I love the Apostles’ Creed. That’s right. I absolutely love it. Its power to combine scriptural depth with such clarity of expression is simply overwhelming. Not a bit of wonder it has gone down in Church history as a work of unparalleled grandeur.
Since Christmas time is just around the corner I want to take the Creed’s famous line concerning Jesus’ Incarnation- “Conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary”- and unpack its dense theological meaning. Today we’ll focus on the meaning of the first clause: “Conceived by the Holy Spirit.”
This phrase seeks to remain faithful to biblical texts such as Matthew 1:18, 20 and Luke 1:35 wherein the birth of Jesus of Nazareth is attributed exclusively to the hand of the Spirit of God. Joseph’s seed had nothing to do with it. It was a wholly divine affair. Even Mary was completely passive in the entire event. She did nothing. It was all of the Lord. Christmas, then, is about what God wrought. That’s why He gets the glory. God’s Spirit came upon Mary and mysteriously conceived the human nature that the eternal Word of God was pleased to assume in the virgin’s womb. Man was set aside as God unfurled His extravagant glory.
Another element worth noting is the unison in which the Son and the Spirit work together in the Incarnation. Human nature is only brought into reconciliation with the eternal Word by means of the Holy Spirit. This observation also has a special transcendence for any man (woman) birthed of God. We human beings are brought into communion with Christ through the Spirit of God. In some sense the Incarnation is an analogy of what happens during regeneration. The Spirit unites us to the Word. The apostle John connected these two ideas (the Incarnation of Christ and the new birth) in John 1:12-14. Both the Incarnation and salvation are Trinitarian events.
The fact that the Creed appeals to the conception by the Holy Spirit also means that it is by the Holy Ghost that God acts among men. In Jesus’ case the Spirit makes Him to be a revelation bearer whereas in our case we become revelation recipients. The grace of God manifests itself amongst us wherever the Holy Spirit is present. No one can know the truth but by the Spirit. It is He who opens our eyes, unplugs our ears and transforms our heart of stone into one of flesh. As Paul put it, “The Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, no man knows the things of God, but the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10-11). It is only by the Spirit that we can have true knowledge of the Most High.
The final point I’d like to make is that the conception of the Holy Spirit shows us that what happened to Jesus goes way beyond the modern limits of biology, chemistry and physics. There can be no scientific explanation of what went on in Mary’s womb. The Incarnation is not meant to be mathematically analyzed but reverently adored. Such a mystery should enrapture us in worshipful awe. How can it be that the Word descends to earth? Or that God should walk among us? Or that the Son takes on flesh? When God moves, miracles occur. His hands aren’t bound by technical laws and systems. He is beyond the scientific enterprise. Science is the Spirit’s servant, never His master. Hidden away from the eyes of mankind in the womb of a virgin, the Holy Ghost does the undoable and makes possible the impossible. Shall anything be too difficult for God?
This Christmas be sure to remember that the Incarnation is of completely divine origin, that human nature is brought into peace with the Word by the Spirit, that it is in the Spirit that God acts among men and that the Breath of God is never tied down by scientific principles. The Spirit of Christmas preaches to us that nothing is impossible.
Written by Will Graham
