It’s an astonishing miracle when an egg and sperm join and form that first cell and begin the eternal journey of a human being, an image bearer of God. Speaking of that fertilized human cell, author Lewis Thomas in The Medusa and the Snail writes, “If anyone does succeed in explaining it, within my lifetime, I will charter a skywriting airplane, maybe a whole fleet of them, and send them aloft to write one great exclamation point after another, around the whole sky, until all my money runs out.” (Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, p. 25)
If the natural union of an egg and sperm to create a human is miraculous, what about the virgin conception of Jesus Christ? It is surely the Greatest Miracle of all. Speaking of the incarnation, Wayne Grudem ends his chapter on the Person of Christ like this: “It is by far the most amazing miracle of the entire Bible—far more amazing than the resurrection and more amazing even than the creation of the universe. The fact that the infinite, omnipotent, eternal Son of God could…join himself to a human nature forever, so that infinite God became one person with finite man, will remain for eternity the most profound miracle and the most profound mystery in all the universe” (p. 563).
How important is the virgin conception of Jesus Christ? Let’s just say this – the entire Bible rests on this miracle. If it is true, then you can believe all the other miracles in the Bible, from God creating the universe out of nothing to Christ’s second coming. If it is not true, then we may as well pitch all of Christianity. If Mary’s child was not both God and man, deity and humanity in one Person, then Christ’s death on the cross couldn’t save anyone. To deny the virgin conception of Jesus Christ is to deny Christianity.
Luke 1 reports how God sent His special angelic ambassador Gabriel to inform Mary she would conceive and bear this child whose name would be Jesus. This Jesus would be uniquely great, the Son of the Most High, and would sit on David’s throne to rule the house of Jacob forever. Today we’re going to look more closely at the miracle itself.
THE GREAT MIRACLE REVEALED
Luke 1:34, Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
Gabriel lost Mary back in verse 31 when he told Mary she would conceive in her womb. She immediately began pondering hard and heavy, “Wait, what? How can I have a baby if I’ve never known a man; I’m a virgin.”
Several points we can make right here. First, Mary understands basic human biology. She doesn’t need a modern how-to course in sex education to explain it all to her. Somehow, the human race made it for centuries without it. So, she’s wondering, “How could I possibly have a baby? I’m a virgin.”
Second, every young person should take a lesson from Mary right here. True, God uses people who have messed up morally. He blessed and used Rahab the harlot in the line of the Messiah. There’s forgiveness in Christ. But how much better to honor God first and live a morally pure life. First Thessalonians 4:3 says, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality.” So, Mary says, “I’m a virgin.” She was just the kind of girl God was looking for to bring His Son into the world. Seven hundred years earlier God promised in Isaiah 7:14, “A virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.”
Third, Mary doesn’t understand it, so what does she do? When you don’t understand something God has said, ask God to help you understand. “How can this be?” Sometimes people come to a church like this and hear things they don’t understand, truths like God’s sovereignty, election, that Christ died for those elect, or even recent six-day creationism or the security of the believer. “How can this be?” Ask God. Go to the one source that can answer your questions. Keep reading your Bible.
Mary is facing this great dilemma. How can she conceive in her womb without a man? Here we have the Miracle of all Miracles – the virgin conception of Jesus Christ. It’s a mystery – 1 Timothy 3:16, “Great is the mystery of godliness, He [Christ] was manifest in the flesh.” This is the great mystery of Christianity and stands apart from all the other pagan mythological accounts of gods bearing offspring. They are bizarre to say the least, such as Zeus having a headache and bearing a child Athena through his skull fully dressed in armor.
Gabriel is now going to explain to Mary.
Luke 1:35, The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.
Do we understand this verse rationally? No, but we believe it. Notice how the three persons of the Godhead are involved in this great miracle. First, the Holy Spirit will come upon her. Mary knew about the Holy Spirit. She knew Genesis 1:2, where the Spirit of God was involved in creation, moving over the surface of the waters. Second, then the power of the Most High will overshadow her. This word “overshadow” was used of God’s presence on the Mount of Transfiguration when the cloud “overshadowed” Christ and the disciples.
The result of this miraculous power of the Most High energizing in Mary’s womb will be the holy Child, the Son of God. This is the heart and core of the Great Miracle. Holy Child indicates her baby was not cursed with original sin and didn’t have a sin nature like all the rest of us. Some think for this reason the sin nature is passed on by the male, but it doesn’t really say that. No question though, Mary’s child will be holy. All these beautiful babies in the nursery came the regular way and guess what? They are sinners. If you wonder about that, go work in the nursery for a while. Those little smiles and chubby cheeks that just invite squeezing hide a nasty sin nature. They all need to be saved. But not Mary’s child. He was like us except without sin.
This is the Great Miracle! We believe it though we don’t understand it. We see it right here in God’s inspired Word. If you don’t believe it, you can’t claim to be a Christian. Back in May of 1922 Harry Emerson Fosdick, a popular preacher in New York City, declared, “Of course I do not believe in the virgin birth. I do not know of any intelligent minister who does.” In the same sermon he also denied the inspiration of the Bible and the second coming of Christ. The oil baron John D. Rockefeller was so impressed with this sermon he distributed copies of it to every Protestant pastor in America. Today liberal pastors and scholars simply call the virgin birth a myth added to the story of Jesus.
We don’t know exactly when the Miracle took place in Mary’s womb. Far more important is the willingness of God Almighty to humble himself and unite with a human cell in a woman’s womb. In his inimitable style Spurgeon said, “He laid aside His starry mantles and robes of light to dress himself in the simple garments of the peasant of Galilee.”
