The Mediator of the Covenant, Part 2

I'll just jump right in with no preliminaries.

Today's topic (mainly, since I didn't get very far this afternoon), is the Virgin Birth and the humanity/divinity of Christ. (I do not know about you, but that latter is one of the most mind boggling doctrines in Scripture!)

Christ’s divine-human personality began at the instant of His miraculous
conception in Mary’s womb, when the angel Gabriel uttered the words to the virgin: “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you!” (Luke 1:28). (34)

Christ became incarnate, i.e., fully human, so that, as God and man in one person, He might take sinful man’s place before God’s law and satisfy God’s justice in his behalf by bearing in Himself man’s punishment for sin. In Philippians 2:5–11, Paul says that Christ existed in the form of God and, at the same time, existed in the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. (34-35)

There is a short discussion of Isaiah 7:14...

The four points Isaiah stresses in 7:14 are: (1) The virgin birth is a sign; (2) The mother of the Child is one who is both unmarried and a good woman; (3) The very presence of the Child brings God to His people; (4) The name, Immanuel, cannot be applied to anyone who is not God, therefore the human child of the virgin is also God. (36)

The Spirit's part in the incarnation:

In the incarnation the Holy Spirit created the humanity of Jesus from Mary, His mother....Because of the work of the Holy Spirit Christ “was born a true man, thinking, willing, and feeling like other men, susceptible to all the human emotions and sensations that cause the countless thrills and throbs of human life.” 44 Abraham Kuyper, The Work of the Holy Spirit (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans,[1900] 1966), 83. (38)

In the incarnation the Holy Spirit preserved Jesus’ humanity from sin....From His conception throughout His life, Jesus was “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,” because of the work of the Holy Spirit. As the Son of God He was eternally holy and without moral blemish....Therefore it can be said, that whereas Christ was made SIN for us, He was never a SINNER. (38)

The incarnation and the Trinity:

What was the role of God the Father and God the Son in the incarnation? The Holy Spirit effected the conception of Jesus. This is not to say that He is the Father of Jesus, or that the other Persons of the Trinity had no part in the incarnation. Just as in the creation of the universe, so in the incarnation all Three Persons of the Trinity
were active. Furthermore, it is Biblical to say that the Two Persons of the Trinity, the Father and the Son, worked through the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. (39)

"...The relation of the Holy Spirit to the human nature of Christ is that of Creator and creature. It is the first Person of the Trinity, not the third, who is Christ’s Father [Eph. 1:3].”47 The Holy Spirit is the executive of the Godhead, the agent of the will of God, carrying out the will of the Father and the Son. 47. Edwin Palmer, The Holy Spirit (Philadelphia, PA: Presbyterian and Reformed, [1958] 1964), 65–66 (39)

The two ways in which man becomes a sinner by birth, were not in effect in Jesus, who was kept sinless by the Holy Spirit from conception. (40)

What is the importance of the doctrine of the Virgin Birth?

First...The integrity of Christianity as a religion of redemption stands or falls with its reality. (42)


Second, belief in the virgin birth is important with reference to the authority and trustworthiness of the Bible. (42)

Third, the issue of the virgin birth and incarnation of Jesus is important "as a test for a man to apply to himself or to others to determine whether one holds a naturalistic or a supernaturalistic view regarding Jesus Christ." 54. Machen, The Virgin Birth of Christ, 387. (43)

Fourth, this issue is also important because it makes it impossible for us to separate the “Jesus of history” from the “Christ of faith,”... (44)

Fifth, a person’s knowledge of the Savior would be incomplete without faith that the New Testament passages on the virgin birth are true. (44)

Sixth, "the knowledge of the virgin birth is important because of its bearing upon our view of the solidarity of the race in the guilt and power of sin.… How, except by the virgin birth, could our Saviour have lived a complete human life from the
mother’s womb, and yet have been from the very beginning no product of what had gone before, but a supernatural person come into the world from the outside to redeem the sinful race?" 57. Machen, The Virgin Birth of Christ, 395. (45)

To summarize: believing what the Bible says about the virgin birth of Jesus is vitally important because: (1) If it is rejected the authority of the Bible is denied. (2) It brings before a person the supernaturalness of the person of Jesus. (3) Without the virgin birth, there is something seriously lacking in one’s view of the person and
work of Jesus Christ. (45)

What is Mary's role in the Gospel?

The Roman Catholics place such high esteem upon her that they literally worship her:

It asserts: (1) Her perpetual virginity; (2) Her immaculate conception, i.e., she was conceived without sin; (3) Her glorious assumption, i.e., her resurrection, ascension and enthronement at Christ’s right hand as the “Queen of Heaven”; (4) Her present position as “Co-Redeemer” with Christ. (47)

Contrary to this, however:

The Bible, on the other hand, gives us an accurate, and beautiful, picture of Mary, the mother of Jesus. The highest honor ever given to a woman was conferred upon her by God. The crown and glory of all motherhood was bestowed upon her. She was chosen by God to be the mother of the Son of God. Although she was a sinner in need of a Savior, as she herself admits in Luke 1:47... (47)

Briefly, and finally for today, Dr. Morecraft covers the Council of Chalcedon*. It was held in AD 451 for the purpose of settling a few questions: some of the heresies and some of them (according to the quick run down given in this section), more political. Our main concern is their ruling on the nature and person of Jesus Christ: 

In order to resolve the prevalent heresies and to maintain the truth of the Bible, the response of the Council of Chalcedon was essentially this: Jesus Christ is one person with a truly human nature and a fully divine nature united without detracting from or confusing the characteristics of the human nature with the perfections of the divine nature. (50)

Next week, Lord willing, we shall be addressing the Offices of Christ. Prophet, Priest, and King! Amen and Amen...

      Racheal

* I thought I'd tack on this quick, amusing little story from this past May. :)

Katherine and I were attending one of Dr. Morecraft's lectures and he explained why Chalcedon Presbyterian Church is pronounced "Cal-sah-don" rather than "Cal-See-den" [like Rushdoony said it; or so I hear]: "Because we're from Georgia and it's hot down there...and we don't like to work that hard [to say things "correctly"]." 'Course, Kt and I giggled over that! :)