“Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary”
In this third article of the creed, we confess the incarnation of the Son of God.
Seven centuries before the incarnation, Isaiah prophesied, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). This scripture was fulfilled through the miraculous conception and virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
Modernists reject this prophecy and its fulfillment because of their anti-supernaturalistic worldview. They do not believe in miracles because they deny the person and power of the Holy Spirit. There are even Bible versions that reflect this heresy. Check your translation today to see if it reads “virgin” or “young woman” in that verse.
Affirming the virgin birth is vital because our very salvation depends upon it. The guilt and corruption of original sin is passed down by ordinary generation, so if Jesus had a human father, he would have been disqualified as the Saviour. The Lamb of God had to be without spot or blemish.
This article also enables us to affirm the privileged role of Mary in redemptive-history without exalting her as a co-redemptrix. She did provide Jesus with a true human nature and is therefore rightly called blessed among women, but not above all women (Luke 1:42).
Believe in the Holy Spirit’s power to prophecy and work miracles, for this will lead you to the virgin-born Son of God who assumed to himself our nature that he might redeem it through a life of sinless obedience and death of substitutionary atonement.