Jesus: The Son of God

It is the impossible work of the virgin conception of Christ that makes our salvation in Christ possible.

It’s a well-known story from the 1990s, that interviewer Larry King was once asked, “who he’d like to interview if you could interview anybody from throughout time, anybody ever”. This is a story that’s now famous in Christian circles. My guess is you’ve heard this story before. It’s an illustration used quite a lot, because King’s response was that he would want to interview Jesus Christ and ask him if in fact he was born of a virgin. Because, as King said, if that were true, it would define history. And he’s right of course, it would define history, if that is true. I was looking into that story about Larry King and that interview, and I came across two intriguing things. When a certain apologist reached out to him to ask King if he could use that story in his ministry, King responded through a mutual friend. He said, quote, “make sure he knows I was not being facetious”. So, he doubled down on it. He said, no, no, no, I really mean this. This is who I would interview. This is what I would ask because this would define history. I also came across a Christmas Eve panel discussion with Larry King that he hosted in 2004 that included John MacArthur, Deepak Chopra, a Jewish columnist, a text critic, and a priest. It was like a setup to a joke, actually. It’s a group of people together. And as you can imagine, in that room, with that panel, there were a lot of varying views on Jesus, and who he is. I thought John MacArthur’s head was going to explode at one point listening to some of those descriptions of Jesus. Chopra was predictably, vaguely spiritual. Dennis Prager, the Jewish guy, surprisingly thought Christianity was great, even though he doesn’t believe any of it, which I thought was weird. But it was the text critic.

There was a Newsweek columnist named Jon Meacham, who, in my opinion, offered the most interesting take. He said that what a lot of people don’t know is that in the gospels, quote, “the Nativity is almost an afterthought”. His argument is that the central event of the life of Christ is the crucifixion and resurrection, and with the Nativity, is as more of a side note. And to make this case, he points out that only two of the four gospels even contain a story of the Nativity. Well, as you know, I like to find areas where I can agree. And so, I believe that the central act of Jesus’s ministry, and the focus of all human history, is made clear in the four gospels by the death and resurrection of Jesus. Clearly, that’s the central focus. The cross is where God’s grace meets God’s justice. It’s the reason that we are justified before the Lord because God looks at Jesus’s death and accepts Jesus’s death as our punishment for our sins. So, it’s in Jesus’s death that we have life, and everything that has been accomplished across the world for Jesus and for the church and power by the Spirit, is because of this one central act of atonement. That is true. And I would agree with him as far as that goes. But I would suggest to Jon Meacham that the reason a lot of people don’t know that the Nativity is an afterthought in Scripture is because it is not an afterthought in Scripture. It is not a side note. I’ve never understood the argument that if something is only recorded in the Bible twice, then it’s not really that important. Another way to say that is, this thing is so important, it’s recorded in the Bible twice, right? That’s another perspective on the same thing. If I repeat to my kids, if I say something twice to my kids, that’s not because it’s not important. They don’t wait around to see if I say it four times to make sure that it’s important, right? The genealogies, the announcements, the Nativity of Jesus, they take up four full chapters of Scripture, and they do so for a good reason. They center on the miraculous birth of Jesus, a fact without which there would be no significance to the death of Jesus. Let me say that again. If it were not for the virgin conception of Jesus, there would be no significance to the cross of Christ. That’s how important it is. Were you to remove the Nativity of Jesus, the cross would cease to have any theological significance at all. It’s the impossible work of the virgin conception of Christ that makes our Salvation in Christ possible.

If you would, please open to Luke Chapter 1. We’re going to be in verse 34 today. I will also have it on the screen. Last week, we started out by looking at the announcement of Jesus by focusing on Jesus as King. We saw how Jesus is the promised Messiah that Israel has been waiting for. Gabriel says that Jesus will be given the throne of his father, David. But what’s unique about his reign is that unlike David, who died and was then succeeded, Jesus will be King forever and his reign will be eternal. His reign and his realm are never going to end. This week we’re going to shift focus to the miraculous nature of Jesus’s conception, which not only explains why Jesus’s reign is eternal, it also tells us why Jesus can save us at all. After I read this passage, I want to approach this from two different angles. First, we’re going to look at the miraculous method of Jesus’s conception, and then we’ll look at the theological significance of Jesus’s birth.  We’re just going to look at four verses this morning beginning in verse 34. “And Mary said to the angel, ‘How will this be since I am a virgin?’. And the angel answered her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy-the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God’. And Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word’. And the angel departed from her.”

