{"id":121,"date":"2011-12-11T22:07:28","date_gmt":"2011-12-11T21:07:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=121"},"modified":"2011-12-11T22:07:28","modified_gmt":"2011-12-11T21:07:28","slug":"i-believe-in-the-virgin-birth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/?p=121","title":{"rendered":"I believe in the Virgin Birth"},"content":{"rendered":"

For almost 1700 years Christians of every denomination have worshipped God and declared their faith by saying together the Creed. That includes these words.
\n\u201cWe believe in the one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one Being with the Father.
\nThrough Him all things were made. For us men and our salvation he came down from heaven. By the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate of the virgin Mary, and was made man.\u201d
\nI believe in the Virgin Birth. Many people do not. But I do. Jesus was born of a woman \u2013 and that shows us that he is completely human, one of us. But the historical fact that Mary was a virgin shows us that Jesus is truly God with us, the Son of God born a man. For God to become a human being a miracle was required, and that miracle was the Virgin Birth.
\nMatthew 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. 19 Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
\n20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, \u201cJoseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.\u201d
\nThe Bible tells us that Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. Not in an ordinary way but in a totally supernatural way. Mary was his mother and God was his Father. Luke records that Jesus \u201cwas the son, so it was thought, of Joseph,\u201d and that reminds us that Jesus in fact did not have a human father.
\n22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 \u201cThe virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel\u201d\u2014which means, \u201cGod with us.\u201d <\/p>\n

So Jesus was not just a very special man. Jesus is the man who is God. Fully human and also fully divine. The 200% man \u2013 100% man and also 100% God. Immanuel \u2013 God with us. Many people have thought that because Jesus was God he was somehow different from us, special, different from ordinary human beings. Many people think that Jesus didn\u2019t really face the same problems we face \u2013 that it was all somehow easier for the Son of God. But that was NOT THE CASE.
\nJESUS WAS COMPLETELY HUMAN
\nOne of the earliest heresies the church had to battle with was the false idea that Jesus wasn\u2019t really a man. That he was like the mythical Greek gods sometimes did, just pretending to be human. A human being in outward appearance only, but not real human flesh like you and me.
\n1 John 4: 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.
\nHere was the false idea that Jesus only seemed to be human. That he was really only God, and not truly a man. John 2:7 Many deceivers, who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, have gone out into the world.
\nAnd there may be some people here today who have that same wrong understanding \u2013 who think that Jesus wasn\u2019t really human like you and me. That Jesus the Son of God was somehow different. A quick quiz: For example \u2013 did Jesus ever suffer from indigestion? Or flu? With all that preaching to thousands did Jesus ever lose his voice? With all that walking did he ever get blisters? Did Jesus ever have nightmares? Remember Jesus meeting the woman at the well.
\nJohn 4: 6 Jacob\u2019s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, \u201cWill you give me a drink?\u201d 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
\nJesus was exhausted. He experienced tiredness and hunger and thirst and pain just as we do. The Bible tells us that after 40 days in the wilderness being tempted by the devil, Jesus was hungry! Jesus was completely human. So totally human that it was only after the resurrection that his disciples began to understand that Jesus the carpenter\u2019s son, the rabbi, was in reality God Himself. Think about Jesus and his friend Lazarus.
\nJohn 11: 3 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, \u201cLord, the one you love is sick.\u201d \u2026 5 Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
\nJesus had friends. Not just disciples. Friends. Folk to relax with. Have dinner with. Play a few games, talk about life, the universe and everything. I wonder what kind of music Jesus liked? I wonder what hobbies Jesus had? Jesus had friends. He even had a best friend \u2013 remember the apostle John was known as \u201cthe disciple Jesus loved\u201d. But one day one of Jesus\u2019s close friends Lazarus died.
\nJohn 11: 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34 \u201cWhere have you laid him?\u201d he asked. \u201cCome and see, Lord,\u201d they replied.
\n35 Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said, \u201cSee how he loved him!\u201d 38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb.
\nJesus was deeply moved and troubled. Jesus wept! Jesus felt all the intense emotions we all feel \u2013 because of course so does God. The mythical greek gods were impassable, unfeeling. The God of the Bible has feelings, deep deep feelings. Of joy and sadness, sorrow and grief.
\nHebrews 4: 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are\u2014yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
\nJesus was God with us. He has faced all the temptations we face. The pull of selfishness. The pangs of greed and lust and bitterness and self-pity. He faced them all. The only difference is that we give in to temptations. We dwell on them and let them lead us into sin. But Jesus did not. He fought harder than we do and he beat the devil every time.
\nHebrews 2: 14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death\u2014that is, the devil\u2014 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. \u2026 17 For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
\nThe fact that God became a human being at all is indisputable proof that God cares for us. But God did more than that. He shared our experience of death to destroy the devil so that we could share God\u2019s eternal life. God didn\u2019t just identify with us in the incarnation. He took our place, the Creator murdered by His creation. But that would be 33 years on from the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.
\nBesides, the reality is that most people don\u2019t have any problem at all with Jesus\u2019s humanity. It is his divinity they can\u2019t take on board. Of course Jesus was human \u2013 most people would say. Jesus was a man \u2013 but that is all he was. And that is a mistake which is even more disastrous than denying Jesus\u2019s humanity. Christmas would be meaningless if Jesus was only a man. But the Bible makes it totally clear that Jesus was also the Son of God.
\nJESUS WAS COMPLETELY GOD
\nJesus was not just a very good man, not just a great teacher. The Romans wrongly believed that when their emperors died they were promoted to god-hood. But Jesus was not even a good man who at his death was promoted to being a god. Jesus always had been, always was, always is and always will be completely God.
\nJohn 1\tIn the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.<\/p>\n

