Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Luke 1:35 The Holy Spirit will come upon 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.
OF THE VIRGIN UNDEFILED
In sports to "showboat" is to do something in a striking way (when an ordinary effort would have been sufficient) in order to draw attention to oneself. God doesn't showboat. If the Lord does a miracle--works outside of or above the laws of nature--it is done for a reason and not just to make a "big splash."
The Virgin Birth of Jesus was far more than a dramatic entrance on the human stage by the Son of God. Instead, this miracle was carried out because of the purpose for which God the Son took our humanity upon Himself. We human beings were separated from the holy God by our sinfulness, the sinfulness passed down to each of us from Adam and Eve through our parents. "That which is born of flesh is flesh" (John 3:6). This inherited sinfulness meant that every human born in the normal way would enter the world a sinner--a sinner both separated from God and a sinner unable to fight off the Devil’s traps, tricks and temptations.
So, if God's Son was to be our Stand-in, our Substitute and Champion in taking on sin, Satan and death, He would have to be truly human, one of us, yet not a born sinner. God used the Virgin Birth to bring this to pass.
So this was personal, for you. Mary's womb was made the Lord Christ's throne-room for nine months, in order that through faith in His substitutionary life and death Jesus might one day rule in your heart.
Here a maid was found with child,
Yet remained a virgin mild.
In her womb this was shown:
God was there upon His throne.
(Veni Redemptor Gentium, III, Ambrose)
