Spirit. This
is why the Bible tells us that “the anointing which you have received from Him abides
in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you” (1 John 2:27). This means that
the Holy Spirit teaches us about God as He resides in our hearts. This is why the
Holy Spirit is the Helper.
The Scripture describes Jesus Christ in detail as well as the works of the Holy Spirit.
All the Books of the New Testament, such as the four Gospels, Acts, the Pauline
Epistles, the Epistles by James, Peter and John, and even the Revelation are
teachings of Jesus. In the period of the four Gospels, the Lord Himself taught us. As
the period of the Gospel was over, Jesus ascended to Heaven. He promised that He
would send the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, and since then it has been the
age of the Holy Spirit.
This is the period of Holy Spirit. This period that you and I live in is the period in
which the Holy Spirit works. This period that you and I live in is the period of the
Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit resides within us, and makes us to spread the
gospel. And He helps us understand the Truth, rebukes our sins, guides us to follow
God’s will well, and supplies what is lacking in us. Also, He helps us realize what is

20. wrong, and reminds us of the Word.
The gospel of the water and the Spirit is the gospel of the Holy Spirit. This means
that the Holy Spirit works with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Why does the
Holy Spirit do the work? That is because this is the period of the Holy Spirit. Jesus
Christ was born in this world, and took on our sins by His baptism, received
judgment, ascended to Heaven, and will come back someday. Until Jesus’ return, the
Holy Spirit works along with the written Word.
The Holy Spirit is the God who works through the God’s Word. When Mary
accepted God’s message, the Holy Spirit works to have baby Jesus. The Holy Spirit
gave the ability that made it possible for the baby Jesus to be born because Mary
who heard the words of God accepted God’s message saying, “Behold the
maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” As such, the Holy
Spirit works through what was prophesied.
Matthew 1:22-23 says, “So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child,
and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which is translated, ‘God with
us.’” We must know that the Holy Spirit works for those who believe in the written
Word of God.
In Luke, the Bible tells us that the angel Gabriel, who showed up to Elizabeth also
shows up to Mary and tells her, “Blessed are you among women! The Son you will
bring forth will be great!” The great One meant the Savior. Then Mary was
frightened and asked him, “How can this be since I do not know a man?” Gabriel
told her that “Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this
is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.” Then Mary accepted the
words of God that the angel gave her and said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord!
Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her, and then
Jesus was born from her. This is a good example of how the Holy Spirit works.
In this age, the Holy Spirit is still in the world working within our hearts. How does
the Holy Spirit work? When we believe in the written Word of God, the Holy Spirit
works through God’s Words. When we spread the Gospel to those who have not
accepted Jesus, it is the Holy Spirit that works within them. When you and I spread
the gospel and God’s Word, the Holy Spirit within us works on those who are not
yet born again. When the Gospel is spread, the Holy Spirit works within them,
helping them to understand the Gospel. When people hear and think about it, the
Holy Spirit teaches them the Word of God as to what it means, and works within
them to help them understand the gospel. As a consequence of this, people receive
the remission of sin. Because God gives us the understanding through His Words,
the Holy Spirit works through what was written in the Scriptures.
Our Salvation was planned by God in Jesus Christ before creation, and Jesus
Christ, the Son came to this world and accomplished our salvation through His
water of baptism and blood. And the Holy Spirit assures the redemption we have
received that was planned by God the Father and executed by the Son. The Holy
Spirit, as the Helper, helps us to have strong faith, saying, “You are believing
correctly, Believe like that, that’s correct.”

21. As such, the Holy Spirit is the Helper and Teacher to every one of us. This is why the
period of the Holy Spirit is the period of New Testament, and the period of the New
Testament is the period of the Holy Spirit. Therefore we must know that we are
living in the period of the Holy Spirit.
It is true that Mary conceived a child by the Holy Spirit as she accepted the words of
God that He gave her, and by the work of the Holy Spirit, the baby Jesus was born
into the world. We thank our God who gave us this salvation. The work of the Holy
Spirit enables us to be saved.
Conceived by the Holy Sprit means that the salvation we have is from God. It is not
done by a great founder of a religion but a work done by God the Father, the Son
and the Holy Spirit to make us His children. This is how we were saved from our
sins and received the remission of sin. This is why the fact that we were saved is by
the work of the Holy Spirit. And this is why we are thankful.
