The Apostles’ Creed: God The SonSample

Jesus’ Generation: Luke 1:34-37 The Apostles’ Creed speaks of Jesus’ generation with these words: [He] was conceived by the Holy Spirit, And born of the Virgin Mary. Admittedly, there were some very unusual details related to Jesus’ conception and birth. First, he was conceived by the Holy Spirit rather than by a human father. He was also conceived in a way that did not violate his mother’s virginity. When the Apostles’ Creed says that Jesus “was conceived”, it has in mind that Jesus began in the same way that all human beings after Adam and Eve have begun: as a tiny baby in his mother’s womb. Passages like Matthew 1:18, Luke 2:5-6; Galatians 4:4 and Hebrews 10:5 indicate that God formed Jesus in Mary’s womb in the same way that he molds every human baby. Luke 1:34-37 records this conversation between Mary and the angel Gabriel regarding Mary’s pregnancy: "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.... For nothing is impossible with God" (Luke 1:34-37). Mary herself recognized that to conceive a child in this way would take a miracle. And a miracle is exactly what she got. It is sometimes argued that Jesus could not have been truly human because he did not have a human father. But the very first humans didn’t have fathers either, or mothers for that matter. As Genesis 2 tells us, Adam was molded from the dust of the earth, and Eve was created from Adam’s rib. Neither of them had parents. Neither of them was born from a woman. But they were both fully and truly human. In the same way, Jesus was also fully human even though his conception was far beyond ordinary. And from all that we know from Scripture, Jesus’ growth in Mary’s womb was also a perfectly natural event, culminating in his birth. He did not appear magically, or descend from heaven at the moment he was born. On the contrary, Matthew 1 and Luke 2 indicate that Mary’s pregnancy was at first undetected, but then became obvious. It even caused her fiancé Joseph to question her fidelity, until God told him the truth in a dream. And the final result was that Jesus was born as a real human baby.