Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded

1. The Miraculous Conception: the Fact and the reason for it

In a recently published book a popular preacher gives his views as to the great facts of our Christian faith. He begins with the birth of our Lord and questions the miraculous conception and Virgin birth. His reasons are that only two of the New Testament writers speak of it: that nothing is based upon it, that the notion arose in the early church because it as supposed that natural conception was sinful, for which he quotes Psalm 51:5. There is nothing new in these views. Men who have pledged themselves to preach and testify to “the Faith once delivered to the saints,” have become bold and more bold in rejecting the truth as to our Lord’s entrance into the world. To quote from one of them: “I cannot help including the birth stories among things that do not matter. There are some things that matter a great deal. There are some life and death matters, if it comes to that, but this is not one of them. It does not matter.” It is my purpose to show that it does matter, that it is one of the foundation stones of our faith, and that apart from it the whole edifice of the truth must collapse and fall. Indeed, if it is not as revealed to us in the Word, there is no truth at all except that which would condemn us for ever, for apart from the miraculous conception and birth of our Lord there is no Saviour for men.

Many are the names and titles that describe the person and glories of our Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament. He is the Word who was with God in the beginning, and who was God; the Creator of all things, the Light of men, and the Life-giver; He is the only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, His Beloved in whom is all His delight; He is the Resurrection and the Life; He is the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His Person, who upholds all things by the word of His power; He is the Wisdom of God and the Power of God and the Lord of Glory, the Christ, who is over all, God blessed for ever, having an everlasting throne and ruling with a righteous sceptre; the Same yesterday, today and for ever; He is the Root and the Offspring of David, the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End; He is the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world, the Bread of God and of life, the Door of Salvation, the Son of Man with power on earth to forgive sins; He is the only Saviour and universal Judge, the Lord, having a Name which is above every name, before whom every knee must bend and in whose hand lies the destiny of every creature; He is the One who lives and was dead, and behold He is alive for ever more and has the keys of Hades and of death; He is Emmanuel, God with us, and in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; He is the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; and the bright Morning Star; the true God and Eternal Life; and the I AM.

Some of these names belong to Him as having become Man, and as having died and risen again; others describe what He was before the pendulum of time began to swing, or ever the world was made — what He is in His own uncreated, unchangeable and eternal Being. To these latter belong “the Word,” “the only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father,” and “the Son” whom the Father only knows. By these names, He is distinguished as to His personality in the Godhead, but being one with the Father and the Holy Ghost in the Godhead, He shares in every title that belongs to God, such as “the blessed and only Potentate, King of kings and Lord of lords; who only has immortality, dwelling in light which no man can approach to; whom no man has seen or can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen” (1 Timothy 6:15-16), We should not be subject to the Father’s decree, “that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father,” if we did not acknowledge this.

We are to consider the entrance of this august Person into the world and to enquire what manner of birth was His who bears all this glory. That He was born of a woman is not disputed; He was a true and proper Man and not a phantom; and yet we must not, we cannot lose sight of the fact of who He was before He became Man. Every other man born into the world began to be at his conception, and came into the world as a personality that had had no former existence; but our Lord Jesus Christ was rich before His poverty in Bethlehem; He thought it not robbery to be equal with God before He was found in fashion as a Man; He was the Word before He became flesh; God’s own Son who was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, made of a woman, when the fullness of time had come (Galatians 4:4). This glorious pre-existence surely means that the birth of our Lord into this world was not as the birth of any other man that had ever been born; it was an incarnation, the coming of a Divine Person into a condition in which He had not been before, to carry out all the will of God and be the Saviour of us men.

His birth was a unique event; the greatest, the most amazing that had ever happened; greater by far than the creation of man at the beginning, and unless our minds are darkened to the true meaning of it, we should certainly expect that it would be brought about in some other way than by the ordinary laws of nature; we feel that a Divine Person must have a supernatural birth, and this feeling is established and confirmed by the Word of God.

We open the New Testament and find on the first page of it the story told in simple language and in about 250 words. It is a subject on which the imagination might have run riot, as it did in the numerous fables and legends that gathered about it as spirituality declined and superstition advanced in the early centuries of the Christian era; but in this God-breathed account of it, the imaginations of man’s mind are excluded, and every sentence of the story bears the Divine imprimatur. “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying. Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take to thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name JESUS; for He shall save His people from their sins.”

This then is the beginning, the door through which we enter into the New Testament and into the realm of infinite and eternal blessedness that it reveals to our souls. It is the beginning of the revelation of God to man, and we must not refuse the beginning if we are to advance to its climax and completion. The fullness of time had come, and the voice of the Son spoke and said, “A body hast Thou prepared Me … Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O God” (Hebrews 10:7). It is said that only two of the New Testament writers make mention of the Virgin birth; well, if that is so, two witnesses are enough, and at their mouth every word shall be established; but does not this saying, “A body hast Thou prepared Me” give a third witness? It surely involves the miraculous conception; it proclaims the fact that the will of the flesh or the power of man had no place in it, but that the will and wisdom of God combined to prepare that holy incorruptible body within the womb of the Virgin-mother.

