We Believe in His Birth (2)
Apostles' Creed • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 3 viewsScripture Reading: Isaiah 7:14; 9:1–7; Luke 2:8–21; Matthew 1:18–25; Galatians 4:4–7.
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Nick Needham, in volume one of his five volume work on Christian History, sets the stage of our discussion of the Lord Jesus’s birth this morning.He writes,
“The Arian controversy was the greatest theological controversy in the history of Christianity. It was centered on the most fundamental of all questions: Who is Jesus Christ? Is He God in the flesh? Or is He just a created being like us? The Church had inherited from Israel its passionate belief in one God. It now had to work out how that belief in one God related to the adoring worship it offered to Jesus of Nazareth in its faith, prayers, hymns and sacraments.” Nick Needham, 2,000 Years of Christ’s Power, Vol. 1: 219
Arius, one of the earlier heretics in the history of the church, wrote a letter to a gentleman named Eusebius of Nicomedia, where he wrote,
“And before he [Jesus] was begotten or created or defined or established, he was not. For he was not unbegotten. But we are persecuted because we say, ‘The Son has a beginning, but God is without beginning.’” Arius, The Trinitarian Controversy, 30
Arius wrote another letter to an elder of Alexandria,
“We know one God—alone unbegotten, alone everlasting, alone without beginning, alone true, alone possessing immortality, alone wise, alone good, alone master, judge of all, manager, director, immutable and unchangeable, just and good…but the Son, begotten by the Father, created and founded before the ages, was not before he was begotten.” Arius, The Trinitarian Controversy, 31–32
What Arius taught was that Jesus is not God. Only the Father is God. Jesus is a begotten being. The Council of Nicæa which met in 325, which produced what is known as the Nicene Creed, rejected this antichrist view.
Arianism denies that Jesus is God, that He is equal with God. They deny the Trinity, a belief that we, along with countless of our brothers and sisters throughout 2,000 years of Christian History, summarized nicely in the Apostles’ Creed.
But you may say, Arianism isn’t a thing today! But history would disagree. You see, the heresy of Arianism does not originate in the 4th century. It began in the Garden of Eden in Gen. chapter 3.
But it has changed its focus and addresses throughout history. For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses today claim that Jesus is not God.
They claim,
“Are Christians to believe that centuries after Christ and after having inspired the writing of the Bible, God would back the formulation of a doctrine that was unknown to his servants for thousands of years, one that is in ‘inscrutable mystery’ ‘beyond the grasp of human reason,’ one that admittedly had a pagan background and was ‘largely a matter of church politics’?
The testimony of history is clear: the Trinity teaching is a deviation from the truth, an apostatizing from it.”
https://www.jw.org/en/library/books/Should-You-Believe-in-the-Trinity/How-Did-the-Trinity-Doctrine-Develop/
We believe in God the Father, and God the Son, we proclaim in the Apostles’ Creed. We believe that God took on human flesh. We believe in the God-man.
The phrase from the Creed we will examine this morning is,
…who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary…
We will consider this phrase from two perspectives, from a divine or redemptive-historical perspective, as well as from a human perspective, or what some term practical theology.
At the beginning it is wise to acknowledge that we cannot fully grasp this wonderful doctrine. Herman Bavinck once said,
“It is completely incomprehensible to us how God can reveal himself and to some extent make himself known in created beings; eternity in time, immensity in space, infinity in the finite, immutability in change, being in becoming, the all, as it were, in that which is nothing. This mystery cannot be comprehended; it can only be gratefully acknowledged. But mystery and self-contradiction are not synonymous.”—Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Vol. 2: 49.
I. We Believe in His Birth—the Divine Perspective
I. We Believe in His Birth—the Divine Perspective
The first perspective from which will view the virgin birth of Christ is the divine. I hope that we will, with the apostle Paul, worship our Triune God for this glorious doctrine,
Romans 11:33 “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”
A. His Virgin-Birth was planned in eternity- Eph. 1:3–23
A. His Virgin-Birth was planned in eternity- Eph. 1:3–23
*Trinity, Eph. 1:3–23
Our Triune God planned our salvation in Christ before the foundation of the world- 1:4
Our Triune God procured our salvation through the death and resurrection of God the Son—necessitating the incarnation (i.e., enfleshment, also called the virgin-birth)- 1:7, 20
B. His Virgin-Birth was prophesied after the fall- Gen. 3
B. His Virgin-Birth was prophesied after the fall- Gen. 3
“the seed of the woman” - the humanity of Christ through the virgin-birth
(*not your plural, but her singular, specifically of the woman)
“you [the serpent] shall bruise his heel” - redemption through suffering
Hebrews 2:10 “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.”