Generally speaking, we know Jesus pretty well, but we do not know much about the
Holy Spirit. However, in reality, the One who resides within us is the Holy Spirit. As
it is said that Jesus is in the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ, the Son
in the Father and the Father in the Son, it was Jesus who cleansed our sins before
ascending to Heaven, and now it is the Holy Spirit that lives within us in our faith.
Jesus Christ, for real, came to this world, blotted out all the sins of yours and mine,
and ascended, and now the faith that believes in Jesus Christ and the Word of God,
and the Holy Spirit resides within your hearts. You and I are under the control of
the Holy Spirit.
Therefore we must know the Holy Spirit very well. If you and I make the Holy Spirit
who lives within us unsatisfied, it is displeasing God. When we please the Holy Spirit
who lives within you and me as we follow His instructions, not only we are joyful,
but God is also pleased. Therefore, as our faith that believes in Jesus Christ in our
hearts should be unchanging, you also need to be aware of the Holy Spirit that lives
within you. When we are aware of the Holy Spirit, we can have proper relationship
with God. And only when we are aware of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit works
within us, and makes intercessions to God on our behalf, helps us to understand
God’s will, and leads us in the paths of righteousness. But if we dissatisfy the Holy
Spirit, then the Holy Spirit would be in a bad mood, and He would say, “Then you
do whatever you want, you take care of it on your own,” then we would feel as if we
were abandoned by God and we would be depressed and confused and feel we are
separated from God 9000 miles away. So, we must know the Holy Spirit well, who
lives within us. By the Work of the Holy Spirit within you and me, Jesus has saved
us and the Holy Spirit still works within us to guide our way.
Do you understand this? ―Yes. ― The reason you understand this is because you
have received the remission of sin, and now the Holy Spirit dwells within you. Those
who have not been saved and thus do not have the Holy Spirit in their hearts cannot
understand the Word of God and say they are illogical. There is nothing more
logical than the Bible that was written as it was inspired by the Holy Spirit. The
introduction, the body, the conclusion is clear and obvious in the Bible. However,
those who are not yet born again cannot see the authenticity of the Bible at all. So,
Jesus regards them as the blind, saying, “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not

22. both fall into the ditch?” (Luke 6:39)
Once I met a pastor. This pastor one day said to me, “If you can explain to me by
human logic how Jesus was born from a body of a virgin, then I will believe in God’s
Word as it is.” As many theologians have this kind of faith, so did this pastor. I was
dismayed by his saying that he would believe in Jesus if I could explain to him how a
virgin who does not know man could be with a child. So I asked him.
“Are you a pastor?”
“Yes, I am a pastor, and I am also a director for a Christian student organization at
a university.”
“A director? What is the role of the director?”
“The role is to help students to understand Christianity, so they can have faith.”
“As the director, you do not believe in the birth of Jesus? Do you not believe that
Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin Mary, born into this world, and
saved us from our sins?”
“No, I do not believe it.”
“Then first, you should be ashamed of yourself. Secondly you cannot call yourself a
pastor who is a shepherd to your sheep. You are merely a professional pastor who
simply does it to make a living.”
He said that a chicken can lay unfertilized eggs, but having a child without knowing
a man is impossible.
I said, “This is why I say you must not be an authentic pastor but only doing it to
make a living. How can you lead the students to Jesus when you don’t even
understand this or have faith in this? You should leave your Christian student
organization that you are leading. You would not lead them to Jesus. You are
ruining their souls.”
It was lamentable that someone who calls himself a pastor does not understand the
birth of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. To tell you the truth, if the Holy Spirit does not live
in you, it is impossible for you to understand the birth of Jesus as it is written in the
Bible. How do you understand the birth of Jesus? There is such thing called
artificially insemination these days, however, even this requires a sperm and an egg
for conception. Then how could it be possible to be born only with one of them?
However, the birth of Jesus was possible because it was the work of God.
The event that the baby Jesus would be born through the Virgin Mary by the work
of the Holy Spirit was prophesied over 700 years before Jesus was born. Why was
there the passage in Isaiah, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and
shall call His name Immanuel”? When God wants to let us know His amazing plan
for us, He often reveals it through a particular event that is not possible by human
power.
There was a time that Israel was taken over by the enemies and all the people in
Israel were taken as captives. It was impossible to take this country back from the
enemies. However, God promised that this country would be restored in 70 years.
No one believed it, but the miracle happened in God’s hands.

