Jesuss Birth by a Virgin Woman - Essay Example

Jesus’s birth by a virgin woman The union of the divine and human natures was accomplished in the incarnation, by the power of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary1. This is because, before Mary and Joseph became a couple, Mary was pregnant with the child of the Holy Ghost (Mathew 1:18)2. The birth of a child to a woman is not a miracle since some argue that a virgin is an unmarried woman, however, there are many unmarried women who are giving birth shamelessly. Therefore, for the Virgin Mary to give birth is indeed a miracle; the Savior was to be born of a virgin woman. The incarnation prophesies in Genesis 3:15, was fulfilled in the seed of a woman who is a virgin bearing a son. Therefore, this is a miracle. If Jesus had been born into the world just like all other men, this would have had grave consequences since it would disqualify Jesus Christ from being the worlds savior. The virgin birth is so basic for the incarnation that it leaves no room for compromise. The bible states or implies that Mary (Jesus’s mother) was immune from the original sin. She was more so preserved from all stains of original sin. The original sin is normally removed by baptism, but in Mary’s case she was never subjected to the active essence of original sin. At the same time the state of original sanctity, innocence, justice i.e. Opposition to original sin was conferred upon Mary thereby excluding every stain and fault, depraved emotions, passions and disabilities pertaining the original sin. However, she was not exempted from the temporal penalties of Adam; that is from sorrow, sickness and death. The reincarnation of Jesus Christ therefore, demanded for a perfect human nature. His coming through the womb of a virgin was significant so that he could have a perfect human nature. The eternal Son assumed a nature, not a person in the incarnation. The nature is called the holy thing. Therefore, the virgin birth of Jesus is tenet to Christianity and Islam, which holds that Mary miraculously became pregnant with Jesus Christ while still remaining a virgin. This is because the conception did not involve a natural father, and sexual intercourse or male seed implanted in her womb, but, instead brought about by the Holy Spirit.3 The Miracle of the Virgin Birth God sent angel Gabriel to Nazareth to a town named Galilee to find the Virgin Mary4. Mary, the mother of Jesus was pledged to have been married to Joseph5, a descendant of David, but before they could come together she became heavy with a child conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit6. Since Joseph, her husband, was a righteous person and did not to expose her to the public ridicule, he thought of divorcing her quietly so as to avoid disgracing her. But after he had considered this, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and subsequently informed him not to fear taking Mary as his wife at home, since what is conceived of her is from the Holy Spirit, and that she will consequently give birth to a son whom they will name as Immanuel. The name generally means ‘God with us’. Joseph woke up the following morning and did as the angel had commanded her and thus took Mary as his wife7. This was important since Joseph was considered as the human father of Jesus Christ (Davies & Stevan 44). Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea at night, he was wrapped in clothes and placed in a manger mainly because there were no rooms available for them. This gesture signified that he was a down to earth Messiah who would thus help everybody equally without discrimination. Additionally, he would be a humble servant while minding every body’s needs. The incarnation of Jesus Christ is both a mystery and a miracle (Romard 23). The mystery is the godliness. God manifested himself in flesh. If we try to explain his virgin birth we lose our reason, since Christ did not have a human father after the flesh. Therefore, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb, Mary was truly his mother. An additional miracle was necessary to prevent the transmission of taint through her and this miracle took place in her womb. In the moment of conception, the Holy Spirit laid hold on that part of the virgin’s flesh, out of which the body of Jesus Christ was to be formed and purified so as to fulfill angel Gabriel’s reference that she would give birth to a holy son (Luke 1:35). Another aspect of super naturalness in the Lords conception was that in the exact moment of conception, the Holy Spirit took humanity and deity and fused them together, making it possible for the Lord Jesus to come as the God-Man. Subsequently, the spirit was the love note between our lord’s two natures. In such a miracle there was no violation of the laws of nature but the introduction of the Holy Spirit as a new agent. This new agent supplied the seed that Joseph would have provided if he and Mary had been man and wife. Mary was however terrified to hear that she would conceive and bear a son through the Holy Spirit. She recalled the words of prophet Isaiah 7:14 which said that the Lord himself will give a sign. Mary was perplexed; she reverently accepted the words of the Holy Spirit through faith and sought to know how such a matter could be accomplished. She finally learned that the Holy Spirit was the source of life in all creations. As a result, she willingly yielded her body to the Holy Spirit and said that may it happen to her according to the word or scripture. Within no time she brought forth her firstborn son (Kärkkäinen 45).8 Divine interventions were not only given to Mary and Joseph but also to the shepherds