Matthew’s Record

There are two accounts of this great event. Matthew’s Gospel records the communication to Joseph by the angel, and Luke tells us of the annunciation to Mary. And when we discern the respective characters of these two Gospels and the way the Lord is presented in them, we have no difficulty in seeing how perfect these records are, each in its own place. Matthew unfolds the glory of the Lord as King. His Gospel is “the book of the generation of JESUS CHRIST, THE SON OF DAVID, the Son of Abraham.”

He came as the Heir to the throne of David and to establish and fulfil all the promises made to Abraham. But here was a difficulty; while Jesus Christ was the long-promised Heir, Joseph stood in the direct line of succession and was the legal heir, as this genealogy proves. And this was recognised by the Lord’s messenger when he saluted him as “Joseph, thou son of David.” He was an obscure village carpenter, proving the truth of the words of the prophet that the tabernacle of David had fallen down and lay in ruins (Amos 9:11), and yet he showed traits of true royalty according to God, in his mercy to the weak, and as he thought, failing, and in his trust in the Word of God and obedience to it.

It was right that he should have been addressed by the angel, not only because of his own personal concern as to the condition of his espoused wife, but also because of his care for the integrity of the succession to the throne of David. It might appear a foolish and futile thing to have been concerned about the latter, seeing that six centuries had passed since the sceptre had departed from the house of David, but faith holds on to the promises of God, even when human strength has failed and every visible hope has fled; and Joseph was a man of faith. And being a man of faith, he did as he was bidden by the angel of the Lord and took Mary to him as his wife, without hesitation or further misgiving; and by so doing, he cast the protection of his name about her, and made her first-born Son, his Heir — the legal Heir to David’s throne. And this would be a matter of the greatest importance to those pious Jews who were looking for the Christ, the Son of David, and for whom this Gospel was written in the first place.

But there was a matter of even greater importance than what was due to Joseph and the integrity of the Royal line and the necessity of Jesus Christ being the legal Heir to the throne; there was God’s own integrity and His faithfulness to His Word. And these were made good and revealed in the words, “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” That was the most astonishing prophecy that God ever gave through a prophet’s lips; it meant as we hope to show the intervention of God in a new and personal way for the deliverance of His people; it foretold something that would be outside and apart from all the power of man, and it was fulfilled when the espoused wife of Joseph conceived by the Holy Ghost and brought forth a Son, whose name was called JESUS, the Saviour of His people from their sins.

In that lowly Babe, the Virgin’s Son, conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, the Son of David and Heir to his throne, Jehovah the Saviour, and Emmanuel, the two Testaments are bound together; the hopes of the Old and the faith of the New unite in Him, and we can with exultation take up the prophetic word and join with Israel and say, “Unto us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be on His shoulders: and His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and justice from henceforth for ever. THE ZEAL OF THE LORD OF HOSTS WILL PERFORM THIS” (Isaiah 9:6-7).

Luke’s Record

The Gospel of Luke was written to a Gentile believer and has the world in view rather than Israel; consequently there was not the same necessity as in Matthew’s Gospel to show that the birth of the Lord was in accordance with the prophecies made in the Old Testament to Israel. In it, the Lord is presented as true Man, born of a woman, come in grace to all men, and there was not the same need to give Joseph the prominence that he has in Matthew’s Gospel, where the true heirship to David’s throne was vital. But there was need that all people to whom “the good tidings of great joy” as to the Saviour, who is Christ the Lord were brought, should know from whence He came and how, that they might understand and appreciate the fact that His coming was all of God and in sovereign grace. The annunciation to Mary, a lowly daughter of David’s house, and espoused to a working man, brings out this grace in its unsurpassable richness and charm.

Gabriel’s message from God to Mary is divided into three parts. First, the salutation which proclaims the greatness of the favour that God was to bestow upon her, unknown and poor though she was. She was chosen by sovereign grace, from among all women to be the vessel by whom God would bring about His great purpose. Second, there was the revelation of what this purpose was. “Fear not, Mary,” said the angel, “for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name JESUS. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give to Him the throne of His father David: and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.” He that was to be born to her was to be the Son of David, and to have His father’s throne: that she might have understood, seeing she belonged to the house of David, but how could He be JESUS — Jehovah the Saviour? How could He be called the Son of the Highest? The Highest is the title of God in His supremacy over all the earth, and in heaven; the One whose word and ways none may challenge, and who will manifest Himself thus in the coming Millennial Kingdom. How could the Son of her womb have the right to be called His Son? We do not wonder that she asked that question; it was a right and proper question to ask, and it brought out the third part of Gabriel’s message from God which enlightened her as, to how it was to be brought to pass. “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, 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.”

This last utterance of the angel, who stands in the presence of God, requires no comment. It drives away all doubt. This conception was miraculous, it was by God’s power, it was God’s work. Man and his corruptible seed had no part in it; the Son of Mary was holy and undefiled, He was the Son of God. “It is not here the doctrine of the eternal relationship of Son with the Father. The Gospel of John, the Epistle to the Hebrews and that to the Colossians, establish this precious truth and demonstrate its importance, but here it is that which is born by virtue of the miraculous conception, which on that ground is called the Son of God” (J.N.D.). And if unbelief says it is contrary to every law of nature and impossible, faith answers in the words of Gabriel, who knew God’s power so well, “with God nothing shall be impossible.”