23. Likewise the amazing miracle through the prophet Isaiah “Behold, the virgin shall
conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” really happened. It is
impossible by human logic, but God had promised that He would work through this
miracle, and He really did. How does God work with His mighty power to save you
and me? As He sent his prophets to prophesy, He still sends His servant angels to
deliver His messages and saves anyone who believes in the Messages. Therefore, the
salvation for you and me is the work of the Holy Spirit.
By the works of the Triune God―God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, we have been saved. So, even now God sends the Holy Spirit to anyone who
accepts His Word and make them children of God. When we were saved, did we get
saved or received the Holy Spirit because someone shouted, “Receive this fire” or
“Receive this Holy Spirit”? No, we did not. The Holy Spirit always works through
the written Word. Whether we read the Word ourselves, or someone preaches it to
us, if we believe in the Word, the Holy Spirit works within us to help us understand
the Word and assures us. So the Holy Spirit fulfills the Word within us as it is
written. This is why God gives the Holy Spirit as a gift to those who believes in the
Word.
You and I have received a truly amazing salvation through the work of the Holy
Spirit. Here, That the Virgin Mary conceived a baby Jesus by her faith in the Word,
and that you have been saved by believing in the Gospel of the water and the Spirit
and thus Jesus came to dwell inside you as the Holy Spirit are the same principle. If
you believe in God’s Word, you will receive the remission of your sin, and then
become a child of God. When you become a child of God, the Holy Spirit lives
within you.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came by the Holy Spirit. Jesus, the Son of God
was without sin. He works within us the same way it is written in the scripture
lesson. As Mary accepted the message from the angels, the Word became flesh and
was born as the Baby Jesus. This is how the Word works. This is how Jesus became
our Savior.
As we say “the work of the Holy Spirit,” someone might imagine that the Holy
Spirit appeared to Mary and told her “I will work through you from now on,” and
worked as some magic. That is not how it happened. That is not how God worked.
When God sends His Word, if we accept God’s Word, the Holy Spirit works within
us along with the Word of God, and as a result, the Word is fulfilled within us as we
believe. The same principle is applied to the birth of Jesus and our being born again.
That is how it happened when you receive the remission of your sin. That is how it
worked when I was born again. When we accept and believe in God’s Word, our sins
are actually blotted out and the Holy Spirit assures that.
That is how Jesus and the Holy Spirit work. Is this not amazing? Mary accepted
God’s Words and the baby Jesus was born. What happened when you and I
accepted the Word of salvation through Jesus’ baptism and the blood of the Cross?
Were the souls of yours born again as the righteous or not? They were born again.
Was there the Holy Spirit in Jesus or not? There was. The Holy Spirit was in Jesus
from His birth. Is there Holy Spirit within us who have been born again by the
water and the Spirit? There is. It is the same miracle. It is the same Word.

24. Do you understand the Word that Jesus was born by the work of the Holy Spirit?
―Yes.― It is the same work. It is amazing. Therefore, when we receive the
remission of our sins by accepting Jesus, it is not the end. The Holy Spirit who
actually lives in us teaches us, and guides us as a Teacher. Therefore, it is the Holy
Spirit within us who is reigns over us, teaching us and guiding us.
Therefore, we are not alone. God, the Holy Spirit, is always with you. You are with
God. Likewise, the Holy Spirit also helps in our weaknesses when we are in trouble
or hardships. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the
Spirit Himself makes intercessions for us with groanings which cannot be uttered
(Romans 8:26). If we do not know what to do, it is the Holy Spirit who teaches us,
“That is not the way, this is it.” He reminds us of God’s Word, and comforts us.
When we are in sorrow, He holds our hearts and comforts us. This is how we are
always with the Holy Spirit.
You and I received the very amazing salvation. The salvation you and I have
received is truly amazing. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit created this
universe, so that you and I could receive this salvation and become children of God.
We must know this.
Why did God create the world? He created the world so that people like you and
me, those who have received the remission of sin, could be the lord of this place. This
is why our salvation was planned before creation. It had been planned since forever
long ago that you and I would be saved from our sins today. According to the
Providence God planned before creation, not only we have been saved from our sins,
but also we became the children of God who have the Holy Spirit living within us.
Therefore, in reality, we are living as princes and princesses, as the children of God
in His Kingdom. Though we may not be princes and princesses as we live in this
world, we are the children of God and princes and princesses in His Kingdom. We
are the very important people, the true VIP’s. We are important people who have
truly received amazing salvation.