Let’s start with the miraculous conception of Jesus. Sometimes this is called the virgin birth. But there’s nothing particularly virginal about Jesus’s birth. If you want to say virgin birth, that’s fine, I’m not going to nitpick on that. But the miracle is that Mary is a virgin when she conceived a child. Which is impossible. That’s the reason for her question to Gabriel. How can it be that she will bear a son if she does not know a man? That’s the literal translation of that phrase there. Some people have wrestled with this question since she’s already betrothed to Joseph. Why didn’t she just assume that Gabriel was talking about the son she would eventually have with Joseph? That, that son would be the Messiah? But I don’t think that’s really a problem because the way Gabriel phrases this in verse 31, it sounds like this is the next thing that’s going to happen to Mary. She found favor with God, and she’s going to conceive and bear a son. There’s no mention of Joseph here. So, she’s thinking, we’ve got some more betrothal to go here before I can have a son with Joseph. So how is this going to work? How can this possibly be? By the way, that question sounds a lot like Zechariah’s question to Gabriel, doesn’t it? Right after he heard that he was going to have a son. So, he ended up mute for nine months. Why doesn’t Mary have anything happen to her? You have to remember that Zechariah’s question has doubt in it. There’s doubt there. “How will I know?” That was Zechariah’s question. But Mary’s question is confident because she just wants to know the plan. How will this work? I agree that this is going to happen. How, is it now going to happen? Well, here’s how, the Holy Spirit will come upon Mary, and the power from the Most High will overshadow her. This phrasing is pretty remarkable in the way that it ties together the imagery of God’s spirit and God’s presence in Scripture. The Spirit coming upon Mary is the same phrase that Luke records Jesus using in Acts 1:8 when He tells the disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you”. So there, Jesus is describing the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost that will now indwell all of God’s disciples. So, for Mary, the conception will be an act of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, just as later in the church they’ll be supernaturally enabled to carry out the work of ministry. That’s the first part of that. The power of the Most High is also going to overshadow her, it says. When the Lord would come in glory in the Old Testament, right, this is Old Testament imagery now. When the Lord would come in glory onto his tabernacle, onto his temple, there would be a cloud so that the people couldn’t see through. That’s how God would overshadow his presence on Earth. So in the same way that God would come and be in the presence of his people, and in the way that he would empower them for ministry by his spirit, Mary would simply conceive a son. That’s how God would empower her through the Spirit, he would overshadow her because of his presence.

You can see why people have struggled with this for 2000 years, because there’s no method of physical action. None at all. It’s just a spiritual presence. And this has caused great consternation among non-Christians and even among some Christians who struggle with miracles, because it’s hard to understand. What we just read is the most detailed explanation of Mary’s pregnancy in the entire Bible. Part of the reason why Islam, for example, rejects Christianity, and particularly the trinitarian nature of God, is that they think that the Bible teaches some sort of sexual union with Mary. Muslims I’ve spoken to have actually told me this. They believe that’s what the Bible teaches. In fact, the Koran pretty strongly implies a view of the Trinity that as it’s taught by Christians, the Trinity consists of the Father, Mary and Jesus. Now, not all Muslims would say that’s what the Koran teaches. They would dispute that, to be fair. But I’ve actually read it, and it sure looks like that’s what it says. That’s what a Muslim conception or perception of the Trinity is: the Father, Mary and Jesus. If you’re struggling with this, or you know people who do struggle with this, let me say two things that are going to kind of help with the mystery here, and the difficulty with this. First of all, an all-powerful God who spoke the universe into existence can surely make a virgin conception happen. Agreed? Okay, so if everything that is, exists by the word of God, that He spoke all of this into existence, He can pull this off. Most people who struggle with the virgin conception of Jesus have a hard time with all miracles. That’s really what they’re saying. I don’t understand God interacting in the world. I struggle with all miracles. But as Gabriel says to Mary here, “nothing is impossible with God”. You see that? Even she struggled with how this could possibly be. And Gabriel reminds her, look, there’s a God. There’s a powerful God that created all of this. Nothing will be impossible if God is in the equation of how you’re understanding what’s happening to you. And second, and here’s where I think most of the comfort for me comes. It’s supposed to be mysterious. There’s supposed to be mystery here. That’s what Gabriel is explaining. The reason the cloud overshadowed the tabernacle in the Old Testament when God descended into it, was to create a protective barrier between a Holy God and an unholy people. They couldn’t look directly at the Lord, but that left the people with some mystery. That the power of God overshadowing Mary leaves mystery. That’s why we sing songs like Come, Behold the Wondrous Mystery of the Dawning of the King. Right? We acknowledge that, it’s okay to live with some mystery when considering the work of God because he’s God. Because he doesn’t explain everything to us.

