Today is the last day that paid subscriptions are 75% off! Don’t sleep on this link: https://mitchchase.substack.com/562c8274
The post explaining updates to this site in 2024, and more about this steep discount, can be found here.
The New Testament is clear that Jesus lived without sin (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15). How is it that Jesus had a human nature uncorrupted by sin? An angel’s words can help us think about this.
While teenage Mary was living in Nazareth, an angel named Gabriel appeared to her with news that she would have a child. He said, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus” (Luke 1:30–31).
That news had key information. She learns that she would become pregnant, her child would be a son, and his name would be Jesus.
Furthermore, the angel said, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32–33). From this part of the revelation, we see that her son is the Son of God and the Son of David.
News of conception seemed strange to Mary. She asked Gabriel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34).
The angel’s answer was about the power of the Holy Spirit: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).
The angel’s words in Luke 1:35 make a promise and then draw an implication from it.
The promise: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you”
The implication: “therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God”
Gabriel promised the conception of a holy child. Jesus was truly human, and he was sinless. He was holy, the very Son of God. The work of the Holy Spirit ensured that the human nature of Jesus was uncorrupted in the womb of Mary.
There have been interpreters in church history who have concluded that Jesus’s human nature was sinless because no male contributed seed for conception. This view requires the notion of a biological transmission of a sinful nature exclusively through the male. But this notion is probably an unnecessary conclusion. After all, Mary was a sinner with a corrupted nature. Would nothing of Mary’s sinful human nature be passed on to the son in her womb?
The implication of Luke 1:35 is that the reason for the sinless nature of Jesus was not the absence of the male seed but the presence of the power of the Holy Spirit.
The holiness of the child was important to the mission of the child. The Lord Jesus, himself without sin, would bear our sin upon the cross. The Uncorrupted One would take on our corruption.
Jesus was a lamb without blemish because he was holy. And the Holy Spirit ensured that the human nature of the Son was uncorrupted. A human nature without sin is reminiscent of Genesis 2, when the Lord made the first man. Adam’s nature was uncorrupted. The angel’s words in Luke 1 are the promise of a new Adam—the Last Adam.