Paul put it like this:
Philippians 2:6-11, although He existed in the form of God, [He] did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
THE GOD OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
Luke 1:36-37, “And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. 37 “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
If you have a hard time believing God, here are two helps. First, see how God has worked mightily in others. Evidently Mary didn’t know her relative Elizabeth was pregnant. This was before Facebook and pictures of baby bumps and what not. Mary was apparently related to Elizabeth though Mary’s mother since Mary’s father was in the line of David and Elizabeth was of Aaron’s descendants (Luke 1:5). Elizabeth is old, maybe 70 or so. She was not able to have children, just like Abraham’s wife Sarah. Remember that story in Genesis 18? God came to Abraham in his autumn years and told him his wife Sarah would have a baby within a year. Sarah was listening on the other side of the tent door. She was the first one to come up with LOL. “No way. I’m too old for that!” God heard her and said, “Why did Sarah laugh out loud?” Then, in Genesis 18:14, God said, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Gabriel tells Mary about Elizabeth to help her with her faith.
Second, Gabriel builds up Mary’s faith with this most wonderful truth: “For nothing will be impossible with God.” God is able to do more than we can ask or think. He can create a universe out of absolutely nothing! He can make a man out of dirt and a woman out of that man’s rib. He can flood the world, wipe out a group of wicked cities with His fire, open a sea for His people to flee Egypt, knock down the walls of a city to give his people the victory, give David the skill to take out a giant with one stone, keep blazing hot fire from burning His people and hungry lions from tearing up one of His choice believers. Nothing is impossible with God. He can give sinners new hearts to believe in Him, new strength to overcome sin, joy to defeat sadness, discouragement, and depression, and godly desires to put off immorality and put on godly purity.
Nothing is impossible with God when you put your trust in God. Best of all, He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through His Son (Hebrews 9:25). Yes indeed, Mary and all you believers in God, He is able to unite the second person of the Godhead with a human cell to produce the God-Man, in hypostatic union, the theanthropic person. This is the Great Miracle.
FAITH’S RESPONSE TO GOD’S CALL
Luke 1:38, And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
J. C. Ryle wrote, “Faith never rests so calmly and peacefully as when it lays its head on the pillow of God’s omnipotence.” Resting her heart on God’s promise, Mary fully yields herself to the God she has learned to love and trust. God is her loving Master; she is His willing slave. Aren’t these words sweet? “Do with me whatever you have decided. I’m yours to command and use for your glory!” It won’t be easy for Mary to give birth out with the animals and to have only a feeding trough for a cradle. But her heart is sweetly surrendered to her God.
May this be the humble, submissive spirit of every one of us before our great and powerful and loving God. Is this your heart attitude? Has God’s powerful grace humbled you to do whatever He calls you to do? It may seem impossible, but if God is in it, nothing is impossible. Just look at this church. God always shows Himself strong to those who submit and obey His Word. “He’s able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we can ask or think” (Eph. 3:20).
Then suddenly, Gabriel’s gone. “The angel departed from her.” Back to glory, back to God, mission accomplished! And here’s Mary, all alone with her thoughts. Thank God Planned Parenthood wasn’t lurking around the corner ready to assure this teenage girl that she had every right to her own body, that no one could tell her what to do, that she has reproductive health rights, and if she decides after conception that this bit of flesh will make her life too hard, too crazy, come right over and we’ll help you take care of it. No, Mary took Gabriel’s hint about her relative Elizabeth and sets out to spend time with her. Her journey may have been to Hebron, a Levitical city south of Jerusalem, about a four-day journey of 60 miles. That is like walking from here to Petersburg!
Meanwhile back in Nazareth, Joseph has heard about Mary’s pregnancy and can’t believe she would be unfaithful to him. While he’s trying to figure out what to do, God breaks into his life with a dream and assures him in Matthew 1:20, “But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.’”
THE JOY OF KINDRED SPIRITS
Luke 1:39-45, Now at this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah, 40 and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 “And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me? 44 “For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. 45 “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.”
I don’t think there were two ladies of greater kindred spirits than these two. Matthew Henry notes how of all women, the two of them alone could freely talk about their conditions and experiences. Let’s notice what happens when Mary comes into the home.
First, John the Baptist leaps in his mother’s womb with joy. I read that at six months in the womb, a baby likes to listen to what’s going on in the mother’s world (internet). Imagine what they hear! John is so excited when he somehow realizes Mary with her baby has arrived that he wants to preach Christ from the womb and leaps! Remember, Gabriel told Zacharias John would be filled with the Spirit from his mother’s womb! Apparently, God gave John a new heart even before he was born.
Second, Elizabeth is so blessed to welcome Mary, even calling her the mother of her Lord, that she cries out loudly, “Blessed are you!” Here this older godly believer, filled with the Spirit, encourages this younger godly believer. The reality that God had chosen these two women in His great redemptive plan, fulfilling the Old Testament promises and bringing forth both the forerunner and the actual Messiah into this world, must have brought them both “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
Then Elizabeth builds up Mary’s faith in verse 45. “Blessed is she who believed what God had promised.” Here’s the secret of true joy and happiness in the Christian life – believe the promises of God’s Word. We can learn from Elizabeth’s counsel. Believe what God says. Nothing is impossible with God. When God says He’s going to do something, believe it. The omnipotent God is always faithful to His promises.
SO WHAT?
Thank God for the miracle of the virgin conception and incarnation of the God-Man, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Why did He come? To show us God’s love for sinners. To bear our sins in His body on the cross. And to bring us to God when we will submit our hearts to Him in faith. Hebrews 2:17, 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.