“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. 19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. 20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 “BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL,” which translated means, “GOD WITH US.” 24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, 25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.”
If the Roman Catholics make too much of Mary, mother of Jesus, we as protestants too often, I think, do not make enough; or perhaps we make too much of her in a different sense, with our speculations and assumptions.
We do not really know a great deal about the historical Mary. Much of what people think they know is largely a compilation of tradition and religious speculation.
We think she was young, although that could mean fourteen or it could mean twenty-four or any age in between, since people in their mid twenties were still considered very young in that day and culture. On the other hand, we really only know from the Bible that she was a maiden, so from that we infer her youth.
The verse from Isaiah that is quoted by Matthew, Isaiah 7:14, uses a word that could mean a number of things, but Jewish Rabbis will be quick to point out that there is a different Hebrew word that more specifically refers to a virgin, which Isaiah did use in other places but not here.
So the debates go on and on, Christian teachers insisting that the prophecy refers to a virgin and Jews insisting that it refers simply to a young unmarried woman of marriageable age.
Rabbi Tovia Singer, on a web page, answers the question of a visitor to the site saying,
“The stakes are high for Christendom, because if the Hebrew word alma does not mean virgin, Matthew is misquoting the prophet Isaiah, and both a key tenet of Christianity and the credibility of the first Gospel collapses.”
I am certain that this Rabbi is very sincere, but this Rabbi is sincerely wrong. In the ancient world and especially in this culture it was a given that a young, unmarried woman was by definition a virgin. Therefore whether this word employed by Isaiah can be used otherwise or not, virginity is at least implied.
Of course we would also add here that as Christians we attribute all Scripture to the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, and we include the New Testament in the definition of Scripture, so we believe Matthew’s writing to be from the same source and accompanied by the same authority as Isaiah’s.
[A personal aside here: Isn’t it amazing that men can believe God powerful and able to do the astounding things recorded for us throughout Scripture, but will not attribute to Him the ability to bring forth life from a womb without the aid of a man? After all, the first time He did it from the dirt!]
I don’t want to go into a study of the Isaiah passage here, but it will suffice to say that Isaiah was prophesying to Ahaz that the northern confederacy of Aram and Israel would not overcome the southern kingdom of Judah, giving him a sign that would indicate how soon Isaiah’s prophecy would come to pass.
A young woman will have a child and while he is still very young the alliance between Aram and Israel will be broken. That’s all there was to the historical application.
It is the Holy Spirit, through the Gospel writer, who reveals to us that the words of the prophet also had meaning in regards to the Messiah.
It is the Gospel writer, not the Old Testament prophet, who employs a word that specifically refers to a virgin, and no matter the terminology of the Old Testament prophecy, what we need to understand is that this all happened to Mary before she and Joseph came together – that’s in verse 18 of Matthew 1 – and after the angelic visit to Joseph’s dream we see that Joseph went ahead and married her but kept her a virgin until after the Child was born – that’s in verse 25 – but most importantly, and I think this tends to get overlooked in all the hubbub that is made over whether or not Mary was a virgin…most importantly, - and remember that this news came not through a man but an angelic messenger – the Child in her was conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Let’s talk today about why that is significantly important for us to understand.
HE ENTERED THE WORLD OF HIS OWN VOLITION AND PLAN
“Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” John 18:37
When we come to study this portion of Matthew’s narrative, in which he explains the historicity of the announcement of the conception of Jesus and the subsequent human response, we cannot do so separately from a consideration of the theology behind it all.
We as Christ-followers know and worship a triune God. That is, a God who is three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
That is fundamental. If you do not believe that, if you cannot on some level understand that, then you are not a Christ-follower; you are not a Christian.
If you are a Christian, and you have understood that we serve a three-Person Godhead, then as you come and read these verses of our study today you think about what has been said when the angel tells Joseph that the child in Mary was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and you realize that this is part of a plan arrived at by this three-Person Godhead in advance.
Then when you continue to read and you come to verse 21, you see that the angel explains further, “And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins”. And you realize that this is the One predicted all through the Old Testament, indeed, from the first promise of God in the Garden of Eden that a Redeemer would come to crush the serpent’s head.
If you are familiar with your Bible and you continue to ponder this text further, you might even remember a reference the Apostle Peter made in his first letter, chapter 1 verse 20, that this One was known as the Christ since before the foundation of the world.
In other words, believer, before sin, before man was created, before the world was hung in place, this triune God determined that the Christ would come into the world to save sinners.
So when the angel says to Joseph that the Child in Mary is conceived of the Holy Spirit and has come to save His people from their sins, the angel is in essence saying, He came into this world of His own volition and according to plan.
No one else who has ever lived can say that. In very many cases, babies that come into this world through the natural process of the joining of a man and a woman and the fertilization of an egg and the growth of a fetus to term until the time comes for that baby to be pushed down the birth canal and out into the outside world, - in very many cases that whole process begins unplanned.
