When Gabriel announced to Mary that she was going to give birth to Jesus, she was troubled. She did not understand the salutation given by the angel to her. He countered her fear by saying that she had found favor with God. From that moment on, Jesus was referred to as a human being, as a person, as a baby yet to be born.
It is unfortunate that the King James version says in verse 35 of Luke 1 that Jesus was a holy “thing” to be born of her. The word thing is not intended to refer to an item that had no life. A chair is a thing. A cloud is a thing. An automobile is a thing. Upon closer examination of a proper translation of that word, we see that saying is not a good word to have been used by the translators. It is better to have been said, “that holy One.” At the point of conception, Jesus was not a thing. He was the holy one of God assuming human flesh at the point of conception by the Holy Spirit.
The conversation between Gabriel and Mary totally debunks the validity that liberals have in favor of abortion. At the point that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, Jesus became a human being to be born in Bethlehem. There was no progression toward becoming human. Jesus was human at that time. There was no transition from being a piece of flesh attached to Mary as would a cyst into that becoming the body that Jesus assumed. It is beyond me how a person can call themselves a Christian and still support abortion! Gabriel clearly spoke of the pre-born Jesus as a person who had a future and a destiny that fulfilled Old Testament prophecy.
When Cesar Augustine sent out a decree that all the world should be taxed, it was the responsibility of Joseph to go to Bethlehem, his hometown. To avoid scrutiny for Mary’s condition and to protect her, Joseph took Mary with him even though she was nine months pregnant. Luke 2:5 describes Mary as being great with “child.” Again, Jesus did not become a child after birth. He was a child pre-born. It took approximately 11 days for them to walk the rugged terrain covering 90 miles to Bethlehem. In addition, they had to bring supplies, food, and water for their trip. I doubt many nine months pregnant women would be able to navigate such a walk.
Some would argue that the case of Jesus was different from all others. After all, Jesus is the Son of God, always existed and will always continue to exist. That argument can easily be refuted because we are not talking about Jesus in eternity. When talking about the infant body of Jesus that came to be at the point of the Holy Spirit’s conception within Mary. This young woman was appointed by God to carry out a special mission that no other person in the entire history of the world could fulfill. God required of her to carry the physical personhood of Jesus in her womb. When she gave birth, that human body did not suddenly become human. It always was from the very beginning.
The pregnancy of Mary is a bold refutation against all who would say that it was Mary’s body. Today they say, “my body, my choice.” This is bold heresy of wrong thinking. At the point of conception, there were two people sharing the same physical being. Mary’s body nurtured and fed the growing body of Jesus. His body was developing into the containment for when he was born. We celebrate Christmas by celebrating the miraculous conception that the Holy Spirit caused upon Mary. What a strong woman she must’ve been in every sense of the word to fulfill her mission. Let us keep straight the facts of Christmas time.
Christian Writer 