This is why Christmas is amazing and has great meaning. When the baby Jesus was
born after being conceived by the Holy Spirit, as Mary conceived the baby Jesus by
accepting God’s words, and the baby Jesus was born in 10 months, the work of our
salvation started. This is why we remember and celebrate Christmas. We sing “Joy
to the world, the Lord is come” when the Lord was born from the Virgin Mary after
accepting God’s message. We sing “Joy to the world, the Lord is come” on the day
when the Lord was born through the Virgin Mary, who accepted God’s words that
were sent to her from God. We are commemorating the day of this amazing work.
To be accurate, the day that Jesus was born was not a cold one so that water facets
would get frozen, but a warm day that the shepherds were out with the sheep.
Rather than putting an importance on the exact date, we have designated a day that
the whole world comes together to commemorate the day that opened the door of
salvation after being conceived by the Holy Spirit, and to remember the salvation we
have received in our hearts. What is important is not the day itself, but rather the
fact that Jesus came to this world, and that Mary accepted God’s words so that the
baby Jesus was born.

25. We meditate on the amazing salvation again as we commemorate this day. We must
bind ourselves again to be those who please the Holy Spirit as we remember the
salvation we received by the work of Holy Spirit and that He is living within us.
Fellow Christians, we are people who are truly blessed with amazing blessings.
Mary was considered the blessed but you and I are just as blessed. Is it true?
―Yes.―
Is Christmas a day that we paint the town red with our boyfriends, girlfriends,
sinners and family? Or is this a silent night, a holy night that we spend doing
righteous deeds as we remember and commemorate that the Lord came to save us?
It is the day for righteous deeds. I am telling you in advance. I tell you this out of
fear that there is anyone in here who misunderstands the meaning of Christmas and
feels sorry for himself because he is not out partying. I say this in a fear that there
may be someone who thinks “why am I not out drinking like the rest of the world,
but spend it so silently?” and feels swayed by the sense of inferiority. The best way
to spend Christmas is to spend it silently, meditating the meaning of the day, or by
doing some righteous deeds. There could not be a more memorable Christmas than
if we would proclaim the gospel on this Christmas, and as a result, someone would
receive the remission of sin. As the baby Jesus was born because Mary accepted the
Words of God, if a sinner becomes a righteous person and be born again as a little
Jesus in this World by accepting the Word as we share the gospel, could there be any
more meaningful Christmas than that? I hope that you have this kind of righteous
Christmas, and if it is at all possible, a meaningful Christmas.
I also urge to look around you to see whether there is anyone in sorrow or pain
during this Christmas. Christmas is a holiday that the whole world celebrates.
However, we must remember and believe that it could be a very sorrowful holiday
for some people so that you can make this Christmas the Christmas that benefits
others.
The Holy Spirit and the Scandal of Christ's Birth BY
Douglas Sean O'Donnell.
When my son Simeon was three,1
he liked to look at the moon. We could be walking
through our neighborhood on a partially cloudy night or driving along the highway
at the break of dawn, and instead of first noticing the colored Christmas lights on
the trees or the cool sports car passing on the left, Simeon would spot the moon. “I
see the moon!” he’d belt out from his car seat. “I see the moon,” he’d say, squeezing
my hand as we walked.
One night at home his gift for observing the obvious was especially memorable. He
turned to the window, and there it was again. “Dad, the moon,” he said softly and
with astonishment, as if he had never seen it before. “I know, Simeon,” I replied
mildly and with less astonishment. I added playfully, “Do you think you can touch
it?” Without hesitation he turned to the window, climbed up the arm of a chair,

26. crossed over onto the windowsill, and reached his right hand up to the sky. He was
only 384,403 kilometers shy of it. Discouraged but not dissuaded, he jumped down
and ran to the front room, once again finding the moon. “There’s another one,” he
yelled. Then he backed up. He ran. He leapt. He reached. This time I swear he
almost touched it.
To Simeon the moon’s movements were mysterious, its light lovely, and its texture
close enough to touch. Sometimes when we come to passages like Matthew’s
condensed Christmas story, we don’t come with that childlike curiosity and wonder
—looking at the everyday with awe, perceiving the familiar as fascinating. But we
should. We should become like little children, which Jesus said is the only way to get
into the kingdom. Here’s how we’ll do it with Matthew 1:18–25. I’ll show you in this
text three important yet oftentimes unobserved observations—ones that when seen
afresh, I hope will cause you to see the passage afresh. And perhaps for the first time
in a long time, what has become ordinary will once again be extraordinary, as
extraordinary as the moon in the eyes of an inquisitive boy.
