The Conception and Birth of Jesus – What Now? continued

     He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. He was born of a virgin.

     We’ve already discussed how Jesus, in order to be qualified to undo our previous conditions, could not be born of a man because of “original sin”. Through one man sin entered into the world, and life through Jesus Christ. This is why Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

     Mary was a very special individual. Here was a young girl – probably in her early teens – who was minding her own business, and along comes an angel calling her “highly favored”. Consider for a moment what that meant: she was chosen among all the girls in the world to bear the seed of God inside her. She would be in danger of being stoned for becoming pregnant out of wedlock, her fiance would probably publicly denounce her, her parents would disown her, the whole town would turn against her. “Highly favored”??

     But what did she say? First of all, she didn’t understand how this would happen. Obviously she had a real relationship with God because she doesn’t appear to doubt the angel. She only asked “how can this be”? The response was that the Holy Spirit was going to “overshadow” her.

26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, 27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. 29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. 30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. 31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. 32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: 33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. 34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? 35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

     Strongs defines “come upon thee” as “coming on the scene” (so to speak). He truly came to her and “overshadowed” (Strong’s 1982 meaning to throw a shadow upon, to envelop in a shadow, to overshadow).

     Essentially, the Holy Spirit came to Mary and enveloped her in His power and presence and placed the seed of God in her womb. She became a human incubator for Jesus Christ.  As you can see in the above scripture, Mary was a virgin who had “not known a man” in the sexual sense of the word. Therefore, the embryo which was Jesus – the Word of God that was made flesh (John 1:14) – was in no way tainted with the blood of a human.

      Sin is passed on from generation to generation through the blood lines. In this way, Jesus was free from “original sin”, and was free to operate outside the curse of the first Adam and begin a new thing in the earth that is still being offered and at work to this very day.

     Without the virgin birth, Jesus would have been a “mere man”. Now, he was put on the same level as the first Adam before the fall. He would be the first person able to experience a true “second chance” at doing things differently and taking back what the first Adam gave up.