01.02. II. Christ, The Virgin-Born

II.

CHRIST, THE VIRGIN-BORN

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS : for he shall save his people from their sins”—Matthew 1:18-21. THE whole force of destructive criticism has been directed against the supernatural, whether that be found in the claims of sacred Scripture or in those of Jesus of Nazareth. The purpose of this criticism is to disprove the supernatural at every possible point. The so-called constructive criticism behaves little better. It expresses admiration for the Bible by way of introduction to objections to be raised against it; and it pays high compliment to Jesus of Nazareth in order that its professed friendliness may render its denial of His deity less offensive to the faithful. In the present discussion we propose a clear issue: Was Christ begotten by the Holy Ghost? The Scripture from which we start clearly and distinctly answers that question, and yet there are those who dispute its authority. In answer to their objections I propose three lines of argument:

I. THE FORCE OF OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY. This is the argument to which the Sacred writer himself appeals, “Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet.” Joseph Parker has said truly, “God does not work extemporaneously; the suddenness of His movements is only apparent; every word He says comes up from eternity.” The good student of His movements will come upon types and shadows of things to come. That is not so much true of any other part of the entire book called “the Bible” as of that which pertains to the Christ. His coming was plainly predicted. “The Lord himself shall give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder : and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever” (Isaiah 9:6-7). “Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him” (Isaiah 62:11). “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel: whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” (Micah 5:4). Zechariah had a vision of Him as He rode triumphantly into Jerusalem, and wrote, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem : behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation: lowly, and riding upon an ass and upon a colt the foal of an ass” (Zechariah 9:9). The time will come when all men shall know the meaning of prophecy. Dr. Albert Barnes tells us that “The visitor today looks on the site of ruined Petra, or the desolate scenes where once the city of Tyre spread out its bazaar-crowded thoroughfares, contemplates the waste places of Jerusalem, and hears the Jews at the ‘weeping stone’ bewailing the destruction of their magnificent temple, wanders through the exhumed ruins of Nineveh and catches a glimpse of ‘the wild beasts of the desert,’ the doleful creatures, the owls, that dwell in Babylon, and decides for himself whether the prophets ‘spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost’ when they foretold the destinies of these great centers of life and activity.” The man who travels through the Old Testament Scriptures and studies the predictions regarding Messiah’s coming, and then looks on the Man of Nazareth, can also decide whether they found their fulfillment in Him. The man who invests his money in a mansion has a perfect right to compare the finished pile of stones and all the arrangements thereof, and all the material employed, with the drawings and specifications of the architect, and on condition that they answer point to point, accept the product; and the man who proposes to invest his faith in Jesus Christ has a right to study the Old Testament plans and specifications concerning His coming and character and reject Him if He does not fill them up to the letter. The Old Testament prophets did more than predict the coming of Christ.

They predicted His character. He was to be “a righteous Branch” (Jeremiah 23:5). He was to “love righteousness and hate wickedness” (Psalms 45:7). He was not to “cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street” (Isaiah 42:2). He was to be “a prophet from among his brethren.”

Jehovah’s “words were to be in his mouth,” and He should “speak all that Jehovah commanded him” (Deuteronomy 18:18). He was to “bear our griefs” and “carry our sorrows,” to be “wounded for our transgressions” and “bruised for our iniquities,” “the chastisement of our peace was to be upon him,” and “with his stripes” we were to be “healed” (Isaiah 4:1-6, Isaiah 5:1-30). He was to be a “priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek” (Psalms 110:4).

True, the critics have attacked these prophecies and have tried to disprove their authenticity and authority. The more surely Christ’s character has answered to these Old Testament descriptions feature to feature, the more have they inveighed against them. And yet, as one asks, “Which will you believe—critic or Christ?” Which appears to you as the more convincing, the marvelous agreement of Old Testament prophecy and New Testament history, or the arrogant, unproven claims of Twentieth Century critics?

