Gabriel Visits Mary

The Archangel Gabriel visited an unmarried young woman in the village of Nazareth and gave her a precise description of the miracle which she would experience by faith. That miracle, the tiniest miracle recorded in Scriptures, would do something huge. It would pave the way for the Lord Jesus Christ to come into the World. Consider the words of Gabriel:

The Holy Spirit will come on you [Mary], and the Power of the Most High will overshadow you… (Luke 1:35)

The miracle announced by Gabriel was astounding. It was nothing less than the conception of a baby in the womb of a virgin. It is so unique that it has only happened once in the history of the human race. Remarkably, it was prophesied 700 years before it was fulfilled! Isaiah the prophet wrote:

... the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14).

The Role of the Holy Spirit

This very well-known miracle is celebrated by Christians every Christmas, but how many reflect on the role the Holy Spirit played in the miracle? Indeed, the Holy Spirit performed the miracle. He deserves credit for having done something so wonderful.

Let's look closely at what that miracle was, and let's try to detail exactly what the Holy Spirit did. We'll appreciate the Holy Spirit much more if we do. In addition, we'll understand how he acts. That's important because we need to be aware of how he's going to act in our own lives. Do you recognize when he's at work around you?

Overshadowing

What was the Holy Spirit going to do to Mary exactly? Gabriel said that the Holy Spirit would come upon and overshadow Mary. The two expressions come upon and overshadow are synonymous. They mean the same thing: getting close to someone without touching them. Doesn't that sound a lot like what the Holy Spirit did with the 100 who were gathered in the Upper Room at Pentecost? Tongues of fire settled over the heads of believers, but didn't burn them.

Together, the two expressions come upon and overshadow constitute synonymous Hebrew parallelism. If you are going to interpret the Bible well, it will help you to understand how this poetic device works. It's very prevalent in the Proverbs and the Psalms. Synonymous Hebrew parallelism is when God says one thing and then repeats the same idea with different words.

So the two expressions come upon and overshadow reinforce one another, allowing us to get a clear picture of what happened for the Spirit to get Mary pregnant: He got close to her but did not touch her. No foreign body or element was involved in her pregnancy. Hold onto that truth! We'll get back to it.

Purity and Virginity

It’s essential to understand that the Spirit performed the conception miracle in an absolutely pure manner. You can be certain that there was absolutely no physical contact between the Holy Spirit and Mary. Not the slightest. Not the tiniest.

How can we be certain that this miracle involved no physical contact? It’s easy: The Scriptures state that ‘… the virgin shall be with child.’ What does that indicate, but that Mary was a virgin when she conceived? In addition, the Scriptures tell us that Mary remained a virgin until Jesus was born.

‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son…’ [Joseph] took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth… (Matthew 1:22-25; NASB)

Virgin means ‘untouched’ and virgin is the word God uses to tell the story of Mary. There’s the proof that the Holy Spirit did not touch Mary--what God said. The Holy Spirit performed a miracle, but one that was free from physical contact. There was not even microscopic contact--something we'll look at in a moment.

Instrumental

The following passage uses the expressions “by… and of the Holy Spirit” with reference to Mary’s pregnancy. These two prepositions make one thing clear: The Spirit was instrumental in getting Mary pregnant. Grammar books call by and of "prepositions of instrumentality."

The Holy Spirit performed the miracle in the same way that Jesus, the apostles, or an anointed Christian today might perform one of God’s miracles—by being a conduit of God’s power. The Holy Spirit acted as God's instrument.

… when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit… an angel of the Lord appeared to him [Joseph] in a dream, saying, ‘Joseph, son 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 1:18, 20)

A Virgin Conceives a Child

Miracles are supernatural acts. Supernatural acts are "supernatural" because they overcome natural laws. What natural law did the Holy Spirit overcome when he established Mary as a pregnant woman? The law of fertilization.

In medical terms, the Spirit bypassed the fertilization stage of pregnancy. He converted one of Mary's ovum into a zygote inside Mary's womb. That was the miracle of creating a human being who was 100% human in nature, but who, at the same time, became the very Son of God.

The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; for that reason also the holy child will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35; NASB).

The Holy Spirit performed a very special microscopic miracle when he caused Mary to conceive in her womb. Technically, the miracle consisted of converting one of Mary's ovums into a zygote. If you don't know already, you can see what a zygote is in the illustration below. It's on the top left, in the part that shows the fallopian tube of a pregnant woman.

Now, an ovum is a cell only women have. It's used exclusively for reproduction. It's also called an "egg." The normal way for an ovum (remember: it's a single cell) to become two cells is through fertilization. But God did not fertilize Mary's egg cell. God converted an egg into a two-celled zygote by the miracle the Holy Spirit performed.

From Supernatural to Natural

Neither man nor spirit touched Mary. Mary became pregnant supernaturally. However, that supernatural miracle started a natural process. The natural process that was initiated by the miracle was the reproductive a 9-month gestational period with its different phases of development.

What began as a zygote became an embryo, and a fetus, and a baby--the baby Jesus. God was preparing the vessel in which the spirit of Jesus would dwell forever. Look at what Jesus said prophetically to God:

... when Christ came into the World, he said: 'Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me' (Hebrews 10:5).

What else did Jesus say to God?

Your eyes saw my embryo (Psalm 139:16; LEB).

Jesus Alive

The life is in the blood. Once his own blood began to flow through the embryo, Jesus began to dwell among us. That instant, when his own blood first flowed through the body God had prepared was when the Word became flesh.

Jesus, whose name was the Word, voluntarily submitted to the will of the Father, emptied himself of his divine nature, authority, and glory, and took on the form of a human being.

... Christ Jesus, who, as he already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men... (Philippians 2:5-7; NASB)

An embryo's own blood cells start developing around 3 weeks after conception. By the time Elizabeth received Mary in her house for a visit, as Mary must have already fulfilled those 3 weeks after conception, Elizabeth appropriately called the embryo within Mary 'the fruit of your womb' (Luke 1:42) and called Mary 'the mother of my Lord' (Luke 1:43).

Jesus' spirit had already begun to take up residence in the embryo. The embryo had become a living being as Adam had become a living being: because of the spirit inside. Adam was first just a body, but God breathed into him the Spirit of Life. The spirit of Christ entered the body God had prepared for him, and it became Jesus alive, in the flesh.

... the Lord God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the Breath of Life, and the man became a living being (Genesis 2:7).

So, three weeks after conception, the instant the embryo in Mary's womb had its own blood, the spirit of Christ simultaneously began to dwell within the embryo. It became Jesus' body. And Jesus' body had its own life, it's own spirit!

Don't forget this fundamental principle: the life is in the blood (Leviticus 17:11, 14; 19:26; Deuteronomy 12:23; John 6:53). Your spirit is also in your blood.

The Word Became Flesh

The spiritual reason why the embryo was a living being from the three week marker on is because that was when the Word became flesh and began to dwell among us. The Word, who was with God in Heaven and who had the divine nature, emptied himself and humbled himself so that he became human, as we are.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (John 1:14).

These things are what made Jesus' descent in spirit from Heaven a separate event from the miracle of the Holy Spirit. Remember: The Holy Spirit turned one of Mary's ovum into a zygote, but Jesus was not subject to the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit did not take Jesus by the hand and bring him down from Heaven. Jesus gave up his glory voluntarily. Rather, the Holy Spirit's miracle paved the way for our Lord Jesus' to come in the flesh, which is exactly what makes him our Savior!

Always be ready to confess that truth, that Jesus came to us as a man in the flesh of sin. The only people who deny that are deceivers.

... many deceivers have gone out into the World who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh (2 John 1:7; NKJV).