The Necessity of the Virgin Birth

The fact that men need a Saviour, a Deliverer, is evident everywhere, and has been all through their history since the fall. And the first promise that one should appear followed swiftly upon Satan’s triumph over man in Eden, and it came forth from the mouth of God. “The Seed of the woman,” said He to the victorious serpent, “shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise His heel.” If Adam had been able to recover himself and bruise his tempter and conqueror beneath his feet, God would have stood aside and let him do it, but there could be no hope from him or from any that he could beget. If he had fallen a prey to Satan’s subtlety when he stood erect in the plenitude of his powers, how could he by any means recover what he had lost now that he was defeated and fettered and lying under the sentence of death by God’s just decree? and all his progeny were powerless like himself.

“By one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and death passed upon all men for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). The hope was not in Adam but in the woman’s Seed. It was He, whoever He might be, who was to destroy the great destroyer of our fallen race, and deliver us from his power. The New Testament tells us plainly who He is. “For this purpose,” says 1 John 3:8, “was THE SON OF GOD manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” And Hebrews 2:15 tells us that THE SON — in whom God has spoken in these last days — because “the children were partakers of flesh and blood, also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death, He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” It is plain from these Scriptures that the Seed of the woman is the Son of God, and we are told that “all the promises of God in Him are yea and in Him. Amen.”

The first promise prepares us for the Virgin birth and we are not surprised to read, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Emmanuel.” And if unbelief declares that to be impossible, faith answers, Yes, with men it is impossible; and that is the great and solemn fact that this God-given sign throws into prominence, it is the very lesson that God would teach by the manner of His intervention. Men are unable to save themselves. and unable to find amongst even the best of Adam’s fallen children one man who can redeem his brother, or give the just ransom for him. Every man needs a Saviour for himself, and because of that, God has stepped in and has provided the Man — the Kinsman-Redeemer, but He has done it in a way that humbles the pride of man and sets him aside. “A virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” The Virgin’s Son would owe nothing to man; His very presence in the world would be independent of man. His coming into the world would be God’s work. It would be God’s intervention in miraculous power and sovereign mercy — the salvation of the Lord. So we read that in due time, Mary brought forth her firstborn Son and “wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” Thus came Emmanuel, apart from all the power of men and outside the abodes of men, for not only could not men produce the Deliverer, but they did not want Him when He came.

Does it Matter?

Like produces like. This is one of the fundamental laws of nature as established by God. It is stamped upon the Creation chapter — fish, fowl, and flesh were all ordained to bring forth each “after his kind.” And man could do no other than this. “Adam,” we read, “begat a son in his own, likeness, after his own image” (Genesis 5:3). And so it has been throughout all the generations of men. Sinful men beget sinful children. Therefore it is written, “They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies” (Psalm 58:3), and “all we like sheep have gone astray” (Isaiah 53:6), and “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). In the great penitential Psalm, David confesses, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me,” which simply means, ‘I have come of a sinful stock, my very nature is sinful,’ and this is true of every man born into the world. Does it matter then or does it not, how the Lord was born into this world? Had He come by natural generation, would He not have been as every other man? To deny the Virgin birth is to deny His pre-existence in the Godhead, and to deny the holiness of His Manhood, and apart from these two great truths as to His glorious Person, He could not have been the Saviour.

It is said that nothing is based upon this great truth in the New Testament. But everything is based upon it; it is the foundation of everything that follows. I stress the fact that it meets us on the first page of the New Testament, that it is the door through which we enter into the full revelation of God. Apart from it, we have no intervention of God for His own glory and our salvation; Jesus is not the great I AM, but a mere man like the rest of men, and we have no sinless Saviour. How, apart from the miraculous conception and the Virgin birth, could the Lord have said, “I know whence I came. I proceeded forth and came from God. … Verily, verily I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (John 8); or how could Peter have applied to Him the words of the Psalm, “Thou wilt not suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption” (Acts 2:27), or the Apostles have spoken of Him as God’s Holy Child, Jesus (Acts 4:30). Or how could Paul have spoken of Him as “Christ who is over all, God blessed for ever” (Romans 9:5), or as “the Second Man, the Lord out of heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:47); or how could John have insisted with such persistence on the fact that Jesus is the Son of God, and is now the great object of faith, the true God and Eternal Life?

For ourselves, we linger with the shepherds as they gather round the Babe in the manger; we press into the house with the Magi from the East and worship the young Child with them. We own Him to be truly Man — sinless and holy; but more, for we confess Him, as did Thomas, when He saw His wounded hands and side after He had risen from the dead, OUR LORD AND OUR GOD. And we say as we consider the manner of God’s intervention for His glory and our eternal blessing, “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been His counsellor? or who has first given to Him, and It shall be recompensed to Him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things; to whom be glory for ever. Amen.”