“he [Christ] shall bruise your head” - “glorious conquest over all the powers of darkness” (R. B. C. Howell, The Covenants)
1 John 3:8 “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.”
2 Timothy 1:10 “and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,”
Romans 11:33 “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”
C. His Virgin-Birth was foretold by the Prophets
C. His Virgin-Birth was foretold by the Prophets
Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.””
Genesis 12:1–2“Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”
Genesis 22:18 “and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.””
Galatians 3:16 “Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, “And to offsprings,” referring to many, but referring to one, “And to your offspring,” who is Christ.”
Hebrews 11:12 “Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.”
Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
Isaiah 11:1 “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.”
D. His Virgin-Birth ensured the salvation of His people- Isa. 53
D. His Virgin-Birth ensured the salvation of His people- Isa. 53
Isa. 52:13–53:12, particularly Isaiah 53:4–6 “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Without the incarnation, the Virgin birth of Christ, we would have no salvation.
II. We Believe in His Birth—the Human Perspective
II. We Believe in His Birth—the Human Perspective
A. His Virgin-Birth took place in history- Matt. 1:18–21; Luke 1:26–33
A. His Virgin-Birth took place in history- Matt. 1:18–21; Luke 1:26–33
Matthew 1:18–21 “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.””
B. His Virgin-Birth demonstrates the union of divinity and humanity
B. His Virgin-Birth demonstrates the union of divinity and humanity
There are an abundance of heresies that emphasize either Christ’s divinity to the exclusion of His humanity (or, outrightly denying it), or, they emphasize Christ’s humanity to the exclusion of His divinity (or, outrightly denying it).
But the Scriptures teach His divinity and humanity.
John 1:1–3 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only begotten Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Matthew 11:27 “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
*Hypostatic Union
“Theologians refer to the unity of Christ’s constitution as the ‘hypostatic union,’ for God the Son took a human nature into union with his person (hypostasis)….The hypostatic union is a personal union, such that two natures are joined in one person without change, separation, or confusion.” Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Reformed Systematic Theology, Vol. 2:795
“In Jesus there is a union of the divine and human: he is very God of very God and very man of very man.” Mark Jones, Knowing Christ, 27
Or, to put it like Kevin DeYoung, “He became what he was not without ceasing to be what he was.”
Jesus is fully human, and this will be see in the next few sermons we cover His life and then His death.
C. His Virgin-Birth is necessary- Heb. 2:14–18
C. His Virgin-Birth is necessary- Heb. 2:14–18
Hebrews 10:1–4 “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
Hebrews 2:14–18 “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
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.”
Anselm, writing around 1,000 A.D., penned a work titled Cur Deus Homo—why the God-man? In which Anselm provides biblical reasons why Jesus had to become man to save His people.
D. His Virgin-Birth guarantees our salvation- 1 Timothy 2:5
D. His Virgin-Birth guarantees our salvation- 1 Timothy 2:5
1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,”
Philippians 2:5–11 “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
We confess that we believe that Jesus, God the Son, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.
“In fine, as at his birth, choirs of heavenly Angels praised the incarnate Son of God in joyful strains, it is incumbent upon us to celebrate that great mystery of godliness, and God the author of it, with devout and unceasing praises. The blessed Angels begin the song; let us follow them with the voice and the heart. ‘Glory to God in the highest,’ who has exhibited a brighter display of his admirable perfections in this illustrious work, than he did of old in the creation of the whole universe! Glory to the Father, who has raised up, admitted, and given us such a Surety! Glory to the Son, who clothed himself with human flesh, and so cheerfully accomplished his surety-undertaking on our behalf! Glory to the Holy Spirit, the revealed and witness of so deep, so momentous, so precious a truth; and the earnest of so invaluable and longed-for salvation! Hosanna, blessed Jesus, thou true and eternal God, thou true and holy man! In the unity of thy person, we recognize both natures, each possessing its own distinct properties. Thee we acknowledge. Thee we worship. From thy hand alone we expect salvation. May the whole world of thine elect unit with us in knowing, acknowledging, and adoring thee, and thus be saved through thy blessed name! Amen.” Herman Witsius, Sacred Dissertations on the Apostles’ Creed, Vol. 2: 34–35
Heb. 10:19–25
