The Glory of Christmas (Part Two)

This week we are seeing the glory of Christmas and yesterday examined that glory in the light of the Christ Himself. Today we see God’s glory expressed in Christmas by the power of Christ’s coming…

The Power of Christmas (Luke 1:34-37)

To be sure, Mary was shocked (v.34) by this angelic message. She was a clinical virgin (parthenos) and a practical virgin (“never been intimate with a man”). This is the issue of course, of the “virgin birth” or, more accurately, the “virginal conception.”

In a recent survey of Protestant seminary students, 56% said they believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, but that means that 44% of people training to fill the pulpits of American churches don’t! Does it really matter? Let me give you five significant reasons for the necessity of the virgin birth of Christ…

1.    To fulfill OT prophecy (Gen.3:15)

2.    To avoid the curse on the seed of Jeconiah, yet still be eligible to claim the throne (Jer.22:24-30)

3.    To avoid receiving a human father- Jesus already had a Father, the heavenly Father, and did not need another.

4.    To avoid the creation of a new person, as is normally done in conception. Mary’s conception would not be the creation of a new person, but the incarnation of an eternally existent Person!

5.    To make Him a unique person- both God and man. Jesus would be like His brethren so that He could take their punishment, but different from them so that he could save us!

No wonder Mary struggled with all this! It is here that we see another member of the Trinity introduced into the Christmas story. There is no way to underestimate the significance of the Holy Spirit in the conception of Christ- or in the following ministry of Christ. Hear the angel’s words (vv.35-37)…

• “The Holy Spirit will come upon you”- notice the tender, chaste way these words are said. The impending pregnancy will be by divine power!
• “Power of the Most High will overshadow you”- this phrase also speaks of the Holy Spirit! In Gen.1:2, we see the Spirit overshadowing creation, in Exodus the tabernacle. It is even the same thing that is in view with the inspiration of the Word of God! The same Spirit that inspired the Written Word generates the Living Word! The result is that the body of Jesus was created in Mary’s womb by the direct activity of the power of the Holy Spirit! (cp. Heb. 10:5- “a body prepared!”)
• “The holy child”- this result of this conception would be a child that was utterly holy- how? Through the miraculous work of the Spirit of God. Leviticus says that a woman was made ceremonially unclean by childbirth because she brought another sinner into the world. The angel tells Mary, “Not you!” Man + woman = sinner, but Spirit + woman = Savior! The virgin birth would be the only way to get something holy into the human race! David confessed for us all that we are conceived sinful (Ps.51:5)- but NOT Jesus! He was born of a woman to make Him a suitable “kinsman-redeemer”, but He was eternal God in order to be able to accomplish redemption’s reconciliation between God and man. Wow!
• “Called the Son of God”- it doesn’t say that Jesus would become the Son of God, or created the Son of God. He already was that from eternity past. He would be declared- recognized and acknowledged for His true person as God the Son.

As the Son is the person in the glory of Christmas, so the Spirit is the power in that same glory. Tomorrow we close by seeing the praise that the glory of Christmas elicits…