God didn’t enter into humanity on Christmas morning as a newborn baby. He entered it nine months earlier inside of Mary’s womb. We learn this in Matthew 1:18, which records that before Mary and Joseph came together, she was “found to be with child through the Holy Spirit” (ESV). Two verses later, God also tells Joseph “that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”
If you really want to be awed by the incarnation of Christ this Christmas, take a moment to examine the period that ends the next line.
This dot right here → .
As you stare at the few pixels that make up the period above, imagine what it would be like for the fullness of almighty God to suddenly become funneled into that tiny blip of a space.
Nine months before Jesus was ever away in a manger, that’s exactly what happened. It’s a part of the Christmas story Christians often skip over in their readiness to celebrate the nativity.
But it’s the real origin of the incarnation. The day Jesus became an embryo.
When God Took on Cells
When Christians talk about the incarnation, they’re referring to the act when God the Son took on a human nature. This didn’t first happen on the day we celebrate Christ’s birth.
God didn’t enter into humanity on Christmas morning as a newborn baby. He entered it nine months earlier inside of Mary’s womb.
We learn this in Matthew 1:18, which records that before Mary and Joseph came together, she was “found to be with child through the Holy Spirit” (ESV). Two verses later, God also tells Joseph “that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”
This passage, along with many others, offers biblical proof that human life begins at conception in that God ascribes personhood to “that which is conceived.” It also shows that while Joseph wasn’t Jesus’ biological father, the Messiah was indeed conceived as part of the incarnation.
Even without knowing all the details of how God did this—it was, after all, a miracle—we can still celebrate the biblical claim that Jesus grew in a womb just like every other human does.
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