The Scandal
Let’s begin our spiritual coming of age. The first observation is the scandal
surrounding Christ’s conception. Look with me at verses 18, 19. For now I will take
out the phrase that de-scandalizes the scene—“from the Holy Spirit.” I’ll take that
out so you can feel some of what Mary and Joseph must have felt. So verses 18, 19
now read:
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.... And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put
her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
What’s going on here? Two facts are clear: Mary is “with child,” and consequently
Joseph doesn’t want to be with her. What is not clear, however (at least not to some
modern readers), is how Joseph can be called Mary’s “husband” when they are not
yet married, and how they are not yet married, but Joseph can divorce her.
The key to solving these riddles is grasping the cultural context. At this time and
place in history, “marriage was held to be,” as William Barclay somewhat smugly
suggests, “far too serious a step to be left to the dictates of the human heart.”2
As it
was for most couples in this culture, Mary and Joseph’s parents had likely arranged
their marriage. Here’s how it worked. First, the fathers of the two families would
engage the couple. This would usually happen in childhood. Second, later in life, this
couple would be betrothed. The girl was usually a teenager, and the man was usually
older. So to be clear, their betrothal is not the same as our engagement. Rather,
betrothal was the nearest step to marriage. It was the process of ratifying the
engagement into which the couple had previously entered.
During the engagement period, the young woman could break the agreement if she
was unwilling to marry the man. Conversely, the man could break off the
engagement if the woman had not kept her virginity. But once they entered
betrothal (which lasted one year), it was absolutely binding. During that year,
although they didn’t live together or sleep together, the couple was actually known

27. as “husband and wife.” This explains why Joseph in our text is called Mary’s
“husband” (v. 19; cf. Deuteronomy 22:24).3
Now here’s the final point of
clarification: the only way a betrothal could be broken was through a legal divorce,
which explains what Joseph was up to in verse 19.
So then, do you see the scandal of it all? Mary is pregnant. Yet she is betrothed to
Joseph. Joseph is not the father of this baby. Now, if this scenario is still scandalous
in our anything-goes, play-by-your-own-rules culture, imagine how it would have
been in their anything-does-not-go, abide-by- God’s-rules culture.
Mary was in a tough spot. But Matthew reminds us that Joseph’s spot wasn’t any
softer. Mary was the woman whom he agreed to love, the woman who was to have
his children and to nurture and teach them. Mary was the woman who was going to
manage his household. And she was found out! She was found to be with child, and
thus (apparently) with the stain of sexual sin. Worse than that, this baby was not his,
biologically speaking. He had not touched her. He knew that. This could only mean
that somebody else had.
Stop and think about this. Walk a moment in his shoes. Breathe the air he was
breathing. How would you feel if you were in his situation? Would you be
humiliated or angry or jealous? Matthew doesn’t tell us how Joseph felt. But it is
difficult to imagine him so stoic that these emotions never entered his heart.
So what did he do? What could he do? What would you do?
He thought seriously and patiently about the matter,4
and then he “resolved” to do
what was best for both persons: “And... Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to
put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.”
Being a just man, he could not simply disregard God’s Law (see Deuteronomy
22:23–27), and to marry Mary would have been to do just that. It would have been
to overlook an offense that God’s Word says should not be overlooked. In fact, it
would have been to admit guilt when he was not guilty. In a sense, it would be to lie
—“Yes, it’s my child; shame on us.”
I envision the weight of this decision in this way. On one shoulder Joseph has the
righteous requirements of God’s Law whispering in his ear, “You have to expose her
error. This sin cannot go unpunished.” On the other shoulder is the compassion and
mercy of God’s Law (cf. 23:23). (And note here that it’s not a devil and an angel on
his shoulders; these are two angels, if you will; two angels wrestling with his heart.)
Compassion counsels him, “Joseph, a private divorce is the way to proceed. Dismiss
her quietly. In this way you show both the justice and the love of God.”
The Spirit
Thankfully, for Joseph, Mary, and Jesus (and us!), God promptly provided an
alternative plan. He whisked away these two imaginary angels and sent a real one.
Look with me at verse 20 and we’ll fill in the blank that earlier we left in the text:
“But as [Joseph] 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.’” From the Holy Spirit is
the second observation I want us to see. We move now from the scandal to the Spirit.