Charles A. Briggs, heretic as many regarded him, never so far lost his reasoning faculties as to forget the force of prophetic argument. He says, “Hebrew prophecy presents us a system of instruction which cannot be explained from the reflections of the human mind. It gives us a review of redemption as the final goal of the world’s history which is heavenborn. . . . Hebrew prophecy vindicates its relation to accuracy, its comprehensive ideality as the conception of a Divine mind, as the deliverance of a Divine energy, as a system by holy men who ‘spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost’; the Messiah of prophecy and the Messiah of history are not diverse but entirely harmonise in the Lamb who was ‘foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these latter times.’ ” No wonder the apostle Peter wrote, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn.” No wonder it is written again of Christ, “To him gave all the prophets witness.” Arthur T. Pierson said, “No miracle which He wrought so unmistakably set on Him the seal of God as the convergence of the thousand lines of prophecy in Him, as in one burning focal point of dazzling glory. Every sacrifice lit from Abel’s altar until the last passover of the passion week pointed as with flaming fingers to Calvary’s cross! Nay, all the centuries moved as in solemn procession to lay their tributes upon Golgotha.”

These prophecies even promise His accomplishments. He was to be “the prophet of the Lord.” He was to be “a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek” (Psalms 110:4). He was to be a King reigning “in righteousness” (Isaiah 32:1). He was to “delight” in the will of God (Psalms 40:8). “The Spirit of the Lord” was to “rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:2). He was to be “anointed” to “preach good tidings unto the meek,” sent to “bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.” In His day “the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly” (Isaiah 61:1-2; Isaiah 32:3-4).

Dr. Lorimer has portrayed, by a striking illustration sketched in contrast, Christ’s battle with evil, “The battle which Miltiades waged on the plain of Marathon on behalf of Hellenic freedom was one of the most salient and far-reaching events in the cycle of human history. It not only decided the destiny of Athens, but it preserved Europe from the heavy chains of Asiatic slavery. Had it not been for Marathon, freedom would have expired. ... Athens would have failed to be what she was to her own citizens, and though the Roman power might have spread over the world had Athenian civilisation been different, the Empire, untutored by Greek genius, would not have been the purveyor of arts as well as arms, of letters as well as laws to mankind. But still far easier would it have been for a sagacious statesman, standing in the region of the Tetrapolis, or surveying the field from Mount Pentelicus, and reflecting on the defeat of the Persians, to anticipate and describe the results, comprehensive and wide-sweeping as they were fated to prove, of that glorious disaster, than it would have been for the most gifted and foreseeing of the race to imagine, much less to predict, the ultimate effect on society, government and humanity of that stern, sharp conflict between the Son of God and the hosts of darkness which gave to history the Christian religion.” And yet the effect produced by Christ in it all was foreseen, was foretold, and the man who denies that Jesus Christ was begotten by the Holy Ghost must tell us how it happened that His accomplishments were promised hundreds of years before the “babe wrapped in swaddling clothes” was laid in the manger at Bethlehem, or before the Man capable of opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of the deaf, releasing the prisoner from his dungeon, bringing the acceptable year of the Lord had put in an appearance? We count it something of a marvel that modern science can tell us forty-eight hours in advance what changes will take place in the weather. How, then, can men do less than stand amazed before the work of those who, a thousand years before the event, promised the coming, predicted the character and described the accomplishments of Jesus of Nazareth? What is the explanation? Only this, that the same Spirit who begat Him spake through these souls of Old Testament time.

I call attention to the second line of argument:

II. THE AFFIRMATION OF NEW TESTAMENT WRITERS The sayings of these writers of the New Testament cannot be ignored. And what is the purport of them?

They declare that He was the Son of the Most High, “Now the birth of Jesus was on this wise; When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost” (Matthew 1:18). Luke’s report is, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).

It is not necessary for one to explain how this came to pass. The Spirit of God is not subject to our psychological limitations. Jesus himself said of Him, “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). Christ was only the first begotten and the same Spirit begets many another. No man can explain his own spiritual birth. Why, then, should we attempt to explain the begetting of Jesus? If God could create man in the first place why should it be thought a thing incredible that He should, by His own will, have begotten the man Jesus? That He was the Son of God, Christ Himself never questioned. I met a Jew a while ago who told me that “Jesus never dreamed He was the Son of God; that was a claim which had been trumped up by the New Testament writers.” Why, then, did Jesus speak of “My Father who is in heaven”? How did He dare to say, “I and my Father are one”? When they asked Him, “Art thou the Son of God?” why should He have replied, “Ye say it; I am”? “No man cometh unto the Father but by me.” “No man knoweth the Father save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.”