I love how when Gabriel is explaining this to Mary, he brings in what’s also happening to her relative, Elizabeth. These two ladies are going to get together for a three month visit that we’re going to look at next week, and they’re going to be pretty happy about what’s happening with them. Gabriel brings Elizabeth into the explanation to show that God is enacting a plan that includes more than just Mary. It requires more miracles than just what he’s doing with Mary. Elizabeth in her old age is also going to have a son. Now, the fact that these are put together like this allows us to put them side by side and compare them. And I want you to notice something. These two pregnancies, I want you to notice something about these. Even though both pregnancies require miracles, Mary’s requires the greater miracle. Let’s see, Elizabeth’s pregnancy is in line with the tradition of old age pregnancies that we see actually throughout the Bible. We’ve seen this in Scripture, but Mary’s is something completely different. She will have a son without a human father. And that creates a link to only one other historical person that has ever existed. Adam. He’s the only other person who has ever not had a human father. God breathed life into the sinless creation of the first man. And so, when you trace Adam’s genealogy, if you only go back one step, you know, when he was doing his family tree, it was like, there’s me, and then there’s God, and that’s it. It’s a whole thing, right? Which is exactly what Luke is going to do two chapters from now when he traces Jesus’s line all the way back to Adam. And then he states that Adam is, you guessed it, the Son of God. I believe this verse here shows what Luke means by the phrase Son of God. Jesus is the new Adam. He has only God as his father. And like the first man who was created without sin, Jesus will enter the world without sin. Which is why he can be declared holy before he’s born. Later, in Luke chapter 22, when Jesus is standing before the Council of Priests and Scribes on trial for His life, after He explains who he is, the Jewish leaders ask him, “Are you saying that you’re the Son of God?” And when he affirms that, that’s all the Jewish Council needs to convict him of blasphemy. Because Jesus is saying that he has come directly from the Lord, and He’s the Holy Messiah that they’ve been waiting for.

And now we start to get to the theological significance of this act. Now, when I say the phrase, the theological significance of the virgin conception, your eyes might glaze over a bit and you might start to think, is this going to sound like a lecture from Professor Bushre on some ivory tower theological? A topic that won’t have any impact on my week at all? Maybe. I hope not, though. I hope that you’re going to stay tuned here. Just dial in with me here for just a minute because all theology that comes from scripture is practical. It is all practical, and it is all life shaping. If you’re having a rough week and you say, I want to cling to Jesus. Right? You’re having a terrible time in your life. You say, I want to cling to Jesus. Good, good, I hope you do. But there needs to be a good reason for you to cling to Jesus. There needs to be a good reason for you to put your trust in him. Why do you put your hope in him? Why not put your hope and find your peace somewhere else? And you say, “well Kyle, it’s because of who Jesus is”. I agree. I agree. Christology is the study of the person and the work of Christ. The Virgin conception of Jesus is essential for labeling Him the eternal God that I can trust. Instead of, just a guy who had some good ideas that I like to listen to. Huge difference there. Gabriel tells us directly what Jesus’s miraculous conception will do. This is from 35. The last part of verse 35, “therefore the child to be born will be called holy-the Son of God”. This is our launch point for a little bit of a broader study here. When something is called holy, it means that it’s clean or righteous. It is set apart for the purposes of God. So, for example, the priests in the Old Testament would go through rituals to be recognized as holy before they could enter into the presence of the Lord, to enter into the temple and perform their duties. Items, things like shovels, could be set aside as holy if they went through a special process of cleansing. The idea here is that God’s creation is stained with sin. It cannot stand in the presence of him or serve or worship him unless somehow that stain is removed. The only way anything can stand before God is if that stain of sin is removed. And when it’s removed, that thing is called holy. That’s holiness. Jesus will be called holy from the moment of his conception. He won’t be made holy through ritual cleansing. He will just be called holy. How can that be? How is that possible? Every single person who is born into this world is born into sin. They are born into a broken creation, and they are born as part of that broken creation. King David himself said, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” He’s not accusing his mom of anything. He’s explaining that his own sin flows out of a state of sinfulness that he’s had from his birth.

