Inconceivable!

www.bible.com/1713/isa.7.14.csb

If you were asking for a “sign” what would be powerful enough to convince you God is real?

2500 years ago, the sign offered was a young woman. This young woman would be of sufficient sexual maturity that she would be able to conceive, but did not have any sexual relationship with any man before she would actually conceive a child.

In a world where lineage matters, that is a sign. It is a sign because everyone knew who their father was. It was essential in the world where property was passed on by inheritance and family ties. For a child to be born with no known father was anathema. It was both impossible and contrary to their way of life.

If you were to offer this as a sign today, I believe folks would be impressed not so much about the parthenogenesis as they would about a young woman still being a virgin. There are scores of young women who “don’t know who the father is.” That isn’t the same as a virgin birth, but has the same consequences socially. Many would have taken Mary as a soiled woman with her claims of “virgin” conception. Even today she is accused of getting with a Roman Soldier named Parthenos to conceive Jesus. Parthenos is the the Greek word for virgin. Odd name for a Roman Soldier, don’t you think?

So why is her virginity so important? It is essential for the character and person of Jesus Christ, the Immanuel (God with us). In order for God to truly love with us, He must be conceived in Mary. Only God can introduce Himself into the world. Therefore God alone was the male contribution to the young woman, Mary. There was no act of sex, no taking away her virginity in some horrid act of sexual violence. The Holy Spirit overshadowed her and created within here by divine act that portion of DNA necessary to complete a particular egg to be deposited within her womb. It was an act of Creation so small that she herself wouldn’t feel it for weeks.

Yet within her swelling belly was a Divine Presence, the Second Person of God in Jesus Christ. God truly dwelt among us, from the very first cell division. Jesus experienced what it was to be human from the very start. But it was this one life that would change the world.

You may be looking for a sign this season. Look no further. This one sign, the creation of something new, the God-Man, will be enough to rock your world. Jesus took on human form, so that we could be like Him, and live forever with Him. God became like one of us so that we could become children of God. Wow.

God bless you today.