by L. Nelson Bell, M.D.
But probably the crowning evidence is seen in Mary’s behavior at the cross. Throughout the years she had car ried in her heart the knowledge of His supernatural con ception. Now she sees Him being nailed to the cross and her heart yearns as only a mother’s can. How gladly would she have saved him. But stop! Why is He being crucified? It is because He has claimed to be the Son of God. If He was now being crucified because He was deluded, because He was mistaken, Mary would cer tainly have cried out: “Wait, oh, wait; He is not telling the truth, I will tell you who His father is; he is . . .” But she held her peace, because in her heart she knew of His divine origin. (7) W e believe in the virgin birth because Christ was pre-existent with the Father, “ whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting.” In the days of His flesh He asserted that He was the Son of God, the Messiah. He accepted worship from men and He performed miracles to prove His right to be recognized as Deity. The virgin birth is but a part of His pre-existence, life, death, resur rection, ascension, present work, and future coming in glory. (8) Finally, we believe in the virgin birth because of the awful alternative. If He was not virgin-bom, then the Bible lies, and instead of a divinely inspired revelation we have a pious fraud. If He was not virgin bom, then His mother was a promiscuous and dishonest woman and He was an illegitimate son. If He was not virgin bom, then He Himself was deluded, and the entire structure of His person and work is undermined, and we become of all men most miserable. In stating our faith in the virgin birth of our Lord we accept it as a part of His supernatural Self—a part of the history of the One who said: “ I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”
also the Jewish law with reference to adultery, a be trothed person to be punished with death, if found guilty, just as though the marriage ceremony had taken place. What about Mary? It would have been impossible for her to hide the fact. Furthermore, she would have had to face the accusation of her own relatives and acquaint ances, and do so before the responsible priest of that time, Zacharias himself. Rather than hide her condition she went and with great joy told her cousin Elizabeth. Furthermore, her own reaction shows the purity and innocency of her heart. She does not cringe at the an nouncement but does ask a searching pertinent question; she asks how this can be biologically possible. “ Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?” Only God’s Holy Spirit could have directed the reply of the angel, a statement so absolute in its clarity and meaning that any can understand, and yet so pure in its implication that any young girl can read it without a blush: “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be bom of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Mary’s reaction to this statement, which she accepted but could not fully understand, was in itself a wonderful submission to something which could have become an intolerable ordeal: “ Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” And later: “Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” But what about Joseph? Here too we see a miracle of grace. Through faith he accepted a situation which he could not apprehend. God knew the perplexing and dis tressing problem that he faced as the espoused husband of Mary, and God spoke to him by a direct revelation, just as He had to Mary.
DECEMBER, I960
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