28. What Joseph was missing was this bit of information, the important information
given to us in verse 18 and to Mary during the annunciation. After the angel Gabriel
gave the news and after Mary said in essence, “How can this be? How can I, a
virgin, have a baby?” do you remember how Gabriel responded? He said, “The
Holy Spirit will come upon you” (Luke 1:35). Now notice in Matthew that this truth
is twice emphasized. In verse 18 and here in verse 20 we find the phrase “from the
Holy Spirit.”
Have you ever thought about the role of the Spirit in the conception of Christ? I’ll
admit I hadn’t until Matthew made me. And now I’m making you. Rest assured I’m
not going to delve into the mystery of it all. That is, I’m not going to attempt to
describe (for the first time ever!) the supernatural/biological process by which the
Spirit worked in the virgin’s womb. I am still waiting to be taken up into the third
heaven for that revelation. For now I will simply point out the obvious—something
as obvious as the moon, something so obvious you will wonder why I’m paid to do
this. Here it is: The Holy Spirit made the preexistent second person of the Trinity into
a human being.
The Spirit genesis-ed Jesus!
Why do I say it that way? Well, because that’s how our text actually says it. Verse 18
reads in the original Greek: “Now the genesis of Jesus Christ...” (cf. 1:1). It is not
“the genesis,” of course, in the sense of the birth of God’s preexistent Son, but rather
“the genesis” of the Spirit’s work to take the preexistent Son and form his inward
parts—to knit him together in his mother’s womb, to make him “fearfully and
wonderfully” human (cf. Psalm 139:13, 14).
Look how the creed of the First Council of Constantinople (the Nicene Creed of A.D.
381) summarizes what Scripture teaches here:
who for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was
incarnate by the Holy Spirit [ek pneumatos hagiou—the same as in our Bible
text] of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.
It was the work of the Holy Spirit to genesis Jesus. Just as the Spirit “was hovering
over the face of the waters” at creation (Genesis 1:2), so here for our salvation the
Spirit “overshadowed” Mary’s womb (Luke 1:35), making God’s Son into one of us
—with bones and brains and blood, with lungs and lips and lymph nodes, with head
and heart and hands.
Here I plea for awe and understanding. We ought to be (again and again!) in awe of
the incarnation. But we also ought to understand better the person and doctrine of
the Holy Spirit. We ought to grasp not only the necessity of the Spirit’s work in the
birth of Christ (i.e., “The Son is not the Son without the Spirit,” as Wolfhart
Pannenburg nicely phrases it),5
but also that this work of the Holy Spirit in the
conception of Christ is a fleshly work.6
The Spirit’s work is material, tangible, and
visible. Ironically, the Spirit’s work is fleshly!
A few years ago, a non-charismatic woman shared with me, a noncharismatic
pastor, an interesting episode from a charismatic friend who had just returned from
a charismatic retreat. On the retreat there was, as expected, much emphasis on and
expression of the spiritual gifts, especially speaking in tongues. Now, when these two

29. ladies conversed about this—talking about the Holy Spirit—near the end of the
conversation, the charismatic Christian said with great astonishment, “Oh, I didn’t
know that you even believed in the Holy Spirit!” The assumption behind that
remark (I assume) was this: people don’t believe in the Holy Spirit if they don’t talk
about him often and if they don’t regularly manifest the outward gifts.
I don’t deny in any way that the spiritual gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12–14 are
real manifestations of the Holy Spirit. However, I do want to say that the primary
work of the Holy Spirit is not found in the spiritual gifts. The primary work—or I
suppose we should say the primary works—of the Holy Spirit are found in creation
and in re-creation (i.e., regeneration). And here in our text, as it is often in Scripture,
the focus is on the Spirit’s work in creation, this time the creation of God in the
flesh.
You see, one of the problems in the church today is that the work of the Holy Spirit
is over-spiritualized. Does that sound strange? I suppose it should. But here’s what I
mean: where the Holy Spirit is present in the world, we see the humanity of Jesus
believed and even emphasized. Conversely, where other spirits, false or demonic
spirits, are at work, we find a Jesus without flesh—a super-spiritualized Jesus, a
kind of cosmic Christ.
This was one of the issues the Apostle John dealt with in his three epistles. It was the
main theological controversy of his day. To put it plainly, the false teachers forgot
about Christmas. They so emphasized Christ’s divinity that they neglected his
humanity. And what did John say to that? Here is the apostolic acid test of
orthodoxy: “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (1 John 4:2). How do you know if
your church is Spirit-filled? One way you can know is if Jesus—in all his heavenly
divinity and in all his earthly humanity—is the focus! Frederick Dale Bruner calls
this “the Christocentricity of the Spirit.” He explains:
It is my impression from a study of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament (cf.