The state of sin is the curse on the whole world that began with Adam and Eve’s rebellion. Theologians call this the Original Sin. This is the state of sinfulness that all of creation now exists in. Sinful rebellion against God. It isn’t just something we do. That’s how we normally conceive of it. We think of sin as something we do. But it’s also a state we’re born into. See, we’re sinners by choice, but also by nature. Paul makes this argument in Romans 5. Look at the flow of sin from Adam to the rest of creation. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”  Basically, Adam opened the floodgates of rebellion, and now the world is in a sea of sin that completely engulfs us. The curse of sin is passed down from our father, Adam. We can’t escape sin because we can’t escape the sin nature that we inherited from him. It’s built into what I might consider to be a spiritual DNA. It’s just part of being in this world. It’s correct to say a person sins because he chooses to sin. That’s true. But it’s also correct to say that a person sins because he’s born into sin. You know that nature/nurture debate that often goes round and round about; oh, did this person make this choice because of who they are or because of bad choices, were they brought up in this choice, or was it just who they are from birth? The reason that’s a debate is because the answer is both/and. Yes, we are sinners by nature, and we are sinners by choice. But now listen to Paul just a few verses later describe what Jesus’s free gift of grace will do, because of the problem of original sin. “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience, the many will be made righteous.” So, one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all people. That’s Adam’s sin against God. But one man’s act of righteousness now leads to justification in life, and that’s Jesus’s act of dying in the place of sinners on the cross. That’s His act of obedience, His obedient life, leading to the final act of obedience to the Father by going to the cross. Adam’s disobedience threw this world into sin and death. Jesus’s obedience pulls us out of sin, and it gives us life. So, the first son of God corrupted the world. But the Son of God that we celebrate every Christmas, wholly from his birth set apart for God’s purpose of salvation, created a new world for those who are justified by His death on the cross. Paul explains this one act of righteousness in 2 Corinthians 5:21. “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” How can Jesus bear the punishment for our sin? How can he be made sin for us? Well, here’s how Paul says, He knew no sin. That’s how, He knew no sin. He didn’t have sin in his life. He didn’t break God’s law or turn away from God’s love at any point. He was actively obedient. But Kyle, didn’t you just say that if we’re a descendant of Adam, we have a sin nature that we can’t escape from, and therefore we’re born into sin? Yeah.

So the only possible way for a man to have no sin nature is to be born outside of the curse of Adam. We need a man who does not descend from our father, Adam. We need a new son of God. We need a man who doesn’t inherit his nature or his state from our fallen father, but instead gets his nature directly from his Heavenly Father. You see that? The Virgin Conception of Jesus isn’t just a wonderful story. It’s not just a miracle to impress us or to convince us that Jesus is important. It’s not just an example of Jesus’s humility. It’s necessary because it’s the first step to the cross. If Jesus bore the curse of Adam, he could not bear your curse. If he was born under Adam, he could not bear our curse. If Jesus labored under his own sin, he could not labor under our sin. God has shown us something life changing when He declared Jesus to be holy. This precious baby boy born of a virgin, outside of the curse of sin, both makes us holy, and he shows us holiness.  That’s how I want to conclude this morning. I want to talk about how He makes us holy, and how He shows us holiness. First of all, He makes us holy. You and I are never going to be holy on our own. It’s never going to happen. Sin for us is like water to a fish. We cannot escape it. It is all around us. It is everywhere and in us. In our own effort, holiness is unattainable. Even if you think you’re on a track toward it. You’re not. Holiness is unattainable. Don’t come to me with, “Oh, he’s a good person”, “she’s a good person” nonsense. Do not say that. I don’t care how nice your grandma was. It doesn’t matter. God’s standard for holiness is he who knew no sin. Will you ever attain that? Will you ever attain, I knew no sin in my life? You will never attain it and can never attain it. No sin. Not less sin. Not a comparatively better sin rate. No sin. But thankfully, the holiness that God requires is the holiness that God supplies. Because it’s embodied in the holiness of His Son. And this Holy Son of God will give you, His Holiness. He will give you His standing before the Lord if you will give Him your sin. If He bears your sin, then you are declared holy. Jesus is holy. And you become holy if you are covered by the grace of Jesus. But it doesn’t just make us holy. He shows us holiness. You know, if Jesus hadn’t come, we would have no pristine example of what it looks like to walk in perfect communion with God. We wouldn’t know what that looks like. We’d have some very good examples of what it might look like, of people who love the Lord and walked with Him for a time. You might look at a few people in your life like this. You might have some people in your life that you would say, “when I think of holiness, I look to this person because they seem to walk in righteousness”. Maybe even your dear, sweet old grandma. You look at her and you go, “that’s a woman that I want to look up to”. And you think there’s someone who walks in righteousness. We’ve got some grandmas here at Calvary like that. We got some wonderful grandmas. You look at them and go, “wow, they seem to really love the Lord”. But go ask them. Go ask them. They don’t mind. They don’t care. They would love for you to come ask them. Go ask them if they walk in righteousness before the Lord? Ask them if they are pristine examples of holiness that God requires? And they’ll set you straight. Those grandmas do. They’ll tell you quite simply, they are not. They are not. But they have been made holy by Jesus. And now they walk closely because He provides us with the only perfect model of divine obedience. If you want to know what it means to be holy, follow them because they follow Jesus. And so, we study Jesus. We walk closely in His steps. We look to Him for guidance. Because He shows us the steps to living out our new holiness, because we’ve been declared holy by Jesus, and we can’t find that example anywhere else. Would you pray with me?