Conceived by the Holy Spirit, Born of the Virgin Mary
For Meditation
Up to this point in the creed, the truths we have affirmed have been big, high-level affirmations about the being and nature of God. In this next phrase of the creed, we suddenly dive into human history. We begin to tell the story of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels, starting with the “annunciation” of Mary, the conception of Jesus in the virgin’s womb.
It might feel a bit strange to you that this is included in the Creed. After all, Mary’s conception is only mentioned in 2 of the 4 Gospels, and does not seem to be a big preoccupation of Paul or the other early Apostles. So why would the early church think that it was so important to include it in the Creed?
The virgin birth is not just some random miracle. It is the foundation of our belief that Jesus is both fully God and fully human. On the one hand, the fact that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit means that Jesus was not simply a human like the rest of us. If he were just a man, then he would share our sinful nature and thus share our need for redemption! He would be part of the problem, not the solution. There had to be some essential difference between Jesus and the rest of us humans if he was indeed to be our Savior, as we affirmed last week.
On the other hand, if Jesus is only God, he has no point of contact with us. He can’t relate to those who need redemption. His humanity provides a point of contact, and allows him to actually represent us in his suffering and death.
Jesus has to be fully human and fully God to be our redeemer, and that truth hangs on the truth of the virgin birth.
Finally, and very relevantly to our current crisis, the truth of the incarnation is of the greatest comfort to us in our human predicament. We worship a God who is not detached from our human experience, but has come down among us to share it. God himself has experienced profound social isolation, as the Son was separated from the Father and the Spirit to bear our sin.
As you prepare for worship, contemplate all the ways that God himself, in the person of Jesus, experienced the sadness, loss, isolation and loneliness that many of us are experiencing at this time.
LUKE 1:26–38
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and 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?”
35 The 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. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
MATTHEW 1:22–23
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).