The Holy Spirit: Shy Member of the Trinity)7
that the true humanity of Jesus
Christ is one of the two major “lectures” of the Holy Spirit. (The other
lecture is, in Paul’s words, the Spirit’s teaching us to say that “Jesus is Lord”
(i.e., divine, 1 Cor 12:3). To put this in another way, the Holy Spirit does two
major works: first, the Spirit brings Christ down to earth and makes him
human; second, the Spirit lifts Christ up and shows Jesus’ divinity. In other
words, the Holy Spirit is a good theologian and gives two main courses: The
True Humanity of Jesus Christ the first semester and The True Divinity of
Jesus Christ the second.... It is the work of the Holy Spirit, in either course,
to bring Jesus Christ into human lives.8
The Holy Spirit has been called the shy and humble member of the Trinity because it
is his divine task to help us exalt the Father and the Son.9
So yes, I believe in the
Holy Spirit! I say that with some conviction, even charisma. I hope you can say the
same.
The role of the Holy Spirit in the conception of Christ—what a wonderful truth to
think about on Christmas! It is as obvious as the moon but so often unobserved and

30. undervalued.
The Surrogate
Let’s review. Thus far, we have the scandal (the scandal of Christ’s conception) and
the Spirit (the Spirit’s significant role in Christ’s conception). Finally, we have the
surrogate, referring to Jesus’ surrogate, earthly father, Joseph.10
If the Holy Spirit is the shy member of the Holy Trinity, Joseph is the shy member of
the holy family. But shy or not, his importance ought to animate our minds.
Look again at this passage before us and see how Matthew writes this story. He
starts, quite plainly and straightforwardly, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took
place in this way” (1:18). But notice he does not immediately describe the birth.
There is no nativity. There is no mention of Mary’s labor and delivery. Moreover,
unlike Luke’s Gospel, where the reader sees the unfolding events through Mary’s
eyes, here in Matthew it is through Joseph’s eyes. Verse 18 introduces the situation.
Then the rest of our passage focuses on Joseph and his conception, if you will, of the
conception of Christ.
In church tradition Joseph has earned the nickname not “Shy Joseph” but “Quiet
Joseph.” That is because he never speaks. That is, in the Gospels we have no record
of him uttering a word. But here, while Joseph may indeed be quiet (so to speak), we
see how his actions—his “prompt, simple, and unspectacular” obedient actions—
speak louder than words (cf. his actions in chapter 2 as well).11
Look again with me,
starting in verse 19, and pay attention to Joseph:
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.... She will bear a son,
and you [singular] shall call his name Jesus....” When Joseph woke from
sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but
knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called [the child’s]
name Jesus. (vv. 19–25)
Joseph is the subject of most of the sentences above.
One of the first sermons I ever preached was on Genesis 39, which is the story of
Joseph, the son of the patriarch Jacob (cf. 1:2b, 16). In that sermon I showed how
the context surrounding the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39) was
key to understanding the beginning of salvation history.
You know the story of Joseph, right? The world is still making musicals about it.
The story of Joseph starts in Genesis 37, and it is quickly and apparently
interrupted in Genesis 38 by the story of Judah and his illicit relationship with
Tamar, his widowed daughter-in-law. I mentioned that relationship in the previous
chapter. Recall that Judah and Tamar got together when they shouldn’t have and
out came the twins—Perez and Zerah.
The question I asked in my Genesis 39 sermon was this: what does Judah have to do
with Joseph? What does faithless Judah have to do with faithful Joseph? Why even
mention Judah at the start of the grand drama of Joseph? Well, one reason is that

31. he is a foil. Judah’s impurity highlights Joseph’s purity. Judah propositioned his
daughter-in-law, who he mistakenly thought was a shrine prostitute. Joseph, on the
other hand, was repeatedly propositioned by a powerful (and beautiful?) Egyptian
woman and yet resisted each time. The other reason (and the more important one) is
this: Joseph, who will come to power in Egypt, will save his brothers’ lives, including
Judah’s. This is crucial, we learn at the end of Genesis (Genesis 49:10), because it is
through Judah’s offspring that the Christ will come (Hebrews 7:14)—the lion of the
tribe of Judah, the ultimate King of God’s people.
