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JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

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144<br />

"I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her<br />

seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (Gn 3:15).<br />

The "serpent" is Satan, and the "seed" who should destroy him is described emphatically<br />

as the woman's seed. Literally it was the woman through whom sin had entered the race and it is<br />

literally by the seed of the woman that salvation would also come. It was through Eve that sin<br />

entered this world (although Paul in speaking theologically refers to sin coming through "the first<br />

man, Adam") and it is through Mary that salvation for sin is provided. While the promise to<br />

Abraham was that in his seed the families of the earth would be blessed thereby emphasizing the<br />

blessings through the male, here the blessing is given to Mary as she represents the female.<br />

The second promise of a virgin-born son was given by Isaiah:<br />

"The Lord Himself will give you a sign; behold, a young woman [virgin] shall<br />

conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel" (Isa 7:14).<br />

This is the prophecy quoted as fulfilled in Christ's birth in Matthew (Mt 1:23), and it<br />

seems also alluded to in the glowing promises to Mary in Luke (1:32-33).<br />

Some have objected that the term "virgin" in Isaiah does not necessarily bear this<br />

meaning but rather that it merely denotes "a young unmarried woman." The context, however,<br />

seems clearly to lay an emphasis on the unmarried state, and therefore the translators of the<br />

Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) understood it this way when they<br />

rendered it as the Greek word parthenos, a word which does mean "virgin."<br />

It is also significant that the Jews themselves do not seem to have applied this prophecy at<br />

any time to the Messiah—a fact which disproves the theory that it was this text which suggested<br />

a story of a virgin birth by the early disciples.<br />

While all other people receive their human nature by natural descent from father and<br />

mother, Jesus is not descended from a human couple, from Joseph and Mary, but from Mary<br />

alone, that is to say, from Mary the virgin that came about through the activity of the Holy Spirit:<br />

"This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. His mother Mary was pledged<br />

[betrothed] to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was<br />

found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. . . . an angel of the Lord<br />

appeared to him [Joseph] in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of David, do not be<br />

afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is<br />

from the Holy Spirit'" (Mt 1:18,20).<br />

The Holy Spirit exerted His miraculous power on the Virgin Mary so that she, the virgin,<br />

became mother of the Son of God according to the human nature. It was a miraculous<br />

conception. Luke describes this miraculous occurrence:

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