Lord’s Day 14
Q36. How does the holy conception and birth of Christ benefit you?
He is our mediator, and with his innocence and perfect holiness he removes from God's sight my sin—mine since I was conceived.
Scripture Proofs — King James Version
1 Timothy 2:5–6
“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”
Hebrews 9:13–15
“For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.”
Romans 8:3–4
“For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 5:21
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Galatians 4:4–5
“But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.”
1 Peter 1:18–19
“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
Modernized Commentary — Zacharias Ursinus (1616)
Explaining this question is necessary because of both ancient and modern heretics who have denied, and continue to deny, that Christ's flesh was taken from the substance of the Virgin. The Eutychians argued: Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit; therefore, Christ's flesh was produced from the substance of the Divinity, or from the essence of the Holy Spirit, and by this means the divine nature was changed into the human. This argument fails because it misuses a figurative way of speaking. The terms "by," "from," or "of" the Holy Spirit do not indicate a material cause, but an efficient one, referring to power and agency. This matters for several reasons.
2. Because God cannot undergo any change, and therefore cannot be changed into flesh.
3. Because the Word assumed flesh, but was not changed into it.