The person of the Word, the second person of the Trinity, God the Son had always existed, even before time began. And it was that person who was born of the virgin in Bethlehem.
\nJohn 1:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
\nThe Creator enters His creation. The author enters into his own play \u2013 knowing that he will be murdered before he has the opportunity to write the script for the final act. The greatness of God was not cast off. The slightness of human nature was put on. The Word remained completely God with no lessening of His divine nature. Yet He also took on everything that belongs to our humanity to become Jesus of Nazareth. There were not two separate persons \u2013 God and man. It wasn\u2019t the case that God the Word was living inside Jesus the man, like Superman hiding disguised as mild mannered reporter Clark Kent. The Son of God actually BECAME Jesus of Nazareth.
\nHebrews 1: \tIn the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God\u2019s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word
\nHere is the radiance of God\u2019s glory and the exact representation of God, the creator and sustainer of the universe, born as a human being. We sing \u201cHe\u2019s got the whole world in his hands,\u201d and All the stars in the sky held in the tiny hands of the baby in the manger, the word without a word.
\nColossians 1: 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together
\nTHAT is the baby in the manger. The Image, the Firstborn, the Creator \u2013 everything created BY Him and FOR Him. The one who is before all things \u2013 before all time and space. And also preeminent before all things. The one who holds everything together.
\n19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
\nColossians 2:9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form,
\nChrist is the FULNESS of God \u2013 everything that God is, is there in that baby laid in a manger. Almighty. All knowing. Eternal. Holy. Righteous. All Loving. The fullness of God all in that tiny baby!
\n19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
\nHere is God\u2019s cosmic masterplan \u2013 that Jesus would be the Saviour, God becoming a human being to bring men and women like us back to God. The road runs from Bethlehem straight and stony, steep and long, through 30 years to Calvary. That was Jesus\u2019s mission. Immanuel, filled with all the fullness of God, came to share that fullness with sinful human beings in a fallen broken world. Only the Creator could repair His creation. Salvation was only possible by the miracle of the Incarnation. Christ became what we are, so that we might share what He is. He shared our humanity so that we might even share His divinity. The Word of God became a human being so that we might learn from one of our own kind what it is to be God. That is the mystery of Christmas.
\nLuke 1: 30 But the angel said to her, \u201cDo not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.
\nThat was Mary\u2019s baby, Jesus, the Son of the most high. For God to become a human being was IMPOSSIBLE. So it took a very special miracle \u2013 the Virgin Birth. Jesus Himself was unique. So we should expect his birth to be unique as well \u2013 in fact we would be very surprised if His birth was NOT very special!!
\n34 \u201cHow will this be,\u201d Mary asked the angel, \u201csince I am a virgin?\u201d
\n35 The angel answered, \u201cThe Holy Spirit will come upon 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
\nI don\u2019t claim to understand the virgin birth. None of us this side of heaven will ever understand how Almighty God could possibly become man in Jesus Christ. It is a mystery \u2013 a miracle \u2013 a miracle possibly even greater than the miracle of the resurrection. I don\u2019t understand the virgin birth. But I believe the Virgin Birth.
\nAnd it isn\u2019t the case that my belief that Jesus is God rests on the fact of the virgin birth. It doesn\u2019t work that way round. The first thing a person comes to believe is that Jesus is God, and we believe Jesus is God because of his amazing teaching and wonderful miracles and above all because of his glorious resurrection from the dead. But then, because we believe Jesus is God, we believe in the Virgin Birth, because the Bible tells us that is the way that God chose to become a human being.
\n\u201cFor us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven. By the power of the Holy Spirit He became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.\u201d
\nSo how do we respond to this man who is God? In these days more people than ever say the same as those cold hearted inn-keepers, \u201cNo room here!\u201d We would do better to follow the example of the wise men. When they saw the baby Jesus with his mother Mary, they bowed down and worshipped Him. We should do the same. Napoleon Bonaparte once said, \u201cIf Socrates came into the room, we would rise and do Him honour. But if Jesus Christ came into the room we should fall down on our knees and worship Him.\u201d Indeed we should. O come let us adore Him. O come let us adore Him. O come let us adore Him \u2013 Christ the Lord. Bow down and worship \u2013 for this is your God!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For almost 1700 years Christians of every denomination have worshipped God and declared their faith by saying together the Creed. That includes these words.…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/pbthomas.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}