Not only does the baby not have any consciousness of the process, it was not originally in the mind of the parents to begin this life either. We call it an ‘accident’; an unplanned pregnancy.
But this Jesus, who also was born into the world in the natural way – although conceived in a supernatural way – came into the world with a purpose already in mind, with you already in mind, because His plan and purpose was to save His people from their sins.
HE WAS A MAN UNLIKE ANY OTHER MAN
“Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.” Luke 1:34-35
The next thing we understand from what the angel has said to Joseph is that Jesus was a man unlike any other man.
“Behold”, quoted the Apostle, “the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel’ which translated means, ‘God with us’.
In the context of Isaiah’s prophecy the name Immanuel was an assurance that God was concerned and acting on behalf of His people.
Translated for us by Matthew it meant that God had come among us to tabernacle with us; dwell with us.
In the Person of this Man, Jesus, God walked the earth.
Having been conceived by the Holy Spirit, this Man was entirely without sin. God and human nature could not have dwelt as One if that were not so. The Spirit can reside in the born again believer because through the finished work of atonement accomplished by Christ at Calvary, the sin of the believer has been put away and he is reckoned justified and fit to be in the Father’s presence in the righteousness of God the Son. It is only because of that reckoning that God can indwell the human believer.
Not so in the case of Jesus. His death was for our atonement only, not His own. He did not need salvation because He was without sin; and He wasn’t without sin by virtue of a sinless life, but because in Him there was no sin nature, nothing for sin to appeal to.
Remember that in the angel’s explanation to Mary he used the term ‘holy Child’. The Child was holy. He was holy even in the womb, because His nature is holy. This was God, incarnate, in the womb of the woman.
Not only was He unlike any other man in that He was without sin, He was also unlike any other man in that being sinless He was able to go down into death on behalf of others.
Sinful man can only die as just recompense for his own sin. He cannot pay that price for any other. Jesus, Immanuel, was able to make atonement for the sin of all.
"Man’s maker was made man that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast; that the Bread might hunger, the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired on its journey; that Truth might be accused of false witness, the Teacher be beaten with whips, the Foundation be suspended on wood; that Strength might grow weak; that the Healer might be wounded; that Life might die."
- Augustine
HE WAS ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH SALVATION
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Mark 10:45
We need to talk about this some more, for enough can never be said about it.
His name is Immanuel. God with us; God for us. God by our side; God on our side.
God has sent many men and women into the world and used them to do great things, to accomplish great works of peace, art, humanitarianism and so on. They were all born of a man and a woman.
Jesus our Immanuel was born of a woman but not any man. I am repeating myself. It bears repeating.
He was without sin so that He who knew no sin could be made sin for us so that we might become right with God in Him.
He also was sent into the world to accomplish great things; things greater than any man or woman of history; things only the sinless, holy Son of God could ever accomplish.
In coming into the world He confirmed God’s promises.
In coming into the world He revealed the Father to us.
In coming into the world He was able to become our faithful High Priest.
In coming into the world He was able to put away sin.
In coming into the world He destroyed the works of the devil.
In coming into the world He gave us an example of a holy life.
In coming into the world He prepared for the Second Coming!
If Christ had come the first time in the way we look for Him the second, He could only have come in judgment. Our sins would not have been atoned, we all would have been lost and without God and a Holy Messiah could only have come to destroy.
But He came into the world to save sinners, and in so doing He prepared His chosen ones to be received as sons and daughters when He comes to reign.
It all comes back to this, believers! Everything we have learned about our salvation from sin and Hell, everything we have believed about the return of our King to rule and reign from the New Jerusalem, every wonderful promise we have believed concerning our everlasting glory in the kingdom of Heaven, all of it comes back to this truth; that the virgin conceived a Son, and called Him Jesus, for He came to save His people from their sins.
INFANT HOLY, INFANT LOWLY
Infant holy, Infant lowly,
For His bed a cattle stall;
Oxen lowing, Little knowing,
Christ the Babe is Lord of all.
Angels winging, Praises singing, Noels ringing,
Tidings bringing,
Christ the Babe is Lord of all.
Flocks were sleeping, Shepherds keeping
Vigil till the morning new
Saw the glory, Heard the story,
Tidings of a gospel true.
Thus rejoicing, Free from sorrow, Praises voicing
Greet the morrow;
Christ the Babe was born for you!”
- Polish carol
A little-known verse from CROWN HIM WITH MANY CROWNS
Matthew Bridges, 1852
Crown Him the virgin’s Son, the God incarnate born,
Whose arm those crimson trophies won which now His brow adorn;
Fruit of the mystic rose, as of that rose the stem;
The root whence mercy ever flows, the Babe of Bethlehem.
