“But ….an angel of the Lord appeared to [Joseph] in a dream, saying, “Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” – Matthew 1:20

The prophecy of a virgin girl conceiving and giving birth to the Messiah was a well-known fact by most Jews.

The prophet Isaiah had 700 years earlier prophesied it in Isaiah 7:14, which says (Living Translation); “All right then, the Lord Himself will give you the sign. Look! The virgin will conceive a Child! She will give birth to a Son and will call Him Immanuel (which means ‘God is with us’).

The Hebrew word for ‘conceive’ gets its root from the word ‘zera,’ which means ‘seed’ or ‘offspring’ (see Numbers 5:28).

Mary’s conception of ‘seed’ therefore takes us back to Genesis 3:15, which makes reference to the ‘Seed of the woman’ and how He would crush the head of the serpent.

Scholars call that ‘protevangelium’ (the First Gospel), which God Himself preached to mankind, and which found its eventual fulfilment in coming of the Messiah.

Interestingly, even the Koran explicitly states that Isa (Jesus), the Messiah – the Son of Mary – does not have a human father.

Surah Maryam (19:20-21) says; “She [Mary] said, ‘How can I have a child while no man has touched me?’ He said, ‘Thus says your Lord: It is easy for Me. And We will make him a sign for mankind and a mercy from Us. It is a matter already decreed.'”

Those who believe in Christ are given power to be called the children of God, like Him!

In the Bible, Galatians 4:4 says; “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law.” 

Jesus Himself publicly proclaimed His divine origin: “I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”

As we saw in the previous meditation, it was absolutely important that the Messiah should be borne by a woman who divinely conceived through the Holy Spirit.

What it means is that for Christ to fulfill God’s eventual plan of salvation for mankind, He had to be both human and divine.

And as the ‘Seed’ that was divinely conceived, Jesus became the ‘First Born of many brethren.’

Hebrews 2:10-12 says; “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.”

So, those who believe in Christ are given power to be called the children of God like Him!

John 1:12 (NIV) says; “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

Guess what; you also can make the decision to become a child of God by accepting Christ as your personal savior this Christmas.

Amen!