Take His miracles; they are an evidence of His sense of Divine Sonship. To the leprous, “I will, be thou dean”; to the storm, “Peace, be still”; to His disciples, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils, freely ye have received, freely give”; to Lazarus, “Come forth.”

Take His teachings: “Moses said unto you” so and so, “But I say unto you.” And again, “Verily, verily I say unto you.” His word is that of One of conscious authority. Take His expression —“Thy sins are forgiven thee.” Who dares say that but God? Blasphemy indeed it would have been on the lips of another. Think of His statement to Peter, “Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Think of His words regarding Jerusalem, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thee as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings and ye would not!” Think of His comprehensive words of authority, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” His disciples believed Him to be the Son of God, “AEneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole,” was Peter’s statement. “In the name of Jesus Christ, arise and walk,” was the word to the man at the gate. Devils believed Him to be the Son of God: “Jesus, thou son of God,” was the very phrase by which they addressed Him. “Why hast thou come to torment us before our time?” was the fear they expressed in His presence, and felt at the sight of His face. The centurion, seeing Him die, said, “Truly this man was the Son of God.” Are professed Christians to be more sceptical than wicked men and devils?

Yet He was born to Mary—Joseph’s wife. Christ was a man, essentially a man. Flesh clothed His bones; blood filled His veins. Had you put your ear to His heart it would have beat as the heart of any other man in life; had you counted His pulse it would have been normal. Who knows but the world has missed the normal pulse by not having taken that of Christ? When Daniel had his marvelous vision “He saw, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” When the heavens opened and a voice was heard out of it saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased,” and when the Spirit descended upon Him in the shape of a dove, it was a man that stood in the waters saying to John, “Suffer it to be so now, for so it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness”—a man born of woman.

Joseph Parker has sagely said, “His mother was no imaginary Mary. This literal history was required in order to vindicate her memory from the charge of her being a merely dramatic woman. She lived the common human life, wept the common tears, enjoyed the same enjoyments that fall to the lot of all. There is enough said about her in the Gospels to prove the poor human nature of the woman, and little enough said about her not to magnify her into a feminine god.” The people who attempt to make her anything more than a woman are thereby detracting from the perfect humanity of Christ. It was “the seed of woman” that was to “bruise the serpent’s head,” and Jesus of Nazareth was such.

So, then, begotten by the Holy Ghost and born of man, He was God and man. Who can explain this? “Great is the mystery of godliness.” You receive more things upon statement than you ever believe by reason of demonstration. All history attests that, somehow, Jesus of Nazareth had the form and flesh and blood of man but the brain and heart and character of God. There is little occasion for either “if” in the lines—

“If Jesus Christ is a man, And only a man, I say, Of all mankind I will cleave to Him, And to Him I will cleave alway.

“If Jesus Christ is a God, And the very God, I swear, I will follow Him through heaven or hell, The earth, the sea, or the air.” But there is a third line of argument, namely—

III. THE TEST OF ACHIEVEMENTS. His character is the incomparable One. No other man ever walked the earth who could face even his enemies and say, “Which of you convinceth me of sin?” No other man ever lived of whom his disciples could say, “He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin.” It is no more the precepts of Jesus that win men to Him than it is the practice. The incomparable character of Jesus Christ is as powerful as His Gospel. “Whose preaching was it that led to your conversion?” was asked of one who had just come into salvation. The answer was significant, “It was nobody’s preaching, it was my mother’s practicing.”