who had heard about the birth of the holy one. The shepherds9 were out in the field keeping watch of their flocks at that time. During the night, the angel of the Lord appeared to them and consequently showed them God’s glory. Although the shepherds were terrified, they still believed in God. To dispel their fears, the angel informed them that he had brought good news. The news was very vital since it implied that a savior had been born in the town near them.10 They were further told that the baby would be wrapped in clothes and would be lying in a manger. The shepherds then travelled to Bethlehem and surprisingly enough found the baby as they had been told. They further spread the news about the birth of Jesus to others. They returned to their homes glorifying what they had heard and seen.11 Another minor miracle during that time was the appearance of the star in the east which guided the Magi who had travelled for three nights to go and see the born Messiah. The Magi had carried gifts to present to Jesus Christ. There was a distinct phenomenon, a supernatural light which by direct revelation of God went ahead of them and located the exact spot where Christ lay. This was a supernatural announcement of the supernatural birth of the Savior. Since the wise men were students of scripture and astronomy, God used the star which they were familiar with to guide them to the one and only king of the Jews. Upon finding him, they rejoiced and called the star his star.12 Teaching Elements of Jesus’s Miraculous Birth Concerned with the significant matter of the revelation of the outward sign, he who rejects the outward sign must have other contents as well. The sign here was the virgin’s birth, from fact incarnation, he who objects it makes it look like a dogma (Barth 34). This is because biblically it is only thinly attested in one of the main passages. In spite of non-separation of the sign of virgin from incarnation; it thus fails to show why the miracle of Christ incarnation may be taken as a relevant parallel. The only sign of Christ in the Christmas story is about the swaddling clothes by which the shepherds would recognize the fulfillment of the promise. However, the gospels don’t say much about the virgin birth. The virgin birth reveals the new and sovereign activity of God in his son assuming human nature, but to contrast neotic and ontological is to make an a priori separation in the one mystery all aspects in which incarnations and virgin birth are intertwined. The aspect of virgin birth is made known to us as part of an indivisible totality. Therefore, the virgin birth of Christ should not be burdened with problematic signs, facts or form, contents or relationships, I.e. the specific functions of males in the world should not be undermined, yet the sign ideas appeals to many as it does not lead to offensive conclusion. It contains no tendency to neither disqualify marriage nor prove Christ sinless. Thus the virgin sign implies Gods sovereign grace, virgin birth over and against the inversion of synergism that so often enters the doctrine of salvation (Berkouwer 65). Conclusion The virgin birth of Christ was a miracle and had historical significance since it also fulfilled the prophesies of Prophet Isaiah and prophet Micah concerning the birth of the Messiah. This prophesies were thus fulfilled when Jesus was born. These prophecies were majorly about the virgin birth and Bethlehem respectively. Therefore, the special birth of Jesus by the holy Virgin Mary was meant to be understood as an allegory of a special initiative. The miraculous conception of Jesus is the subject of the first element of Mary’s question. The second element is how the child will be born, which foreshadows themes that would later be presented in St James gospel that Jesus’s birth was not natural because Mary remained a virgin even after giving birth to Jesus Christ. Therefore, St James makes it clear that Jesus birth was a miracle since no male individual was involved. Further, St James argues that since God caused Mary to conceive, it thus follows that Jesus is Gods son. Jesus is more so portrayed as the son of God from the very beginning of his conception and birth. He is a divine logo that forms the universe. The purpose of preserving Christ connections with Adam in the incarnation was to eliminate the appearance of any complexity new factor in the creation. And in order to establish this contact with Adam, the son of God received a human form from the virgin margin Mary. Both of these factors; the absence of a human father and the cooperation of the earthly mother testifies the recapitulation of Adam. If God could take dust off the ground and form a completely new and perfect man instead of allowing Jesus to be born as the son of the ordinary husband and wife, all the descendants of Abraham could have been born, Christ’s birth would have been unlike Adams and would have had no similarity to the creation of man. Mary’s virginity bears witness to Christ resemblance to Adam i.e. to his humanity’s Works Cited Barth, Karl. Church Dogmatics Study Edition 3: I.2. Sections 13-15. London: T & T Clark, 2010. Print. Berkouwer, G C. The Work of Christ. Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co, 1980. Print. Bible, Holy. "New international version." Grand Rapids: Zondervan (1984). Print Davies, Stevan L. The Infancy Gospels of Jesus: Apocryphal Tales from the Childhoods of Mary and Jesus-Annotated & Explained. Woodstock, Vt: SkyLight Paths Pub, 2009. Print. Kärkkäinen, Veli-Matti. Christ and Reconciliation. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2013. Print. Romard. London: Romard, 2014. Print. Read More