Jesus, Being Conceived in Mary's Womb, Joined Spirit to Flesh (Saturday, Week 1 of Advent 2011)

What Did Jesus Do?

“…that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.”
Matthew 1:20-21

“Oil and water don’t mix.” This may be the first chemistry lesson most of us learn. It is about as basic an example of insolubility, of the inability of one substance to bind/merge with, or dissolve into, another, as we can find. There was a time when it seemed as if our flesh and God’s Spirit were quite as incompatible as oil and water. The Lord himself said about as much when he told Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6) No one had ever known of anyone having been born of the flesh and the spirit. But the truth, which the Lord came to reveal, and which Nicodemus struggled to grasp, is that Jesus, being conceived in Mary’s womb, joined Spirit to flesh.

Of course, Nicodemus wasn’t the first person to struggle to understand this lesson in “divine chemistry.” Mary herself, when the angel Gabriel appeared to her to foretell the birth of the Lord, couldn’t help but respond with a “How will this be?” (Luke 1:34) And when Joseph, Mary’s betrothed husband, learned that she was pregnant, he assumed the worst, never once imagining the truth about the child conceived in Mary’s womb, until an angel also spoke to him. (Matthew 1:20) We can hardly fault Nicodemus, or Mary, or Joseph. It would have been absurd for anyone to suggest that they were going to join their flesh to God’s Spirit. But what is impossible for man is possible for God (Luke 18:27), and I suppose there is nothing that would seem more impossible to us than the joining of flesh and Spirit. But that’s exactly what the Father did in sending the Son to earth to be born of woman—joined his Spirit with our flesh!

And we all have good reason to recall this truth, and offer much thanks and praise to God for it, for without it, there would never be any hope whatsoever for lost sinners. You see, it demanded nothing less than the union of God with man, in the person of Jesus born of Mary, to accomplish the work of redeeming fallen humanity. Our flesh is simply too impure, too stained by our sin, to ever offer a fitting sacrifice. Only God, who alone is holy, is so pure. Yet, humanity having rebelled and sinned against God, it was necessary that one who was fully human accept and bear the burden of our sin. In the joining of Spirit and flesh alone is salvation to be found. Only Jesus, born of the Spirit, born of woman, whose very name means He saves, could accomplish the impossible mission.

The Father still desires for his Spirit to be joined to our flesh, and in and through the Son he causes men, women, and children, to be reborn of the Spirit so that they, by believing in Jesus, should have eternal life. Advent is an excellent opportunity for us to think about when the Spirit and flesh became one in Jesus, and, if we are believers, to recall when we were made one with Christ by the Spirit. Others may yet, this Christmas, be led by the Spirit to come to the manger, as it were, for the first time to receive the good news of the Savior’s birth in their very heart, and so be joined to him now and forever, in and of the Spirit.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4