What would happen in this world if all those who have named the name of Jesus Christ began to keep themselves unspotted from the world I shall not attempt to say, but I do dare to affirm that the spotless life of Jesus Christ is the one secret power of drawing men and women unto Himself. It is in vain that the sinner confesses to a sinful fellow-mortal and hears from his lips the words promising absolution. But to approach One who Himself never sinned, and to ask Him to become your advocate before God, is to name an intercessor who shall secure Divine favour. No wonder Isaac Watts could sing:

“With joy we meditate the grace Of our High Priest above: His heart is full of tenderness;

    His bosom glows with love.

“Touched with a sympathy within, He knows our feeble frame;

He knows what sore temptations mean, For He has felt the same.

“He, in the days of feeble flesh, Poured out His cries and tears, And in His measure feels afresh What every member bears.

“Then let our humble faith address His mercy and His power;

We shall obtain delivering grace In each distressing hour.” His achievements demand explanation. The marvel about Jesus Christ is not that He claimed so much but that He accomplished more. The Old Testament writers spake of “One to come who should open the eyes of the blind, heal the sick, and raise the dead.” Wherever Jesus walked the most faithful reports indicate that the blind received their sight, lepers were cleansed, and never once before an open grave, or bier, did His word of command “Come forth” fail. Explain it, will you? Tell me, how did it happen that this man, living among a people of ignorance, was Himself enlightened; dwelling with the intolerant, was yet free from every arrogance; consorting with the harsh, was yet full of tenderness; in daily touch with the impotent, was yet possessed of all power?

Montgomery spoke truly when he said,
“When, like a stranger on our sphere, The lowly Jesus wandered here, Where’er He went, affliction fled, And sickness reared her fainting head.

“The eye that rolled in irksome night, Beheld His face—for God is light; The opening ear, the loosened tongue, His precepts heard, His praises sung.

“With bounding steps the halt and lame, To hail their great Deliverer came;

O’er the cold grave He bowed His head, He spake the word, and raised the dead.”

Explain it. Let some man stand up and tell us why no other mortal ever wrought such deeds. Truly, as Renan confesses, “It would take a Jesus to forge a Jesus.” If He was not a forger how do you account for Him? What better can you do than Matthew has done, say—“He was begotten by the Holy Ghost”? But His indisputable credential is His sawing power. It was a marvel when fever was rebuked by His word, it was a marvel when the Gadarene was dispossessed of devils! But His matchless sentence was “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” His matchless power was the impartation of peace and purity to the soul of man. Have you ever thought upon this phrase, “Thou shalt call his name Jesus”? Joseph Parker says, “Christ is the only man known in history who was born with special reference to the sins of the human family. He does not come into the race with small programs. The world is sick of men with programs an inch long.” There are plenty of men all about us with small programs arid! abbreviated plans. There is the man who can shine your shoes; there is another who can shave your face; there is another who can clothe your form; there is another who can construct your house; there is another who can stir your ambition. But where is the man who can save me from my sins? Who can take all the disordered machinery of life and put me to rights and set me to running for God and with God? In old Nazareth He was; in heaven He is; in earth He shall be! Aye, by His Spirit, here now, today, with the sole desire and purpose of salvation!

I have read, somewhere, the story of that man who, on a Sabbath day at an English seaport town, saw a vessel tossed by the rising storm, and heard the cry, “A man overboard.” Looking out he saw brave rowers speeding toward him, and yet the man sank, and as he went down the on-looker saw one running down the beach, his face white with excitement, his eyes filled with anguish, and pointing to where the waves had just covered the head of the sinking man, he cried, “Save him! Save him! A thousand pounds to the man who saves him! He is my brother!” But the appeal was in vain, the remorseless waves were doing their work, the rowers had fallen short, for he was sinking but a few boat-lengths away!

But, beloved, when Peter on Gennesaret, found the waves parting beneath his feet and saw himself suddenly engulfed, his cry was directed to Jesus of Nazareth, “Lord save, or I perish!” and instantly His hand shot out and laid hold upon the doomed apostle and lifted him up. He is able to save! Will you put your trust in Him? I meet people every day who tell me they have long intended to do this. A purpose put into no practice is worthless. “Behold, now is the time accepted; behold, today is the day of salvation.” Jesus stands ready to respond, and is able to save.