Matthew knows the importance of this story (the interweaving of these Genesis
stories), and that’s why he starts his Gospel about Jesus with a genealogy. Matthew
1:2, 3 states, “Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah
by Tamar.” Now, keep your eyes on those names (as we are following Judah’s line)
and look ahead to verse 6, which leads us to David—“and Jesse the father of David
the king.” Now we are getting somewhere! But where? Is this the king we are
looking for? Well, let’s keep following Judah’s line that has become David’s line.
Where does this line lead? Look at verse 16. Take your pencil and write next to this
verse the word, “Wow!” “And Jacob [not the patriarch] the father of Joseph [Joseph
who?] the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born.”
So why is Joseph, the husband of Mary, so important to Jesus? What does this
Joseph have to do with our Jesus? That’s the question for this text. Well, you say, he
functions as a competent and reliable witness to Mary’s virginity (which is so
important for the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, mentioned in v. 23).12
Yes, that’s
true. But he is much more than that. Look at verse 20. The angel gives away the
answer. “Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying,
‘Joseph, son of David...’”13
There it is! You can also put a “Wow!” next to “son of
David.” Did you know that other than this reference only Jesus in all the Gospels is
called “Son of David”? Which means what? It means that Joseph has royal blood. It
means that this humble carpenter (13:55) is from “the house of David” (Luke 1:27).
And God promised long ago that a king would come from the line of Judah and
from the line of David to reign forevermore. In the annunciation, Mary hears this
about her son (and I want you to hear it loud and clear):
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. (Luke 1:32,
33)
Jesus has the right lineage, Scripturally speaking. He is the son of Abraham and the
son of David. But how does he get to be the son of David? Is it through Mary?
Maybe. Maybe not. Nowhere is that the point, either in Luke or Matthew. Rather,
and more certainly, it is through Joseph, his surrogate father!14
Why is this narrative before us so important? It is important because it shows us
how Joseph made Mary’s son his own son. That is, he made Jesus his legally. How?
Two ways. First, “he took [Mary as] his wife” (v. 24). Second, “And he [Joseph]
called his name Jesus” (v. 25). By accepting Mary as his wife and by naming her
child, he officially bestowed upon Jesus “the status of a descendant of David.”15

32. Think of the first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel in this way. The first seventeen
verses—the genealogy—confirm to us that Jesus is the promised one; and then the
last eight verses (with their focus on Joseph) confirm to us that Jesus is truly from
the line of David, or as Paul writes, Jesus “was descended from David according to
the flesh” (Romans 1:3). The camera lens is wide in verses 1–17 focusing on the big
picture of salvation history. It narrows its focus in verses 18–25 upon the holy family
—Mary, Jesus, and (don’t forget!) Joseph.
I don’t want to overdo this point, but I should mention (it would be wrong for me
not to mention just briefly) how this fits with verses 22, 23.
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).
That is a quotation of Isaiah 7:14. It speaks of a sign—a virgin conception and birth
—that would be given to the “house of David” (Isaiah 7:13). Now, while there is a
child born in Isaiah 8, this child is not the full fulfillment of this prophecy. As we
read on in Isaiah, especially in Isaiah 9 and 11, we learn of a unique child still to
come. There will be a “super-fulfillment” of the prophecy, as Daniel Harrington
words it.16
Isaiah 9:6, 7 reads:
For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be
upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty
God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government
and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his
kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
So what does Joseph have to do with Jesus? Joseph adopts Jesus into the house of
David.
Don’t underestimate the unique role of quiet Joseph. Quiet Joseph quietly bestows
upon Jesus this kingly inheritance and right. Joseph the surrogate—might we say
that he is as important as the Spirit in this Christmas story?
Notes
1. Simeon turned eight on May 19, 2012.
2. William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 1, rev. ed. (Philadelphia:
Westminster, 1975), p. 18.
3. Ibid.
4. I take the “patiently” from J. C. Ryle. Ryle says, “He saw the ‘appearance of evil’
in the one who was to be his wife. But he did nothing rashly. He waited patiently to
have the line of duty made clear” (Matthew: Expository Thoughts on the Gospels,
Crossway Classic Commentaries [Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1993], p. 4).
5. Wolfhart Pannenburg, Systematic Theology, 2:32, quoted in Frederick Dale
Bruner, The Christbook: Matthew 1–12, 2nd and rev. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans, 2004), p. 28.
6. Theologian Stanley Hauerwas says it this way: “For Matthew, the work of the